Enter to Win the
NK Getaway and Party Contest!

NK will host a hit party– and you could win exclusive tickets, along with a Full convention pass and two nights stay at Bally’s Park Place Hotel and Casino! Plus you’ll be first to hear the exciting announcement of what’s to come in 2009 from the leader in rowing electronics.

Attend the USRowing Annual Convention and attend the NK party - all on us!

To enter to win the NK Getaway and Party Contest just purchse your favorite product.

2 Grand prizes to be awarded - one to a Master Rower and one to a Junior Rower

2 nights at the Bally’s Park Place Hotel and Casino, a convention entry pass, an NK party invitation and tickets to the Olympic Celebration!

For every order placed in through November 5th, including regatta purchases, you will earn 1 entry. The winners will be chosen in a random drawing. If winner is unable to attend, prize may be passed to person of their choice.

Effect of Wind and Water Temperature on Speed

While getting ready for a probably windy Fall season, it’s worthwile having a closer look at the environmental impact on boat speed. Besides personal preference (e.g. “I hate tailwind”) there are physics that apply to all of us. The following are theorectical examples of wind effect on rowing shells:

As the weather gets colder, water temperatures also change the game (about 3% on 30 degrees Celsius). To make an extreme example: While you might have rowed a fast 7 minutes on a 2k in the heat of the Summer, your time will drop as much as 13 seconds to 7:13 because of the colder water temperature alone. And your splits will go slower accordingly so that a 1:48 isn’t that bad afterall. Also keep these conditional factors in mind when pacing your head piece!!

The impeller calibration however is only affected to a very minimal degree and does not need to be adjusted.

For more information, please don’t hesitate to contact Frank Biller

Rig right for Head Racing – Let the SpeedCoach Help You

By Barry Cleal* and Frank Biller

Coming off the sprint season, some attention should be paid to rigging and how your boat is set-up. Chances are that you are rigged a little heavier on the gearing from sprint racing. Heavier means shorter leverages and therefore a bit heavier load, which is perfect for racing under seven minutes or so, or even shorter for the 1,000 meter masters races.

For longer distances however, it’s recommended to be rigged a little lighter, simply because your racing time will be double of what you are used to, yet the stroke rate likely to be not much lower. The challenge for coaches and athletes is to find the right balance between making the boat "lighter" versus losing too much speed by spinning the wheels in the process.

You can easily try this out by rowing at different rates for several minutes and be the judge. For example try the following ladder, no "off" time between intervals:

2’ at 22

2’ at 24

2’ at 26

2’ at 28

2’ at 30

2’ at 32

Total minutes: 12

Observe how the speed changes along with the stroke rate at these intervals. Even better if you use a SpeedCoach XL and set it up as a work-out function. When you are done, it will give you the average speed for each sequence as well as the average stroke rate. With the speedcoach interface you can easily graph the progress. Since the ladder lasts for 12 minutes it will nicely incorporate the fatigue factor as well.

If you see that you are going proportionally fast at lower ratings, but the speed curve flattens out relatively soon before you get to your desired race rating, chances are that you are rigged too heavy. On the other hand, if you find that you need to increase stroke rate drastically to find marginal speed gains, you are rigged too light.

In order to change to a lighter gearing we prefer to shorten the outboard as this has two significant advantages over more complicated adjustments:

1. The spread and inboard remains unchanged, so you will feel exactly the same way in your stroke length as you did before, maintaining the working angles.

2. The blade travels further through the water which will allow for slightly more lift.

For your reference, a simple way to calculate gearing is:

Outboard/Spread

Example in point:

Repeat the 2’ interval test and compare your results and impression.

The goal is to find an efficient stroke rate, meaning getting the desired speed at an effort you can perform for the targeted racing time. Besides data, however, it is essential that you use your feeling for judgment of your effort. Rowing one or two beats higher on the rating but clipping it along with a nice swing is likely to be a more tolerable pace than squeezing too hard a couple of beats lower. A lighter rigging will enable you to do that, despite losing a couple of inches of boat run between strokes, and you will go faster over the race distance.

We recommend you look for the flattening in the curve right around your desired race rate for a good gearing, and then make sure you feel comfortable with it.

