Rowing Part 11

From the above remarks it will be gathered that the great points to be insisted upon in four-oared rowing are uniformity, and again uniformity, and always uniformity. A coach should insist, if possible even more strenuously than he insists in an Eight, on bodies and slides moving with a faultless precision and perfectly together. Let him devote his energies to getting the finish and recovery locked up all through the crew, and let him see to it that the movements of their bodies shall be slow and balanced on the forward swing, and strong and not jerky on the back swing. More it would be difficult to add.

When a Four is practising for a four-oared race alone--that is to say, when its members are not rowing in an eight-oared crew as well, their course of work should be similar to that laid down for an Eight. But when, as often happens at Henley, a Four is made up out of the members of an eight-oared crew, it will always be found better to allow its members to do the bulk of their work in the Eight, and to confine themselves in the Four princ.i.p.ally to long and easy paddling, varied by short, sharp bursts of rowing. It may be necessary for such a Four to go over the full course once at top speed, but that ought to be enough.

Their work in the Eight should get them into condition; all that they really need in the Four is to be able to row perfectly together. The Brasenose Four that won the Stewards' in 1890 had never rowed over the full course before the day of the race. Their longest piece of rowing, as distinguished from paddling, had been a burst of three minutes. Their men acquired fitness by working in the Eight, and proved their condition by the two desperate races they rowed.

As to steering, it used to be said that anybody might steer in a Four except stroke, but Mr. Guy Nickalls has proved that a stroke can steer as well as row. He has won four Stewards' Cup medals, has stroked and steered in every race, and his boat has always been kept on a faultless course.

In the case of the ordinary oar, however, the old saying, I think, holds good. Bow naturally is the best place to steer from, not only because in turning his head he can obtain a clear view of the course, but also because he has a considerable advantage in leverage, and ought to be able to control the direction of his boat merely by relaxing or increasing the power applied to his oar. The best part of the stroke for looking round is, I consider, towards the finish. A turn of the head, accompanied by an outward movement of the outside elbow to suit the slightly altered position of the body, while keeping pressure on the oar, is all that is necessary. Yet I have seen Mr. Guy Nickalls look round in the middle of his forward swing without apparently disturbing the equilibrium of the boat. In any case, the best thing a steerer can do is to learn his course by heart, so that he may be able to steer for the most part without looking round at all, judging the direction she is taking by her stern and by well-known objects on the bank as he pa.s.ses them. Personally I prefer, and I think most men prefer, to steer with the outside foot. The captain of a Four should always look carefully to his steering-gear to see that the wires and strings are taut, and that they move properly and without jamming over the wheels. I have seen more than one race lost by accidents to the steering-gear that might have been avoided by a little preliminary attention.

PAIR OARS.

This, too, is a very pleasant form of rowing, both with a view to racing and merely for casual amus.e.m.e.nt. The main elements for success are similar to those laid down in the case of Fours. In pair-oared rowing, however, there is one important point which distinguishes it from all other forms of rowing. It is absolutely essential that the two men composing a Pair should not row "jealous," _i.e._ neither of them must attempt to row the other round in order to prove his own superior strength and ability. Such a course of action not only makes progress circuitous and slow, but also ends by entirely destroying the tempers of both oarsmen. In a Pair, even more than in a Four, the bow oar has a considerable advantage in leverage, whence it comes that a lighter and less powerful man can often row bow in a Pair with a strong and heavy stroke. The most surprising instance of this occurred in the Oxford University Pairs of 1891, which were won by the late Mr. H. B. Cotton, rowing bow at 9 st. 12 lbs., to the stroke of Mr. Vivian Nickalls, who weighed close on 13 st. An instance to the contrary was afforded by the winners of the Goblets at Henley in 1878. These were Mr. T. C.

Edwards-Moss, bow, 12 st. 3 lbs., and Mr. W. A. Ellison, stroke, 10 st.

13 lbs. The Goblets at Henley have been won six times by Mr. Guy Nickalls, and five times by his brother Vivian.

SWIVEL ROWLOCKS.

There has been, during the past year, a movement in favour of using swivel rowlocks, not only in sculling-boats, but also in Pairs, Fours, and Eights, though the majority of English oarsmen, even when inclined to use them in Pairs and Fours, set their faces against them for Eights. The advocates of swivels contend that by their use the hands are eased on the recovery, and the jar that takes place when the oar turns on a fixed rowlock is absolutely abolished. These advantages seem to me to be exaggerated, for, though I have carefully watched for it, I have never seen an Eight or a Four r.e.t.a.r.ded in her place for even a fraction of a second by the supposed jar due to the turning of the oar on the feather in fixed rowlocks. On the other hand, I am convinced that for an ordinary eight-oared crew the fixed rowlock is best, and for the following reasons:--

The combined rattle of the oars as they turn const.i.tutes a most valuable rallying-point. The ears are brought into action as well as the eyes.

