Skierg Weight Classes

[faach1]

Hi,

I have always wondered why there are no weight classes for the Skierg, so I finally decided to contact C2. I got this response:

“there is no talk of weight classes for SkiErg records as of now. The reason there are weight classes for indoor rowing is because there are light and heavyweight classes in on water rowing and as of now on snow Nordic skiing does not offer weight classes.
Greg Hammond”

Whilst I can understand this logic, this isn’t the point. The point is that for the Skierg the person’s weight has a greater bearing on performance than the rower.

[hjs]

Hi,

I have always wondered why there are no weight classes for the Skierg, so I finally decided to contact C2. I got this response:

“there is no talk of weight classes for SkiErg records as of now. The reason there are weight classes for indoor rowing is because there are light and heavyweight classes in on water rowing and as of now on snow Nordic skiing does not offer weight classes.
Greg Hammond”

Whilst I can understand this logic, this isn’t the point. The point is that for the Skierg the person’s weight has a greater bearing on performance than the rower.

Don’t know if that is true Freddie, I see some lighter guys doing well on the skierg. Not on the sprints though, but lightweight rowers are also not good sprinters often. The relative poor results from lightweight, do come from having a relative not so strong Upperbody.

Following the mother sport is a good argument imo.

Other point is, rowers are on average taller/bigger. I believe an average Top skier is 80kg ish and a rower more 95. On a machine this difference does matter.
Other point, skiers are the athletes with the highest vo2 maxes, so thats a pro.
On the skierg, when not so strong, you need to compensate with rating.

Last point, I do think, if the right “freak of nature” comes along, skierg records could come close to row erg records. The current people setting records are not on a level like the rowers are.
Current 2k ski record is set on 4 ski sessions a week. With not very much endurance. This can’t be optimal. He does have a 200kg bench though.

[faach1]

Hi,

I have always wondered why there are no weight classes for the Skierg, so I finally decided to contact C2. I got this response:

“there is no talk of weight classes for SkiErg records as of now. The reason there are weight classes for indoor rowing is because there are light and heavyweight classes in on water rowing and as of now on snow Nordic skiing does not offer weight classes.
Greg Hammond”

Whilst I can understand this logic, this isn’t the point. The point is that for the Skierg the person’s weight has a greater bearing on performance than the rower.

Don’t know if that is true Freddie, I see some lighter guys doing well on the skierg. Not on the sprints though, but lightweight rowers are also not good sprinters often. The relative poor results from lightweight, do come from having a relative not so strong Upperbody.

Following the mother sport is a good argument imo.

Other point is, rowers are on average taller/bigger. I believe an average Top skier is 80kg ish and a rower more 95. On a machine this difference does matter.
Other point, skiers are the athletes with the highest vo2 maxes, so thats a pro.
On the skierg, when not so strong, you need to compensate with rating.

Last point, I do think, if the right “freak of nature” comes along, skierg records could come close to row erg records. The current people setting records are not on a level like the rowers are.
Current 2k ski record is set on 4 ski sessions a week. With not very much endurance. This can’t be optimal. He does have a 200kg bench though.

Fair enough Henry, you put up many good points. I guess in years to come I’ll have to try and become an aerobic monster if I wanna get even in the ball park of some of those records!

[hjs]

Fair enough Henry, you put up many good points. I guess in years to come I’ll have to try and become an aerobic monster if I wanna get even in the ball park of some of those records!

Don’t know what you are doing on the skier, but on the rower you are doing pretty well. Its also a mindset, if you “thinking” a lightweight can’t pull strong times you won’t. So don’t.

Ps, a guy like Marius Sandmael pulled a 1.17 500, being 40 plus and being in the mid 90kg. So pretty fast while not being very heavy. The strange thing was, on the rower he was more a mid distance guy.....

[faach1]

Fair enough Henry, you put up many good points. I guess in years to come I’ll have to try and become an aerobic monster if I wanna get even in the ball park of some of those records!

Don’t know what you are doing on the skier, but on the rower you are doing pretty well. Its also a mindset, if you “thinking” a lightweight can’t pull strong times you won’t. So don’t.

