THE SUNSET OF CONIBEAR understand the interactive complexities of boat, oar and rig, while Adam, as had Joe Burk,4170 became convinced of the primary importance of physical conditioning for crew.”4171 In 1953, Adam helped to found the Ratzeburger Ruderclub e.V. Mendenhall: “A glimpse of the 1955 Penn crew in Hamburg4172 and the American crews at the Melbourne Olympics, where Adam coached the German scullers, showed him how far German rowing had to progress, while his own studies were revealing how to get there.”4173 One can just imagine Karl Adam watching that great 1955 Pennsylvania Crew beating all comers in Germany while rowing down the course at 30 strokes per minute and thinking something like, “Heck, you’d have to row 40 down the course to beat those guys! “Wait a minute! Maybe we actually should try that!” Author’s Note: The following descriptions of Karl Adam’s approach to boat moving, a good portion in Adam’s own words, should be read carefully as the Ratzeburg Style was largely misunderstood at the time by his contemporaries in the United States and around the world. The passage of forty years has done little to change this. Eliminate the Peaks Adam concluded that attempting to match the power and strength of the pullthroughs of American crews was destined to fail, so instead he strove to 4170 See Chapter 58. 4171 Mendenhall, Coaches, Ch. XIV, pp. 60-1 4172 See Chapter 65. 4173 Mendenhall, op. cit., p. 44 develop a more “economical rowing technique.”4174 Mendenhall: “Technically, Adam’s first concern was to maintain as constant hull speed as possible, with the minimum contrast between drive and recovery.”4175 “Like Joe Burk twenty-five years before,4176 Karl Adam became convinced that the run on the shell should be kept virtually constant, with as little variation in speed at either end of the stroke as possible.”4177 The idea was to tick the boat along and maintain speed on the pullthrough, not increase it. Adam: “Power at the catch should be great, but not so great that more power can’t be added. It is important to avoid obtaining power peaks in the stroke or in the power curve. beginnings are not hit, the blades going in fast but not violently at full reach.”4178 The pullthrough was intended to be smooth and organic, with no wasted effort and no attempt to explode at the catch. In other words, Schubschlag. Rowing: “All the Ratzeburger crew and spare men are more than competent scullers, and it was noticeable at [the 1964 European Championships in] Amsterdam that the majority of crews appeared at long range to be sculling their boats along rather than rowing.4179 [my emphasis]”4180 Adam: “The [acceleration and perceived effort] increases all the time [during the pullthrough] in order to maintain the same amount of water pressure on the surface of the blade to compensate for the gathering speed of the boat, the oar slipping 4174 Knoop, voiceover 4175 Mendenhall, Short History, p. 37 4176 See Chapter 58. 4177 Mendenhall, Coaches, Ch. XIV, pp. 44-5 4178 Karl Adam, Ratzeburg Rowing Clinic, Huntsville, Alabama, 1970 4179 Mallory, Out-of-Boat Experience, p. 235 4180 Page, op. cit., pp. 19-20 [To eliminate the peaks,] the 1153