This advantage is lost with swivels. In modern sculling-boats a man must use swivels, for the reach of the sculler extends to a point which he could not reach with fixed rowlocks, as his sculls would lock before he got there. As he moves forward he is constantly opening up, his arms extending on either side of his body; but in rowing, one arm swings across the body, and unless you are going to screw the body round towards the rigger, and thus sacrifice all strength of beginning, you cannot fairly reach beyond a certain point, which is just as easily and comfortably attained with fixed rowlocks as with swivels. Moreover--and here is the great advantage--you have in the thole-pin of a fixed rowlock an absolutely immovable surface, and the point of application of your power is always the same throughout the stroke. With a swivel this is not so, for the back of the swivel, against which your oar rests, is constantly moving. To put it in other words, it is far easier with a fixed rowlock to get a square, firm, clean grip of the beginning, and for the same reason it is easier to bring your oar square and clean out at the end of the stroke. A really good waterman can, of course, adapt himself to swivels, as he can to almost anything else in a boat, but his task will not be rendered any easier by them. For average oars, and even for most good oars, the difficulties of rowing properly will be largely increased, without any compensating advantage, so far as I am able to judge. In the case of novices, I am convinced that it would be quite disastrous to attempt to make them row with swivel rowlocks.

_Measurements of Racing Four built by J. H. Clasper._

(In this boat Leander won the Stewards' Cup, 1897.)

ft. ins.

Length over all 42 3 Greatest breadth of beam, exactly amidship 1 8?

From centre of seat to sill of rowlock 2 8 Length of play of slides 1 3?

Height of sliding-seat above skin of boat 8?

Height of heel-traps above skin of boat 1?

(This would make the heels about one inch above skin of boat.) Height of sill of rowlock above seat 6 Depth forward 6?

Depth aft 5

_Measurements of Oars used._

Length over all 12 0 Length in-board 3 8 Length of blade 2 8 Breadth of blade 5

This boat is some three feet shorter than the average of Fours nowadays.

The oars used by the New College Four measured over all 12 ft. 6 ins.; in-board, 3 ft. 8 ins.; breadth of blades, 5 ins.

_Measurement of a Pair Oar built by Sims, of Putney._

(In this Pair Mr. H. G. Gold, and Mr. R. Carr won the University Pairs at Oxford, their weights being 11 st. 10 lbs. and 12 st. 8 lbs.

respectively.)

ft. ins.

Length over all 37 1 Greatest breadth 1 3 Length of slide play 1 4 Distance from sill of rowlock to centre of seat 2 8 Height of seat above skin of boat 8?

Height of heels above skin of boat 1

[Ill.u.s.tration: HENLEY REGATTA.

(_A Heat for the Diamonds._)]

CHAPTER X.

SCULLING.

_By Guy Nickalls._

In writing an article on sculling, a sculler must of necessity be egotistical. He can only speak of what he himself feels to be the correct way of doing things, and cannot judge of how a different man feels under the same circ.u.mstances. I therefore put in a preliminary plea for forgiveness if in the course of these remarks the letter "I"

should occur with excessive frequency. Sculling is so entirely an art by itself, that a man might just as well ask a painter how he produces an impression on a canvas as ask a sculler why he can scull, or how it comes that so many good oarsmen cannot scull. Ask an ordinary portrait-painter why he cannot sketch a landscape, and ask an ordinary oarsman to explain why he cannot scull, and to the uninitiated the answer of both will have the same sort of vagueness. Sculling differs so vastly from rowing that no man who has not tried his hand at both can appreciate how really wide apart they stand; and the fact that sculling depends to such a great extent on one's innate sense of touch and balance, makes it extremely hard for a man who has tried his hand with some success at both sculling and rowing to explain to the novice, or even to the veteran oarsman, wherein the difference lies. There is as much difference between sculling and rowing as there is between a single cyclist racing without pacemakers, steering and balancing himself and making his own pace, and a man in the middle of a quintette merely pedalling away like a machine at another man's pace, and not having the balance or anything else solely under his control. The difference in "feel" is so great that one might liken it to the difference between riding a light, springy, and eager thoroughbred which answers quickly to every touch, and pounding uncomfortably along on a heavy, coa.r.s.e-bred horse, responding slowly to an extra stimulus, and deficient in life and action.

