Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Degree

Master of Science

Program

Kinesiology

Supervisor

Volker Nolte

Abstract

Rowing is a sport that is performed on the water, because of this there are many challenges associated with studying rowing. The primary challenges are an inability to control the environment and limitations with the equipment that can be used to collect data on the water. In order to try and overcome some of these challenges an aerial drone fitted with a high resolution camera was used to examine an understudied element of the rowing stroke, lateral movement in sweep rowers. Oar and shoulder angles and lateral movement of the shoulders and hands were calculated and compared between five different eight person rowing boats. Rowers were found to lean and rotate towards the oar side of the boat. More experienced and larger athletes had longer oar arcs, however, these differences did not necessarily extend to shoulder angle and lateral lean. Individual rowers were also observed to have their own individual styles of movement particularly in the shoulders. Further research needs to be performed to both examine lean and twist in a sweep rowing stroke and to evaluate the utility of drones as data collection tools.

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