Nielsen Kellerman Sponsoring
the 6th Annual Temple University Coxswains Clinic

TU and NK Pair Up for a Day of Pro Advice and Top Prizes

Don’t miss your opportunity to learn from the champs and score incredible NK gear at the 6th Annual TU Coxswains’ Clinic on January 31, 2009. Presenters include Mary Whipple, 2008 Olympic Gold Medalist, US Women’s Eight and Marcus McElhenney, 2008 Olympic Bronze Medalist, US Men’s Eight.

• Where

  Kiva Auditorium
  Ritter Hall Annex
  Temple University
  Philadelphia, PA 19122

• When

  Saturday, January 31, 2009
  Registration begins at 8:45am
  Clinic: 9:30am – 1:30pm
  Cost: $85(You can pay at the door - $95)

Separate Small-Group Sessions will be held from 2:00-3:30pm and 3:30-5:00pm
Attendees get the opportunity to sit down with Mary and Marc and receive individual advice and critique of your audio tapes.
Open only to those also registered for the 9:30am clinic!
Cost: $50 Limited to first twenty applicants!

The first 150 participants to register will automatically receive one raffle ticket in their registration packet! You could win:

• New Cox Box Complete System – valued at $628
• Regatta Northwest Flotation Suit – valued at $260
• Interval 2000 Split/Rate Watch - valued at $139
• NK Gear Bag - valued at $49
• Cox Box Waist Pack – valued at $25

Raffle tickets to be sold for $5 each; 3 for $10 at registration

To register: go to www.regattacentral.com Deadline: Jan 29, 2009

Directions to Temple University can be found at: www.owlsports.com as well as: www.temple.edu

Parking Available at Temple Towers (13th and Cecil B. Moore behind Towers)and also in Liacouras Garage (behind Liacouras center – 1700 block of 15th St)

Special rates at: Hilton Garden Inn, 11th and Arch Sts. $99 per night, inc breakfast.

For additional information contact Gavin White at gavwhite@temple.edu

Water Temperature and Speed:
Myth or Truth?

By Frank Biller

As we learned in physics class, temperature has an effect on many things, liquids being one of them. Water can boil or freeze, and of course there are many different stages between that. Scott Knox from Ashland Rowing Club asked me recently how much effect the change of water temperature has on the shell speed, as his splits on the SpeedCoach were quite different.

Conveniently, many environmental factors have a significant influence on boat speed, wind being the strongest. Water temperature also has an impact but to a much lesser degree than generally assumed. See the table below, indicating different speed levels of a 1x and the relevant changes in different water temperatures. The percentage change indicates how much slower the boat gets from one level to the other as the water gets colder:

In order to calculate the different speeds I used a spreadsheet developed by Dr. Valery Kleshnev, it can be found at www.biorow.com.

However, I think that physics alone don’t tell the whole story. There are other factors that will influence our boat speed one way or the other:

• Clothing: When the water is cold, chances the air is cold as well. Hence, we are likely to be dressed warmer and more bundled up, which is likely to limit stroke length and comfort.
• Training Cycle: Typically the cold months are when do long-low intensity work, overall boat speed is likely to be lower than at the height of the Summer season because of that.
• Body Weight: Many of use just tend to carry a few pounds more during Winter training, so the combination of added drag (boat lower in the water) and shorter stroke (something gets in the way) doesn’t make the boat faster.
• Rigging: Athletes often start Winter training with the same rig they left either the Summer or Fall season. Many tend to rig a little lighter for the long distance head season (USA, Europe) and find themselves slightly “under rigged” at low stroke rates.
• Technique: Maybe you are getting back into it and are still looking for that smooth rhythm and quick catch - or you are rowing with different athletes in the boat. Miles makes champions, so don’t be discouraged to see slower splits in the beginning.

Friends from the southern hemisphere please excuse any Winter/Summer confusions.

Keeping Busy on the Ergo

By Frank Biller

For folks in the northern hemisphere January usually requires a significant amount of hours on the ergometer. For you in the south, stop grinning! Of course, working with the ergo is primarily a question of attitude and motivation. There is big difference between going down to the boathouse alone on a dark morning versus joining a group of ten club mates to hammer it out.

