SpeedCoach XL Additional Information

1. How Moving Water Affects Your SpeedCoach XL
2. FAQ's About Calibration
3. Racing Tricks with your SpeedCoach XL
4. Seat Racing with your SpeedCoach XL
5. Training with the Speed Coach XL (Yaz Farooq)

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How Moving Water Affects Your SpeedCoach XL

A common misconception of the SpeedCoach XL system is that the measurements will be affected by moving water. Actually, the SpeedCoach XL meter was designed so that it is completely unaffected by currents and tides. Understanding this can help you train more effectively.

Let's start with a basic analogy for rowing on moving water. Imagine using the moving walkway between terminals at an airport. Before getting on the walkway, assume you are walking at a speed of 3 mph. When you hop on the walkway, you continue to walk at 3 mph, but the walkway adds another 2 mph. To the observer standing at a gate, it looks like you are traveling at 5 mph. If you were training for the Airport Terminal Olympics, you would want to know your walking speed of 3 mph, not the observed 5 mph.

Now imagine that you've arrived at your gate, only to find that the gate for your flight has been changed. You get back on the same moving walkway, but this time walking in the opposite direction. You continue to walk at 3 mph on the walkway, which is moving at 2 mph in the other direction. But to the observer standing the gate, you are moving 1 mph. (In fact, he thinks about calling security.)

The speed that is most important to your rowing is the same as the 3 mph walking speed. Likewise, you want to know how fast your boat is moving through the water, NOT how fast your boat is moving compared to land. It doesn't matter if your boat is traveling upstream or downstream, your speed through the water will be the same (assuming the pressure is the same).

Let's use an example of two 1000 meter pieces on a racecourse, one upstream and one downstream. You finish the downstream piece in 3:30, drink some water, and get a couple minutes of rest. Now you turn around do the upriver piece in 3:52. We all know that you can't compare the times for these pieces, because one was downstream and one was upstream. The SpeedCoach XL meter, however, would have displayed the same speed in either direction.

There is a huge benefit to using a speedometer when training. If you use the distance measured by the SpeedCoach XL meter, as opposed to the land marked distance, you can compare pieces in either direction. Furthermore, you can compare pieces from day to day, even if the current or tide has changed! Please note that the wind WILL affect the measured speed. This is a much different phenomenon than moving water, because the wind is actually pushing against the boat. Sorry. But we are working on that. (No, not really.)

One more way to think about this is to imagine rowing upstream at exactly the same speed as the current. Your boat will appear to be standing still to the person on shore, even though you're working pretty hard to keep your boat from moving backwards. Fortunately, the SpeedCoach XL meter will continue to show your boat speed and count off the meters rowed through the water. (By the way, a GPS would indicate no speed and no distance. It has no idea if you are on land, water, or a moving walkway at the airport.)

FAQ's About Calibration

There are many misconceptions surrounding calibration when it comes to using a SpeedCoach XL. Here is some background information that will hopefully help you set up your SpeedCoach XL for your individual needs.

All SpeedCoach XLes (Red, Gold and XL) have a "calibration" value that helps the unit compensate for different impeller locations and to perform accurately on that particular boat. All boats are shaped differently and hull integrity can be jeopardized due to damage. Additionally, due to sealed bulkheads and the boat's internal structure, sometimes it is impossible to mount the impeller & blue speed sensor exactly 5 meters from the bow. To compensate for these inconsistencies from boat to boat, you can adjust your SpeedCoach XL's calibration value to reflect your particular boat.

This individual calibration is NOT necessary for the SpeedCoach XL to be a useful training tool. When the impeller is mounted 5 meters (16' 3") from the bow, the factory calibration value of 1.000 will provide readings that are very close to accurate. And even if your unit is not calibrated, you will always see relative changes in boat speed.

For example, if Monday your average split was 1:57 and Tuesday your average split is 1:55, then you are going faster on Tuesday than you were on Monday. Additionally, if you are using the SpeedCoach XL to seat race athletes, and the average speed for the lineup with Joe is 1:45, and the average speed for the lineup with Sam is 1:42, then Sam's lineup is moving the boat faster.

So why calibrate? Many teams use the SpeedCoach XL to monitor their speed based on a time standard that they are trying to achieve. The SpeedCoach XL reading absolutely accurately is important in this instance, and calibration would be an extra step to ensure this.

For example, if your crew is preparing for their championship race and you know that typically, crews that advance to the final go around/under 8:00, then you can build a powerful training plan based on knowing that you need to average a 2:00 per 500 meter split. You can build in target splits for pretty much every workout all season, and by gauging your daily progress compared to the targets, you'll be able to anticipate how your crew will stack up on race day.