*Barry Cleal is the head coach of Auckland Rowing Club and Kings College in New Zealand. Barry has been essential in developing and helping some of New Zealand’s medal winners.

“HOBS” for Sweep; “Power Steps” for Sculling

By Frank Biller

HOBS Drill for Sweep

Surely most of us are familiar with the outside-hand only drill, while putting the inside hand on the lower back and rowing like that. I found an interesting variation of this drill here in New Zealand where the rower actually puts the inside hand on the lower end of the backstay or on the gunwale where the backstay is attached. It will only allow for about 3/4 to 7/8 of the slide.

This drill will prevent the inside shoulder from lifting up at the catch and gently force the upper body and shoulder to follow the oar handle around the pin. In addition, the connection between seat and handle will be reinforced and help with the blade placement and timing.

Also, feel how the inside hand is supporting the body via backstay or gunwale – this gives a greater feeling for the weight that should be put on the oar handle for gentle control of the oar and subsequently the boat.

Power Steps Drill for Sculling

A very important aspect of building sustainable pace and rating for longer distances, is to find an efficient power application. Clearly, the power curve changes based on boat type. In a single we are likely to reach peak power in the middle or even second half of the leg drive, while in the quad the power application is, because of the higher boat speed, more on the front (catch) side.

A good exercise for singles as well as team boats is to do some power steps, which looks as follows:

10 strokes at zero pressure catch and 1/4 pressure finish

10 strokes at 1/4 pressure catch and 1/2 pressure finish

10 strokes at 1/2 pressure catch and 3/4 pressure finish

10 strokes at 3/4 catch and full pressure finish

10 strokes at 80% pressure from catch to finish

Repeat full cycle a couple of times. Observe the SpeedCoach on see what happens to the speed as well as stroke rate, feel how your body and hand flow increases and gets a little crispier at each stage.

This will help you to develop a good feel and intuition for your power application at race pace, especially for longer head pieces with sometimes changing wind directions on the course. It will enhance your repertoire of tricks on how to effectively move your boat. In team boats it will also enhance the all so important timing of the power application - the feeling that a boat is “light at the pick-up” that allows you to clip along.

Heading For the Fall

By Merrill Hilf

No, I’m not referring to the stock market, or the upcoming election. I’m thinking about my favorite season, and the head race season that is already upon us. Shifting racing gears from 1000 meters to 2.5 miles (or more) is both a mental and physiological challenge. 1000 meter races are essentially sprints as compared to maintaining a steady pace for several miles. One can take solace knowing that feeling really awful in the last 250 meters of a 1000 meter race won’t last long, and that the finish line is only a several strokes away. However, starting a head race beyond one’s capacity can result in a mile of agony and self doubt.

The best way to figure this out is to add in long pieces to your steady state workouts. Many coaches may give you target stroke ratings, i.e. 30, that you should be hitting throughout a head piece. However, stroke rating is kind of an individual thing. If you find that you are moving your boat faster at a lower rating, and you can sustain that speed, maybe rowing at a 28 is better suited to your body. During long pieces, you are aiming to be as efficient as possible, trying not to waste precious energy. This goes for mental energy as well. Feeling anxious (“I’m gonna die at this rating”) may distract you from steering a good course, and focusing on breathing and resting during the recovery. This doesn’t mean that you should be saving energy for the end of the row, but rather trying to figure out how much energy you can put into each stroke in order to be “toast” at the end.

So mix up your training, don’t dull yourself into hours of steady state at low ratings everyday. Trying to do this type of training without a stroke coach for immediate feedback, is almost impossible. Instead of guessing about your ratings or speed, ask for your holiday gift early, and make sure you get the one with the back light if you row in the dark.

2008 Regatta Schedule: Upcoming Events

Be sure to visit the NK booth at the following regattas for some Head Race shopping, or just to say "Hi"!

October 4 – 5: Head of the Oklahoma
Oklahoma City, OK

October 16 – 19: Head of the Charles
Boston, MA

October 25 – 26: Head of the Schuylkill
Philadelphia, PA

November 1 – 2: Head of the Hooch
Chattanooga, TN

NK wants to hear from you!

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 Cadence T1 Wrist Rate Watch 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.