By Legare Smith

Most people who row, do it to become better oarsmen and thus get faster on the water. Rowers are always making subtle changes in an attempt to achieve maximum efficiency. However it is often difficult at first to feel that a change has made an improvement. The ‘Distance per Stroke’ feature on the Speedcoach GPS is an excellent training tool to measure and help improve boat run.

Ideally, increasing stroke rating and pressure should result in a lower split (more speed!!).  However, it is not easy to find the balance between more power and how high to bring the stroke rate. Using the distance-per- stroke-metric, you can experiment with changes and see a measurement that you can then use to compare when making other stroke changes. If your boat is going at a 2:00 split with a stroke rate of 25, you’re getting 10 meters per stroke. If you bring the rate up to a 30 and drop the split to 1:50, that is 9 meters per stroke. However, if you relax a little and stay long, you could achieve a 1:50 split at 28 strokes per minute which yields 9.7 meters per stroke. Over the course of 2000 meters, that is a 16 stroke difference!

I know I am not alone when I say I am a visual learner; I am much more apt to keep thinking about a stroke correction if I can see an improvement.  It may feel different or uncomfortable at first, but if I see that the boat is running through the water further per stroke and I have not changed pressure or rating, that’s free speed!