Rowing  Biomechanics  Newsletter  celebrates  its 10th birthday! Thanks to all readers for their interest and positive feedback!

There was a discussion among rowing coaches and scientists about lift force at the seat: does it really lift the whole rower-boat system and decreases water displacement; or  is  it  just  transfer  of  weight  from  the  seat  onto  the stretcher?

Often we receive questions from coaches with the following sense: "How should I change rigging to make rowing angles the same in my crew, if the rowers have different height and physique?”

There were discussions on rowing  forums about setting the drag factor (DF) on ergs and about differ- ences and similarities of a new Concept2 Dynamic erg (DIR) with its static and on-slides analogies.

Did you know that…          ...skiing is an excellent aerobic exercise that is often used by rowers as a cross training activity during the winter? Thanks to Concept2 Skierg this exercise is available  indoor  during  all  weather  conditions.

The results of the recent World championships in Karapiro, New Zealand (see Appendix 1 below) show that the leaders, Great Britain have made their position stronger: last  year they won six medals in Olympic events, one of them gold, but this year they won nine medals, four of them were gold. The Brits definitely intended to smash their opposition during their home Olympics-2012.

Recently, together with Concept2, we performed a pilot study of the new  Dynamic Indoor Rower  (DIR) and compared its biomechanical features with a stationary erg, erg on slides and on-water rowing in a boat.

Here we try to answer five questions regarding pitch: Q1: "Why do we need a certain pitch on the blades?”; Q2: "Does it make sense to set zero pitch and pull abso- lutely horizontally, but "grub” the arms more?”; Q3: "Can we increase the handle (and the gate) height enough to eliminate "grubbing” arms?”; Q4: "Should we change the pitch, when changing gate height?”; Q5: "We know that some crews use lateral pitch of the pin. Does this make sense?”