Scores And Strokes Per Minute...

[[old] busterG]

i've noticed many people here proudly (and rightly so) list their best scores on the erg in their signatures...<br />eg: 6000m 21min<br /><br />but few if any tell us what their average spm was.....<br /><br />Q: does it matter?<br /><br />for me...i find it harder to row at lower spm's than higher spm's ... but at the end of the rows, i usually have travelled roughly the same distance...<br /><br />is it a case of .. you only have so much energy to spend ... fast or slow it doesnt matter the end result is the same?<br /><br /><br />

[[old] Cran]

Tall heavy people generally row longer and lower spm than short light people...<br /><br />Think of it a bit like gears on a bike... you can pedal slow and hard in a high gear or spin in a low gear, but the energy you put in determines how far you go.<br /><br />Some people prefer to push the high gears some prefer to spin... Do what works for you.<br /><br />It's considered good to train at lower stroke rates to develop power, but in a race you don't get prizes for technique.<br /><br />Some lightweights do 2K at 40SPM+, some heavyweights do low 20's SPM...

[[old] neilb]

<!--QuoteBegin-busterG+Apr 14 2005, 04:07 AM--><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><div class='genmed'><b>QUOTE(busterG @ Apr 14 2005, 04:07 AM)</b></div></td></tr><tr><td class='quote'><!--QuoteEBegin-->i've noticed many people here proudly (and rightly so) list their best scores on the erg in their signatures...<br />eg: 6000m 21min<br /><br />but few if any tell us what their average spm was.....<br /><br />Q: does it matter?<br /><br />for me...i find it harder to row at lower spm's than higher spm's ...  but at the end of the rows, i usually have travelled roughly the same distance...<br /><br />is it a case of .. you only have so much energy to spend ... fast or slow it doesnt matter the end result is the same? <br /> </td></tr></table><br /><br />As Cran says there is an element of personal preference although if the spm is too high then you may be compromising on the efficency. <br /><br />At the moment I am working on 60-90 min rows and these are done at 22-24 spm. For me this is a nice steady rate where the stroke rate is low enough that I can also focus on technique.<br /><br />Prior to this I was doing 30 min rows where the split was 5-6 secs lower and I would be using 26-28 spm. Again for me this felt a smooth, comfortable rate to row at.<br /><br />Unless there is a specific reason why you want to row at a slower spm (perhaps to help develop the power of your stroke, or because you are following a specific training plan) then I would suggest you experiment to find the "right" rate for you but bear in mind that if you go too fast it is likely that efficiency and technique will suffer. Perhaps not an issue with a 2k race as high spm seems essential for that distance but more of a potential issue with longer pieces. Net result is that you will not ber able to get so far and increase risk of injury. <br /><br />When you say you find it harder to row at low spm how low are we talking and do you mean hard technically or hard to achieve desired split times. If the latter then depending on the splits and the desired time to maintain them it could be that you will benefit from time spent working at lower rates to build techinque, power and fitness.<br /><br />Not really enough detail in the question to comment further and I am perhaps not the right person anyway as I have never trained above 28 spm yet (only exceeded this rate so far in short bursts as part of warm ups) but will need to do so when I am satisfied that I have a reasonable base from which to start to work at a 2k time.<br /><br />Neil<br /><br />By the way my 5k, 30 min, 10k and 60 min results were all probably done at around 25-27 spm. The HM would have been slower rate say 23-24.