THE SPORT OF ROWING The technique of the Soviet crews became known as the Moscow Style, though some in Britain referred to it as the Continental Style.3088 I will use the former name. In this book, I generally follow the valuable distinction made by Prof. Volker Nolte3089 of the University of Western Ontario in Canada between the words “technique” and “style,” the former being based on fundamental principles and the latter the result of individual preferences and idiosyncrasies (for example, the Jesus Style). Following Nolte’s guidelines, it might at Demyanov, All About Rowing Aleksandr Shwedov in 1954 with the Grand Challenge Cup Sport Biomechanics, 7 / 1991, pp. 229- 281.”3086 Nash: “The Soviet system brought together athletes from eleven countries that all began with disparate styles. For instance, the Ukrainians rowed absolutely unlike the Russians, and the Romanians rowed just like the Italians of the time. If you saw any of them rowing, they’d all be different. “They researched into what they wanted and developed a Soviet style, and it took them four or five years to get that style together, but because they had unlimited paid coaches, hundreds of centers and endless people rowing, in the military as well as civilians, if a guy couldn’t change his technique to what they were now asking, they could just get rid of him and get somebody else. That’s how many athletes they had.”3087 3086 Kleshnev, op. cit. 3087 Nash, op. cit. first glance seem more appropriate to refer to the “Moscow Technique,” but in fact it contains no real deviations from the broad fundamentals of Classical Technique. “Moscow Style” is correct. Technique At the 1952 Olympics, U.S. Team Leader Tip Goes was welcomed into the Soviet boathouse. The New York Times: “‘They don’t follow our technique,’ he said at the time. ‘They feather high and are short in the water. I imagine they do 38 or 39 beats a minute, whereas we like 32 or 34. But their crews obviously are accustomed to rougher water. They don’t look bad at all.’”3090 After the same Krylya Sovetov crew won the Grand Challenge Cup at Henley two years after Helsinki in 1954, the 1955 Soviet Henley entry, Leningrad’s Klub Krasnoe Znamya, coached by Samsonov of Krylya Sovetov, became the object of intense media scrutiny. 3088 Russian Crew Make Fast Henley Time, The Times of London, July 4, 1958 3089 See Chapter 134. 3090 U.S., Soviet Crews Hit Friendly Note, The New York Times, July 13, 1952 862
