A letter to the Tech Heads
A letter to the Tech Heads
I have an idea, just don't know how to go about it. Am a retired surf boat rower, just returned from Coolangatta where the Australian surf titles were held where our club members competed (Woolamai Beach) . They made the quarter finals, (last 24) but noted their timing was awful
To give you an idea, if you have not rowed, timing is critical, a bunch of 16 year old school girls will beat a bunch of testerome fired up 20+ year old males in a skull purely on timing
What i had invisaged was a switch of some description attached to the bottom of the blades (4#) so when the blade hits the water it transmits to a box within the boat with 4# distinct varying audible sounds so in unison there would only be one sound, if a rower is out of time then the allotted sound could be heard and the culprit identified.
To give you an idea of the difficulty of rowing a surf boat in time, you commence in a waved area where every member of the crew is taking a stroke at max effort, entering the water with the blades at different heights due to waves, chop, side slop,boat bucking, etc. It generally takes a crew 3 years to get to a competive stage due to all the idiosyncrasies involved by getting this going i am sure we can reduce this time
I do not have any knowledge of switch componetry which has to be robust and water tight, smallish and easy to attach to a blade of an oar 10-12mm thick. the oar can be drilled, but not too many drill holes as they are worth a grand a pop (carbon fibre), wires could be tighed to the shaft of the oar and run back inside the boat to a audio box of some description, there are 2# 12 volt batteries on board for the pumps
To give you an idea how technology can help rowing, when training we use a boat speedo and it surprises you as to how fast you are travelling some time with the minimum of effort, other times you are straining out of time to achieve the same speed
Now if we (you) can come up with suggestions as to how to make this happen i am confident that all clubs through out Aussie will pick up on it and introduce it to their training, even rowing clubs?(generally it is not so critical in river rowing as you can hear the sounds of the oars hitting the water)
It would be great if you can share your knowledge to make this work
Thanking in anticipation
Allover
There is a fine line between "Hobby" and "Madness"
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The impossible we do straight away, Miracles do tend to take a little longer.
G'Day Cobber,
Methinks there are too many variables to do as you suggest.
Might I suggest that visual cues would be the best.
If the coxswain in the stern sets the stroke rate, the others adapt to the one in front of them to dip, allowing for attitude and relative water height.
If that is refined and practiced, hard to beat. Perhaps that is the way it is done after years of experience.
Refer:-
Man O' Wars.
Galley Slave Ships.
Dragon Boats.
According to my inextensive research, I arrived at the conclusion that to to get everyone in Sync was to use the same methods used by those mentioned by B4life in the previous post and that is the use of a 'Drummer' and an 'Urger'.
In those movies with Errol Flynn (Capt Blood) and Charleton Heston where they both contributed to the vessels movement by doing a bit of 'Hands On Rowing', there was a Drummer who set the stroke on the drum and an 'Urger' who by generous application of a whip or flogger to 'correct' those who were in any way 'out of Sync' and it seems to work well.
The old 'Carrot and Stick' method. The 'carrot' in their case was not to get a whack from the 'Urger'.....
But in reality, I think it would be distracting to have 'noises' or even 'vibrations' when the rower is deeply concentrating on the task at hand either singly or in a team situation.
You watch those athletes involved in those high exertive sports (running,rowing,swimming,cycling etc) and they seem to 'switch off' everything around them and become almost robotic such is the intensity of their concentration
Training to be as fit as possible and Practice, Practice and more Practice until it becomes as natural and rythmic as breathing as Beer4life says wins the day.............
Last edited by gordon_s1942; 21-05-13 at 03:52 PM.
I stand unequivicably behind everything I say, I just dont ever remember saying it !!
I believe Aust womens rowing team fitted such a device to Sally Robbins seat after the 2004 olympics
“There are 10 types of people in this world, those who understand binary – and those who don’t”
Tainting the TRUTH with irrelevant conjecture.
Originally Posted by GavinSV
I believe Aust womens rowing team fitted such a device to Sally Robbins seat after the 2004 olympics
Really? I cannot see any relevance to this thread.
Absolutely totally different.
If you have an axe to grind, start your own vitriolic thread!
Maybe Gavin isnt being 'Politically Correct' with his thought but I would be highly surprised that at the time and for sometime after that 'Event' there were those who would have considered that option as the least that could be done.
I stand unequivicably behind everything I say
Of course you can't
Really? I cannot see any relevance to this thread.
Absolutely totally different.
If you have an axe to grind, start your own vitriolic thread!
Maybe you don't have the same sense of humour (or any sense of humour)
Calm down mate, It was a joke! Why are you taking such offence to it?
“There are 10 types of people in this world, those who understand binary – and those who don’t”
The problem with Lay Down Sally was that she wilted under the pressure, in the gym she was the perfect rower (and not bad looking either) but under pressure would spend all her pennies to early
But boys i have not got a positive answer yet from any one!!!
There is a fine line between "Hobby" and "Madness"
I would think what you propose would be easier (more accurate) with still water rowing.
If you introduce rough water (surf and swell) your whole timing thing will be in disarray.
Sorry, probably not much help but that's just my take on it.
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