Racing strategy and tactics in rowing

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Racing strategy and tactics in rowing
Dr. Valery Kleshnev Canberra, Australia kleshnev
v_at_ausport.gov.au
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What is the Race Strategy and Race Tactics?

• Race Strategy is absolute distribution of
  athletes efforts over the race.
  
• Race Tactics is actions of racer relative to
  other competitors.
  
• Race Strategy and Tactics are interrelated and
  influence each other.

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What can we learn in the Race Strategy?

• We can analyse the racing strategy and tactics
  relative to
  
• Race types (heats, semi-finals and finals)
• Boat types (singles, pairs/doubles, fours/quads,
  eights)
  
• Medal winners versus other competitors
• Crews from different countries
• Trends of the race strategy
• Classification of the race tactics

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Methods

• Analysis of racing strategy was conducted on the
  basis of official results
  
• Split times for each 500 m pieces were analyzed.
• Boat velocity for each quarter of the event was
  calculated.

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Problem

• How can we measure the Race Strategy at different
  boat speeds?

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Solution?

• Ratio of boat speed to prognostic or Gold Time
  (GT) was derived
  
• Can we compare boat speed in different boat types?

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The Problem

• Boat speed depends on weather conditions.
• It is different in winners and losers.
• How to compare the Race Strategy in the same boat
  type at different boat speed?

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Solution

• Ratio of boat speed at each 500 m to average
  speed at 2000 m for the same crew was derived
  (deviation of the boat speed)
  
• This parameter can give us a direct comparison of
  the race strategy in the crews with different the
  boat speed.

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The most common race strategy in rowing

• The most common (average) race strategy in rowing
  is
  
• 3.0, -1.0, -1.9, 0.2

Average data in Olympic boats finals A
over 11 years (1993-2001) 977 cases.
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Race Strategy in different race types

• In finals, boat speed was
• 2.8 faster than average during the first 500m,
• 1.2-1.3 slower during the second and third
  sections,
  
• nearly equal to average during the final 500m.
• Preliminary races had relatively faster start
  (4.5-5.5) and slower finish piece (-1.5-2.0).

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Race strategy in different boat types

• Race strategy depends on boat type.
• Small boats have faster start piece and higher
  variation of boat speed .
  
• Bigger boats have lower variation of boat speed
  and less speed decrease during the second half of
  the race.

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Differences in the race strategy in boat types
can be explained by

• Biomechanical specifics of rowing in small boats,
  which makes change of the stroke rate and boat
  speed easier than in big boats, but makes it more
  difficult to maintain average cruising speed
• Psychological features and behaviour of the
  athletes in big crews, which could be selected on
  a basis of more stable character or obtained
  during the training.

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Race strategy in Gold vs. Silver and Bronze

• Winners are relatively faster at the 1st section
  of the race, than silver and bronze medallists
  
• 2nd, 3rd and 4th place-takers usually have faster
  final section of the race.
  

Average data over 11 years (1993-2001).
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Differences in the race strategy in place-takers
can be explained by

• Winners have chosen a better race strategy, which
  gives them advantages in psychological (control
  over the race) and/or physiological (better
  work-capacity utilization) aspects.
• Winners are better sprinters, but other
  medallists had good endurance and cruising speed.

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Race strategies of different countries.

• CAN, GER, ROM and USA had relatively faster first
  500m and slower finish piece.
  
• ITA had the most even strategy
• FRA was the fastest at final 500m
• GBR rowers were relatively faster over the third
  500m.

Average data over 11 years (1993-2001).
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Trends of the race strategy over the last 11 years

• Does race strategy changes over the years?
• Yes, it does. Distribution of the boat speed is
  becoming more and more even
  
• Prognostic typical race strategy for 2008 is
• 2, -1, -1, 0
• Prognostic race strategy of the winners for 2008
  is
  
• 2, -1.5, -1.5, 1.

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Boat speed variation and its trend

• 1 of variation decreases boat speed by 0.02,
  i.e. about 0.1 sec over 2000 m.
  
• This losses are practically negligible
• Boat speed variation decreases over the last 11
  years (from 2.7 in 1993 down to 1.7 in 2003)
  
• Prognostic variation for 2008 is 1

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Margins between place-takers in finals.

• Average difference in boat speed between
  medallists is 0.35
  
• 4-5 difference in boat speed variation can make
  this margin
  
• Better race strategy cant help to jump from the
  sixth to the first place.

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Factors affecting winning race strategy

• Physiological factor. Energy production in rowing
  is provided from aerobic sources for 70-80. Fast
  increase of oxygen consumption requires
  significant anaerobic workload at the start of
  the race. The anaerobic source is more powerful,
  therefore the first piece of the race should be
  faster than others. However, it should not be too
  fast, otherwise rowers must tolerate very high
  oxygen debt and lactate concentration during the
  race.
• Psychological factor. Rowers can control the race
  easier and get some psychological advantage when
  they leading the race from the start.

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Publications on the Race Strategy

• In rowing
• Klavora P., 1980, Two popular racing strategies
  of international crews cat and mouse or the
  favorite's strategy, Catch-Jan/Feb (Canada).
  
• Klavora P., 1980, Rowing racing strategy
  psychological considerations. Oarsman-12(1),
  Jan/Feb, 6-11.
  
