We've been sitting on this hack for a while--after all, its great-granddaddy, the Stick Board, was one of the first Rowing Hack columns ever--but as a new year approaches and coaches at all levels have a bit of time to think about ways to do things better at their place, we thought we'd scoot this one out there and see if it propagates a bit and maybe even makes things run a bit smoother at a boathouse near you: the Magnet Board.

Sure, using a stick board goes way back in our sport and we have paid due hack-homage to both the board and ways to hack the sticks themselves, but the magnet board has it beat in a few ways, to say nothing of being a bit more space-age than the old tongue-depressor stand-by.

How might magnets trump sticks? Let us count the ways:

Easier to make: with a magnets, you can skip futzing around trying to make a board with stick-sized slots and pretty much use anything metal for your "board." We've seen magnet lineups at work on the metal sides of oar racks and on magnetized whiteboards--and whiteboards give you an added feature no stick board has: the ability to write notes or directions right next to your line ups. We even caught one coach using a metal cookie sheet to great effect: it was portable, had room for plenty of lineups, and even had a handy hole at the top for hanging the sheet up in the boathouse or on the trailer.

Easier to customize: tongue depressor sticks really come in just one size and--once you make your stick board--you are stuck with the number of slots you made. You can make magnets any size you like, go big or small depending on how much info you like to cram on there, and running out of stick slots is never an issue (heck, on a metal side of a 12 foot oar rack, you can put an armada's worth of boats with lots of room to spare, or for spares). You can even go a bit beyond boatings with your magnets: the Princeton Boathouse puts magnets to work for lane draws by having a full set of magnets with the names of the opponents they host during the spring.

Easier to "enrich:" when it comes to getting into that "info added" hack for coaches who like to keep track of a lot of helpful details, then magnets trump sticks every time. Noting sides, sculling ability, novice vs experienced, and more can work on sticks or magnets, but the customizable canvas of a magnet offers a lot more possibilities. One of our favorites? That came in from a coach named Matt, who emailed to tell us how he puts a photo of each rower on their magnet so he can learn names quicker--and he made it work by using magnets big enough to hold the photo. Well hacked!

Easier to play with: Magnets slide, making it simple to look at different combinations and--even more useful, perhaps--to switch line-ups at that last-minute right before practice when one person is a no show. You know that minute: the one where you have to switch just one rower's stick, or suddenly swap a whole crew to a starboard stroke shell? That can take a while if you have to pull out and rearrange every stick on your board, but going the magnet route saves a ton of time: you can just slide them around to fit the new boatings.

Easier to travel with: sure, you can take a pocketful of sticks home with you to play with lineups on the kitchen table, or lug the whole stick board along to do lineups on a training trip, but magnets can quickly transfer to a travel sized magnet board; there are some small white-boards that are the perfect size to slide into a laptop bag. You can even skip the "travel board" altogether: magnets work pretty well on your fridge, don't they? Plus you can even use the side of the trailer as a magnet mount when you are out on the road for more than a workout or two.

So, ready to "go magnet" this year? You can get magnets by the sheet or the strip at most art and craft supply stores, and there is even a kind of office planning system that uses magnetic card holders called Magna Visual. You can find those at many office supply stores, and the bonus of that product is that you can order the pre-sized cards in printer-ready sheets, meaning you can type the names of your athletes--especially helpful for coaches with bad handwriting.

Still not space-age enough for you? Then we dare you to take this hack one step further: download one of the many "magnetic poetry" apps for your tablet and--after making custom entries for your rowers--you could be doing all of these cool magnet tricks on your iPad.

How do you get your line-ups done and posted--is there a smooth magnet move we've missed here? Share your tips--and hacks--in the comments below.

Have a great rowing hack to suggest for future inclusion here? Send it to us!