Another issue of interest I considered was the number of medals awarded at the event. At the Golden State Indoor Rowing Championship, they give out only a medal to the winner. At other races like Ergomania, Monster Erg, and Penisuala Indoor Rowing Championship, they award first through third. At these events, I have raced no more than 10 competitors. And some like the GSIRC appear to have team races that are going on at the same time. I thought if they had first through fifth, like at the Head of Charles, they may draw someone that perhaps knows they are not a top three but have a chance at fourth or fifth.
But the erg is unique in rowing. Unlike rowing on the water, everyone knows exactly how fast you are rowing and what you are doing. It is basically an invasion of privacy, which may be keeping people away from competing.
2000 meter race vs. 1000 meter race
2000 meter is the real test of evaluation !
I'd rather race the 2000 meter race for many reasons. The most telling part is the level of fitness coming into effect anywhere around the 1000 meter mark in the race. If we are to sell our sport we need competitions that are telling, and difficult as seen by the viewer. At around our 1000 meter area the results are clearly showing up. If we could use better graphics on competitions the audience will see how the competitor is measuring up in the event.
We are at a distinct disadvantage in our sport when competing outdoors. But when we are indoors on the ergometers racing our sports media get to see what the heck is going on.
A 1000 meter race is good for a special event, sprint race, but the real test of competition has to remain in the 2000 meter events. Nothing beats the stamina and power needed to overcome the 2000 meter test.
We are at a distinct disadvantage in our sport when competing outdoors. But when we are indoors on the ergometers racing our sports media get to see what the heck is going on.
A 1000 meter race is good for a special event, sprint race, but the real test of competition has to remain in the 2000 meter events. Nothing beats the stamina and power needed to overcome the 2000 meter test.
Training
I am not sure that the training would be any shorter. Intense training requires longer rest periods and greater warm ups and warm downs. As a result the total time taken for the session may be the same or longer.
In addition, weight training may become more important to become competitive adding further requirements to be fully competitive.
As for more gongs, I think people should have to work to get an award and you can still get a buzz from not being last or getting a PB even if you are never going to get a medal, lowering the bar isn't the answer. I attended a competition where over half of the categories had more entrants than awards, the majority of the winners didn't even wait for the awards! That said a wider choice of events should increase interest so I would welcome it.
- Iain
In addition, weight training may become more important to become competitive adding further requirements to be fully competitive.
As for more gongs, I think people should have to work to get an award and you can still get a buzz from not being last or getting a PB even if you are never going to get a medal, lowering the bar isn't the answer. I attended a competition where over half of the categories had more entrants than awards, the majority of the winners didn't even wait for the awards! That said a wider choice of events should increase interest so I would welcome it.
- Iain
Re: 2000 meter is the real test of evaluation !
I think this is why many people will not race 2k erg event. The erg can be unforgiving and is revealing. Everyone knows exactly what you are doing. There is no privacy.Less1leg wrote: I'd rather race the 2000 meter race for many reasons. The most telling part is the level of fitness coming into effect anywhere around the 1000 meter mark in the race. If we are to sell our sport we need competitions that are telling, and difficult as seen by the viewer. At around our 1000 meter area the results are clearly showing up. If we could use better graphics on competitions the audience will see how the competitor is measuring up in the event.
We are at a distinct disadvantage in our sport when competing outdoors. But when we are indoors on the ergometers racing our sports media get to see what the heck is going on.
A 1000 meter race is good for a special event, sprint race, but the real test of competition has to remain in the 2000 meter events. Nothing beats the stamina and power needed to overcome the 2000 meter test.
Re: Training
I ran the U.S. Marine Corps Marathon where each competitor got a classy long sleeve T-shirt, an elegant certificate, and a sharp looking medal. I was so proud to finish that race which took me 4 hours and 55 minutes. It took my knees about a month to recover. I still have the certificate with the medal. I finished 7,782 out of 8,425 runners who finished. Long live the United States Marine Corps!iain wrote: As for more gongs, I think people should have to work to get an award and you can still get a buzz from not being last or getting a PB even if you are never going to get a medal, lowering the bar isn't the answer. I attended a competition where over half of the categories had more entrants than awards, the majority of the winners didn't even wait for the awards! That said a wider choice of events should increase interest so I would welcome it.
