the 1950s,1675 describes the sculler’s catch as follows: “What you do is put the blade on the water and start pulling on it by pushing with your feet. You let the bottom edge of that blade catch the water, and it will actually slip in your hands.”1676 As a consequence, some people called THE UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON DYNASTY The Pullthrough 13. Catch initiated primarily with legs. 14. Try to use all three sources of power at once. 15. The legs and the lower back reach full this technique the “slip catch.” Stan Pocock: “With the blades only squared as they were driven into the water, there was no longer any concern should the boat lurch off keel on the recovery and the blades touch – something bound to happen in windy weather. The blades simply skipped off the top of the waves. Reduced wind resistance was another advantage. Also, because the blades could be kept much closer to the surface, missed water at the catch was reduced to a minimum.”1677 Findlay: “The thing that nobody talks about is that in order to start moving the boat by working on the water, your blade has to match the speed of the water before anything will happen. “If the boat’s going six or eight or ten or twelve miles per hour, in order for the blade to go in, it has to miss water. If you had a street sweeper with a big brush, and if it was spinning and you were working on the surface of it, how would you get into the brush to give it a shove? [This is reminiscent of Conibear’s bicycle wheel experiment, Chapter 44.] “Most people miss water in order to get the speed up, so that when they get in the water they’re moving that way, and you can see that by the stern splash. “We always tried to get a bow splash because we used the scullers’ catch to hook the water right at the end of the recovery.”1678 1675 See Chapter 83 ff. 1676 Findlay, personal conversation, 2005 1677 S. Pocock, p. 73 1678 Findlay, personal conversation, 2005 extension simultaneously. Concurrent use of all three sources of power was the hallmark of Washington rowing, indeed of all non-English Orthodox American collegiate rowing since Ellis Ward in the late 1890s and Charles Courtney after 1900. However there was a subtle distinction between George Pocock and the Washington coaches. Husky crews would use their legs strongly, but they would blend the effort levels of legs, backs and arms such that all three could be seen to begin their motions at the entry. Pocock believed in leg effort sufficient in the first half of the pullthrough to keep the arms straight and the back immobilized. This resulted in a hybrid stroke which gave the appearance of sequentiality despite the underlying concurrent effort. Unfortunately, in his writings, George described the sequential appearance, and this has led to near-universal confusion among Pocock’s legion of followers. The Stroke as a Whole Stan also mentions as hallmarks of his father’s sweep technique: • Solid water, flat puddles, that is, no cavitation. • Try to get the ratio of recovery to drive 2 to 1 at the 24 spm cruising rate which was used in long distance work. • As little vertical motion of the oar handle, arms and body as possible, commensurate with getting the blade in and out of the water. 443
