Acceptable Watts Scores

[donna]

I am an openweight female rower. My 2k score is 7:38.2. A college coach asked for my best watts score. When I asked what watts scores they are looking for, she said their strongest rower has a 680 watts PR. However, she did not give me a range, only what their strongest rower can pull. Does anyone know what an "average" watts score (or range) would be for a competitive D1 women's openweight program.

[Edward4492]

Don't know for sure, but considering that it takes in the neighborhood of 450w to pull 6m for 2000m, I'm guessing the 680w figure would be akin to what a lot of erger's call their "low pull" which is the fastest 500m figure they can get on the screen. I believe that 680w figure was achieved on a high drag and the young lady did 5 - 10 of the hardest pulls she could muster and the highest number was recorded. Young, heavyweight men can break 1000w.

Maybe others can chime in, but I would think your 2000m erg score would be a lot more indicative of what you're capable of performing as the "high watt pull" is indicative of brute, raw strength, but tells nothing of aerobic capability.

[donna]

Thank you for the response. The coach indicated that my 2k score was on the lower end of what they consider "acceptable" and suggested a 10 stroke max watts test (as well as a split for a 1 minute test) as another tool to help her see where I fit. Any idea what max watts score a college coach would consider good, if their strongest rower has a 680?

[ArmandoChavezUNC]

Not a clue, no one really posts/brags/shares their 10 second max-watts scores, primarily because not many people do that sort of testing.

I can tell you that if you were around 7:15 for 2k you'd be pretty competitive

[Ralph Earle]

I believe your coach is referring to this assessment protocol which is used by Canadian coaches:

10 str & 1 ‘Assessment
10-15’ warm up
2 x 10 str at Drag 190
Set Drag to 190 – From a dead stop take 10 full length stokes as hard as you can no rate cap* – record watts on first stroke and highest watts observed in the 10 strokes. Rest no less than 90” and no more than 180”
*If it is determined you are not rowing FULL SLIDE you will have to redo the pieces with cap rate of 40
Rest 3’
2 x 10 str at Drag 110
Set Drag to 110- From a dead stop take 10 full length stokes as hard as you can no rate cap* – record watts on first stroke and highest watts observed in the 10 strokes. Rest no less than 90” and no more than 180”
*If is determined you are not rowing FULL SLIDE you will have to redo the pieces with cap rate of 40
Rest 20’ Active rest- walk or light spin
2 x 1’ – From a dead stop go all out for 1’. Rate cap is 40 – rest 5’ and try again. Record – avg watts/split/total meters
20’ active recovery- Erg/ jog/ bike.

Here are the bench marks. They may be hard to figure out, so I'll interpolate the last two lines for you:

A 2K in 7:38 represents 233 watts (avg of 236 and 230).

At df = 190 in a 10-stroke test you would be expected to generate a maximum of 495 watts (avg of 502 and 489, rounded down), i. e., your fastest stroke would show 1:29 on the monitor (average of 1:28.7 and 1:29.4).

At df = 110 in a 10-stroke test you would be expected to generate a maximum of 424 watts (avg of 430 and 419, rounded down), i. e., your fastest stroke would show 1:33 or 1:34 on the monitor (average of 1:33.3 and 1:34.1).

At df = 110 in a 1-minute test you would be expected to generate an average of 354 watts (avg of 359 and 349), i. e., your average pace would be 1:39.6 (average of 1:39.2 and 1:40.1, rounded up).

By asking for your 10-stroke and 1-minute watts, your coach is looking for your 2K potential. If you exceed by a fair amount the watts I just calculated, she may feel that you simply need to improve your aerobic capacity.. My guess is that her "Acceptable" range is 7:30-7:40.

For example, the USRA 2K benchmarks for the junior women development program are 7:05 for "Gold Medal Standard," 7:15 for "Elite Junior" and 7:32 for "Develop Junior." I think that if you can pull 1:27s and 1:32s on the two 10-stroke tests and <1:38.0 on the 1 minute test (i. e., at least 308m) your coach will be pleased.



Canadian Jr Women Assessment 10 Strokes df=190 10 Strokes df=110 1' df=110
2k Time 2k goal Split 2k Watts Max Watts Pace (spm<40) Max Watts Pace (spm<40) Avg Watts Pace (spm<40)
6:40 01:40 350 745 01:17.7 638 01:21.9 532 01:27.0
6:44 01:41 340 723 01:18.5 619 01:22.7 516 01:27.9
6:48 01:42 330 702 01:19.3 602 01:23.5 501 01:28.7
6:52 01:43 320 681 01:20.1 583 01:24.3 486 01:29.6
6:56 01:44 311 662 01:20.9 567 01:25.1 473 01:30.5
7:00 01:45 302 643 01:21.7 551 01:26.0 459 01:31.4
7:04 01:46 294 626 01:22.4 536 01:26.8 447 01:32.2
7:08 01:47 286 609 01:23.2 521 01:27.6 434 01:33.0
7:12 01:48 278 591 01:24.0 507 01:28.4 422 01:33.9
7:16 01:49 270 574 01:24.8 492 01:29.2 410 01:34.8
7:20 01:50 263 560 01:25.5 480 01:30.0 400 01:35.7
7:24 01:51 256 545 01:26.3 467 01:30.8 389 01:36.5
7:28 01:52 249 530 01:27.1 454 01:31.7 378 01:37.4
7:32 01:53 243 517 01:27.8 443 01:32.4 369 01:38.2
7:36 01:54 236 502 01:28.7 430 01:33.3 359 01:39.2
7:40 01:55 230 489 01:29.4 419 01:34.1 349 01:40.1

[donna]

Thank you so much. That is helpful. My high school coach suggested a df of 200. Using that df I pulled a 10 stroke max watt of 527. It would appear that would help not hurt my chances. Do you agree?

[Ralph Earle]

It corresponds to a 2K under 7:30, but you should do the test(s) at the specified drag factors and stroke rate (190, 110, <40 spm), just to be sure.

The more revelant question is, Can you average under 1:38.8 for one minute using a drag factor of only 110? You will have to hit the catch hard and fast.

To do so, practice with the monitor showing the force curve and try to make it resemble a "left-leaning haystack."

[donna]

Thanks for all of the info and advice.

[c2jonw]

I'm very surprised that no one has commented on the ill advised practice of having athletes doing full power starts with a high drag factor from a dead stop. This, along with low stroke rate/high power rowing, is how people get hurt.....C2JonW

[ArmandoChavezUNC]

I'm very surprised that no one has commented on the ill advised practice of having athletes doing full power starts with a high drag factor from a dead stop. This, along with low stroke rate/high power rowing, is how people get hurt.....C2JonW

Which is why not many coaches/rowers do this sort of testing on the erg. I think the risks outweigh the benefits, unless you're an elite athlete with lots of experience/practice, then you have a much better chance of not getting injured.

I wouldn't recommend doing it, but if a coach wants you to do it, all I can say is make sure you warm up REALLY well. As in at least 15 minutes of warm-up.

[kk20]

Old post but I had this argument with the schools C2 challenge. The challenges for the students were low time high impact challenges such as furthest distance in 1 minute or quickest to cover 400m etc. since the first thing everyone did was whack the damper to 10 this was (im my eyes) a bad thing to do for students (and staff in the staff teams).