This is a nifty little gadget that any rowing crew can use.
It places itself in the market amongst the speedcoaches; that is a little screen that can be placed in the boat to effectively measure speed, distance, and stroke rate to give immediate objective feedback to the rower for them to use in which ever way they like.
I tried this guy out and this is what we thought:
Coxmate is a colour and touch screen. If you are like me and are impressed by the smaller details then you will really enjoy coxmate. The touch screen is an easy interface to work with. Makes things easier and more direct than having to fiddle with the side buttons all the time, whilst all the time being aesthetically pleasing.
It runs completely off a GPS so there are no little bits and bobs that you need to buy or attach such as an impeller or magnets etc. This was very handy for me as I tend to lose little bits quite often!
The interface is satisfylingy customizable. You have the ability to choose which metric you want to see and customize between readings to view at your leisure. So for someone like me who doesn’t need too many
numbers, I had it mainly showing rate and split per 500 on a two view option.
You can include Heart rate, distance etc too depending on how many metrics you want to view simultaneously.
Finally the attachment device is very simple and easy to use. It works on a very effective suction system so you can choose to place it anywhere you want and do not have to be confined to attaching to a T bolt or on the footplate.
I found the device to be fairly responsive when rowing but there is , at times, as slight delay in the reading due to the GPS signal. The dam where I tried it out is not known to have great signal in any case I would more than likely put it down to that as oppose to it having a constant delay. The overall training session with it I had was great and was good enough to know your average speed and stroke rate which is what I wanted.
A great feature too is that you can row or race against a virtual boat. Whilst growing up and learning to row on the concept 2 I found this a fantastic tool so to see it translated into an actual rowing boat really has some great value for training and preparation!
The device comes with PC software to ensure your data is not lost after the session. This includes a USB connection for data transfer, performance analysis software as well as route monitoring software.
It really is a fantastic tool and would recommend it to anyone out there looking for a good product for objective rowing Data!
If your interested in getting one give us a shout and we will put you in touch!