To scull successfully one must possess pluck, stamina, and a cool head, and must, above all, be a waterman. A man may _row_ well and successfully, and yet possess none of these qualities. Nothing depresses a man more when he is sculling than his sense of utter isolation. If a spurt is required, he alone has to initiate it and carry it through; there is no cheering prospect of another strong back aiding one, no strenuous efforts of others to which one can rally, no c.o.x to urge one to further effort. You feel this even more in practice than in actual racing, especially when going against the clock. You are your own stroke, captain, crew, and c.o.x, and success or failure depends entirely and absolutely upon yourself. No one else (worse luck) is to blame if things go wrong.

The pace of a sculling-boat is strictly proportionate to the quality of its occupant. A good man will go fast and win his race; a bad man cannot. A good man in an Eight cannot make his crew win; and a bad man in an Eight may mar a crew, but he can also very often win a race against a crew containing better men than himself.

People have often asked me why a first-cla.s.s oar should not of necessity be a good sculler. This, although a hard matter to explain, is partly accounted for by what I have said above, in that sculling is so greatly a matter of delicate touch and handling. Even good oars are as often as not clumsy and wanting in a quick light touch. Very few really big men have ever been fine scullers. This is partly accounted for by the fact that so few boats are built large enough to carry big weights, and consequently they are under-boated when practising. Many big weights, _e.g._ S. D. Muttlebury and F. E. Churchill, have been good and fast scullers at Eton, but two or three years afterwards are slow, and get slower and slower the longer they continue. This, I think, is a good deal owing to the muscle which a big man generally acc.u.mulates, especially on the shoulders and arms, and he therefore lacks the essential qualities of elasticity, lissomeness, and quickness with the hands.

Big, strong men also generally grip with great ferocity the handles of their sculls, and these being small, the forearm becomes cramped, and gives out. Many good oarsmen have never tried to scull, and those who have generally give it up after a first failure, which is more often than not due to want of attention to detail. What pa.s.ses for good watermanship in an Eight is mere clumsiness in a sculling-boat, and, as a matter of fact, there are far fewer really good watermen than the casual observer imagines.

I asked three of our best modern heavy-weight oarsmen to tell me the reason why they could not scull. The Thames R.C. man said the only reason why he had never won the Diamonds was because he had never gone in for them. This was straightforward, but unconvincing to any one who had watched this gentleman gambolling in a sculling-boat. The Cambridge heavy-weight affirmed solemnly that he could scull, and was at one time very fast. He subsequently admitted that he could never get a boat big enough, and, secondly, his arms always gave. The Oxford heavy-weight replied much to the same purpose, without the preliminary affirmation.

Many men can scull well and slowly, but few can really go fast, and this, I think, is due to the fact that they do not practise enough with faster men than themselves, and so do not learn by experience what action of theirs will best propel a boat at its fastest pace. Nothing is more deceptive than pace; when a man thinks he is going fastest he is generally going slowest. He gets the idea that he is going fast because his boat is jumping under him, and creating a large amount of side-wash; but an observer from the bank will notice that although the sculls are applying great power, that power is not being applied properly, and his boat will be seen to be up by the head and dragging at the stern, and bouncing up and down instead of travelling.

The first and foremost thing, then, to be attended to for pace is balance, _i.e._ an even keel, and to obtain this your feet should be very firm in your clogs. As those supplied by the trade are of a very rough and rudimentary character, they will nearly always require padding in different places. You should be able to feel your back-stop just so much that when leaning back well past the perpendicular you can push hard against it with a straight leg. You are then quite firm, and can control your body in the event of your boat rolling. Although when a man has become a waterman he will find the back-stop unnecessary, it is safest for the novice to have it, so as to be able to press against it; otherwise, having nothing to press against at the finish of his stroke, he may acquire the bad habit of relying entirely on his toes to pull him forward. In such a position he is unstable, and if his boat rolls he has no control over his body.

Having got your balance, the next thing to be thought of is the stroke.

Reach forward until the knees touch either armpit; put the sculls in quite square, and take the water firmly (be most careful not to rush or jerk the beginning); at the same time drive with the legs, sending the slide, body and all, back; the loins must be absolutely firm, so that the seat does not get driven away from underneath the body. If you allow the loins to be loose and weak you will acquire that caterpillar action which was to be seen in several aspirants to Diamond Sculls honours last year, and which ruined whatever poor chance they ever possessed. This diabolical habit of driving the slide away, although common to many professionals, cannot be too severely condemned, as it relieves the sculler from doing any work at all except with the arms, which, if thus used, without swing and leg-work to help them, cannot, unless a man is enormously muscular in them, hold out for any great length of time. The firm drive will start the swing of the body, which may be continued a fraction of time after the slide has finished. You will find that when you have driven your slide back your body will have swung well past the perpendicular (and in sculling you may swing further back than you are allowed to in rowing). When in that position a sculler is allowed to do that which an oarsman must not, viz. he may help to start his recovery by moving his body slightly up to meet his sculls as they finish the stroke. Thus by keeping his weight on the blades in the water as long as possible, instead of in his boat, he strengthens the finish and prevents his boat burying itself by the bows. The stroke from the beginning should go on increasing in strength to the finish, which should be firm and strong, but, like the beginning, not jerked or snapped. Strength applied to the finish keeps a boat travelling in between the strokes.

