Martens, P.A.M. (Peter) (2018) The effect of pattern, attention and mechanical coupling on interpersonal coordination in rowing. thesis, Sport Sciences.
Full text available on request.Abstract
Coordination of movement between individuals is essential in rowing to be able to optimize the performance of a crew. While the classic rowing crew tries to row perfectly in-phase recent research suggests that rowing in an anti-phase pattern might be more efficient. Theory and empirical findings on coordination dynamics in general has shown that important factors, which can affect the coordination between rowers in a crew, are the amount of attention and whether or not the individuals are mechanically coupled. The current study thus examined the effects of these three factors on rowing dyads on ergometers in a closed laboratory setting. The hypotheses were that an in-phase pattern, the condition without a secondary task and the condition with the mechanical coupling will all have a positive effect on the interpersonal coordination of the pairs. Nine experienced pairs rowed on two ergometers on slides which could be either attached to each other or separated. For the attention task a customized Brooks task was used to occupy a part of the attention of the participants. The pairs rowed in a total of 8 conditions in which all possible combinations of the pattern, attention and mechanical coupling were present. Kinematics of rowers, handles and ergometers was captured. In line with the suggestions from previous research we found an increase in coordinative variability during anti-phase rowing and during the mechanically separated conditions. Counter to our hypotheses we did not find an effect of the attention variable on the interpersonal coordination. Another clear result was the decrease in ergometer speed variability during the anti-phase pattern. The current research points to a clear picture that anti-phase rowing can result in greater coordinative variability (in stroke rates around 20spm) but will also lead to a decrease of ergometer speed variability. Altogether, our results, which are in line with previous research, point to a beneficial effect of anti-phase rowing during relative higher stroke rates while the current study confirms that for a typical stroke rate during training (e.g. 20spm) anti-phase rowing is less stable compared to in-phase rowing.
| Item Type: | Thesis (UNSPECIFIED) |
|---|---|
| Supervisor name: | Zaal, dr. ir. F.T.J.M. and Cuijpers, L.S. and Poel, dr. H.J. de |
| Faculty: | Medical Sciences |
| Date Deposited: | 23 May 2022 10:11 |
| Last Modified: | 23 May 2022 10:11 |
| URI: | https://umcg.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/3420 |
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