Experts And Faddists In Rowing.

Taranaki Daily News, 26 November 1934, Page 11

Experts And Faddists In Rowing.

The London Rowing Club’s eight , which won its races at Melbourne , so well has set all the . rowing critics in Victoria busy discussing -the crew’s style, and many of them eager .to adopt it. But at least one Melbourne critic sees danger in copying the Englishmen without discrimination. “So. convincingly did the Englishmen win,” he says, “that they are sure to have imitators, and the result will be chaotic. The great' trouble about Victorian coaches is that • they do not know what they are after. They lack an expert knowledge of the mechanics of oarsmanship. After all, the main aim of a coach is to get the maximum power and pace out of ' a crew, but we in Victoria are concerned with the trimmings of rowing—uniformity of body swing or blended recovery. The members of the London crew concentrated on the essentials — power, slide-control, boat-control, and timing. They made body-swing and the recovery a matter of personal comfort. The critics saw the irregularities of the bodies, the uneven height of the blades on the recovery, and missed the run of the boat and the clearance between strokes. . . The members of the London crew were experts, the Victorians faddists.” w 4F • The English Amateur Athletic Association has definitely decided that the summer school which it held at Loughborough this year, at a cost of £l3O, shall be repeated next year. * * * Maxie Rosenbloom, who now has lost the light-heavyweight boxing championship of the world to Bob Olin, had held that title since June, 1930. He is 30 years old.