• Erdmann W., Urbansky R., 2001, Investigation of
  tactics of Olympic Games Sydney 2000 men rowing
  crews based on velocity of boats. XIX Int.
  Symposium on Biomechanics in Sport,
  San-Francisco.
• Kleshnev V., 2001, Race strategy in rowing during
  Sydney Olympic Games. Australian Rowing. Vol. 24,
  No.1, 20-23.
  
• Kennedy M., Bell G. 2003. Development of race
  profiles for the performance of a simulated
  2000-m rowing race. Can. J Appl. Physiol., 28(4),
  536-546.
• In other sports
• Van Ingen Schenau G., de Koning J., de Groot G.
  1990. A simulation of speed skating performances
  based on power equations. Med. Sci. Sports
  Exerc., 22/5, pp 718-728.
• Van Ingen Schenau G., de Koning J., de Groot G.
  1992. The distribution of Anaerobic Energy in
  1000 and 4000 metre Cycling Bouts. Int. J Sports
  Med., 13/6, pp. 447-451.
• Wilberg R., Pratt J. 1998. A survey of the race
  profiles of cyclists in the pursuit and kilo
  track events. Can. J Sport Sci., 13(4), 208-213.
  
• Issurin V. 1998. Analysis of the race strategy of
  world-class kayakers. In Issurin, V. (ed.).
  Science practice of canoe/kayak
  high-performance training selected articles in
  memory of junior world champion Nevo Eitan.
  Tel-Aviv, 27-39.
• Billat V., Slawinski J., Daniel M., Koralsztein
  J. 2001. Effect of free versus constant pace on
  performance and oxygen kinetics in running. Med.
  Sci. Sports Exerc., 33(12), 2082-2088.
• Bishop D., Bonetti D., Dawson B. 2002. The
  influence of pacing strategy on VO2 and
  supramaximal kayak performance. Med. Sci. Sports
  Exerc., 34/6, pp. 1041-0147.
• Foster C., de Koning J., Hettinga F., Lampen J.,
  la Clair K., Dodge C., Bobbert M., Porcary J.
  2003. Pattern of energy expenditure during
  simulated competition. Med. Sci. Sports Exerc.,
  35(5), 826-831.

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The main outcomes from the literature

• Race strategy is very similar on rowing
  ergometers (Kennedy et al.)
  
• Race strategy profiles are similar in the sports
  with the similar duration of the race (4-8 min)
  
• Race strategy with constant speed does not give
  any physiological advantages (Billat et al.).
  

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Is the Race Strategy really important?
It IS important
It is NOT important

• Currently performance of the main competitors in
  the world is very close.
  
• Winners and medallists were divided not only by
  seconds but also by tenth and hundreds of seconds
  .
  

• Higher physiological work capacity and better
  technique can give much more advantages.
  
• The fastest crew would win with virtually any
  strategy.

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Race Tactics

• The Race Tactics can be defined RELATIVE to
• Average strategy of the race,
• Closest competitors.
• The problem How can we produce common patterns
  of the race tactics?
  
• Boat speeds are different and they depend on
  whether conditions, boat type, race type,
  performance
  
• Race strategies are different and they depend on
  boat type and race type
  

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A Solution
A Solution
1. Average race strategy was produced
Race Tactics 1-4
3. The maximal deviation (relatively fastest
piece) and minimal (slowest piece) deviations
were found
2. Deviation of individual strategy from the
average one was calculated
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Definition of the of race tactics

• Each tactics can be described with two numbers
• sequential number of the fastest 500m piece,
• sequential number of the slowest 500m piece.
• For example
• tactics 1-4 means the first 500m was the
  fastest and the final 500m was the slowest,
  
• tactics 3-2 means the third 500m was the
  fastest and the second 500m was the slowest
  

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Matrix of race tactics
n

• All 12 tactics are shown in a matrix where
• Each column represents the same fastest piece
  (from 1 to 4)
  
• Each row represents slowest piece
• Percentage shows number of cases in Finals A over
  the last 11 years.

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Analysis of the place takers distribution

• The most popular tactics in winners was 1-4
  (17.1)
  
• The most popular tactics in silver and bronze
  medallists was 4-1
  
• This corresponds with the race strategy
  distribution

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Conclusions

• The average race strategy in WC finals was
  3.0, -1.0, -1.9, 0.2 (speed at each 500m
  piece relative to average speed during 2000m
  race)
• Race strategy significantly depend on race type
  (slower finish in heats) and boat type (more even
  in bigger boats)
  
• Rowers from different countries have specific
  patterns of the race strategy
  
• Winners have 0.5 relatively faster first 500m
  and slower final 500m than other medalists
  
• Race strategy tends to became more even over the
  last 11 years
  
• Classification of race tactics was established,
  which consists of 12 patterns.
  
• It was found that the winners prefer tactics
  1-4 with faster start of the race, but other
  medalists use more 4-1 with relatively faster
  finish.

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Recommendations

• Choose the race strategy with faster start
  section if you are going to win (or die)
  
• Choose the race strategy with faster finish and
  more even distribution of efforts if you want to
  maximise your result.

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Exception, which confirms the rule!
Thanks for your attention!