Whether you’re an athlete or a rowing coach, your challenge is to make the boat go fast. Efficient rowing technique is key, but how do you know when your technique is actually “efficient”? To find solid answers to these questions, you need to measure your performance on the water.

What is Rowing in Motion?

Simply measuring stroke-rate and boat speed does not provide insights into the way you row – only the outcome. This is where Rowing in Motion helps you go further. It’s a smartphone based measurement system that uses a smartphone attached to the boat to measure the total force acting on the boat at any time in the form of boat acceleration. The shape of the boat acceleration graph can tell you a lot about your rowing technique and how you could row more efficiently to make the boat go faster.

An analysis created with the Rowing in Motion App shows boat speed and boat acceleration for the stroke-cycle. We can see that the purple stroke has a higher average boat speed.

 So what do I get?

At the same time, using the App remains as simple as using a stroke-watch. All the basic parameters like speed and stroke-rate are available as well and can be visualized in live graphs and metrics. Where things get interesting is that the App can record everything for later analysis and upload the data to “Analytics”, Rowing in Motion’s cloud based data analysis and archival tool. Using Analytics rowers can create analysis to track how their typical stroke pattern develops over time as they adjust their rowing technique and analyse races with automatic calculation of split times and more.

For coaches the system also has a live telemetry option that allows coaches to see data from the boat in real time. Using the App coaches can even record an automatically synchronized video analysis, a very powerful tool for analysing the effect of changes to rowing technique.

A video analysis recorded with the Rowing in Motion App shows the video synchronized with boat acceleration, speed and stroke-rate measurements.

How much does it cost?

Individuals: App €69.99 via In App Upgrade, Analytics Free
Teams: App Free, Analytics from €249.99 per year, includes live telemetry.
Where can I find out more?

Get the Rowing in Motion App here

The Rowing in Motion website has further information on the theory behind using boat acceleration to optimize the rowing stroke. You can try the rowing motion app on their website and you can also find more information about how you can optimize your stroke, using Rowing Motion here.