- Iain
Further thoughts
Thomas, I am all for rcognition of having taken part, it is a medal for coming third out of 3 I was having a pop at.
Re the initial question, your arguments for a 2k (harder, shows difficulty and complex nature of power & endurance together) are strong arguments why competitive people would want to race 2k. I also think that racing a 2k is less disruptive to periodised training which is some way from peaking than a 1k. I would have thought that the endurance from the typical early training will pay dividends in a 2k, while lack of sharpness will be more telling in a 1k. However, unless you have a race between a"fly & die" and a more conservative racing strategy, this difference would not interest the non-specialist spectator. As most people who compete are reasonably good at pacing these races, there is often little for spectators who do not erg to appreciate about the endurance aspects.
Coming from table tennis where one of the main reasons for changing the games to 11 up rather than 21 up was that television would not generally show a game lasting >5 mins and would rather show a whole game than edited highlights, I would have thought this would be a stronger argument for 1k as the more watchable. This would be long enough that endurance is still important, but the gap between seeing the competitors settle into their race rhythm and press on to a sprint at the end is not too long to keep the audiences attention. But perhaps even in this world of multi-sports channel television, significant coverage of indoor racing is optimistic.
- Iain
Re the initial question, your arguments for a 2k (harder, shows difficulty and complex nature of power & endurance together) are strong arguments why competitive people would want to race 2k. I also think that racing a 2k is less disruptive to periodised training which is some way from peaking than a 1k. I would have thought that the endurance from the typical early training will pay dividends in a 2k, while lack of sharpness will be more telling in a 1k. However, unless you have a race between a"fly & die" and a more conservative racing strategy, this difference would not interest the non-specialist spectator. As most people who compete are reasonably good at pacing these races, there is often little for spectators who do not erg to appreciate about the endurance aspects.
Coming from table tennis where one of the main reasons for changing the games to 11 up rather than 21 up was that television would not generally show a game lasting >5 mins and would rather show a whole game than edited highlights, I would have thought this would be a stronger argument for 1k as the more watchable. This would be long enough that endurance is still important, but the gap between seeing the competitors settle into their race rhythm and press on to a sprint at the end is not too long to keep the audiences attention. But perhaps even in this world of multi-sports channel television, significant coverage of indoor racing is optimistic.
- Iain
Nature of competitions
Apologies for the double post, but there is a discussion on attendance on UK site where the point was made that some people stayed away as they were not in shape. Within the IR community, we all share a lot of data, so I am surprised that the mere exposure would keep many away. Info on what training people are doing is more telling than a one-off race performance.Thomas wrote:Unlike rowing on the water, everyone knows exactly how fast you are rowing and what you are doing. It is basically an invasion of privacy, which may be keeping people away from competing.
Any competition will create enhanced exposure to some extent as people will become aware of who beat who and at least an indication of by how much. This is a necessary aspect of competition, if it was private it would not be a competition and we would all just post how our wonderful strokes were making us capable of world beating times.
I would agree that this might put off elite OTW rowers, but for the IR community I would have thought that it is the prospect of performing badly in a competitive environment that is more of a deterent than letting out valuable information to competitors.
I'll get off the soap box now!
The meter schemes are good and don't require competiveness. Racing at the club level is probably fun if you are in a good crew, which I would define as a crew that wins most of its races or comes close. In both cases, no one really knows how much effort is being done to get the meters or to get the win. In both cases, you could be out-of-shape and beat people who are more out-of-shape. When you race in an erg race, there is no hiding. If you fly and die, people will be able to pinpoint to the meter where you started sucking. If you win your erg race, people could be mean and down play the win based on an unacceptable winning time for that particularily age/weight group.
They tried 1k races this past erg season with still not much participation at the Master's level. Maybe it will be expand, but I am afraid it won't.
They tried 1k races this past erg season with still not much participation at the Master's level. Maybe it will be expand, but I am afraid it won't.