How high is too high? When gearing up for the last strokes of a race, you want to make sure you aren’t “spinning your wheels” by raising the stroke rate beyond what is effective for your crew. It’s easy to let adrenaline take over as the rate climbs in the last meters of a race without thinking about efficiency. As you work through the gears during the sprint, you can’t sacrifice timing, rhythm and speed just to hit a higher rate. During the sprint the goal is not to simply hit a higher rate, but to move the boat faster as you cross the line.

One way to practice the sprint and make sure you’re hitting you optimal, and not just your maximum, stroke rate is to do a series of 30 stroke pieces while bumping the rate by 2 beats every 10 strokes. By starting the 1st piece at sub-base rate and using any Speed Coach product you can monitor how effective your changes in rate are. This can show you at what point your speed tapers off as you raise the rate allowing you to develop a more effective strategy going into the last segment of your race.