ROWING

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 16492, 9 November 1927, Page 4

ROWING

HOW THE BODY SWINGS SMOOTH ACTION ESSENTIAL (Notes by “Slide.”) Last week’s notes included a description of the “catch,” or beginning of the stroke, and the purpose of the following article is to impress on the novice oarsman the necessity for keeping the action throughout the stroke smooth and rhythmical. Rhythm is the essence of success, as any sea soiled oarsmen will agree, for it is a fact that many a crew has pulled off races in spite of big handicaps simply by virtue of the smooth swinging action in the boat. There are instances every season in which well liked fours or doubles are beaten through some upset in their combination leading to an interruption of the rhythm.

There are several factors which affect the combination of a. crew, and the most important should be fixed firmly in the mind of the novice before he gets far into the sport of rowing. First there is the uniform catch, the details of which were referred to last week; then comes the shoulder and body swing, and finish ■with the arms, and the return of the body to the catch position. Before going further “Slide” would like to remedy an oversight in last week’s notes, this being the neglect to explain that at the moment of the catch the knees are well apart, and the arms extended between them, while the heels are locked down in the brackets on the stretcher. If the heels are allowed to lift out, of the brackets as the catch is made it will have a bad effect upon the slide-work through the stroke, for as the body swings away, the slide must be held against the natural impulse to drive away, until the shoulders have reached the perpendicular at least. : SHOULDER AND LEG DRIVE

The body-swing follows the catch, aidl must be sufficiently rapid to keep the water packed under the blade of the oar. If the leg-drive is made before the shoulder and back muscles feci the weight, the whole of the additionnl. force obtainable from 4 good leg-drive will be lost. The novice must grasp at once the fact that the sliding seat was fitted in place of the old fixed type with the object of enabling the oarsmen to use the strong muscles of the legs; but if the slide is mismanaged it is a handicap rather than a help in obtaining a long, strong stroke. Obviously, if the slide gets away ahead of the shoulders, there is not a fraction of the leverage that can be exerted by the correct employment of the moving seat. Therefore, the novice oarsmen must learn to hold, his slide until the shoulders are in such a position that the legdrive cannot shove the scat, ouf from under them. This slide-holding is simple enough, once the principle is grasped, but it is not a natural muscular effort, and must be cultivated accordingly. There the is passage of only a fraction of a second between the shoulder swing and the leg drive, but for that critical instant the heels should grip down in the brackets and resist the inclination of the slide to shoot away. In that instant lies the difference between a good stroke and a poor effort, and the earnest novice will do his best to cultivate the use of the heels in the manner indicated. Eventually it will become as unconscious as each of the other movements in the successful completion of the stroke. SWING IN THE BOAT

The aim of every budding oarsman should bo to attain the right degree of body swings as to length, speed, and direction. The man in the stroke seat, will set the length and speed, but the rest of the crew must look out for their own direction. ‘‘Swing down the centre of the boat,” is a slogan that many stroke-oars use in training, and though there are variations of this urge, they all mean the same tiling. The haft of the oar extends well beyond the centre line of the boat, and there is a temptation to swing over in order to bring the shoulders opposite the grip on the oar. This tendency must be combated, for unless the whole crew is swinging straight in the boat, there will be lurches and rolls every time the oars leave the water. It should not require diagrams to indicate how leaning out of the boat must affect the running;' nor should the strokeoars require to be constantly reminding their novices to swing straight down the keel. A further detail of the swing, and a most important detail, is that the body movement must conclude exactly at the same moment as the leg drive. .There is a definite relation between the two contributing motions, and it is in the synchronising of the two that the rhythm lies.

“HANDS AWAY!”

Now for the finish of the stroke, which is n fairly difficult part of the Avhole. The stroke is not finished, it must be understood, until the hands have been brought up to the chest, the wrists dropped and the blade cleared from the water, and the arms extended fully with a sharp motion. This is the movement known as getting the hands away, and when f stroke-oar calls “Hands away! ” it is a reminder of the necessity for keeping this movement sharp. Many young oarsmen succeed in getting the oar away from the body again quickly, after a little practice, but it takes concentration to perform the movement as a part of the stroke itself, rather than as the beginning of the recovery. The stroke lasts from the time the blade enters the water at the catch until it rests level, or “feathered,” dear of the water and not far from a right-angle position in relation to the line of the boat. The recovery begins after the arms have been extended, and is simply a reversal of the synchronised movements of the body and which comprise the stroke itself. Thus the “hands away” stretching of the arms and the swing forward of the body arc entirely distinct, though, of course, in the case of a polished oarsman they blend, one into the other, to make a harmonious whole. In the novice, the natural inclination is to ’ follow the snappy return of the arms to the extended position with an equally fast body recovery, and herein lies another

cause of rolling and lurching. Time and practice can obviate the tendency right enough, but few novices succeed in making .the movements distinct without concentration for a few days at least. From the foregoing, the new member will perceive that there is more in the sport of rowing than simply pulling the oar through the water in a succession of tugs. The writer, will take an early opportunity of describing the recovery on general lines, and will 1 endeavor to cover in detail the finer points of (lie sport, from the point of view of the novice oarsman. Watermanship does not come naturally to every man who steps into a boat, and it is very necessary that the aspirant to regatta honors should learn to paddle, before lie begins to row. There is as much mental effort in rowing as there, is muscular effort, and tlie brain must control the body in every particular if success is to be attained.