Ps, a guy like Marius Sandmael pulled a 1.17 500, being 40 plus and being in the mid 90kg. So pretty fast while not being very heavy. The strange thing was, on the rower he was more a mid distance guy.....

Very interesting! Totally agree with mindset. “Whether you think you can or you can’t, you’re right” Can’t remember who’s quote that is, think it’s very apt.

[btlifter]

Hi,

I have always wondered why there are no weight classes for the Skierg, so I finally decided to contact C2. I got this response:

“there is no talk of weight classes for SkiErg records as of now. The reason there are weight classes for indoor rowing is because there are light and heavyweight classes in on water rowing and as of now on snow Nordic skiing does not offer weight classes.
Greg Hammond”

Whilst I can understand this logic, this isn’t the point. The point is that for the Skierg the person’s weight has a greater bearing on performance than the rower.

The weight class argument is always an interesting one to me. While I haven't used a ski erg yet, I can certainly imagine that having more weight would be really beneficial. Having said that, it's curious to me how we determine what sports should/shouldn't have weight classes. For example, I would love for running or gymnastics to have a 105+kg category, but I don't anticipate that ever happening. Weightlifting and powerlifting have very narrowly defined bands for weight classes, whereas shotput has none.

Then, there is the disparity regarding the relative "importance" of each weight class. Whereas in powerlfting/weightlifting a person's performance is almost always contextualized with their weight being taken into consideration, that is rarely the case in Strongman, even though there are weightclasses there, too.

I'm sure that there is internal logic. But, from an outside perspective, it all seems rather arbitrary to me.

[max_ratcliffe]

There's a practicality problem with classes too. Indoor Rowing is a niche enough sport (it's not soccer!), but there are plenty of people who train seriously on the erg. As I write, there are 15576 times posted this year for 2k across all categories.

For the SkiErg, there are 779.

If we had several weight categories (and I agree it would be nice if we did), then with age categories as well, we'd be in a group of no more than a handful of people, and the rankings would become meaningless.

It's a great piece of kit, but not many train seriously on it yet.

[hjs]

There's a practicality problem with classes too. Indoor Rowing is a niche enough sport (it's not soccer!), but there are plenty of people who train seriously on the erg. As I write, there are 15576 times posted this year for 2k across all categories.

For the SkiErg, there are 779.

If we had several weight categories (and I agree it would be nice if we did), then with age categories as well, we'd be in a group of no more than a handful of people, and the rankings would become meaningless.

It's a great piece of kit, but not many train seriously on it yet.

Also no races. We have/had our national championship over here with 13/1400 people racing on the rowers. 90% being non age group rowers.
Skierg is very very niche, although I think for the general population it could be the better option.
Minus for the skierg is it does not match outside skiing like the rowerg does match rowing. The legaction is missing. For that reason the skierg will never be what the rower is.

[MartinSH4321]

This theme pops up quite regularly here in the forum and it's comprehensible that many people want weight classes.

Nevertheless, it's a fact that there are only a handful of sports that have weight classes.
- martial arts: it's a matter of safety, so without alternative
- weightlifting: don't know when and why they invented weight classes
- and rowing
- (maybe I forgot one/some other sports)

There are many sports where you need a certain body type to be competitive (on a higher level), like running, cycling, shot put...

Weight classes would help to get more "equal opportiunity", but if you think that further, you would need a lot of weight classes and height classes to be halfway equal, with absurd effects:
- 2,3 or 4 Tour de France (or marathon...) weight classes so that also a 6ft10 120kg athlete has an equal opportunity?
- different height and weight classes for gymnastics as light and small is a big advantage?
- a lot of weight and height classes for different track and field events like shot put?
...

For many niche sports, as Max described, this would result in meaningless rankings, "everyone is a winner"

In my opinion competitive athletes should train a sport they are built for or accept that they can't be competitive at the sport they train.
For me: I always liked road cycling and it was obvious that I can't be really good at it at +-100kg, I liked it anyway

[faach1]

@Martin @Max Good points you both raise, that’s something that has slippped my mind, but now that you mention it totally makes sense.

[whp4]

Very interesting! Totally agree with mindset. “Whether you think you can or you can’t, you’re right” Can’t remember who’s quote that is, think it’s very apt.

Henry Ford