THE AGE OF ENLIGHTENMENT Scheiblich’s Technique Much of Christine’s height was in her legs, and her pullthrough began from a position of considerable leg compression, similar to that of Peter-Michael Kolbe.5855 What followed was a strong initial drive complemented by prominent vertical back arc and typical GDR relatively late arm draw ending in long -35° layback. The result was a physical, concurrent Schubschlag pullthrough with a very strong send. Her technique seemed especially well suited to headwinds, where her extreme length and low ratings would work to good effect. GDR training relied on high mileage at low stroke to build an aerobic base, an approach first developed in the sports of running, swimming and cycling and today called LSD or “long slow distance.” Accordingly, Christine was prepared to row the 1,000 meter race at a relatively steady but formidable pace. Lind’s Technique Joan Lind had a different approach to technique. She was 5’8¾” 175 cm and weighed between 141 and 145 pounds, 64 to 66kg, during competitions, with less massive legs than Scheiblich. Lind: “We have an island here that we row around, about two and a half miles, and we race three of them in all different ways. Almost everything we did was racing. “In the fall we’d just go three islands at a time. When I raced with John Van Blom,5856 he went way outside, and I took the inside. “As the racing season neared, we’d do just one island at a time, maybe one for warmup and then race two separately, one 5855 See Chapter 125. 5856 See Chapter 88. for time, then rest, then go again, trying to get our island times down. “Then we began doing sprints, a lot of 500s and 750s – a lot of 750s, maybe four to six a day, back-to-back, or six to eight 500s the same way.5857 But we’d mix it up at other times, 250s, 500s, 750s, 1,000s. Tom would ride his bike along the course taking times for us when we did the sprint work. “Until January, I ran long distance – up to six miles every other day, alternating with weight workouts. We rowed every day. “Diane Braceland5858 brought the East German workout, which was one of the programs we did: four exercises, forty-five seconds on, one minute rest. Six sets of those. You did as many as you could in each exercise: • sit-down row • leg press • sit-ups • bench press “In January we started running hills. We had two hills, the longer one about a minute and a half part way up or about six minutes to the top. The shorter hill, which we ran a lot, maybe ten trips, was about a minute up and down again.5859 We ran hills twice a week.”5860 The result was that Joan was ready to attack the headwind at 35+ all the way down the course during their final at Montréal. This compared to Christine’s 31 to 32. Like Scheiblich, Joan’s pullthrough was characterized by the prominent vertical arc 5857 Under Coach Tom McKibbon, she rowed her intervals at ratings in the mid- to upper-30s with the goal that her last piece be as fast as her first. 5858 from Vesper Boat Club. See Chapter 126. 5859 Long, torturous repeat sprint runs up nearby Signal Hill had been pioneered by John Nunn and Bill Maher before their Olympic Bronze Medal performance in 1968. See Chapter 88. 5860 Interview: Joan Lind, The Oarsman, March/April 1977, pp. 17-8 1639