Whether to calibrate your unit or just go with the factory calibration of 1.000 is an individual decision based on your training needs. If you decide that you want to calibrate your SpeedCoach XL, the formula is at the end of this post. (The SpeedCoach XL XL's feature a nifty calibration routine that steps you through the process and does the math for you.)

A few parting notes: * Calibration is boat and impeller location specific. If the unit is moved to a new boat, or the location of the impeller is modified, it is recommended that the unit be recalibrated.

* If you are in a team setting with mulitple boats and SpeedCoach XLes, if you are going to calibrate, try to keep the same unit with the same boat. This way, you won't need to change the calibration value on the SpeedCoach XL unit every day. Additionally, once you calibrate a unit to a particular boat, consider marking the impeller location with permanent marker and jotting down the calibration value somewhere on the boat so it's easy to remember.

* It is recommended that regardless of whether you plan to calibrate or not, the impeller should be placed as close to 5 meters from the bow as possible. Every boat has a turbulent boundary layer of water underneath the shell, and as you move to the stern, the layer gets larger. Placing the impeller closer to the stern increases the chance that the water will be too turbulent for the impeller to spin consistently. NK has wiring harnesses for every size boat so that the blue speed sensor can be mounted 5 meters from the bow.

* 5 meters from the bow may seem like a random number, but on most singles, that's typically an accessible area. In most sweep boats, that's typically right around 2 seat, also an easily accessible area.

Calibration Routine To calibrate the SpeedCoach XL, row over a measured distance on still water (on flowing water, row both up and down stream and average the results shown on the display). Then, use the following formula to obtain the new calibration value:

(Old Cal Value) (True Distance)/Displayed Distance= New Cal Value

For example, if the known rowed distance is 1 mile, but the display shows 0.92, the calibration value would be: (1.00) (1.00)/0.92 = 1.086

Racing Tricks with your SpeedCoach XL

Here are some tips for getting the most out of your boat using your SpeedCoach XL System.

Having trouble finding the right cadence? Finding the most effective start and sprint is often a difficult process. Simply rowing at the highest rate possible does not guarantee the fastest boat speed. Knowing your boat speed can help you find your most effective rates during these critical parts of the race.

For example, try the following 40-stroke sprint workout: Build to base rating and hold for ten strokes. Increase the rate by 2 beats every ten strokes while taking note of the splits on the SpeedCoach XL monitor. Make sure that the splits go down for every shift up in rate. The point at which the splits stop going down is probably your highest effective stroke rate.

This same type of workout can be applied to the start and settle strokes, too. Sometimes the most efficient base cadence is really a beat or two lower than you think!

Do you row on a river or tidal area? A SpeedCoach XL can make sure you are training for the right distance. Tides and current can change your practice conditions on a daily basis. Even within different lanes on a race course, the water speed can differ greatly. One day it could take you 6:30 to do 2k, and the next day it could take 7:00. If you use a SpeedCoach XL, the distance is not influenced by the moving water. It ONLY measures the distance that your boat has traveled through the water. This is why the distance on a SpeedCoach XL doesn't always match up with the land distance on a marked course.

Knowing that you are training for the same distance every day with a SpeedCoach XL can add a element of consistency that is difficult to achieve with many river and tidal bodies of water.

Racing on any new, unfamiliar or unmarked race courses? Knowing exactly where you are during the race is often a guessing game. Not with your SpeedCoach XL meter. Set up your unit so that it reads your pace (/500) and distance (m). Put the unit in STOP mode. When set at the starting line, take the unit out of STOP mode. While most people use landmarks for the 500, 1000, & 1500 meter lines, you will have an exact measurement showing you these points (provided your course is well measured and your SpeedCoach XL is calibrated). You will know right where to make your moves and how far you have to go.

What about impeller drag? The question of drag often times comes up when looking at the pros and cons of racing with a SpeedCoach XL. When the SpeedCoach XL impeller was being developed, laboratory tests were performed in a tow tank to determine drag effects. They found that for a single shell, the impeller drag was less than 1% of the total drag of the boat, and proportionately smaller for larger boats. Simply put, over a 2000m race, it adds less than 0.5 second.

While plenty of races are won and lost by smaller margins than that, consider the additional information that a SpeedCoach XL can provide during a race. Ultimately, each racer needs to decide for themselves if the pros outweigh the cons. One way to look at it is to imagine doing a 2k-erg piece with no monitor - racing with a SpeedCoach XL gives you the same information that the monitor gives you on the erg.

Seat Racing with your SpeedCoach XL

Now that it's early spring, erg rooms grow quieter and more boats head out on the water. Everyone's pulled their test pieces and rowers have established themselves at the head of the pack. But wait, ergs don't float! Right? How do you know your top dog on the erg isn't dead weight in the boat? And what about the one who rows with the best of them, but struggles on the erg? Who's going to make the boat? There are many philosophies on how to seat race, and what ever works for you is great. Here's another option.