The finish is by far the hardest part of the stroke, and is most difficult to get clean and smart. The position is naturally a far weaker one than that of the oarsman, as the hands are eight inches or so further back, and at the same time six inches or so clear of the ribs.

In this position nine out of ten scullers fail to get a really quick recovery with the sculls clean out and clear of the water, the hands away like lightning and clear of the knees, and the body at the same time swinging forward. As soon as the hands have cleared the knees they should begin to turn the blade off the feather, so that by the time you are full forward the blades are square and ready to take the water.

Professionals recommend staying on the feather until just before the water is taken, but this is apt to make the novice grip his handles tightly, and press on them almost unconsciously when he should be very light. He will thus make his blade fly up and miss the beginning. In order to ensure both hands working perfectly level and taking and leaving the water exactly together, a man should watch his stern, and by the turn given either way he can easily detect which hand is not doing its right amount of work. Which hand you scull over or which under makes little or no difference. Personally, I scull with the right hand under.

In holding a scull the thumb should "cap" the handle; this prevents you from pulling your b.u.t.ton away from the thowl even the slightest bit, and makes your grip firmer and steadier. If in steering you must look right round, do so shortly before you are full forward, as soon as the hands have cleared the knees, but generally steer by the stern, if you can, without looking round, and almost unconsciously by what you notice out of the corner of either eye as you pa.s.s.

Modern professionals, with very few exceptions, scull in disgracefully bad form. W. Haines, Wag Harding, and W. East, at his best, are perhaps the only exceptions I know to this rule. English professionals, owing to the manual labour with which most of them start life, become abnormally strong in the arms, and trust almost entirely to those muscles. Their want of swing, their rounded backs, and "hoicked" finish they carry with them into a rowing-boat. Nothing shows up their bad form in rowing so much as sandwiching a few pros. in a goodish amateur crew--"by their style ye shall know them." They have acquired a style which does not answer, and which they cannot get rid of, and they consider an Eight can be propelled in the same manner as a sculling-boat. Nothing is more erroneous. They cannot a.s.similate their style to the correct one. Two pros. sometimes make a fair pair, because they may happen to "hoick"

along in the same style. Professional Fours are a little worse than Pairs, and their Eights disgraceful. I am of opinion (and I fancy most men who know anything about rowing will agree with me) that England's eight best amateurs in a rowing-boat would simply lose England's eight best pros. over any course from a mile upwards. This inability to a.s.similate one's style to that of another man, or body of men, may be the reason why some excellent amateur scullers proved inferior oars, or it may be that they can go at their own pace and not at another man's. I myself have often felt on getting out of a sculling-boat into an Eight great difficulty and much weariness at being compelled to go on at another man's pace, and only to easy at another's order. If you are practising for sculling as well as rowing there is nothing like being _captain_ of an Eight or stroke of a Pair or Four.

The novice, if he has toiled so far as this, is no doubt by now saying to himself that I am only repeating what he knows already, and that what he especially requires are hints as to rigging his boat, size and shape of sculls, and various measurements, the pace of stroke he ought to go, etc., Of course, the smaller the blade the quicker the stroke, and _vice versa_. It should be remembered that even 1/16 of an inch extra in the breadth of a blade makes a lot of difference. Blades, I think, should vary according to the liveliness of water rowed on, and according to the strength of the individual. For myself, I am rather in favour of smaller blades than are generally used. My experience leads me to believe that racing sculls should be from 9 ft. 8 ins. to 9 ft. 9 ins. in length all over; in-board measurement from 2 ft. 8 ins. to 2 ft. 9 ins., but, of course, this entirely depends on how much you like your sculls to overlap. When they are at right angles to the boat, my sculls overlap so much that there is a hand's-breadth of s.p.a.ce in between my crossed hands. The length of blade should be about 2 ft.; breadth of blade, from 5 ins. to 6 ins. Even on the tideway sculls should be as light as a good scull-maker can turn them out, so long as they retain their stiffness. Do not, however, sacrifice stiffness to lightness. It is rather interesting to compare these measurements with those of a pair of sculls hanging over my head as I write; these were used in a championship race eighty years ago, and have a heavy square loom to counteract their length and consequent weight out-board. The measurements are--8 ft. 8 ins. in length over all, 1 ft. 9 ins.

in-board; length of blade, 2 ft. 5 ins.; breadth of blade, 3? ins. I give below roughly what should be the measurements of a boat according to the weight of the sculler. For a man of--