'We are horrified to hear...'

Australian “Ergometer” from the 1960s – from the section “The Development of Rowing Equipment” on the website Friends of Rowing History.

You probably know that rowing machines have been around for more than 130 years. But do you know when the ''ergometer' arrived on the scene, in the sense of a tool which could measure rowers' power? In an old copy of the British magazine Rowing, its editor, Major E. A. E. Howell, wrote in the issue Vol.1 No. 3 February 1950 in a very English way:

'From Australia we are horrified to hear that professor Frank Cotton, The professor at Sydney University, has produced a specially designed rowing machine called Ergometer.

'On this machine he tested over 200 athletes. From among these he selected four “Guniea Pigs” to train as a crew. This crew averages only a mere 14 stone 8 lbs [92.5 kg]. They use oars a foot longer and blades “several inches” deeper than standard. Although they had not rowed together before last April, this Lichhardt [sic – referring to Leichhardt Rowing Club!] crew has won nine out of eleven races in its first season. It was only defeated for selection to compete in the Empire Games by a four established repute by a very narrow margin. We suppose this is all very efficient but to reduce sportsmen to the inhuman level of automatons, selected on scientific physical assessments, is, to our eyes, the negation of the ideals of a fine sport.'

How wrong he was, Major Howell.....

Row Correctly on the Erg

I am now regularly back on the erg to minimize the 'bathing ring' I have around my waist (where did it come from?). I normally do these workouts at the local YMCA which recently got brand new rowing machines. I am not at all an expert on rowing on the erg, but it hurts to see my fellow, non-rowers at the Y massacre themselves and the rowing machines by going back and forth just pulling and pulling on the handle, with their knees bent or straight at the wrong time in the rowing cycle. I want to call out: 'Hold on, Sir/Madam, but please stop before you really hurt yourself' - but, of course, I say nothing.

Above is a great step-by-step rowing the erg video with coach Lubo Kisiov of Thames Rowing Club which will help both beginners and more advanced rowers to row correctly on the erg. Good luck!

Euro Open - Indoor Rowing Championship 2013

On 26-27 January, the ‘Euro Open’, the European Indoor Rowing Championship, will be held in Essen-Kettwig, Germany. This is the second time the Euro Open is organised in Kettwig, which is a suburb to Essen. The organisers write on FISA’s World Rowing website: ‘The event will take place in the coliseum of THG School, which has been the venue of Germany’s number one indoor rowing event, the “NWRV Indoor-Cup”, for many years now.’ They continue to say, ‘Besides this very special sports event there are more reasons to come to this town in the Ruhr Area (“Ruhrgebiet”), wich has a large cultural diversity and is well worth a visit.’

To get more information about this competition, culture programmes, accommodations and information for spectators, etc, please click here.

Ergs don’t Float, unless they’re made of Wood!

Greg Denieffe writes from England,

In the November/December 2012 issue of Rowing & Regatta (the official magazine of British Rowing) there is an excellent article about ergometer evolution called “Magnificent men in their rowing machines...” It is a brief history of the rowing machine from 1871 when the first patent was filed by W. B. Curtis right up to the modern ergometers in use today. The article mentions that “rowing machines were used in the rehabilitation of soldiers wounded in the First World War”. This can be seen in a short British Pathé video showing "Queen Mary Opening the New Albert Dock Hospital".

The article was written by a friend and old crewmate of mine, the indomitable Jim Flood. Jim is a British Rowing and FISA Coach Educator and is author of Know the Game: Rowing and co-authored with Dr. Charlie Simpson of The Complete Guide to Indoor Rowing. He has also written three free e-books, The ergonomics of rowing , Balance and Coaching achieving the best results possible. These are all available on the Rowperfect website.

I know Jim from his time in Milton Keynes when he worked for the The Open University and rowed with me at Milton Keynes Rowing Club. One of our most memorable races was the 31 mile Boston (Lincolnshire, England) Marathon in 2002 which we completed in 3 hours, 59 minutes and 50 seconds (ten seconds can be very important!).

