Rowing Part 4

(6) As they end, the knees should be pressed firmly down so as to enable you to secure the last ounce of leg-power from the stretcher.

Simultaneously with this depression of the legs, the hands (and particularly the outside hand, which has been doing the main share of the work of the stroke all through) must bring the oar-handle firmly home to the chest, sweeping it in and thus obtaining what is called a firm hard finish. As the knees come finally down, the elbows pa.s.s the sides, and the shoulders move back and downwards.

[Ill.u.s.tration: SLIDING SEATS.

NO. 9.--THOROUGHLY BAD POSITION FULL FORWARD.

(_Overreach with shoulders, back doubled over, arms bent, hands heavy on handle. A position entailing great labour and resulting in a short weak stroke._)]

(_a_) Mr. W. B. Woodgate, in the Badminton book on "Boating," says: "Many good oarsmen slide until the knees are quite straight. In the writer's opinion this is waste of power: the knees should never quite straighten; the recovery is, for anatomical reasons, much stronger if the joint is slightly bent when the reversal of the machinery commences. The extra half-inch of kick gained by quite straightening the knees hardly compensates for the extra strain of recovery; also leg-work to the last fraction of a second of swing is better preserved by this retention of a slight bend, and an open chest and clean finish are thereby better attained."

If Mr. Woodgate means that the legs are _not_ to be pressed down as the stroke finishes, but are to remain loosely bent, I differ from him, though, considering his high authority, with hesitation and regret. As a matter of fact, the front edge of the thwart catches the calves of the legs at the finish, when the legs are pressed down, and prevents the knees from being _absolutely_ straightened. But I am certain that unless an oarsman a.s.sures his legs in the firm position that I have explained, he will lose most valuable power at the end of the stroke, and will materially increase his difficulty in taking his oar clean out of the water and generally in getting a smart recovery. This final leg-pressure not only supports the body in a somewhat trying position, but enables the hands to come home to the chest without faltering. As on fixed seats, it is essential that the body should not be pulled forward to meet the oar. And it is equally essential that it should not sink down or fall away from the hands, thus rendering an elastic recovery impossible.

(_b_) The blade, as on fixed seats, must be kept fully covered to the finish, and there must be power on it to the last fraction of an inch. If a man takes his oar out of the water before he has fairly ended his stroke, and rows his finish in the air, or if he partially uncovers his blade and rows "light," he commits in either case a serious fault. In the former case his whole body-weight, which ought to be propelling the boat, not only ceases to have any good effect, but becomes so much dead lumber, and actually impedes her progress. In the latter he can only exert half, or, it may be, one quarter of his proper power during an appreciable part of the stroke.

(7) The drop of the hands, the turn of the wrists, the shoot-out of the hands, and the straightening of the arms must be performed precisely as on a fixed seat, but the legs, meanwhile, are to remain braced, so that knees may not hamper hands. As soon as ever the hands have been shot out, and _immediately_ after the start of the forward swing, the slide comes into play, and the knees consequently begin to bend outwards and upwards. It is very important not to pause or "hang" on the recovery.

[Ill.u.s.tration: SLIDING SEATS.

NO. 10.--A THOROUGHLY BAD AND VERY COMMON POSITION AT FINISH.

(_Body lying much too far back, elbows sticking out. From such a position a smart and elastic recovery is impossible._)]

(8) The recovery movements ought to release the body smartly, but care must be taken not to hustle the body forward with a rush before the arms are straightened. The body _begins_ to swing _from the hips_ as soon as the hands release it, but the swing is to be a slow one.

(_a_) Do not begin to slide forward before you swing. Let your swing just have the precedence, and let it then carry your slide with it.

(9) The pace of the swing forward must be slow and unvarying, and the slide, therefore, must also move slowly. The time occupied by the swing should be the body's rest.

(10) Remember the fixed-seat instructions as to balance against the stretcher with the feet during the swing forward, and especially during the latter part of it. The fault of tumbling forward over the stretcher is far too common, and can only be avoided or corrected by maintaining the pressure on the stretcher. In fact, never let your body get out of control. You ought to feel and to look as if at any moment during the swing forward you could stop dead at the word of command. Swing and slide should practically end together, the body "snaking out," as I have heard it expressed, in the final part of the swing, but without "pecking" over the front-stop. There must be no over-reach with the shoulders.

(11) When the body is full forward the knees should be opened to about the breadth of the arm-pits, the flanks closed in against the thighs.

The knees should bend steadily and gradually into this position, and at the moment of beginning they must maintain themselves there and not fall loosely apart. Such a movement entails a great loss of power at the beginning of the next stroke. Nor, on the other hand, ought the knees to be clipped together as the stroke begins.

