THE SPORT OF ROWING which abhorred the low-brow perspective of men with broad backs and calloused hands. Fairbairn was a Metaphysician. Steve wouldn’t immediately tell you how to achieve his ideal pullthrough. As described above, he would just encourage you to make the movements feel natural and count on your subconscious mind to bring the right mix of muscles into play. But, indeed, meaningful Schubschlag. What was new was Fairbairn’s teaching method. Legs and Backs Fairbairn is often quoted as saying, stylistic differences between the two approaches had evolved because nothing was sacred to Steve. He questioned everything! Fairbairn’s Ideal Pullthrough If you were coached by Steve Fairbairn, you would be instructed to actually look at your blade and watch how it moved through the water. What he wanted you to see (and hear) was a catch which resonated like “a true bell-note as the blade strikes the water,”878 leading to a strong but steady pullthrough where “the oarsman should feel the boat running out from under him.”879 Toward the release you should “think of driving the water away as fast and as far as you can; think of making the water come up boiling with a final whip.”880 This is pure Schubschlag. Fairbairn was fond of quoting Thames Rowing Club immortal Jimmy Hastie: “‘Take hold of the water as hard as you can, row it through harder, and finish it out hardest.’ – (Jimmy Hastie, Chapter 1, Verse 1)”881 This was not new. Tom Egan and Alfred Shadwell in their day had also chosen 878 Fairbairn On Rowing, p. 259. For a further discussion of the Bell-Note, see later in this chapter. 879 Ibid, p. 173 880 Ibid, p. 416 881 Ibid, p. 271 “The foundation of all rowing is the leg work,”882 but this must be put into proper context. He was contrasting his approach to the original pre-1886 pre-Fairbairn/Muttle- bury English Orthodox rejection of leg work at the entry, which had gradually returned to favor after he had left England. As Steve Fairbairn watched his own oar, he discovered that it acted in fundamentally different ways depending on the coordination of back and legs, whether they were used one-at-a-time or together, sequentially or concurrently. He concluded that they must be used together, concurrently. Though he wrote, “You must use your legs from the very start,”883 it was equally important to him that back swing began at the very same time. “The body is sprung off the stretcher, and the feet keep pushing off the stretcher all through the stroke.”884 Legs and backs used concurrently all the way from entry to release. Posture English Orthodoxy held that “the oarsman must sit ‘at attention’ . . . A person standing at attention relies on his feet and the ground unconsciously. The chief object of the oarsman should be a similar relation to his stretcher.”885 Fairbairn: “The body should be taut; but there must be no cast-iron rigidity about it.”886 882 Ibid, p. 97 883 Ibid, p. 161 884 Ibid, p. 386 885 Ibid, p. 521 886 Ibid, p. 151 To Steve, rowing the English 232
