CRI Adaptive Rowing

Three Adaptive Technologies

There are three categories for racing when one speaks of adaptive rowing. These are LTA (legs, trunk arms), AS (arms and shoulders), and TA (Trunk and shoulders).

FrontRower Rowing System

This rowing system allows for the user to paddle with a combination of limbs
-both arms
-both legs
-one arm and one leg

Adaptations:
~The FrontRower rowing system is used specifically for canoes and wider boats; rowers who row in shells will not be able to fit this system into the boat
~The FrontRower system is a system that forces the rower to face forward while rowing rather than backward

Transfer Board

This transfer board looks very much like a mini staircase, where a wheelchair rider uses their arms to move their body onto the top step, and then gradually transfers their body downwards until they are into the boat. This technology allows for riders to easily move to their boats without having to worry about the height difference from their wheelchair to the dock

Velcro Straps

As someone who has limited mobility might have problems with balance, velcro straps, which can be used to tie one's torso to a high backed chair, or ones legs to the bottom of the boat, can be used to add support for someone who feels wobbly when rowing. Velcro, which can be easily taken off in water, is an efficient binding tool for someone who has limited use of their arms and legs, and is less dangerous than tying someone with a rope.

Projects that I find interesting are

a) the creation of a lightweight pontoon that doesn't leak
b) the adaptation of a rowing system that allows people with limited limb movement to row
c) allowing rowers to become more independent
d) improving the wear and tear of the dock

Questions:

1) How do adaptive rowers bring their equipment to the dock?
2) If they require the help of others, how many people accompany them, and what are their jobs
3) As a coach, what problems do you see most often with adaptive rowers?
4) What seems to be the least problematic thing for them to do?
5) For rowers, what is your favorite piece of equipment and what piece of equipment do you have the most problems with?
6) What problems do you see with rowers who do not go on the water?

Being Wrong... No Longer a Stressful Dilemma

"Denial has a bad reputation. We are quick to sneer at it, to regard it as the last, sorry refuge of those who are too immature, insecure, or pigheaded to face the truth. But... denying our mistakes is sometimes an understandable reaction"(Schulz, p228).

Kathryn Schulz really made me feel better about myself.

There are so many instances where I have done the things that Schulz outlined in her book and felt bad about. But after reading her book, I feel as though I am more able to see past my mistakes as failures and a hinderance to my ultimate goal. I hope this book will allow me to admit to my mistakes earlier rather than pressing on and ignoring the errors I made in hopes no one else will realize that I made them.

As was stated in several other classes, being wrong is an essential part of the whole creation process. "Fail quickly to succeed faster" is something that has been said to the class on several occasions by our professor. In Schulz's book, she constantly reminds us that being wrong "shouldn't be an embarrassment, and cannot be an aberration." Like Norman, she firmly believes that being wrong, on many occasions, is the right thing to do; "being wrong is often a side effect of a system that is functioning exactly right"(Schulz, p61). In this case, the system is the design process, and coming up with faulty ideas is the side effect.

"Scientists gravitate toward falsification; as a community if not as individuals, they seek to disprove their beliefs" (Schulz, p32). While we may not be setting out to fail, we do set out knowing that we will fail at one point or another. In one of his examples, Norman states that "it usually takes five or six attempts to get a product right" (Norman, p29). Both authors agree that being wrong is an essential part of making something right, and that, in many cases, ideas turn out to be so wrong that they are thrown out and something new is created. "... not only can any given theory be proven wrong... sooner or later, it probably will be"(Schulz, p32). "New products are almost guaranteed to fail, no matter how good the idea" (Norman, p29).