(12) Remember, finally, that grace, erectness, straightness of back and arms, and a clean precision, balance and elasticity of all movements are as important now as they were on fixed seats. A man who on slides rounds his back, humps up his shoulders, and hollows his chest _may_ do good work, but it will be in spite of and not because of these serious disfigurements. Only by carefully observing fixed rules and by prolonged practice will you be able to attain to the harmonious ease and elegance by which a comparatively weak man can so economize his strength as to outrow and outlast some brawny giant who wastes his power in useless contortions.

[Ill.u.s.tration: SLIDING SEATS.

NO. 11.--ANOTHER BAD POSITION AT FINISH.

(_Body doubled up over handle of oar, elbows sticking out. With the body in this position heart and lungs get no chance of working properly._)]

CHAPTER IV.

COMBINED OARSMANSHIP IN EIGHTS.

The novice, having pa.s.sed successfully through his period of apprenticeship, is by this time ready, let us suppose, to be included in an eight-oared, sliding-seat crew, either for his college or for the rowing club to which he may happen to belong. He will marvel at first at the fragile and delicate fabric of the craft in which he is asked to take his place. One-eighth of an inch of cedar divides him from the waters that are to be the scene of his prowess. In stepping into the boat he must exercise the greatest care. The waterman and the c.o.xswain are firmly holding the riggers, while the oarsman, placing a hand on each gunwale to support himself, steps cautiously with one foot on to the kelson, or backbone of the ship. Then he seats himself upon his slide, fits his feet into the stretcher-straps, and inserts his oar in the rowlock, finally getting the b.u.t.ton into its proper place by raising the handle, and so working at it until the b.u.t.ton comes in under the string that pa.s.ses from thole to thole, and keeps the oar from flying out of the rowlock. His seven companions having performed the same feats, the boat is now shoved out from the bank, and the work of the day begins.

[Ill.u.s.tration: SNAPSHOTS OF A CREW IN MOTION.

NO. 1.--JUST BEFORE FULL REACH.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: NO. 2.--FULL REACH.

("_Reach out and row!_")]

The oarsman who thus takes his first voyage in a racing-ship, built, as all racing-ships are, without a keel, must remember that her stability, when she contains her crew, is obtained merely by the balance of the oars. Remove the oars, and the boat would immediately roll over to one side or the other, and immerse her crew in the water. With eight bodies and oars in a constant state of movement, the problem of keeping the boat upon an even keel is not an easy one. It can only be solved satisfactorily in one way: There must be absolute harmony in every movement. The hands must come in and out at the same moment and at the same level, and the oar-blades must necessarily be maintained, on the feather and throughout the swing, at the uniform level prescribed for them by the harmonious movement of eight pairs of hands. The bodies must begin, continue, and end the swing together; the blades must strike the water at precisely the same moment; all the bodies must swing back as if released from one spring; the slides must move together; the arms bend as by one simultaneous impulse; and the eight oar-blades, having swept through the water in a uniform plane, must leave it as though they were part of a single machine, and not moved by eight independent wills.

When this unison of movements has been attained by long and persevering practice, marred by frequent periods of disappointment, by knuckles barked as the boat rolls and the hands sc.r.a.pe along the gunwale, and by douches of cold water as the oars splash, then, and not till then, may it be said that a crew has got together.

The above details concern the harmony and unison of the crew. It is obvious, however, that the eight men who compose it may be harmonized into almost any kind of style, and it is important, therefore, to settle what is the best style--the style, that is, which will secure the greatest possible pace at the smallest cost of effort. In the first place, then, you must remember and endeavour to apply all the instructions I have laid down in the two previous chapters. These were framed upon the supposition that you were trying to qualify yourself to row eventually in a light racing-ship. Summing these up generally, and without insisting again upon details, I may say that you are required to have a long, steady, and far-reaching body-swing; you must grip the beginning of the stroke well behind the rigger at the full reach forward without the loss of a fraction of a second, with a vigorous spring back of the whole body, so as to apply the body-weight immediately to the blade of the oar. As your body swings back, your feet are to press against the stretcher and drive the slide back, in order that, by the combination of body-swing and leg-drive, you may retain the power which you have applied at the beginning evenly throughout the whole of the stroke. It is essential that the body should not fall away at the finish, but maintain an easy, graceful position, so that, with a final pressure of the legs, the swing of the elbows past the sides, and a rowing back of the shoulders which opens the chest, the hands may be swept fair and square home, the oar-blade being meanwhile covered, but not more than covered, from the moment it enters the water until it is taken clean out. The hands must then leave the chest as a billiard-ball rebounds from the cushion, in order that you may have a smart and elastic recovery. This swift motion of the hands straightens the arms, and releases the body for its forward swing. The body-swing forward, as I cannot too often repeat, must be slow, especially during its latter part; in fact, during that swing, a perfect balance must be maintained, the feet being well planted against the stretcher. When a man rows in this style with seven other men, in absolute time and harmony with them, he will find a rhythmical pleasure and a delightful ease in movements which at the outset were cramped and difficult. Then, as he swings his body, grips the water and drives his swirling oar-blade through, he will feel that every ounce of strength he puts forth has its direct and appreciable influence upon the pace of the boat. Not for him then will it be to envy the bird in its flight, as, with all his muscles braced, his lungs clear, and his heart beating soundly, he helps to make his craft move like a thing of life over the water.

