THE UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON DYNASTY Pocock and his followers did not use the 19th Century term “ferryman’s finish.” They called it the sculler’s release, and it had many facets, taking advantage of the bend a rower could put into the shaft of the old Pocock wooden oars. George Pocock: “As [the] last squeeze is being exerted and while the squeeze is on, start turning the wrists and shoot the hands and arms away as quickly as you like, the quicker the better. “There is only an instant in which to take advantage of the aerated water, almost a hole, behind the blade, caused by this last squeeze. This is the reason the wrists must start turning before the power is off, while the bend is still in the loom “Just turn [the handles] slightly, relax the grip a bit and the water will kick them flat as the hands and arms shoot away.” 1649 Pocock disciple and two-time Olympic Champion Conn Findlay:1650 “They used the bend in the oar to get the oar out. “What does the bend in your oar do for you when you’re trying to release the blade? It allows the handle and the blade both to go toward the stern at the same time, and that’s the release that the Pococks taught. “What you do is you think about pushing away the handle before the blade has finished its travel, so the stroke is finished by the oar shaft straightening while the handle is already moving the other way, so that’s why you cannot see the blade turn over. “You don’t have to do anything with the oar at the release. If you just let go of it, it will take itself out. There’s a hole behind, and as soon as it closes, it flips the blade over, and it’s sitting on the surface of the water. “If you lift any water off the horizontal, the boat has become heavier by the force it took to lift that water. 1649 Pocock website, p. 2 1650 See Chapter 82. “A clean release is not foamy. It looks like a bunch of grapes. There is moving water in it, but it is absolutely flat.”1651 Stan Pocock: “It was easy to discover whether an oarsman had the right idea by watching what happened after being given the command, ‘Way enough!’ “If his oar handle stopped up against his belly, he had it all wrong. The spring of the handle out into the recovery and the leaning of the body toward the stern before stopping was the key. We liked to talk of wanting to experience a certain sense of surprise when a full recovery did not follow. “In my own coaching as the years passed, I even went a step further by insisting that the crews continue on out to a full slide and full reach before stopping.”1652 The ferryman’s finish also helped put the boat in proper fore-and-aft trim. Stan: “The virtue of that quick [hands away and body over early in the] recovery pays off here. A shell will not run very long with the weight in the bow, but will run out longer when the bow is higher.”1653 Among early American collegiate coaches, the ferryman’s finish was embraced by Jim Ten Eyck1654 and opposed by Ellis Ward,1655 Charles Courtney in his later years,1656 Richard Glendon,1657 Hiram Conibear1658 and the first two generations of his followers.1659 It was in the amount of layback that the Thames Waterman’s Stroke of the late 19th Century (-45°) differed from the Ernest 1651 Findlay, personal conversation, 2005 1652 S. Pocock, personal correspondence, 2005 1653 www.pocockrowing.org, p. 3 1654 See Chapter 41. 1655 See Chapter 36. 1656 See Chapter 39. 1657 See Chapter 51. 1658 See Chapter 46. 1659 See Chapters 52 through 63. 439
