A novel measure to quantify technical ability in on-water rowing.

Area of Science:

• Sports Science
• Biomechanics
• Performance Analysis

Background:

• Assessing technical ability in rowing is complex, influenced by physiological and environmental variables.
• Existing performance metrics often fail to isolate the impact of technique from external factors.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a novel measure, "on-water delta," for quantifying technical proficiency in on-water rowing.
• To establish a method for differentiating technical performance from physiological capacity and environmental conditions.

Main Methods:

• Collected maximal 2000m ergometer and on-water rowing data from 162 elite athletes over 16 years.
• Utilized a linear mixed model to predict on-water performance based on ergometer data, incorporating environmental factors.
• Calculated "on-water delta" as the discrepancy between predicted and actual on-water performance.

Main Results:

• The linear mixed model demonstrated significant predictive power for ergometer performance on on-water results.
• Random effects for year indicated variability in environmental influences, ranging from -15.43s to 47.98s.
• "On-water delta" values varied widely, from -32.8s (faster than predicted) to 51.1s (slower).

Conclusions:

• "On-water delta" serves as a robust, novel dependent variable for assessing rowing technical ability.
• The developed modeling approach provides a framework for population-specific quantification of technical skill in rowing.
• This study offers valuable contextual data on "on-water delta" from a large cohort of high-level rowers.