title: Rocking the boat: does perfect rowing crew synchronization reduce detrimental boat movements?
abstract: In crew rowing, crew members need to mutually synchronize their movements to achieve optimal crew performance. Intuitively, poor crew coordination is often deemed to involve additional boat movements such as surge velocity fluctuations, heave, pitch, and roll, which would imply lower efficiency (eg, due to increased hydrodynamic drag). The aim of this study was to investigate this alleged relation between crew coordination and boat movements at different stroke rates. Fifteen crews of two rowers rowed in a double scull (ie, a two-person boat) at 18, 22, 26, 30, and 34 strokes per minute. Oar angles (using potentiometers) and movements of the boat (using a three-axial accelerometer-gyroscope sensor) were measured (200 Hz). Results indicated that crew synchronization became more consistent with stroke rate, while surge, heave, and pitch fluctuations increased. Further, within each stroke rate condition, better crew synchronization was related to less roll of the boat, but increased fluctuations regarding surge, heave, and pitch. Together this demonstrates that while better crew synchronization relates to enhanced lateral stability of the boat, it inevitably involves more detrimental boat movements and hence involves lower biomechanical efficiency.
authors.affiliation: Center for Human Movement Sciences, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: L S
authors.initials: LS
authors.lastname: Cuijpers
authors.affiliation: CIPER, Faculty of Human Kinetics, University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal.
authors.forename: P J M
authors.initials: PJM
authors.lastname: Passos
authors.affiliation: Center for Human Movement Sciences, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Murgia
authors.affiliation: School of Communication, Media and IT, Hanze University of Applies Sciences, Groningen, The Netherlands.|Time Team Regatta Systems, Amersfoort, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hoogerheide
authors.affiliation: Center for Human Movement Sciences, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: K A P M
authors.initials: KAPM
authors.lastname: Lemmink
authors.affiliation: Center for Human Movement Sciences, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: H J
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: de Poel
mesh_terms: D061725:Accelerometry; D000328:Adult; D054874:Athletic Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D016552:Ergometry; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009068:Movement; D011199:Potentiometry; D012767:Ships; D000073678:Water Sports / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: coordination dynamics; efficiency; hydrodynamics; interpersonal coordination; joint action