Listen to the boat motion: acoustic information for elite rowers

Presenting information acoustically has become increasingly interesting for technique training and control in elite sport. In rowing, acoustic feedback is a new and promising application to optimize the boat motion. By taking advantage of auditory perception, which is particularly sensitive to temporal resolution, the physics-based movements are mapped to acoustic parameters using Parameter Mapping Sonification (sonified) and was transmitted to the athletes as acoustic feedback in order to sensitize them to the time-dynamic structure of movements; assuming that this yields to an increased boat velocity. Listening to the sound of the boat motion enables athletes to detect small variations and deviations in movement execution and improves effectiveness in interaction without distracting the athletes’ focus of attention. Indications for the existence of an “action-listening”-mechanism [1] in humans support the assumption that movement execution and effectiveness in interaction are improved which is perceived as a side-effect. This paper describes a potential version of acoustic information which represents the movement-relevant information of the boat motion for rowing and its implementation as a real-time acoustic feedback for elite rowers during on-water training sessions. The first significant results were encouraging and support the intention to implement the acoustic information regularly into training processes for elite athletes.