To the moon Alice, to the moon
How much technology do you need in a boat?
I believe this is a topic that we've covered before, but since I couldn't locate it - didn't look that hard - I will quickly cover it again.
Currently I am getting the fleet on point with the SpeedCoach Impellars, making sure the top boats have them, and if not, getting the pieces we need in order to make them happen.
First, a side note. NK, why did you design the impellar housing with all plastic? Nothing is more frustrating than when that tiny little shaft of plastic, soft plastic no less, starts to wear and tear from repeated use making it difficult to get the impellar blades attached. Make them out of stainless steel. I'd be happy to pay an extra $10 if it meant that the impellars lasted a bit longer.
So how much technology do you need? We have considered getting the Power Oarlocks, and we've looked at the Peach system, both systems for measuring the power curve of the athletes. Both have their benefits, both have their drawbacks, both are not particularly cost effective for programs that don't have unlimited resources. And that doesn't account for teaching the athletes that a large powercurve does not necessarily mean they are moving the boat better than a smaller powercurve.
Today I made the comment that at some point, it seems that we have more tech in the boats than we did when we went to the moon, and that coaches have been building fast boats long before NK and the Peach system, and other technologies existed. We had fast boats when we used tulip blades, and then the thinner spoon blades. We had fast boats when they were built from fiberglass, and then wood. We had fast boats when riggers bolted onto the sides of the shells rather than across the top, and back when riggers were made from metal, not carbon fiber. And coxswains did their jobs long before the invention of the coxbox, when all you had was your voice and a cone.
In short, technology is great, but times have gotten faster over decades. I'd argue that the more important breakthroughs with rowing have come with training and recovery more than just the boats. And I say this because I've seen programs with brand new fleets get crushed by programs with older fleets. I worked for a program where we used eights that were built by Pocock before the word "Hypercarbon" was pasted onto the shell, and those boats flew. In fact the top eight was a sub 6:55 eight, beating teams with bigger budgets and newer boats.
I look at all the technology that exists, and put my fanboy fascination aside and get down to the brass tacks. Yes, I'd love to have the Peach system so I could work with athletes on their powercurves and see where they might be losing connection. I'd like the SpeedCoach systems in the boat so we can get accurate 500 meter times.
But I know that much of what we're doing also relies on things outside of our control. We need accurate course measurements. It'd be nice to run the numbers on a lake rather than a river where we are accounting for currents. Ideally, we'd have a 8k indoor course that's 4 lanes across plus two buffer lanes where we could control every single condition.
I don't have that money.
So when it comes to technology, I ask this simple question: What are we going to do with it?
Follow up: How often or consistently are we going to use it?
Final: Do you believe this will make us faster?
I have the same questions for recording data. I've worked with coaches, and at programs where we recorded every single number that came off the erg only to end up with gigs of data that didn't seem to be used for anything other than taking up space on a 500 gig hard drive. If we're just recording it, and saving it, then why are we recording it and saving it?
The same with the technology. I worked for a program that had the mini cox boxes, GPS units, SpeeedCoaches, etc. where the coxswains were so busy recording that I doubt they had time to truly consider what the numbers meant. What did we do with the numbers other than record them? We put them into the hard drive. We recorded them on a whiteboard. But it didn't impact and change the training. It didn't impact lineups. We had gigs and gigs of data that was good for nothing more than saying we had gigs of data.
What technology do I want?
I'd have to look into it. Most of the programs that I've been at cannot afford the technology. Honestly, I'd want my cox boxes to be on point, I'd want to have the money to afford general maintenance or repair. Most programs I know that use the SpeedCoaches remove the impellars before each race to reduce drag, which to me means that we only care from time to time. With weather conditions being a factor along with water conditions, I'd rather spend the money investing in marking out a very accurate 2k course with markings every 250 meters. I'd even be happy with a 1k with similar markings. There's simply other avenues that I believe will contribute equally if not more to finding boat speed that are cheaper than outfitting my shells with everything under the sun.
That being said, SpeedCoaches with impellars is a good way to go. That and some video equipment - not GoPros mounted on riggers or hats - would make me happy.