Most people believe the SpeedCoach XL system is designed for smaller boats, like singles and doubles. But in fact, it can also be very effective in larger team boats. Let's say you have an eight to fill. You start with your top eight erg scores. Here's a ninth that is a very steady rower and shows some real improvement. They deserve a shot at the boat. Instead of breaking into fours to seat race, send your normal eight out with a SpeedCoach XL system and switch one rower during practice. For example, run a series of minute pieces, building the rate up each minute to race pace. Note the average boat speed for each piece. Now switch rowers. Repeat this series and again note the boat speed. Immediately, you will have numerical feedback as to their effectiveness in the boat. Simply put: if the split ain't lower - the boat ain't goin' faster.

You can even perform long-term seat racing by comparing lineups over several days. Just have your coxswains record the average speed during either steady state or pieces. Then run a similar workout with a different lineup to see if the boat speed increases or decreases. This allows the rowers enough time to get comfortable in their lineup, as opposed to switching boats every 1000 meters. It also won't take long before your coxswains start to get a feeling for typical boat speed for a given workout.

This type of racing is ideal for smaller programs with barely enough rowers to fill an eight. These programs don't have the luxury of racing a fleet of fours to find boat movers. Instead, just switch one rower at a time and check the boat speed. Mixing the lineup with the same eight rowers may also uncover a faster lineup. However, without knowing their boat speed, it's difficult to quickly find the best lineup.

Keep in mind that changes in current will NOT affect the measured speed, but wind and fatigue should be taken into account. In a future article, we'll discuss why water current will not affect your speed measurements.

Training with the Speed Coach XL (Yaz Farooq)

SpeedCoach XL - Ten years ago, Nielsen-Kellerman introduced its first speed computer, aptly named the "PaceCoach." I was the cox for the U.S. women's eight under head coach Hartmut Buschacher, and NK generously sent us a unit to use for training. We embraced it immediately. For the first time, coxswains and rowers were able to see their 500m splits instantaneously. The PaceCoach also gave speed in meters per second, stroke rate, distance traveled, and you could program the unit for timed and distance pieces. Because the technology was so new to the rowing world, USRowing asked me to write an article for American Rowing magazine. We named it, "Demystifying the Pace Coach", and it detailed how coaches and teams could truly use the unit to optimize training.

Now, a decade later, NK continues to show why they are the leaders in developing on-the-water rowing feedback equipment. When they asked me to test-drive the new Speed Coach XL and write a piece on how to make the most of it, of course I couldn't resist. A lot has changed since the introduction of the PaceCoach-most significantly the XL's ability to transmit the speed readings from the in-shell unit to the coach's motorboat. No longer does the coach have to rely on asking a cox to shout out readings during a piece, or have to wait until after the piece to find out the split average from the rowers.

Install it and GO!

As soon as the XL wiring and impeller are installed you can slide the XL unit onto its mount and immediately start watching your splits. If you have one in your coaching launch, go ahead and turn on the "radio" feature and experience transmitting your splits from "boat" to "coach" in real time from as far as 400 meters away. Your coach will see the exact same data you're seeing: splits, meters, time, stroke rate, even heart rate if you're using the heart rate monitor feature. Some rowers and teams will be content with this and go no further. My advice: Don't stop there!

The unit is so easy to use that all of us who test drove it did so without receiving instructions. The menu is virtually self-explanatory. A few things I'd advise you to check out and take advantage of:

Go ahead and name your unit something "speedy," and plug in the "Group Name" & "Private ID." This allows your coach to know which boat he or she is monitoring, and also ensures that no one else can intercept your readings. Notice that the "time of day" is displayed in the lower right hand corner. If you're at a regatta, plug in "regatta time." And it even has military time for those international races. No worries about getting to the starting line on time now!

Really Using the Features

Now that you've got all of this instantaneous feedback, how do you use it? Odds are you bought this unit because you're on a competitive team and/or you want to truly monitor your training program. That's exactly why we embraced the XL's predecessors on the National Team. Here are a few ways to truly use the SpeedCoach XL's information:

Steady State/Aerobic Base training: Back in my day, we would actively use the "pace" reading with the goal of maintaining a certain split range for the entire workout. I'll use some of these examples as we monitored everything that we did. Our split goal for 4 x 20 minutes at stroke rate 20 was 1:50-1:52 (/500). With the XL, the heart rate feature is very handy for this workout. A typical heart rate for most of our rowers was 140-148. But if someone's heart rate was soaring by the end of the workout, we knew that they were either working too hard to maintain the target, or maybe they were feeling under the weather. Now with the XL, the coach can monitor pace, distance traveled, elapsed time and heart rate simultaneously and LIVE.*

Technique evaluation: With instantaneous feedback literally at the coach's fingertips throughout the workout--the XL seriously advances how a coach can implement technical improvements. Now when a coach is giving the crew instructions on things to change-like quicker leg drive at the catch, unified body swing timing, or even just cleaning up the finishes-s/he can see how it affects the speed immediately. A really cool thing to witness is how a technical improvement by ONE person in an eight can often improve the splits a couple of seconds.

