Olympic Feature - High Performance Rowing – technology, physiology and talent identification

Being a High Performance Manager
What does a High Performance Director do at an Olympic Games? “Virtually nothing,” says Australia’s High Performance Director, Andrew Matherson, “And that’s good, that’s the way I had planned it to be. If I’m running around flat out I’ve done something wrong.”

However, for the remaining three years and 51 weeks in between each Olympic Games, there is a lot to do. From crew and coaching selection and talent identification, to equipment innovation and athlete management, a high performance team leaves no stone unturned in fine tuning their athletes to allow them to produce that winning race.

Talent identification
Talent identification is the seeking out and selection of people who have the right physiology and psychology to be a successful international athlete. But what is “talent”? Broadly speaking, most coaches would prefer a tall athlete, with long arms and a big aerobic engine, which corresponds with the results of a survey conducted in Sydney in 2000 which analysed which type of athletes were most likely to win medals.

However, talent identification is an art, not a science. “There are always outliers … look at the New Zealand men’s double, you wouldn’t say they are classically talent identification, but they are hellishly quick.” Sweden’s Frida Svensson and Denmark’s Rasmus Quist who are relatively short, and the Czech Republic’s Mirka Knapkova who is very light for a rower in amongst a field of traditionally taller and heavier athletes. Classic channels of progression into a national team, such as through university, school or local clubs, will always be an important way to find outstanding athletes.

Understanding physiology
Getting the best out of an athlete’s body requires a lot of testing and practise. For example, learning to warm up and cool down properly is specific to each athlete. The purpose of a warm up is to get the body into an optimal state to race. After a race the rowers must get all of the lactate out of their muscles in order to move into a state of recovery as soon as possible. “We still do lactate testing throughout competitions as it’s a good indication of the metabolic state of the body,” said Christian Felkel, coach of the British sweep men’s squad.

He further explained that the British team practise how to recover effectively so that by the time it comes to a regatta they know exactly what to do. “From racing and recovering from racing, it’s kind of like a switch. Learning to switch the body on and the body off, we do a lot of that and it seems to work quite well.

Equipment and technology
In recent years, rowing has not seen the same level of innovation in equipment as many other Olympic sports, such as cycling and swimming, though according to Matherson this has its advantages, “FISA rules around [equipment] innovation are quite restrictive. It’s actually a good thing because it keeps our focus on the athletes rather than the equipment. That’s probably one of the major strengths of our sports. It’s not technology winning out there.”

Other countries have different approaches. During this Olympiad the Dutch team have teamed up with an innovative company specialising in material sciences to improve their boats. The main gains in efficiency have been in creating a boat that is 25% stiffer, which means that every time an athlete takes a stroke the boat bends less and therefore transfers more energy into making the boat move fast. Most innovations are based around this principle, and the company believe there are more gains to be made in all areas of the boat including footplates and sliding seats. The Dutch boats are also glued together using a new environmentally friendly resin.

Great Britain has also invested in new technology, Felkel says “you want to see what you can do within the rules and explore all areas. That is part of high performance.”