Importance of Height in Rowing

[Ralph Earle]

In April 2011 I looked at data from 32 men who took part in US national team testing:
Height: 73 ± 2” / 185 ± 5cm
Weight: 174 ± 14lbs / 79 ± 6kg
2K time: 6:43.2 ± 0:13.4

A robust regression analysis of 2K time vs height and weight showed a statistically significant effect for height, but not for weight:
Variable Effect (lower, upper 95% confidence limits)
Height: -3.4 seconds per inch (-6.1, -0.8) / -9.7 seconds per cm (-15.5, -1.9)
Weight: -0.3 seconds per lb (-2.3, +1.7) / -0.1 seconds per kg (-1.0,+0.8)

Take Away: There are probably easier ways to lower your 2K splits by one second than putting yourself on the rack.

[gregsmith01748]

Ralph: Cool analysis. One question. The heights seems short, the weights light and the 2K times very slow for national team candidates. Where is the data from?

[mmayzak]

Well, i'll tell you from my 5' 7" perspective... being short in this game makes my efforts different.

More strokes per minute, purely due to stroke length (or lack of it)... and due to the LOSS of power on those extra recoveries I have to generate even more power!

It's not a disadvantage, just a different way of training to be successful.

The 'low stroke rate pull harder' model doesn't hold as much... there are things to be learned, but I am not pulling a 1.6m pull every stroke, I am more like 1.09.

To be successful your technique needs to be practically flawless and you had better be VERY STRONG... with those two you'll do as best as you can do.

#GOROW

Mike from Oklahoma

[Ralph Earle]

Ralph: Cool analysis. One question. The heights seems short, the weights light and the 2K times very slow for national team candidates. Where is the data from?

It came from the US Rowing National Team Testing site: http://www.usrowing.org/NationalTeams/N ... NTTResults
(I did it '"on my lunch hour" at work, and only sent the results home.)

Just now, however, I can't find the exact month(s) in the data set. So, since I am now retired and having nothing better to do, I'll scrub the entire site for data, analyze junior men/senior men/women, and report back in a week or so. And if there's enough data, I'll look at 6K times, as well.

Incidentally, these 32 were very similar to the 36 in the research paper referenced above: Height 186 ± 9 cm; Weight 80 ± 9 kg; 2K 6:38.5 ± 20.1

[Citroen]

I've removed some of the flaming posts from this thread. Please play nicely or go away and play elsewhere.