THE SUNSET OF CONIBEAR “After five days of sculling, Adam takes his eight best rowers, gives them big sweeps in place of their sculls and puts them in a shell. From a racing start, he has them tug away as fast as they can for the magic distance. They then paddle back to the starting point, rowing one-handed and chatting together if they wish. Reaching the start, they once again drive down the course. They do this from six to eight times, trying hard to reach the finish line in exactly the same number of seconds (give or take half a second) each time they row. If they can do this, say eight times in a single afternoon, reasons Dr. Adam, they can row 2,000 meters in competition at the extremely high, extremely smooth stroke their coach has settled on as necessary to demoralize all opponents.”4237 Rosenberg: “The rest time depended not on distance but on heart rate. When it dropped to a selected level, the work was resumed.”4238 Ted Nash: “Most USA Team rowers of that time knew that Adam’s influence was seen at Vesper Boat Club, with the assist of Dietrich Rose joining Al Rosenberg,4239 and also at Lake Washington Rowing Club after 1960.4240 “In 1961, we at LWRC just asked ourselves who was the most successful in the world right then, and it was Karl Adam. We simply copied what we saw or found out on trips or clinics. “I knew I wanted to coach later in life after my time in the service and was excited to talk, visit, race and travel to learn everything – right away. Do it in a rush. “Karl was such a wonderful man. He invited us over and over to Ratzeburg, in ‘61, ‘62 and again in ‘63. He kindly said 4237 Lardner, op. cit. 4238 Rosenberg, personal correspondence, 2010 4239 See Chapter 107. 4240 See Chapter 84. that if we did finally come, he could boat us and find homes in the town. We could be a ‘rabbit boat’ with his training. But we had no airfare, no time off, and no consensus as a total crew, which changed each year in Seattle. “As a crew we never rowed a stroke on the Küchensee. Some of us visited anyway, traveled while on vacation or stayed after regattas to study these ‘new’ trends of elite training. Coach Adam twice loaned me a single. “We felt proud that he would invite us at all. He must have been amused at our lack of skills. Altitude Training Nash: “I had a chance to ask Dr. Adam to teach me about altitude training, and he took the time to explain how crews must yearly adapt slowly to the lack of oxygen and how long the benefits would last. All of this was amazing to me. He must have felt I was a complete empty-head. All Europeans knew those answers. “He did altitude training each year, and sometimes twice, but not three times like the Soviets did later. He approached questions of training with care and scientific research. “Where did he get the inspiration for altitude training? From cross country skiers. Where did they get their skills? Some from Karl himself, as he had coached so many sports and did them also all his life for fun. “After I had been coaching several summers in Mexico, the Germans came early to the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City. They asked to hike to the top of the 17,000 foot [5,200m] Aztec mountain La Mujer Dormida4241 to adapt and also to have a gym at the 7,300 foot [2,230m] Pista Olympica to 4241 “The Sleeping Woman,” the nickname for Iztaccíhuatl, an extinct volcano 55 km southeast of Mexico City. 1165
