New Technologies

All coxies have walked around their erg room carrying the typical pen and pad to take down erg scores.  And while there may not be a new technological advancement that allows you to skip that step there are a lot of useful tools out there to make your coxswain/coaching life much easier!

Google Documents

Google Docs are so useful for so many things….especially rowing!  I input every workout my girls do into one Google spreadsheet that the entire team and coaches can view.  This way everyone has access at all times to every workout they did that year.  That way everyone is held accountable for every single piece we do.  Coaches can tell if the girls are slacking on certain workouts and can compare this week’s 2k to the 2k we did last month….or even the 2k we did at this time last year!  Just be sure to update the spreadsheet quickly after practice, rowers and coaches are impatient!!

Iphone Apps!

There are a lot of IPhone apps out there but here are my favorites!

Erc Calc – My girls especially love this app.  This app lets you input your score from one piece and shows you the equivalent split/time for many other distance pieces.  Say your rower pulled a 7:40 2k last week.  This app tells you that they should also be able to pull a 2:02.9 or 24:35.0 minute 6k erg piece.  My girls really love to use this in the beginning of the year because it gives them an idea of what kind of splits they should pull

WeightAdjust –This app does just what it says – weight adjusts your rower’s erg scores!  I am a huge believer in weight adjusting scores.  If you’re going to use them they simply have to be weight adjusted.  Typically your heavy hitters are not actually pulling their weight and your smaller rowers will actually be more effective.  So this app lets me easily weight adjust anywhere I go!

StrokeWatch – Another obvious one – this is a portable stroke watch!  No need to buy an expensive stroke watch when you have this handy little app!