A discussion about rowing "SPI"

[hjs]

Little amaendment, the 500 WR is 1:10.5 (1000W), the 1:09.4 is the split for 1' and 432m

It sounced already odd, two mistakes even, the number itself and my idea Clapp improved Youngs result.
Edit and Howard. Three guys

Comparing old times with new is a bit tricky, the current pm system is a bit different calculation wise.
Other difference is the handle, current one is wider and has a different shape.

[Citroen]

One way I have used SPI lately is for comparing my 1k PB (in June) and 2k PB (October). For the former, I rated 35, for the latter 31, both of which were reasonably in line with my plan, although I had wanted 32 for the 2k.

That's the original reason Paul Smith came up with the meaningless, unitless "SPI" value in the first place.

It was so that you could tell whether you were a sprinter or an endurance athlete and which ones of your times from 500m to 42195m didn't fit his double the distance and add 5 conjecture (often called Paul's Law).

SPI was hijacked by the only dishonourable athlete on here to ever be banned for life as a way to promote his narcisstic belief that he was the "greatest erger in history".

[mitchel674]

SPI was hijacked by the only dishonourable athlete on here to ever be banned for life as a way to promote his narcisstic belief that he was the "greatest erger in history".

I don't know this backstory. Must have been before my time here. I will say that I'm intrigued and that it sounds like it would make a great movie.

[hjs]

SPI was hijacked by the only dishonourable athlete on here to ever be banned for life as a way to promote his narcisstic belief that he was the "greatest erger in history".

I don't know this backstory. Must have been before my time here. I will say that I'm intrigued and that it sounds like it would make a great movie.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DcNVkNVUiZk

Search no more, the ultimate rowing stroke. Flawless.

[ampire]

I saw some reply to my very brief mention of watt/stroke rate in the "what training did you do" thread but I didn't bother to reply to it. It looked like trollbait.

Personally, a year ago I was getting some decent time trial results but my every day training was often in the 28-32 SPM range and my SPI was pretty poor for those.

I spent the past couple months R18-22 and the result is I think I am more efficient and probably have better form because of it. Now I am roughly doing the same paces I was doing a year ago but at R20 instead of R28 for example.

As a general goal, I'd really like to comfortably row at 2:00/R20 for say 45 minutes. I can do a 30R20 around 2:02-2:03 but it is pretty taxing.

[Citroen]

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DcNVkNVUiZk

Search no more, the ultimate rowing stroke. Flawless.

It's, clearly, all that wiggle of the left wrist on the recovery that improves your SPI and perfects your stroke. I'd forgotten how bad the dishonourable nameless one was.

[mitchel674]

SPI was hijacked by the only dishonourable athlete on here to ever be banned for life as a way to promote his narcisstic belief that he was the "greatest erger in history".

I don't know this backstory. Must have been before my time here. I will say that I'm intrigued and that it sounds like it would make a great movie.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DcNVkNVUiZk

Search no more, the ultimate rowing stroke. Flawless.

I can't unsee that.

[Yankeerunner]

Here's what SPI can do for you, demonstrated by he-who-shall-be-named:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWUi3l1 ... gondK-cPae

Got about 2 1/2 minutes into a 2K at the World Championships before having to stop and think about it for a while.

[ampire]

Here's what SPI can do for you, demonstrated by he-who-shall-be-named:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWUi3l1 ... gondK-cPae

Got about 2 1/2 minutes into a 2K at the World Championships before having to stop and think about it for a while.

My wrists hurt looking at it.

[jackarabit]

The footage of the serial HDs at Boston a few yrs. back clearly show ‘Ranger’ C’s tortured grip. Injury? Neural conductivity interrupted? Muscle atrophy? Never seen a word about it from anyone here including the king of stroke power himself

[lancecampeau]

Its was my goal to generate some constructive dialog and gather a broader perspective on this topic and that has certainly been the case (with added humor to boot).

I can definitely echo what Ampire said...

Personally, a year ago I was getting some decent time trial results but my every day training was often in the 28-32 SPM range and my SPI was pretty poor for those.

I spent the past couple months R18-22 and the result is I think I am more efficient and probably have better form because of it. Now I am roughly doing the same paces I was doing a year ago but at R20 instead of R28 for example.

This has been my exact experience as well... When I started in 2017, my rowing was pretty much r27+ all the time. Now, after 4 years, I routinely get better results at much lower rates (r18 to r24). Its for this reason why I record SPI in my logbook. Its been a helpful yardstick in measuring my ability over time.

[hjs]

I don't know this backstory. Must have been before my time here. I will say that I'm intrigued and that it sounds like it would make a great movie.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DcNVkNVUiZk

Search no more, the ultimate rowing stroke. Flawless.

I can't unsee that.

And as short as those clips are, in writing it was the complete opposite. Hours per day of text. Going nowhere, making zero sence.

Not that he was bad erger to begin with, he started good, pulled around 6.30 as a lightweight 50 year old. From there it all went downhill, his first goal was 6.18, the time Mike Caviston pulled. But after that first year he never pulled a good race anymore. He simply refused to accept that he could not improve anymore. At the same time his “goals” got more and more auslandish.

All his races later where failiers. He often did not show up, did not make weight. He was always far above 75kg and had to cut big time close before races. Which seldom went well.
The times he did race, he went of hard, and always had to stop. Which was how he trained. His infamous “rowing with brakes” regime. Which was the only training he did.

His mantra was, Sports are arts, anything can happen, just out of nowhere. If he was serious and complete bonkers or just winding everybody up and that for years was not fully clear.

[flatbread]

His mantra was, Sports are arts, anything can happen, just out of nowhere. If he was serious and complete bonkers or just winding everybody up and that for years was not fully clear.

6:30 is quite good out of the gate. Did he never try to work on his technique?

As an artist (I'm a poet) I'd say his mantra was bollocks. Art, like sport, is about daily practice -- and quality practice at that, which means working on technique, accepting criticism, and having constructive, not destructive, work habits. Art, like sport, doesn't just happen.

[Citroen]

As an artist (I'm a poet) I'd say his mantra was bollocks. Art, like sport, is about daily practice -- and quality practice at that, which means working on technique, accepting criticism, and having constructive, not destructive, work habits. Art, like sport, doesn't just happen.

The nameless one was a professor of poetry & poetics at UMich.
There were some absolute gems at https://www.ratemyprofessors.com/ for him.

[Citroen]

Didn't realise that so many people drilled down into the numbers so much

After nearly 20 years using the erg and 10s of millions of metres I can honestly say that I've never had the PM display on anything other than pace. I wouldn't have a clue what the watts are for a given pace and it's not really of interest to me.

This from Nick tells us everything we need to know about SPI.