THE SPORT OF ROWING the hell on it in a really hangy, overcom- promised position.”6494 Dan Lyons: “With Korzeniowski6495 it was legs, back, arms push, and with Ted it was the levered drive. “I believe that the major technical difference between the 1986 to 1988 Penn A.C. crews and the Korzeniowski- and Teti6496-coached crews was the connection between arms, shoulders and hips. With Ted-coached crews, there was very little ‘slippage’ in the body connection. Once we locked on, there was no additional motion. There was no looseness in the joints. There was relaxation, but there was always connection. The body COMPLETELY levered the boat. “I believe this to be very important as the speed of a boat class decreases. In the smaller boats, there is no room for slippage in the joints. That kind of slippage limits the ability to FEEL connection and the ability of the rowers to meld together at every point in the stroke, which is the key to a true crew rather than a collection of ergs.”6497 High ratings were a priority for Ted’s LWRC crews, and in 1964 he was willing to sacrifice length at the finish to get the ratings up. By 1986, evolution of equipment and training had made that unnecessary. The world had caught up to Ted Nash, and everybody rowed high. At Holme Pierrepont, Ted’s crew rowed the course at 36 to 37 with 10s to 39, only slightly understroking the World Champion West Germans, who never dropped below 38. In order to extend their levering of the boat from the catch all the way to a longer finish, the Penn A.C. Four employed -25° layback, considerably more than the -15° of Ted’s 1964 LWRC Four. 6494 Riley, personal conversation, 2009 6495 See Chapter 124. 6496 See Chapters 155 and 156. 6497 Lyons, op. cit. Nash: “The Penn A.C. boat was a tall and mostly thin group, not a lot of bulk, so swing instead of muscle was the best approach. ”6498 Ted’s 1960 Coxless-Four had rowed a glorious last 500 as high as 41 to win the Gold, and Ted’s 1986 Four was equally impressive, taking it to 42 with 400 meters to go and withstanding a devastating rush by the defending World Champion. A strong last 500 would become a hallmark of all of Ted’s Penn A.C. crews. Dave Krmpotich: “In 1986, the youth of John Riley was countered by the experience of Espe, Lyons and Swinford. This veteran leadership became the hallmark of the Penn A.C. fours that followed. This continued until the camp system provided too strong a financial incentive beginning in 1994.”6499 Swinford: “In ‘86 after winning the final in the fours-without, I saw Kris K. on the shore. I called out to him: ‘Can I go to your camp now?’”6500 1987 Nash’s ‘86 success putting together the first World Champion American boat in twelve years from a bunch of National Team Camp cuts put the U.S. Rowing Association in a bind and raised a legitimate question: What was the best way to select a crew? Open Trials or unchallengeable National Selection Camp? The USRA’s Solomonic solution was to designate Penn A.C. as a USRA training center and make Ted’s Coxless-Four the priority boat for 1987. With ever more athletes coming to Penn A.C., attracted by their success in 1986 and by their new federation status, the club qualified both fours and both pairs to 6498 Nash, personal correspondence, 2007 6499 Krmpotich, personal correspondence, 2007 6500 Swinford, op. cit. 1796