Boston Marathon 15 September, 2002, Jim (bow) & the MKRC Vet C 4+ (the article writer in 2 seat).

Jim has recently returned from Alexandria, Egypt, where he was running coaching clinics at the African Rowing Championships. Development of rowing in poorer countries is very close to Jim’s heart and perhaps this is something that should concern us all, as it is FISA’s (World Rowing) inclusivity policy that is keeping rowing on the Olympic programme.

Another programme that Jim has developed is ‘Openergo’ which is a project to develop a low-cost rowing machine which can be made using basic DIY skills for a cost of £25/$40. The Openergo website has all the details and a short video showing a wooden frame prototype in use. There is also an angle iron frame version and a longer video here on which Jim provides commentary.

Not A Pretty Language

Some years back, the newspaper The New York Times stopped reporting about rowing regattas, not even the Yale-Harvard Regatta gets a couple of lines these days. It's really a pity. However, the other Sunday, the newspaper's magazine had a grand photograph of some eights and a text about the pain that the rowers suffer when they are racing. And then there was a little piece about Title IX, and crewing and erging - and comments on it all. I'm not going to repeat my thoughts about all to common use of 'doing crew' and 'doing erg', or 'erging' - it's not a pretty language... but here is the article.

Row And Be Happy!

To continue where we left off on Sunday, when HTBS posted a piece about the article in the ESPN Magazine on the Yale women and Title IX: another magazine also has a piece about rowing this month. It is the men’s fashion and lifestyle magazine Details, which is writing that rowing is the new spinning. Time to dust off the rowing machines (you know, what rowers call ergs), which are standing in the corners of the gyms, get your buttocks down on the seat (your ‘butt’ if you are in America) and start pulling. No, no, no, wait….

Now, when rowing on a machine (I would like to point out that I am not writing ‘erging’) is in a lifestyle American magazine and sort of moved into high-class, expensive gyms you have to take a special class from a ‘rowing instructor’ who will tell you, not so much about the right technique on the machine, but instead how happy you should be getting rid of all those extra calories. You will get the hang of it in the following video:



I cannot really remember my rowing coach ever looking that excited when we boys were laboring on the machines at my Swedish club...

Back to the magazine Details, the article gives you the addresses to some high-class gyms in Los Angeles, Hoboken (New Jersey), Chicago, Boston (Equinox has gyms all over the place), Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Austin. It also describes the right rowing technique in quick three-step notes. If you would like to join a rowing club or programme, the magazine also lists six clubs in Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Los Angeles, New York City, and Philadelphia. (Although, one minus in my book is that the publication is calling rowing ‘crew’ and shows a fellow resting in a single scull.) But if you would like to do it on your own Details actually has some good useful tips from Bill Manning, associate head coach at Harvard. (One big plus in my book for that.)

Sorry, I cannot find the article in Details on the magazine's website. It might show up later, who knows...?

More About Chamber Rowing

After the two last days' posts about rowing machines, rowing barges, rowing tanks, and 'dry' tank rowing, I would like to wrap up the subject for this time with some images of old rowing machines. The two machines above are from the same 1887 Swedish sport book as featured in the Thursday post. The very simple machine on the very top has no 'oars' just rubber straps to pull on. According to the text in the book that machine was constructed 'a couple of decades ago by an American oarsman' [my translation]. The other image is showing an improved version of the older one by attaching the rubber straps to two sculls, much like the ones shown in Tim Koch's Thursday post. A funny note regrading rowing on rowing machines, in the Swedish book, this is called 'Kammarrodd', that is, 'Chamber Rowing'.

At the NRF's National Rowing Hall of Fame in Mystic there are some old rowing machines, all but one stored away. The picture above shows a machine that earlier was on display in the lobby of the 'Hall' but as visitors tended to try it out, it constantly broke. It is now in storage, where I took these photographs. As you can see, it lacks the rubber or elastic straps, instead the resistance is in the 'rowlocks' - see also the picture just below. (Yes, if you are wondering, the sliding seat in the picture above is the wrong way...)