Race Level: The things you can do here are pretty amazing. Because the unit is so versatile, you can do racing pieces and interval work using meters, strokes, and/or time. You can even combine all of those measurements in one workout. For a race prep workout of 4 x 500m, for example, I can actually program in 30 minutes for warm-up. Then I'll plug in 500m, 5 minutes rest, and "loop" it four times. Last, I'll add a 20 minute cool down. Because I can input all of these items in ONE workout, it's a great training tool for coxswains for warm-up management and sticking to the workout plan. Meanwhile, when I am coaching I can see all of the readings from the launch, so I know exactly how the cox is doing as the workout progresses, and I can give him/her feedback to stay on top of it.

Note: Your unit comes with five pre-programmed workouts. Try them out to get a feeling for all of the different kinds of pieces you can monitor and execute with the XL.

Other Uses

Rigging evaluation: Trying to decide if you should load those oars up another centimeter? Maybe next season's crew averages 10 pounds lighter and is significantly shorter. Use the XL to determine the optimal rigging set-up and corresponding stroke rate target for your crew.

Multiple Boats: How cool that a coach can monitor up to nine boats at a time. I can't even think of a national team coach that needs more than that!

Seat Racing: If you pre-program seat racing pieces into the workout menu, the XL can manage the pieces (ensuring that the rest time is equal) and provide feedback for the actual pieces themselves. Again, you can use any or all of the options for pieces: distance, time and strokes.

Memory/Software: Did anyone say, "Training Log?" The XL showcases its flexibility again in the memory portion of the "Just Row" menu. You can set the unit to record in "distance," "time" or "strokes." For a 2k piece, I'd likely use "distance" intervals of "100m." Paging through 100m at a time would give me a ton of info: how well we started, how the splits adjusted as we stepped down to race pace, how well we sustained our speed, and how well we pushed for the line. For long steady state rows, "time" might be a better option. There, my crew might want to see the splits every few minutes, again with the goal of maintaining a steady speed and stroke rate. But say in another practice we're working specifically on starts-really trying to analyze how effective our first 10 strokes are. Now I'd set it to "strokes" with intervals of "1 stroke." We might then do a series of 10 stroke starts, focusing on different things for each one. Then we could page back through the splits and compare them.

The SpeedCoach XL software, when released, will work identically to the current Speed Coach Gold software. Over the years, the coaches I've worked with have found the software to be incredibly helpful. Not only can you print out entire workouts instantaneously, but now you'll have a detailed and accurate log that includes speed/pace readings, stroke rate, heart rate, elapsed time, etc.

Side Notes: Remember that wind and waves are factors in boat speed. In a headwind speed and pace splits will be slower. Conversely, they'll be faster in a tailwind up to a point. And of course, if the water is rough, you're typically going to go slower. Take all of these into account when setting split/speed goals for workouts.

When doing interval work, or any short race level pieces where you want to compare them to one another: make sure that your boat is up to speed by the beginning of the piece. This way, your comparisons will be accurate.

Final Words of Advice: Use the SpeedCoach XL and your brain simultaneously. Don't become so reliant on the SpeedCoach XL readings alone that you fail to feel how you're moving the boat. You can pull great splits, and still may not be rowing a sustainable rhythm. True speed is a combination of effective technique and intelligently applied power. The SpeedCoach XL is designed to give you direct and immediate feedback as to how far you are propelling the boat, stroke rate, and elapsed time. Your head is attached to your body to remind you of common sense things. For example, if you use split targets for racing, make sure the conditions fit your targets. And of course, if you're pulling the pre-planned split in a race and find that you're still behind "Team X" you'll still have to strategize how to move past them if you want to win! Enjoy your SpeedCoach XL. If you embrace it, you'll not only use it, you'll love it. And with the ability to continuously upgrade the unit you currently own, it will only keep getting better.

Good Luck and Good Speed!

Yasmin "Yaz" Farooq has been involved in coxing and coaching for over 20 years. As the coxswain for the US National Team Women's Eight from 1989-1996, she competed in the 1992 and 1996 Olympic Games. Now, as a coxswain coach for high school and collegiate coxswains and coaches, Yaz works with individuals and programs. She also races actively on the masters circuit and coxes and coaches for the Oregon Association of Rowers masters in Eugene, Oregon. Yaz served as color commentator for NBC's telecasts of the Sydney and Athens Olympics.