How come there is no weight category for the skierg?

[sarequads]

Surely the same categories would have been perfect on the skierg. Means I’ll just never have a decent score but if there were categories then I would. It also would make sense as in real skiing bodyweight would definitely come into consideration. Same with cycling.

[winniewinser]

I think maybe because in Nordic skiing there are no weight categories....unlike water rowing that has had LWT/HWT for a long time. Most Nordic athletes are LWT but have huge engines.

I'm in the same boat....but probably slower...neither HWT or LWT....with average times. But my main competition is myself and wanting to better my previous bests. I think that's the best way to approach it....it's only training after all.

[LeManchot]

This is C2's position on weight adjustments for ski erg and bike erg:

Unlike rowing, the sports of Nordic skiing and cycling do not use weight classes for competition. We have seen that there can be a weight advantage for the SkiErg, but at this time do not have a formula available that takes into account all the dynamics of skiing indoors and outdoors.

Swift (the bike app) makes adjustments for weight using some fairly advanced calculations including aerodynamics (CdA). Here's what they have to say:

Any cyclist worth their chamois knows that body weight is a huge performance factor for riders. The more mass you have to move, the more power you have to put out to move it!

And this is true no matter what road you may ride. Sure, weight matters the most on climbs. But it’s also a factor on flats and descents.

As any cross country skier knows, the individuals that have records on the ski erg platform would not even be marginally competitive on snow even if limited to double poling - independent of duration (with possible exceptions for very short durations (<5-10s)) and "distances" (with possible exceptions for long "distances" (>10-50+km)). "Distance" on the platform is currently calculated based solely on power with no adjustment for body weight. Cross country skiing (as in cycling) comes down to watts/kg with a distant secondary effect of aerodynamics (i.e. position on skis at, particularly, high speeds (>30 km/h). The "sport" of ski erg is entirely about maximum watt generation independent of body weight and therefore is dominated firstly by muscle mass and secondly by endurance. As a result the body type of a successful "ski erger" will be megamorphs with decent VO2max. In cross country skiing, the dominant determinants of success are world-class VO2max, well-developed lactate processing, and optimized muscle mass all of which lead to efficient generation of power on snow. These athletes tend to be mesomorphs (and the rare ectomorph who happens to have an absurdly high VO2max (>90 ml/min/kg)).

I see no barrier for C2 to develop an algorithm that would take into account the "ski erger's" weight; it would just involve an investment in contracting with an expert to develop an algorithm and conduct a set of tests to ensure accuracy. I will look forward to any such improvement to the ski erg platform as, for now, the lightweights are essentially excluded from competing for records - something that is very disappointing given the fact that cross country skiing is an endurance sport utilizing optimized power generation per unit of body weight. But, then again, based on the observed population that is using the ski erg, the apparent market for the ski erg is not for cross country skiing - it's for gyms and CrossFit. The sport of cross country skiing is very small in comparison, even in Scandinavia.

[PGSport]

Yeah I agree 100% that it seems odd that they don't have a category for those of us who are lightly built. I'm not even sure why they would need to come up with some other algorithm to use for the few DP races. Just set a weight category limit and at least make it fair. Heck I've done trail racing for years and they always have a Clydesdale category in the bigger events for the larger folks. Seems pretty simple to me and an easy change that would be a crowd pleaser to those who have purchased the outstanding equipment that the Concept 2 Skierg is. R,Pat

[HornetMaX]

I wouldn't be against having HW/LW on SkiErg too. The reasoning "there's no weight in nordic skiing" looks flawed in my opinion (e.g. you do have slopes in nordic skiing ...).

On the other hand, I don't think they need any algorithm or expert: just create the two weight classes and that's enough (as they do for rowing).
If one really wants to do something more, then simple W/kg may work just fine (but you'd have to compute it yourself, with the exact weight the day you log your time ... ).

[DavidA]

Although for many people it is desirable to compete against others, the main competition should be with yourself. I think there are 2 weight classes for rowing only because they already existed for on water rowing. In cycling and skiing there aren't such divisions, as with most sports. Yes, as a short, lightweight person, I am not likely to compete with larger people, even if I was to try harder. (I am also not as likely to be as good at basketball, or football, etc.)
I think it is better to maybe just see if you can 'beat' the person next up the ranking list, rather than being at the top of the list.

DAvid

[HornetMaX]

Although for many people it is desirable to compete against others, the main competition should be with yourself. I think there are 2 weight classes for rowing only because they already existed for on water rowing. In cycling and skiing there aren't such divisions, as with most sports. Yes, as a short, lightweight person, I am not likely to compete with larger people, even if I was to try harder. (I am also not as likely to be as good at basketball, or football, etc.)
I think it is better to maybe just see if you can 'beat' the person next up the ranking list, rather than being at the top of the list.

Especially in my case, being on top of the list is clearly not the reason (nor the ambition, not even the dream), I guess we can all agree on that

Point is, in skierging weight is at least as important as in indoor rowing, maybe even more. So why weight categories in one and not the other ? And no, "nordic skiing has no weight category" doesn't sound like a reasonable answer, as already explained by others.

I also notice that if weight categories were there in skierg rankings, if one wanted to it would be easy to disregard that: like for the rowerg, you have rankings for HW, LW or "both". With the current decision (no HW/LW for skierg), we're stuck with "both".