REGATTA ROWING.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20740, 6 December 1930, Page 10

REGATTA ROWING.

TRAINING FOR RACES.

BEST FORM OF DIET.

GOOD COACHES* OPINIONS. I

As soon as a crew has been chosen to race in either junior or senior events, it is most essential that every ir an must be prepared to give up a great deal which our present state of super-civilisation has Hto offer. A which has conscientiously trained for four or five weeks and possesses the confidence that follows every possible sort of practice enters a race in the best frame of mind. In many cases regular practice is not very easy when most of the crew are working all day, but whenever they can get out the first fortnight can be most profitably spent in paddling long stretches at a time, in order to get' rid of superfluous fat and weak muscles. Staleness is brought about most readily by attempting fast work too early in the period of training, when the body is least prepared to sjtond the extra strain imposed upon it. Mileage maketh champions " is a well-known axiom in the • rowing world, and it is certainly the best one to ajsply ; to a crew who are in the act of settling down. The long stretches give everyone a chance of getting used to stroke's rhythm, and also many little details which sooner or later determine the speed of the boat when racing over a / course. The Jegs and back gradually become much stronger, but the greatest advantage to 'be had is that the crew learns to sit the boat and paddle well when they are dead tired. This tells most in thd finish of a hard race, because a last spurt can be more readily answered if. the boat ,jis undei good control and running steadily through the water. No Smoking or Drinking. Smoking and drinking between meals will materially affect the staying powers of a crew, and are much better left out. The majority of coaches in England permit a maximum of a pint and a-half of draught beer every day, so long as everyone has been working, and occasionally a glass of port to follow any particular piece of hard rowing. The ■ main point to guard against as regards diet is the 4tarch and fat container among which boiled potatoes and new bread rank conspicuously. Plenty of fruit for breakfast after the usual porridge and bacon and cold meat, salad and potato crisps for lunch, and a threecourse dinner should keep the body well supplied and enable a proper development to take place. 1 Sleep in sufficient quantities is very important, and the usual training rules make half-past ten the time for lights out, and 7.30 a.m. the hour to go for a morning run to clear the lungs. ' A very useful point to remember is that during training each member of the crew should .make a habit of going out in a sculling boat in his spare moments. / Those who have not been out before in such a tiny craft will find how difficult it is at first to come forward with both blades clear of the water, and therefore, will concentrate and take far more » trouble in sitting the boat. Before long the crew as a whole will feel the benefit from this, and will be able to control they four or eight automatically with their /feet in a cross current or ■ wind. It is impossible to row a hard true stroke if the oar handle is either down by the keel of the boat or hitting one in the /Adam's apple every time. A, Hard, Clean Start. .When everyone is more or less fit spasmodic bursts of rowing for a minute or a minute and a-half will serve to show what the racing capacity of the crew is, and/where the weak spots lie. • A fast, clean racing start has put many an inferior crew in the lead off the mark, and encouraged them to such an extent that they have struggled along ahead of the others until past the finishing post. The racing start is commenced from halfway up the slide, and the first three I strokes must be very quick, short ones, with the blade kept as solid as possible in the water, to make the boat get under way By the fifth stroke each man must be out to his natural length or strongest point, feeling that he has plenty of time to rest coming forward. The final stages of training should see > at least three full courses rowed, so that an accurate idea of the distance and the number of spurts required can be obtained. A crew which responds to these spurts can always improve its position in a race, and this also helps to demoralise their opponents. The cox usually calls for a spurt of ten strokes by counting up to that number, and at each count everyone should be " fairly plugging it ' in." The main thing to remember is that the natural tendency of all will be to shorten the stroke, which helps a higher rate of striking, but does not increase the pace of To counteract this it I is usual to practice lengthening out whenever cox calls for a " ten," and at the same time this provides some of_ the hardest exercise one can have in training, (retting Rid of Fears.

Of famous coaches and their ways of making a certain number of men into a very fast crew, volumes could easily be written. Steve Fairbairn, whose personality is equally as great as his manner of coa. aing, had only to ride down the towing path at/ Cambridge, alongside Qne of his crews, and one could actually see the beneficial effect without him apparently saying a word. He always endeavoured to get rid of those small but inherent fears which' invariably beset oarsmen at first—teaching them to " sit the boat," either by rolling the blades round onco as they came forward, or making them keep the oar handles pressed hard down for quite a time after cox had said " easy all." This ' latter idea, with the blades kept off the, water, gave the most accurate rendering of what it feels like to " let the boat do the work," applied by almost every coach to every crew on the swing. He is a firm believer of the fact that good handling of a boat shows good oarsmanship, both in the water and out.

The Hon. W. Dudley Ward, who rowed for three years in the Cambridge eight, and regularly coaches crews at Henley, has the firnwconviction that " legs on to the beginning " is the essential factor to a good crew. Although ho is one of the authorities on orthodoxy, and declines to let anyone row with a back like a banana, and " shoot his slide," he does not lose sight of the fact that the legs are the strongest part of he body. Although it has not been possible, in view of the limited space, to deal with rowing in any other than a rather cursory manner, the writer has endeavoured to give some indication of how things are being done at Home, and also to show that this sport is by no means waning in popularity. Though attendances may be poor at sijime of the regattas, yet the cause is more the inclement weather than lack of interest. Certainly the number of oarsmen and entries for the races is on the increase over there, and that shows the true Spirit. Emerson was surely thinking of rowing when he wroto *' Sport is ,th'e bloom and glow of perfect health,^