Could I have been mistaken for 30 years about how to make a rowing shell fast?

I’m currently at USRowing’s Convention, in Phoenix.

A convention, and certainly this one, is a great time to learn new things. And in this case one of those new things is a piece of info that may cause several sleepless nights for coaches, and rowers. It will for this coach.

For all my years of coaching I went by the mantra that the hull of a boat moves the fastest at the finish, after the drive is over and the blade is just being removed.

Good chance (darn good chance) that this is not so. That I was mistaken for 30 years is a real ego knock.

Why do I think I was wrong?

I spent about an hour discussing a very interesting project with the creator—Jim Mitchell of PowerView.

In essence his combination of GPS, video, accelerometer graphs out that the fastest part of the stroke may well be the catch. (I always thought it was at the release.)

This is an image of some of his results.

I’m not going to be able to explain it well here, but he has videos and info on his site.

I’m going to really suggest you go there and check it out.

And I’m going to have a sleepless night.

(Hey—this is not some affiliate deal. It is, though, something big, a great paradigm shifting piece of info that could really make a difference to your rowing.)

(Let me know what you think!)