Dave wrote; > >> Just to provide some perspective, every boat that I design (and those of >> some competitors) is tested using a Brooks and Gatehouse Speed Boss. > >[To John: What is that? What does it measure?] The B&G Speed boss measures speed, acceleration with each stroke and speed loss during recovery, distance through the water, max and min speeds during a run, strokes, times rest periods,stores up to 100 runs for download to a computer for analysis and brews coffee when you are done. (SNIP including discussion of measuring forces at the paddle) ) . > >John, it has occurred to me that perhaps an improved (or, maybe, just >alternate) way to gather data on the paddler/paddle/boat system is to >place a force sensor *between the paddler's hands and the paddle shaft* >and an inertial displacement sensor *on the paddle shaft* at the hand >position. (SNIP) This method tells you how much force was applied to the paddle but not how much of the force was effectively transferred to the boat. For instance, a brace might record as much force as a forward stroke but doesn't drive the boat ahead. A poor paddler might use a lot more energy than a good one for the same speed. This is useful knowledge for paddler training but not so useful for boat design. >Do you (or, others) have any knowledge of Olympic racers (or, similar) >who might have developed such a system? I have tinkered with an idea for a seat mounted on sensors that would measure the forces and direction of forces applied to the boat but it is on the back burner. About a year ago a fellow said he was developing a system similar to what you suggest but he never came up with anything. Matt Brose also was thinking about this but didn't have time to develop it. Joy wrote; >But I find myself wondering whether simply some >people's bodies are more comfortable going along in a higher gear to accomplish the >same speed or distance that others would comfortably do in lower gear. I have >always biked in high gears (not up mountains, I should say, mostly just around town) >and find that downshifting is a more strenuous way to cover distance. (Also much >less fun.) Many years ago I looked into this and it does seem that every person has a "natural cadence" that is most comfortable. Possibly due to body mass etc.. No doubt you can train to change it but I wonder if it is not simpler just to fit the paddle to your natural cadence rather than trying to change your cadence to fit your paddle. Cheers, John Winters Redwing Designs Specialists in Human Powered Watercraft http://home.ican.net/~735769/ *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.gasp-seakayak.net/paddlewise/ ***************************************************************************Received on Tue Mar 31 1998 - 05:20:27 PST
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