ENGLISH ORTHODOX MEETS CLASSICAL TECHNIQUE I believe that it was no coincidence that Ned Hanlan, the man who first perfected Classical Technique, came from Canada. History will teach us that all the greats who have fundamentally altered future rowing have had one thing in common: an open mind unfettered by tradition, prejudice or preconception. Steve Fairbairn When Ned Hanlan won the World Professional Championship in 1880, there was already change in the air in Great Britain. Whether the English Orthodox establishment liked it or not, sliding seats had the inherent capacity to transform rowing, and it was only a matter of time before the cork came out of the bottle. The Tideway clubs, principally Thames and London Rowing Clubs, sharing their waters with professional scullers and coaches and never in the thrall of Oxbridge Orthodoxy, were already changing in the 1870s in response to sliding seats, placing more emphasis on initial leg drive.664 We shall see that one man in particular, Joe Sadler (1839- 1889), the British Professional Sculling Champion from 1874 to 1876, was even coaching one of the colleges at Cambridge with great success. The man who would bring Classical Technique right to the heart of English University rowing was, like Hanlan, another far-flung colonist. Born into a well-to-do Australian farming family of Scottish descent, Stephen Fairbairn (1862- 1938) would come to Britain to attend Cambridge University and would actually have the opportunity to see Hanlan row shortly after his arrival. A descendent of generations of exceptional athletes, Fairbairn spent his 664 Bourne, Memories, pp. 95, 105 Fairbairn, Rowing Notes Concurrent Classical Technique in Fairbairn’s day FISA 2004 DVD Concurrent Classical Technique in the 2004 U.S. Olympic Eight In both cases, legs and backs were caught in the middle of their motions, and while arms and shoulders were straining, outside elbows had yet to begin to break. secondary school years at Geelong Grammar School, near Melbourne in the Australian State of Victoria, and to say that he excelled in cricket, rugby football, track, swimming, gymnastics and rowing would be a pitiful understatement.665 He was a large man with inexhaustible energy. At the age of 14, he walked across 665 Fairbairn of Jesus, p. 41 181
