The Rowing Agenda

There is a way to measure the power of a moving boat per stroke and it is the Nielson Kellerman Speed Coach.



This little monitor works with an impeller to give a time split (just like on the erg) and stroke rate. And impeller is situated near the bow end of the shell on the underside and has a small wheel. The faster a shell moves through the water, the faster the wheel will spin. There is a magnet and wiring situated near the spinning wheel to register its rotation. The magnet and wiring will translate to numbers on the Speed Coach monitor. With better and more expensive models, you could get more readings but I'll keep to the basic functions. So technically, this is a cox box monitor and erg monitor-in-one. Awesome right?

A problem with this, especially for not-so-wealthy crews is price and value. These little tools cost $170+ depending on the model. The question is: Is this actually worth it?

As of now, I can only think of two arguments for investing in a Speed Coach. First, you can quantify more precisely how far a shell has travelled in the water and the power of the crew. Due to water current, the distance a crew actually rows is not the same as the distance marked from the land. The impeller measures time split and distance without being biased by water current. And about the power, imagine ergging without a monitor. How hard would you now pull?

The second argument is that it can actually help with determining where the crew's strengths and weaknesses are. When the cox can see exactly where the power is dying, the crew and coach can correlate what was done wrong at that moment in the row. Yet another powerful advantage of quantifying things.

But in terms of crew lineup selections, I still do not see good arguments for it (correct me if I'm wrong). The Speed Coach does not override the common method of switching lineups and having head-to-head races. It can make a given crew faster, but I still do not see how it can show you the best crew in a unique fashion (again correct me if I'm wrong).

So, I suggest the NK Speed Coach is a great investment if you are a small crew with, say, one boat or you are a crew that is confident with the lineups and want to find a way to improve your shell lineups. But, for purposes of lineup selection, I can see little value in this investment and so it would not be worth it for this purpose.