ROWING.

Timaru Herald, Volume XCIV, Issue 14658, 27 January 1912, Page 4 (Supplement)

ROWING.

- POINTS" IN CATRSMANSaiP. •Judgment of pace is, perhaps, oue pt the, last gifts that a coach acqoiies, the judgment, I mean, which is ir.deBejpuent of the test of tho watch. Oi.iv ••dtperience and a good eye can ii::.ure ,'lt- Misplaced. rarjid. i.y of more u..at in the bodies of the crow is eaten t:i';cii by the novice for rapidity of movement on the part of the boat, v-hen, »a a matter of fact, tho boat is cheeking and shivering unior the convulsive eftGttf of her crew. No man a-.-tn.illy rowing .in a crew, when once ha In.>i felt the boat move swiftly, tan ever 'iujstako the sham for the real. Tho crash of the oars into tho water, tho .sense of elation as the stroke is siem-id through with every ounce of weight on tho blades, the prompt, elastic, iocktd-uip-recovery; the slow, inexorable roll °f,tn* slides forward while The v..iter bubbles away from the boat's sides, the feeling of unbreakable control as the bodies swing, all tliese accompaniments ' arid proofs of speed, once experienced, are never forgotten Of these,. too, though not to the same doeree, a .coach is sensible, acid, to aelp'lns judgment, he can observe and mark' the distanco at whi.h '.troke or Nq. 7 strikes tho beginning l.i.jond *ho.. puddles msdo by No. 2 or ;.r»*v on the' previous stroke. When a c- tvr is rowing hard at a slow rate, it sliouid cover a long epace of clear water t:etTr«ton strokes, and at its fastest rate St must cover by a foot or two. If you sec- stroke's or No. 7's blado popping into the previous puddles jo-u Kay be sure that somewhere 'n the crew strength has begun to f-iil, or 'Biat the whole rowing is radi.'ally #rong. A coach ought often to drop bohihd his crew. In that position ho can note, the time of the blades, and what is equally important, the be'fcariour of the boat *is tho blades sire extracted' and the hands are shot out. ■ Jf<i£;ttio.. point she wavers or trembles '•r'falters ever.so slightly from side to fide, he. must realise that the t coo very of the creTf is hadly at. fault. A- boat should "take tlhe recovery with i roek,'like\ rteadiness and imperturbability." ■Then ho should come alongside again, <«hd;:wßtch the stern of the boat. If "tho'rowing is had- and the bodies are •n jthe nißh, he will see the stern pause and kick back i\s the men px-t on *o their, beginning. If the rowing is altogether good he will see tho stem motlng onward without a trace of a check, .gathering way while the stroke •comes- through, until the culminating speed h reached as the hands lon re the eheet. When such is the progress o c a boat's stern the coach may know that .there fa nothing much the matter with the', oarsmanship, and the boat is "travelling between the strokes' - ' as ahaioueht to do.— "Stroke", in the ' "%dn*7 Daily Telegraph,"-