Ludum
Rebecca interviews Adrian Cassidy, CEO Founder & Olympic Rowing Coach from Ludum
Timestamps to the show
01:00 Adrian’s background in rowing – former head coach Rowing Ireland, University of London and now CEO of Ludum
03:30 Ludum – Freedom to Coach What Ludum is – an online platform to collect data and comms to manage your rowing squad. Users include Rowing Australia, Germany’s national team, Vesta Rowing Club. It allows you to use Heart Rate and GPS data as well as direct links from Concept2 erg workouts aligned via an app and collected into a single dashboard for the coach to review.
05:30 Ludum started as a hobby project to share training programmes and crew lineups and more and more people asked to try it out. During 2020 it was completely rewritten as an app as well.
07:00 Used by elite rowing programmes as well as clubs, the software is adaptable and flexible to suit different needs. Paul Thompson remarked that when you move to a new club it’s “Different place, same problems”. Adrian is skilled at creatively solving the limitations of each club’s environment.
Right behaviours are needed for success in rowing. You get the behaviours you tolerate as a coach.
Taking on Ludum and starting to use it is a big cultural thing to change – recording data is not something many people do.
12:15 We introduced Crossy’s Corner where Martin Cross interviews top rowing coaches and athletes. He interviewed the Sinkovic Brothers and he was so good at talking to people that I asked him to join the team.
https://ludum.com/author/mcross/
Click photo to register for the Rowers Conference R5
14:00 R5 – The Rowers Conference 2021 This is the 5th event – we realised that there is no education about data in rowing. Jurgen Grobler interviewed by Martin Cross
Jurgen is the most medalled Olympic coach of modern times and he uniquely gives strength and confidence to athletes.
19:00 Ludum LIVE launches! A new feature set in the Ludum app software is that a coach and watch live as his team trains remotely.
Watch the video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umv3Wn5709c
29:00 Data in rowing
Why are coaches not confident about data? Data is more than the numbers because a video can be data. The growth in data and people typing numbers into spreadsheets which then isn’t used is universal in rowing clubs around the world.
31:00 Data that’s useful compared to data that’s important is a key concept. For example junior rowers turning up regularly is useful data. An elite programme may be better tracking athlete performance during an outing. It’s easy to assume that each athlete did the planned session. But what about those who are ill or injured or those who pull harder than others? They are evidently not doing the same training as the rest of the squad. Using Ludum coaches have insight – and we also support the coach with education and explanations about what the data means and how to interpret it. Data empowers the coach and the athlete.
37:00 Rowing in to the future – what will change? Coaches trust athletes a lot – the sport is coach-driven.The athlete can take control now. During lockdown there will be a bit more individualised training and when groups get back together that will be interesting. Maybe in future the athletes will pick their coach individually and work remotely with them.
Athletes need to know in advance what sort of a programme they are stepping into. Funded programmes are often large and competitive.
45:00 Ludum shares expertise and how to’s – we look for what people are searching for and we try to answer their questions. Training zones, Monitoring and testing, coaching styles, physiology and more. It’s all on the website blog.
Contact Adrian Cassidy
https://ludum.com/
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