THE BIRTH OF CLASSICAL TECHNIQUE which had contributed to his tendency to bury his stern in the water. Hanlan: “This proved to be acceptable, and I found that the greater freedom I could give my body, the greater impetus I could give the boat, and, therefore, attain a faster rate of speed. “When I came into the possession of the new sliding seat, I appreciated its great value, but realized, however, that I was only beginning to learn the rudiments of sculling, and that this improvement was but a single step in the right direction.”636 As for the continuing problem of excess weight transfer into the stern, rowing coach and philosopher Jimmy Joy has long studied Ned Hanlan. “Hanlan’s short stature forced him to use a more pronounced [back] swing to give more length to his stroke.”637 It is well understood that Hanlan laid back a long way, but there is no question that Hanlan also compressed further forward than anyone had done before him, tending to reach with his upper body between his knees. Hanlan: “The knees should be spread well apart, thereby giving the loins an easy and more powerful action.”638 This was the original source of his stern check. Hanlan: “I could not ascertain how to accomplish the object I had in view when it came across my mind like a flash that the control of the whole motion of the body while in the boat lay in my feet.”639 Hanlan realized that toward the end of the recovery he was transferring his weight onto his feet in the stern, and this was causing the check and interfering with the run of the boat. 636 Hanlan, p. 2 637 Joy, Hanlan, p. 3 638 Harding, p. 8 639 Hanlan, p. 3 Jim Rice: “It is the commonest thing in the world to see a boat jump ahead at every stroke. This may seem to indicate power to the inexpert eye which does not notice that the shell remains practically stationary between the strokes [i.e., the boat’s run is checked]. “Ned Hanlan developed what I call the ‘sneak back’ to the catch, and it was a pretty sight to see him manipulating his sliding seat so that the boat seemed pulled through the water by a string instead of being driven by separate strokes. [This is reminiscent of Ellis Ward’s “haunted boat”640 comment and indicates that there was no “check” in Hanlan’s stroke.] “By such methods as this, Hanlan made sculling an art as well as a science.”641 In the generations after Ned Hanlan, many coaches have taught that instead of imagining that you are traveling down the slide into the stern, you should instead imagine that you are drawing the boat back underneath you. This simple mental change in point-of-view can bring a significant transformation of technique, and this appears to be similar to what Hanlan was attempting. Hanlan: “It took considerable time to conquer the habit, but I finally accomplished it and by degree got every muscle of my body working in perfect unison. “At first it was very awkward. I spent months practicing in that direction, and every day I noticed an improvement in my speed.”642 Pendulum Swing Hanlan’s cure for stern check at the entry evolved into what he ended up calling 640 Qtd. by Kelley, p. 33 641 Rice, James C., op.cit. 642 Hanlan, p. 3 171