I believe this is a topic that we've covered before, but since I couldn't locate it - didn't look that hard - I will quickly cover it again.
Currently I am getting the fleet on point with the SpeedCoach Impellars, making sure the top boats have them, and if not, getting the pieces we need in order to make them happen.
First, a side note. NK, why did you design the impellar housing with all plastic? Nothing is more frustrating than when that tiny little shaft of plastic, soft plastic no less, starts to wear and tear from repeated use making it difficult to get the impellar blades attached. Make them out of stainless steel. I'd be happy to pay an extra $10 if it meant that the impellars lasted a bit longer.
So how much technology do you need? We have considered getting the Power Oarlocks, and we've looked at the Peach system, both systems for measuring the power curve of the athletes. Both have their benefits, both have their drawbacks, both are not particularly cost effective for programs that don't have unlimited resources. And that doesn't account for teaching the athletes that a large powercurve does not necessarily mean they are moving the boat better than a smaller powercurve.
Today I made the comment that at some point, it seems that we have more tech in the boats than we did when we went to the moon, and that coaches have been building fast boats long before NK and the Peach system, and other technologies existed. We had fast boats when we used tulip blades, and then the thinner spoon blades. We had fast boats when they were built from fiberglass, and then wood. We had fast boats when riggers bolted onto the sides of the shells rather than across the top, and back when riggers were made from metal, not carbon fiber. And coxswains did their jobs long before the invention of the coxbox, when all you had was your voice and a cone.
In short, technology is great, but times have gotten faster over decades. I'd argue that the more important breakthroughs with rowing have come with training and recovery more than just the boats. And I say this because I've seen programs with brand new fleets get crushed by programs with older fleets. I worked for a program where we used eights that were built by Pocock before the word "Hypercarbon" was pasted onto the shell, and those boats flew. In fact the top eight was a sub 6:55 eight, beating teams with bigger budgets and newer boats.
I look at all the technology that exists, and put my fanboy fascination aside and get down to the brass tacks. Yes, I'd love to have the Peach system so I could work with athletes on their powercurves and see where they might be losing connection. I'd like the SpeedCoach systems in the boat so we can get accurate 500 meter times.
But I know that much of what we're doing also relies on things outside of our control. We need accurate course measurements. It'd be nice to run the numbers on a lake rather than a river where we are accounting for currents. Ideally, we'd have a 8k indoor course that's 4 lanes across plus two buffer lanes where we could control every single condition.
I don't have that money.
So when it comes to technology, I ask this simple question: What are we going to do with it?
Follow up: How often or consistently are we going to use it?
Final: Do you believe this will make us faster?
I have the same questions for recording data. I've worked with coaches, and at programs where we recorded every single number that came off the erg only to end up with gigs of data that didn't seem to be used for anything other than taking up space on a 500 gig hard drive. If we're just recording it, and saving it, then why are we recording it and saving it?
The same with the technology. I worked for a program that had the mini cox boxes, GPS units, SpeeedCoaches, etc. where the coxswains were so busy recording that I doubt they had time to truly consider what the numbers meant. What did we do with the numbers other than record them? We put them into the hard drive. We recorded them on a whiteboard. But it didn't impact and change the training. It didn't impact lineups. We had gigs and gigs of data that was good for nothing more than saying we had gigs of data.
What technology do I want?
I'd have to look into it. Most of the programs that I've been at cannot afford the technology. Honestly, I'd want my cox boxes to be on point, I'd want to have the money to afford general maintenance or repair. Most programs I know that use the SpeedCoaches remove the impellars before each race to reduce drag, which to me means that we only care from time to time. With weather conditions being a factor along with water conditions, I'd rather spend the money investing in marking out a very accurate 2k course with markings every 250 meters. I'd even be happy with a 1k with similar markings. There's simply other avenues that I believe will contribute equally if not more to finding boat speed that are cheaper than outfitting my shells with everything under the sun.
That being said, SpeedCoaches with impellars is a good way to go. That and some video equipment - not GoPros mounted on riggers or hats - would make me happy.
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