In Malta, rowing is mostly associated with tradition, our National Regatta and the Grand Harbour. However, at international level, rowing is known to be one of the most demanding and technical Olympic or Paralympic sports performed on water. Racing is typically over a 2000m distance in which rowers complete hundreds of oar pulls and rotations typically within a few minutes. Such a strenuous and repetitive movement, unfortunately, is known to result in various injuries, including injuries in upper limbs, the more common being wrist/forearm injury as well as palm blisters and calluses.
This project has attempted to address these problems through the development of superior oar handles which permit a better and more effective grip. These grips were developed by transporting fundamental research on auxetic materials to the world of rowing. Auxetic materials behave in a rather exceptional manner by becoming wider rather than thinner when stretched, and contracting laterally when uniaxially compressed, a property which imparts several practical benefits to the material.
The research path which led to the development of these grips also permitted the acquisition of very important knowledge on the sports of rowing itself, the manner how auxetic materials behave when indented, put under pressure or sheared, as well as how rowers perceive their blisters and calluses.
The results of this project, a joint collaborations between academics and researchers from the University of Malta’s Metamaterials Unit (Faculty of Science) and the Podiatry Department (Faculty of Heath Sciences) and marine products manufacturing experts Action Frame Ltd., has already led to more than twenty peer reviewed journal publications and the filing of a patent.
Prof. Joseph N. Grima, the coordinator of this project and a rower himself emphasises the importance of the findings from this project to the rowing community. “Rowers spend hours and hours every week performing the same repetitive action of pulling and feathering their oars with the aim of improving their technique and performance. A wrist injury or a blistered hand can annul all this effort as the athlete would not be able to perform at her/his best. Thus, an oar handle which provides a better grip is likely to be appreciated by rowers. I sincerely hope that our research work carried out as part of Aux-Row, some of which has already been published, can lead to oar handles which will make rowing blisters and wrist injuries a thing of past.”