THE SPORT OF ROWING jerky stroke. What else could they get out of it?”2002 Barney and his brother, John, who were painted by Thomas Eakins, rarely raced be- low 40 strokes per minute on the Schuylkill River in the early 1870s. Though their tech- nique was not the same as Burk’s, their forearm development foreshadowed that of Joe Burk. For years after Joe bought his first Po- cock single, he and George exchanged let- ters regularly, discussing equipment, train- ing and technique. Mendenhall: “G.C. Bourne’s A Text- book of Oarsmanship (1925), already the most thorough, scientific analysis of the conventional wisdom, insisted on at least a 1:3 ratio of pullthrough to recovery as fun- damental to all good rowing! “George Pocock came to recognize the possibility of the short stroke and high rating combined with Joe’s training methods. “‘It’s a wide opportunity,’ he wrote, ‘to anyone willing to pay the price.’ “[Joe’s reply:] ‘It was worth every tor- tured moment when the shell would feel silky smooth and go like a breeze.’”2003 Upon his retirement, Joe wrote: “George Pocock of Seattle not only fash- ioned and constructed those sleek, slithering sticks of gold that were such a joy to scull, but also helped me no end in the art of scull- ing them. “At times I am afraid George must have felt that he was running a correspondence course in the art of sculling, so many ques- tions did I shoot at him by mail. It was he who convinced me that a short stroke would fulfill my requirements. His fame as a builder of racing shells has spread world- wide, but like Paul Revere’s prowess as a 2002 Newspaper clipping collection of Bernard Biglin, John Biglin’s great grandson. 2003 Mendenhall, op.cit., p. 9 silversmith, his ability as a sculling coach has been outshone by his other brilliance. “To me it was a glowing beacon in the darkness of ignorance.”2004 A few years ago I asked Joe how he de- veloped his approach to sculling: Burk: “I tried many versions and came up with a technique that seemed to enable me to go sufficiently fast with a minimum of effort. It was very simple – arms, legs and back all started together and all finished to- gether.”2005 “Most scullers’ rate was about 28 strokes per minute, while mine was 40-42. “Everyone else allowed one hand to precede the other, so they didn’t overlap. I wanted to have them coming into my body at the same time. It required one rigger to be three and a half inches higher than the other! Very unusual! However, it was very comfortable “Since I sculled with my hands moving at the same speed and crossing as they ap- proached my knees, if my fingernails were the least bit long, they scraped the knuckles of my lower hand, so I wore a canvas glove from which I had cut off the thumb and fin- gers.”2006 “I added some padding made of the fin- gers that I had cut off, sewing with some heavy, black thread which my brother and I used for repairing baseballs as a kid. “We had a neighbor who pitched for a semi-pro team, and he gave us all the dam- aged baseballs in payment for being his catcher as he kept his arm ‘loose’ during the week.”2007 2004 Burk, qtd. by Fabricus, p. 38 2005 Burk, personal correspondence, 2004 2006 Burk, op.cit., 2005 2007 Burk, qtd. by Fabricus, p. 41 550
