Simon Hoadley interviewed Drew Ginn and Valery Kleshnev (Measuring Feel). As expected, the conversation moved to one of Ginn’s most famous videos: Will It Make the Boat Go Faster?
Ginn discusses the relaxed hands coming out of the finish that might look “lazy” to the untrained eye, but Ginn’s approach conserves energy and maintains a calm center of gravity up the catch. Ultimately, the rower rows faster. In a collective “aha moment,” the video was renamed: Will It Make the Athlete Go Faster?
Athletes and Technology
We are training right in an era of wearables and conditioning feedback loops. Ginn acknowledges that during the early days of telemetry the rowers rowed faster, but that was rooted in a very human component. The rowers knew they were being measured, so they rowed faster.
How do athletes work in a world of technology and measurement? Brian Klass cautions against the techno-culture of conditioning: “Everything, even joy, can be turned into a metric. Did you really go on that walk in the wilderness if your Fitbit didn’t register your step count?” (253). Earlier in his book he cautions that “obsessive optimizers, worshipping the false god of ever more efficiency, modern social systems have little slack”(102, Fluke: Chance, Chaos, and Why Everything Matters).
Technology can become a dungeon of metrics, but Klass provides a way out, the human element:
“. . . if we want to maximize the chance that our actions will matter even more, then the best pathway comes from one of the finest innovations our species has evolved: cooperation. Humans who work together create change together” (255).
Klass’s insights prepared me for Hoadley’s interview.
A Culture of Learning
They came to the interview from different backgrounds. Ginn is the multi-medal Olympian. Kleshnev is the scientist and curator of BioRow, the mother lode of data and measurement.
Ginn sees it as one — the art and the science:
“And you put those two things together, you’ve got a sport that people will be fascinated to watch . . . it gets more competitive and it gets better and faster and more exciting . . It can’t be one or the other because as soon as we go one of the other, we assume that the other’s not right . . . the two things exist . . . just a different way of looking at it.”
Athlete-Centered Culture
- Athlete Wellness
Too many injuries are avoidable. Kleshnev and Ginn spoke about over-use injury. Ginn specifically talked about injury from not listening to your body. These are habits that need to be taught and reinforced, especially with focused and highly motivated athletes. He admired colleagues who added volume to their workouts but knew how to stay within themselves. They put in the work, and, at the end of the week, they still felt good. They are less likely to injury themselves.
2. Flexibility
Flexibility is not about stretching and yoga. It has to do with mindset. Kleshnev cautions against being inflexible in thinking. Don’t be dogmatic. If one is truly in love with science, then theories are built on facts and theories are abandoned in the face of contrary facts.
The athlete and the sport develop when there is a learning community. Ginn is concerned about the future of the sport. The athletes will get faster when the learning and training continually adapts.
Hoadley calls it “Un-stubbornness. Double-Sided Open Mindedness.”
3. Rest and Recovery
Sleep and recovery are not nice to haves. They are fundamental:
- CrewLAB colleague Catherine Galanti has recently written about the importance of sleep.
- CrewLAB interviewed University of Richmond Swimming Coach Matt Barany on the importance of sleep and stress management for his athletes.
Building Culture
In John Wooden’s Pyramid of Success, the bottom layer provides the foundation (Industriousness, Friendship, Loyalty, Cooperation, Enthusiasm). And the middle layer reinforces Culture: Conditioning, Skill, Team Spirit.
The pyramid peaks at competitive greatness, of course, because it builds on team culture.
See also
- Technology is Nothing without the People
- The middle layer of the John Wooden Pyramid of Success