In the close-up picture above, one can clearly see that the patent for this machine by Philip S Medart is 22 September 1914. Rowing historian Bill Miller has information about this patent in his article "Rowing Equipment Patents (U.S.)" mentioned in yesterday's post. If you like more details about this particular patent, please click here (it will give you a pdf file).

The apparatus in the picture above is now on display in the 'Hall' in Mystic. It would be bolted in the floor of a gym, and beside it would be a sliding seat on tracks that would almost go as far as the length of the gym, having almost an endless row of oarsmen rowing back and forth while the coach could easily give each and everyone instruction. The picture below shows a close-up of the 'rowlock'.

Dry Tank Rowing

(Photograph from Rowing Innovations)

I found yesterday's entry about 'land rowing' by Tim Koch fascinating. It reminded me of an article and ad I had seen in the current (December 2011, Vol. 18, Issue 10) issue of Rowing News about a fairly new innovation called Swingulator Dry-Tank Rowing Simulator. This product is the brain child of Rick Kelliher, rowing coach at the University of Vermont. The idea is that for those rowing teams which can not afford to buy or have the space for a rowing tank, the Swingulator is a simpler and cheaper solution, Rowing News writes. The machine costs around $20,000 for an 'eight', but is bought by the 'pairs'. For more information, go to Rowing Innovations.

Here is a little film clip showing a crew rowing the machine:



Of course, anyone aware of the rich history of the sport of rowing knows that any 'new innovation' has very likely been patented many decades ago, rowing historian Bill Miller writes in an article, "Rowing Equipment Patents (U.S.)".

Tim Koch On Land Rowing

Above an illustration from an 1887 Swedish sport book showing a ‘newer’ rowing machine.

In a comment from an earlier HTBS entry on 27 November, Tim Koch writes,

The recent HTBS story showing a 1912 picture of the rowing machine on the Titanic illustrates that the ‘indoor rower’ is not a new idea. It has its own Wikipedia entry which says:

“Early rowing machines are known to have existed from the mid 1800’s, a US patent being issued to WB Curtis in 1872 for a particular hydraulic based damper design. Machines using linear pneumatic resistance existed around 1900, but they did not simulate actual rowing very accurately, or measure power output.

“In the 1950s and 1960s, coaches in many countries began using specially made rowing machines for training and improved power measurement. One such design was a large, heavy, solid iron flywheel with a mechanical friction break using leather straps […] These machines were capable of setting friction according to a rower’s weight to give an accurate appraisal of boat-moving ability […]

“In the 1970s the Gjessing-Nilson ergometer from Norway, used a friction brake mechanism with industrial strapping applied over the broad rim of the flywheel […] This machine was for many years the internationally accepted standard for measurement.

The first air resistance ergometers were introduced around 1980 […] The Concept 2 ergometer was introduced in 1981 by the Dreissigacker brothers. This machine’s capability of accurate measurement combined with easy transportability spawned the sport of competitive indoor rowing, and revolutionised training for watercraft rowing.”

An early advertisement was for ‘Vigor’s Home Rower’. It appeared in an 1896 edition of Black and White magazine. From the picture it is not clear how it works and I do not know if it really was a cure for ‘asthma, weak lungs, nervousness and constitutional weakness’. It was, however, endorsed by The Emperor of Germany and, more interestingly for us, Lord Ampthill (on the right), a multiple University Boat Race and Henley winner.

A great example of an early (and quite effective looking) rowing machine appeared in the 1986 film, The Boy in Blue (staring a very young and very ‘buff’ Nicolas Cage) loosely based on the life of Canadian world champion sculler, Ned Hanlan . The ‘Tideway Slug’ has the story of the film here and also a picture of the wonderful ‘P. Collins Rowing and Exercise Machine’. A Nicolas Cage fan site has this nice clip of it in action. Was this machine based on a real indoor/outdoor rower or was it (as I suspect) an invention of the film makers? If anyone knows, please tell me.

One of the most popular late nineteenth/early twentieth century rowing machines was produced by Spalding of the United States. Above is a lovely example which is for sale here.

