From the early days of organised sport, competitors and coaches have looked for ways to make “marginal gains”, to help defeat their opposition. An example of this at Bedford School was when William Biffen, coach of the 1st VIII in the 1890s, interpreted the rules at Henley Royal Regatta which forbade sliding seats for boys. Biffen looked at how this rule could be overcome. “How can we get round it?” he asked. “We are not to use sliding seats, but there is nothing against sliding seatings”. So, the leather cover on the outside of the seat was well greased and the boys rowed upon seats about twelve inches long. They won the Public Schools’ event easily!
Today, rather than bending the rules, elite sport is very much led by science and data. In rowing, for many years, the data points for assessing performance have been to measure strokes per minute, 500-meter splits, distance moved per stroke, watts produced, and heart rate. A British company, Peach Innovation, has now taken this to another level and has become the leader in the field of integrating biomechanical data collection with instrumentation in the boat itself. With the help of a grant the Bedford School Foundation Trust, and guidance from Director of Rowing Pete Mulkerrins, the Boat Club has purchased the latest instrumentation and telemetry from Peach Innovation.
The new equipment gives coaches the ability to measure everything from the forces applied by individual rowers on the gates and foot stretchers, to oar angles at the entry and release, through to the number of watts a rower is able to produce. The sensors in the boat provide real time information to both the coach and members of the crew via screens, which are attached to each foot plate in the boat, and on the coach’s bicycle. The real benefits and marginal gains come when coaches and crew members can use the system to look at how the rowers can make improvements to their technique and performance, and how they can optimise the rig and equipment.
The purchase of this sophisticated equipment comes at an opportune time with the schools’ recently announced partnership with DeepDive – see more HERE.