JOSH WARD’S SYSTEM OF TRAINING.
The following rules, from the pen of Josh Ward, ex-champion sculler and captain of the Ward crew, which among their other achievements won the International four-oared race at Saratoga in 1871, will be first-class authority:
First, be sure that the men are in perfect health, so that they will be able to stand the work which they are about to commence.
A mild medicine is usually required to cleanse the blood, as, unless the blood is in good order, and in very many cases it is in any other condition than a good one, the food taken will not digest well.
Upon getting up in the morning take a sponge bath, dry well with a coarse towel, after which walk about two miles before breakfast.
Breakfast should consist of a good tender porterhouse steak, broiled rare, and thoroughly masticated before swallowing. As a drink, a cup of black tea. Drink no more than absolutely necessary either at meals or any other time.
After breakfast, eaten slowly, no exercise should be taken for about an hour; at the expiration of which time, the crew can get in the boat and row the same distance expected to be rowed in the race, and at a good pace.
After returning from the row, a rub down and then a moderate walk, until shortly before dinnertime. Dinner should consist of roast beef or broiled chicken, with soft boiled eggs, etc.
If any drink is taken, tea or water, in moderate quantity, should be used. After dinner no exercise for about two hours, when the crew take the afternoon pull, which should be over about the same distance and at the same pace as that of the morning.
After coming ashore, rub down as in the morning, with a coarse towel, and then take a moderate walk, returning home about an hour before supper, which, when eaten at all, should be a light one, composed of a little broiled meat, with a piece of dry toast and a cup of tea.
Two meals, at the least, should always be taken; and where only two are taken, they should, in all cases, be what is known as breakfast and dinner, as both these meals, or rather either of them, are more essential to the man in training than supper, particularly if he, as I would advise him to do, rises with the sun and retires at about nine o’clock, or half-past, in the evening.
After a night’s sleep, and after having left the bed at five in the morning and walked or ran two, three or four miles, as well as taking a bath, the system is generally quite importunate for sustenance by seven o’clock or half-past.
This is not always the case, however, in regard to supper; as, after having eaten a hearty dinner, at 1 o’clock, without any other exercise thereafter than the afternoon row, a man with very little practice can accustom himself to doing without more food until the following morning, if he retire at about nine o’clock.
Up with the sun in the morning and pursue the regular plan of bath, walk, etc., unless stormy, in which case exercise indoors should be substituted for the walk.
The dumbells and clubs are proper implements to use for this purpose, and every man in training, whether amateur or professional, should have one or other, or both.
The man in training should always have plenty of exercise given him at regular and proper intervals. By plenty of exercise I mean just enough, neither too much nor too little; and to be able to tell just when a man has just enough belongs only to those who have had an extensive experience in preparing men for aquatic or other contests.
His habits must, of necessity, be very regular, otherwise the course which he is pursuing will result in very little good.
CELEBRATED FEMALE PEDESTRIANS.
| 1. Cora Cushing. | 2. Mary Marshall. | 3. Exilda La Chapelle. |
| 4. Fanny Edwards. | 5. Bertha Von Berg. | 6. Fanny Rich. |
| 7. Bella Kilbury. | 8. Madame Tobias. | 9. Madame Franklin. |
MADAME ANDERSON, the great 2,700 Quarter-mile Walker.
In regard to the oars which myself and brothers—the Ward crew—generally use, they are sweeps, about twelve feet long and five inches wide. A boat for our crew of four would be forty-six feet long and twenty inches wide. In pulling we use the legs, and in a four or six-oared boat pull forty and forty-two strokes per minute. In pulling a pair of sculls, I pull about thirty-eight strokes to the minute, and use the legs.
We used spoon oars, and our boats were constructed with the stroke on the starboard side.
In sculling, I have always pulled open-handed, but I think cross-handed is the better style.
To make a successful rower great practice will be required, although in this, as in everything else, some learn much more rapidly than others.
Benjamin F. Brady, ex-president of the Amateur Rowing Association, furnishes the subjoined:
Coxswains are carried in the gigs and barges only; all the shells being constructed to dispense with them, and it is safe to predict that they will soon come to be a thing of the past in all American shell races. Whether with or without a coxswain is the more practical or scientific, depends, in a great measure, upon the nature of the course pulled, and the efficiency of the bow oar; but an experienced crew can well get along without one. While the fact has been several times proven that a good coxswain has been the means of winning a race with an acknowledged inferior crew.