The resistance is provided by a chain around cogs. I presume that the resistance of the cogs could be increased to vary the work in the drive phase and that there would be some sort of ratchet system to allow a smooth recovery.

The above 1910 picture of Columbia University oarsmen seems to use the same cog and chain system but, as it is a rowing action and not a sculling one, it is placed to the left or right of the rower. A British Path newsreel shows that these were still in use in 1924. Perhaps they were all made by Spalding?

OXFORD TAKE NOTE FOR THE NEXT YEAR

As Wikipedia says of early rowing machines, ‘they did not simulate actual rowing very accurately’. The two main problems were that the resistance was often not constant through the drive phase and that there was no simulation of the ‘run’ of the boat on the recovery.

It is strange that the relatively simple system of ‘air resistance’ that we use today (notably on the Concept machine) was not commonplace from the start. The Concept 2 website shows the evolution of their machine, though the basic design remained the same until the introduction of the ‘Dynamic’ a year ago. Constant air resistance provides the closest feeling to pulling (or, more correctly, pushing) an oar through water, and is superior to any spring, hydraulic, liquid, weight or friction based resistance method. Also, the constantly spinning heavy flywheel simulates the run of the boat and the feeling of ‘picking up’ a moving shell at the catch. Modern electronics now makes the whole thing infinitely measurable.

Before the dominance of the Concept 2 ergo, the closest to the feel of ‘real’ rowing that was obtainable on land was in the ‘tank’. Americans seemed to have led the way in innovative tank design as evidenced by this 1933 newsreel.

AN INDOOR RIVER!

A simple internet search reinforces my impression that tanks are still more popular in the United States than in Britain where they are increasingly converted to gyms and ergo rooms. A form of ‘floating tank’ used at Oxford can be seen here.



The film gives the idea that the ‘Octolog’ was an innovative British idea but they existed in the US in the 1930s and, I think, continue in use today.

Few would hesitate to say that the modern ‘ergo’ has produced the greatest change in training and testing methods that the sport has seen since the work of Steve Fairbairn in the inter War years.

It must be remembered however, that, as the Wikipedia entry on ‘indoor rowers’ states: “Results of (ergometer) tests are an objective measure of an athlete's fitness; however, weight, technique and team coordination also impact performance in a boat, thus assembling a crew based purely on erg scores is not an optimal strategy.”

Said another way (and a particularly popular view from those of us who never got below 7.30 on their 2k tests), ‘Put an ergo on the water and it sinks’.

The Erg!

Let's face it, it's time to get ready for indoor activities, unless you are lucky enough to be able to go for an outing in the middle of the day (I am not that lucky!). I think the above little video clip will help you whether you are a novice or if you have been on the rowing machine, the erg, for years. Good Luck!

Dying By The Erg

One of the rowing blogs I enjoy reading is Bryan Kitch's Rowing Related (you will find a link to his blog on the right). On Sunday, Kitch posted an interesting piece about why rowers fear the erg. It's a good question.

Some weeks ago, I decided to more regularly do some work-outs at a gym (well, the YMCA in town). To be really honest, it was the 'fenders' around my waist that were bothering me. Being an old rower, of course, I knew that the erg is an excellent tool to become fit. But I hesitated, wasn't it terribly boring to sit there on my rear end going back-and-forth? Well, I decided to have a go. After the first 5 minutes on the erg, it felt like I was going to die, after 15 minutes, I thought I was going to throw up (or was it the other way around?). When I finished my 30-minute piece, I was certain that my heart would stop any second, if not, could someone just kill me there and then, please? (I remember thinking about my wonderful children who would be fatherless at young ages, and my dear wife, did she understand the real value of my rowing book collection?)

Despite my ordeal, I was back on the erg after some days, to do it again, thinking, that I was going to die there on the floor, beside the erg. However, this was now some weeks ago, and I am doing much better on the erg, thank you very much. Now, I am actually longing to be on the erg to pull some good scores (well, for me, that is). And, another thing, I have by now, told my wife the value of my rowing books, just in case...