THE SPORT OF ROWING maximum effort throughout the pullthroughs to generate as much send as possible. Lane: “Joe was always timing our quarter-mile segments in three-mile rows. “He knew the times we had to beat in the race as a whole, and in each 500 meters or quarter mile of the race. We practiced to beat those times. Joe said that if we did that, we would win.2431 “It was that simple, and he was right. By accomplishing those times in practice, we had the confidence that we could win on race day.”2432 Joe Burk learned those practices from his own college coach, Rusty Callow, and both the 1955 Penn Crew and Callow’s Great Eight adapted to the long, low-stroke pieces with a technique featuring aggressive, assertive pullthroughs and tremendous send at a low stroke. Concurrent Versus Sequential The 1955 Penn crew gives us another good chance to revisit the concurrent- sequential continuum. Penn rowed a Classical Technique where all three major muscle groups were initiated concurrently at the entry, and the observable motions of all three also began at the entry, but for some, the bow-seat and 4- seat in particular, the strong initial leg effort ensured that leg motion was appreciably faster than initial back swing. Arm-break during the initial leg drive was almost undetectable to the naked eye, but arm effort was definitely there. So, despite concurrent initiation and effort, motion proceeded more-or-less sequentially for bow and 4 from legs early to back and arms later, only one step away from George Pocock’s hybrid stroke: concurrent effort but sequential motion. 2431 Today this is called “tempo training.” 2432 Lane, op. cit. Is this sequential or concurrent rowing? Harry Parker appreciates the difficulty in distinguishing. “It does make a difference. ‘Sequential versus concurrent’ is different, but depending on who’s coaching it, it’s a difference of degree. “Even when you start with the legs, you have to engage the back so that you are not just pushing the seat away.2433 “The Callow/Burk Technique was more start with the legs, because you’re laying back. If you’re not going to lay back very far, there’s no point in waiting to use your back. You’ve got to get it on early and engage it. “The legs and back go together, and as soon as you finish, you’re moving again. “If you’re going to row a longer stroke, you push, and then you lean and squeeze it in. “It’s safe to say that the Conibear Stroke as we rowed it was sequential in that you put the emphasis on the legs, then followed through or swung through with the back and arms. “That’s where this business of the swing of the boat, of swinging together, comes from. You don’t swing if you put your back on really early. You just power it through.”2434 The distinction, however, is subtle, and films from Henley clearly show that even though two of his teammates rowed sequentially, Harry Parker’s legs and back moved concurrently despite his recollections. Crocco adds: “Rowing came so easy for me that I wasn’t really aware of what we were doing, but I remember that the backs would move along with the legs.”2435 2433 Andrew Carter has made the very same point. See Chapter 48. 2434 Parker, personal conversation, 2004 2435 Crocco, op. cit. 676
