Increased foot-stretcher height improves rowing performance: evidence from biomechanical perspectives on water

The aim of this study was to investigate whether changes on foot-stretcher height were associated with characteristics of better rowing performance. Ten male rowers performed a 200 m rowing trial at their racing rate at each of three foot-stretcher heights. A single scull was equipped with an accele...

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Published inSports biomechanics Vol. 19; no. 2; pp. 168 - 179
Main Authors Liu, Yang, Gao, Binghong, Li, Jiru, Ma, Zuchang, Sun, Yining
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published England Routledge 03.03.2020
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Subjects
Acceleration
Adult
Athletic Performance - physiology
Biomechanical Phenomena
Biomechanics
Feet
Foot - physiology
Humans
instrumentation
Kinetics
Leg
Leg - physiology
Male
Rowing
Ships - instrumentation
Sports Equipment
technique
Water Sports - physiology
Young Adult
technique
performance
Kinetics
instrumentation
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Summary:The aim of this study was to investigate whether changes on foot-stretcher height were associated with characteristics of better rowing performance. Ten male rowers performed a 200 m rowing trial at their racing rate at each of three foot-stretcher heights. A single scull was equipped with an accelerometer to collect boat acceleration, an impeller with embedded magnets to collect boat speed, specially designed gate sensors to collect gate force and angle, and a compact string potentiometer to collect leg drive length. All sensor signals were sampled at 50 Hz. A one-way repeated measures ANOVA showed that raising foot-stretcher position had a significant reduction on total gate angle and leg drive length. However, a raised foot-stretcher position had a deeper negative peak of boat acceleration at the catch, a lower boat fluctuation, a faster leg drive speed, a larger gate force for the port and starboard side separately. This could be attributed to the optimisation of the magnitude and direction of the foot force with a raised foot-stretcher position. Although there was a significant negative influence of a raised foot-stretcher position on two kinematic variables, biomechanical evidence suggested that a raised foot-stretcher position could contribute to the improvement of rowing performance.
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ISSN:1476-3141
1752-6116
DOI:10.1080/14763141.2018.1453540