more force into their leg-drive. A very useful plan, especially for the purpose of getting a crew finally together, is to make them do long stretches of paddling varied here and there by about a dozen or twenty strokes of rowing, care being taken, however, not to allow the paddling to get dead and dull, and a special point being made of getting the rowing not only hard, but very long.
Paddling is a difficult art to learn, and only the very best crews paddle really well with balance, rhythm, and ease. Many a time I have seen a good crew and an inferior one paddling along the course together, and almost invariably the good crew, which had mastered the trick of paddling at a slow stroke and with perfect ease, was distanced. Yet a moment afterwards, when they ranged up alongside, and started together for a two minutes' burst of rowing, the good crew would leave its opponents as though they were standing still.
How to work the Stroke up to Racing Pace.
There comes a time in the history of every crew when, having been plodding along comfortably at
thirty-four, they suddenly realize that the race is barely a week off, that if they are to have any chance of success they must raise the stroke, and that they don't know how on earth it is to be done, seeing that they have usually felt pretty well cleaned out after rowing even a half course at their present rate. However, they generally do manage tant bien que mal to get it done, and find in the end that thirty-eight is not really much more difficult for men in good training than thirty-four.
The best plan, I think, is to devote the greater part of an afternoon's practice to short rows of half a minute and a minute at, say, thirty-seven, and to wind up with three minutes of this. On that day there will probably be at first a terrible amount of rushing and splashing. On the following day you will find that things have settled down, and you will be able to row for five minutes at the faster rate. On the third day practise short pieces again at thirty-eight, thirty-nine, forty; and on the fourth day row your full course at as fast a rate as you can command. A coach should impress upon his crew that a fast stroke is to be secured not by rushing forward with the bodies, but by rattling away the hands
quicker and by increasing the force employed in forcing the oar through the water. The pace of the bodies on the forward swing, though, of course, it does increase, should feel as if it were slower. Relatively to the rate of stroke used, it is, in fact, slower at a fast than at a slow stroke. The best stroke-oars have been men who fully realized this, and who, either in breaking from a paddle into a row, or in spurting during a hard piece of rowing, gave their crew a delightful sense of steadiness and balance, which enabled them to put their utmost energies into every stroke.
Practice in Starting.
During the week preceding the race a coach should devote a great part of his attention to the task of getting his crew quick off the mark. If a crew starts in a brisk and lively manner, and gets pace on its boat immediately, it is far more likely to continue well, so long as its strength and condition last, than a crew that ponderously drags its boat off, with the notion that it can put pace on later. At the end of half a minute the lively crew would be well ahead—no small moral advantage where two crews are evenly matched. The best
position for the first stroke is a little more than half forward with the body and three parts forward with the slide. The mind, as well as the muscles, must be intent on the effort. At the word "Go" at once cover the blade deeply, spring the body on to the work, use the arms vigorously on this occasion only, and, above all, drive, drive, drive with the legs, wrenching the stroke fully home with outside hand.[10] Then make a special point of rattling hands out like lightning, and get hold of the second stroke when the hands are over the stretcher. Again a lightning rattle, followed by a longer swing. The fourth stroke should be a full one. During the first two strokes the crew should watch stroke's blade, and take their time from that.