THE WINDS OF CHANGE Beer and Wight, who averaged 6’6” and the other two guys barely made it to 6’, that’s quite unusual.2514 “But outboard, where the blades were, he tirelessly sought perfection. The outboard and visible signs were much more important than the inboard diversity, which largely involved the answer to Jim’s endless questioning as to whether an oarsman was comfortable doing it the way he wanted. “And picking the right combination, again, that was all done outboard.”2515 The Recovery Cooke: “Certain things stick in my mind as hallmarks of Jim’s technique: • tap the hands down, around and away from the body without stopping. • very fast hands out of bow. • get full body angle quickly before dragging the seat behind. • keep your nose over the keel, and don’t lean out. • slow down and gather yourself up to the front stops while maintaining the body angle. • don’t lurch for the catch. • roll the trailing edge of the blade under the leading edge, and don’t ‘flip’ the leading edge up over the trailing edge, as you come up to full reach. • roll the feathering wrist up to the horizontal. • keep lateral pressure against the oarlock. • drop the squared blade into the water by taking the weight off the handle, and let the weight of the oar anchor itself. This was the standard Courtney/ Conibear sequential and decelerating recovery, not the Gordon Sikes concurrent and steady recovery, but there was a waterman’s sensitivity to Rathschmidt’s approach, presumably a reflection of Jim’s 2514 See Chapter 68. 2515 Grimes, Rathschmidt eulogy, 1992 uncle and of Sikes. The subtle touches at the end of the recovery, in fact the whole attitude was also quite reminiscent of the philosophy of George Pocock. The Pullthrough • start the drive by using the legs, the weight2516 and the arms together. • stand up on the drive, almost clear of the seat. • keep elbows close at sides, but comfortable. • avoid a ‘two-piece’ stroke. • legs do not go down flat half-way through the stroke. • finish out the stroke, maintaining the drive and keeping the blade anchored. • Weight [back], legs, and arms all finish together, sitting back in a natural, ‘comfortable’ position just past the perpendicular.”2517 move the boat at low stroke came from absolutely The ability of the 1956 Yale Crew to full commitment to their pullthroughs. Even today, the impression one gets when rowing with the ‘56 crew is of fingers- to-toes full Schubschlag effort from entry to release. The entry is instantaneous, but there is no hint of explosion. The effort to the finish is incredible, but the length is not. Only sub-6-footers Charlton and Cooke tended to lay back consistently in order to compensate for their lack of height. All eight employed the ferryman’s finish, levering their heads and shoulders forward toward the finish of the stroke, the result of endless miles of rowing with feet out of their footstretchers. The insistence that all three muscle groups finish together came from Sikes, and 2516 Cooke: “I cannot ever recall Jim using the term ‘back.’” – personal correspondence, 2005 2517 Cooke, op. cit. 699