Here are some little tricks to make it more interesting however, especially at steady state:

• Even Split
  Try to put as many strokes in a row at the same split as you can. Can you get that 1:57 ten times without changing? This will make you go by feel more than by monitor feedback. A great mix between quantitative (monitor) and qualitative (feel) feedback.
• Manage the Average Split
  I like to work with the average split on a piece, as I do on a flat out 2k. In my view pacing is extremely important in rowing and this is a great learning tool. It’s the art of getting the stroke by stroke splits as close as possible to the (target) average split without really letting off or pulling harder. Try it!
• Vary the Drive
  There are different schools of thought in regards to how to drive with your feet, legs, body and arms. I find it especially interesting to vary the application of pressure on the feet. Try catching with the toes/balls of your feet, shifting to full foot/heels in the middle drive, switch to drive with balls of feet only and then to heels only. Pay close attention what happens to your upper body and splits. How are these things connected and what works best? Does that same “feel” make sense on the water as well? I am not giving the answer – trying to answer this yourself will keep you busy in a very productive way!
• Correlation Heart Rate to Split
  If you have a heart rate monitor, this can be a lot of fun. On the ergo you eliminate many factors that influence your splits on the water, such as wind, water, temperature and to some degree technique. See what happens at what split, perceived effort as well as heart rate. How can you keep your split and heart rate even? How does your breathing effect the system? Is it true that too much upper body work drives up the heart rate, especially on the erg? Even better if you can store your heart rate and download later. See some charts below.

Looking at ranges and averages you can see the different intensity levels, the upper chart being a harder intensity aerobic base training and the lower chart is with a bit less intensity. For this athlete, both workouts are at steady state intensity.

Just don’t say the B-word!

Christine Morgan, Western Reserve Rowing Association

A coxswain, I’m 5’1” and 120 pounds, not exactly a threatening physique. I made the decision to fly instead of drive to Boston for the Head of the Charles this year. When starting to think about what would need to be packed, I realized that my CoxBox would need to go with me and there was no way that I was going to put it in my checked bags. Giving it some thought I felt that the black hard case, in which the CoxBoxes are usually transported in, would be slightly troublesome when going through security. So I purchased the blue NK Gearbag to hopefully make the CoxBox a little more friendly looking.

I was still feeling uneasy about how the security people from TSA were going to react to the CoxBox, so I printed off information about the CoxBox from the NK website and brought it with me in a separate bag. Good thing I did. If I had been flying out of a city that understood rowing a little better, I might have been okay. But that wasn’t the case and the TSA staff didn’t understand what the CoxBox was all about.

The TSA staff dumped the whole thing out, mic, charger, everything and were examining it. I tried to provide them with the information about the CoxBox and what it was used for. Suddenly I found myself in a backroom of my Mid-Western airport with a police officer and the TSA representatives. I explained them over and over again what I was carrying, where I was going and how important that piece of equipment was. They continued to inspect the box and each of the pieces and parts that were in my bag. Finally, someone used the website information and verified online that I was telling the truth. Typically this would be the end of the story, but no.

Instead of simply apologizing for the delay they felt the need to escort me through the terminal to my gate. The TSA representatives explained to my flight crew what I was carrying and assured them that it was non-threatening and that I was not considered dangerous (which I’m sure they were really worried about). I’m still fairly sure that my flight crew thought that either I or the TSA reps were crazy (I’m unsure which), but they finally let me on my flight and off to Boston I went. And I had zero difficulty leaving Boston with my CoxBox on board the following Sunday. Go figure.

NK comment: Although a funny story, this can be a real hassle. Generally we hardly hear of any troubles anymore with CoxBoxes and security, however, it might still be a good idea to include the information somewhere in your carry-on or checked bag. We always travel with bags full of CoxBoxes and SpeedCoaches and have no trouble. But you never know, all it takes is this one person. See this link to download and print manuals to put into your luggage:
http://www.nkhome.com/support/pdfs.html

Information on Price Changes for 2009

Unfortunately, there will be price increases for 2009 that will take effect on January 15th. As I'm sure you are aware, businesses are facing increasing cost pressures and many are being forced to raise their prices. We've tried to hold our prices steady for our valuable customers. As a result, this is the first increase we have had to implement since 2006. We have posted the 2009 order form for your convenience and review.

Remember that you need to place your orders now to still qualify for the 2008 pricing - any order received after January 15th will go at the new prices!

We want to know what you would like to see featured in upcoming issues of the NK Newsletter! Got a question that you think would be interesting and informative to fellow rowers? Have you had an interesting experience using a NK product? Has an NK product made a difference in your rowing or workout routine? If so, we would love to hear from you.

NK will send you a FREE NK Headsweats Hat if you submit a story and it gets published in a future issue of our newsletter or gets quoted in our next catalog. We will send you a FREE NK T-Shirt if your question or idea for an upcoming feature is published!

Please send entries to: newsletter@nkhome.com
Be sure to include your name & contact info. Submitting a story for consideration assumes that you give NK the right to reproduce your story in part or in its entirety.