[Ill.u.s.tration: SNAPSHOTS OF A CREW IN MOTION.

NO. 3.--JUST AFTER BEGINNING OF STROKE.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: NO. 4.--SLIDES BEGINNING TO MOVE.]

That is the ideal. Let us come down to the actual. I will imagine myself to be coaching an average crew in a racing-ship.

I must first of all a.s.sure myself that the boat is properly rigged, and that the men have a fair chance of rowing with comfort. The thole-pins should stand absolutely straight from the sill of the rowlock. If the rowing-pin is bent outwards towards the water in the slightest degree, the oar will have a tendency to "slice," and a feather under water will be the result. The actual wood of the rowing-pin, however, should be slightly filed away at the bottom, so as to incline a very, very little towards the stern of the boat. Care must be taken also to have a sufficient width between the thole-pins to prevent the oar from locking on the full reach. The rowlock-strings must be taut. They must have a sufficient pressure on the oar to prevent the b.u.t.ton being forced out of the rowlock. For these and other details, the table of measurements given at the end of this chapter should be consulted.

[Ill.u.s.tration: SNAPSHOTS OF A CREW IN MOTION.

NO. 5.--ARMS ABOUT TO BEND FOR FINISH OF STROKE.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: NO. 6.--ARMS BENT FOR FINISH OF STROKE.

("_Sit Up No. 3!_")]

In this crew I will suppose that five of the members have already had experience in lightship rowing. The three others--bow, No. 3, and No.

4--are quite new to the game. I point out to these three, to begin with, the importance of balancing the boat by having their arms rigidly straight as they swing forward, so as to be able, by the slightest amount of give and take from the shoulders, to counteract any tendency to roll, by sitting firmly on their seats, and not shifting about to right or to left, and by keeping their feet well on the stretchers. That done, the words of command will come from the c.o.x. "Get ready all!" (At this command, the oarsmen divest themselves of all unnecessary clothing.) "Forward all!" (The oarsmen swing and slide forward to within about two-thirds of the full-reach position, the backs of the blades lying flat upon the water.) "Are you ready?" (This is merely a call to attention.) "Paddle!" (At this the blades are turned over square, and immediately grip the water, and the boat starts.) During the progress of this imaginary crew, I propose to invest them individually and collectively with certain faults, and to offer suggestions for their improvement, just as if I were coaching them from the bank or from a steam-launch.

(1) "Stroke, you're tumbling forward over your stretcher. Keep the last part of your swing very slow by balancing against the stretcher with your feet as you swing forward. That's better. You got a beginning twice as hard that time."

(2) "Seven, you're feathering under water. Keep pressure on to the very finish of the stroke, and drop your hands a little more, so as to get the oar out square and clean. Use the legs well at the finish."

(3) "Six, you're very slow with your hands. Consequently, your body rushes forward to make up for lost time. Shoot the hands away quickly, with a sharp turn of the inside wrist. Then let the body follow slowly."

(4) "Five, you slide too soon and fall away from your oar at the finish.

Get your shoulders and the whole of your body-weight well on to the beginning, so as to start swinging back before you drive your slide away. At the finish keep your shoulders down and sit up well upon your bones."

(5) "Four and three, your blades are coming out of the water long before any of the others. This is because you are afraid of reaching properly forward. You therefore get your oars in scarcely if at all behind the rigger, and consequently there is not enough resistance to your oar in the water to enable you to hold out the stroke fully to the finish.

Swing, and reach well forward, and let your oars strike the beginning at the point to which your reach has brought it. You may splash at first, but with a little confidence you will soon get over that. Three, you're late. As you come forward you press heavily on the handle of your oar, the blade soars up, and is coming down through the air when the rest have struck the water. Keep your hands, especially the inside one, light on the handle of the oar, and let them come up as the body swings forward."

(6) "Two, your arms are bending too soon. Try to swing back with perfectly straight arms. Don't imagine that you can row your stroke merely by the power of your arms. Also try and keep your shoulders down at the finish and on the recovery."