Training and Workouts

Quad Training

Larger boats move faster than smaller boats. This is not only a matter of having more human power in the boat. It is also a matter of maximum hull speed.

Naval architects know that the highest rate of velocity of a boat that displaces water (different rule for boats that plane, or skim over the water without breaking the surface tension of the water), cannot go faster than the wave that it creates as it pushes water out of the way.

 
Leo, stroke, David, Esteban, and Owen in bow, smoothly moved
their quad along race course, Schuylkill River.

Another way to look at this is that a boat cannot get out of the trough of the wave that it is creating - it can't climb out of its own hole. It has to wait for the wave it is creating at the bow to move out of its way. Longer waves move faster than short waves, so longer boats move faster than shorter boats -each length of boat has this 'maximum hull velocity'. The formula is 1.34 times the square root of the hull length in feet equals max hull velocity. You can't get a displacement boat to go any faster - the rowers' job is to get the boat up to hull speed, and keep it as close to that velocity as possible for the 2000 meters of the race.

The way that this hydrodynamic rule has an effect on a sculler is that in larger boats, because the velocity imparted by the stroke is faster, the blade must move faster to keep maximum pressure on the blade face/water. Race pace for a quad is at a higher stroke rate than race pace for a double, which is higher than for a single.

Roger Ross and John Snyder, coaches at Crescent Boat Club, have a number of workouts planned for their quad crews, to get them used to rowing full power at these higher stroke rates - to be able to relax during a briefer recovery, and maintain full stroke length during briefer duration drive phase.

The pieces that the crew does in a workout are generally shorter than the distance that they will race, but the workouts include repetition of shorter-than-race pieces, that add up to a workout of more than 3 times the race distance.

The coach will also include a workout that might be longer than the race distance from time to time. He varies the called for stroke rate on these steady state pieces depending on the fitness level of the crew, their strength, and their technical cohesion on any given day. Stroke rates are 32 to 36 per minute, maintained throughout piece.

EG
Workout 1 is 6 reps of 1000 meters at race stroke rate.
Workout 2 is 5 reps of 1500 meters at race stroke rate.
Workout 3 is 4 reps of 2000 meters at race stroke rate.
Workout 4 is 3 reps of 2500 meters at race stroke rate.