THE SPORT OF ROWING Peter Klavora used Coffey-Staines as examples of the Rosenberg Style,5991 and indeed the technique of the pair was Modern Orthodox Kernschlag with a parabolic force curve after the initial hit. Where they diverged a bit from most people’s perception of the Rosenberg Style was that Calvin and Mike would tick the boat along at relatively high ratings. They had this particular feature in common with Karl Adam5992 of The connection to Adam ran through Mike’s Cornell coach, Todd Jesdale.5993 Cal Coffey’s coach, Ernie Arlett,5994 had been a British Fairbairn coach from Henley-on-Thames, more interested in the end result out at the blade than in body mechanics. Coffey: “Rowing with Mike was a pleasure.”5995 Olympic Trials Coffey: “The Trials were on Lake Carnegie. I liked the course. I felt comfortable there. “I knew a lot of races were won with psychology. For our race plan, we decided to row the first 500 like it was the only 500 we would row that day . . . “Then we would push it out to the 1,000 at the same pace. “I had done some studying of world- class pairs, and it seemed that their third 500 tended to be their weakest, so we decided we would have to attack them there. That just left the last 500, and we figured that would take care of itself. 5991 Klavora, Rowing 3, p. 18 5992 See Chapter 92. 5993 See Chapter 105. 5994 See Chapter 116. 5995 Coffey, op. cit. “A week or so after we won the Trials, I finally made a deal with Dietrich, but he got The Pumpkin and wouldn’t let us use it in Montréal. I got busy laying up a new boat when I realized one night that I should be resting and training, and here I was stressing over making another boat. I got on the phone with Mark Borchelt, whom we had beat in the Trials, and he very graciously allowed us to borrow back the boat I had built for him, and that’s the boat we trained in and took to Montréal. 1976 Olympics Coffey: “When we got to Montréal, we continued to set our own training schedule and to look after our own boat, but Ted was very helpful scouting out the other crews and bringing back reams and reams of times, which Mike and I would pour over at night.”5996 Staines: “I have only been coached a couple of times by Ted, and for only a couple of months each time, and I found his enthusiasm really infectious. I understand how Luther could get worn out by it after several years, but I really enjoyed my associations with Ted, including 1976.”5997 5996 Coffey, op. cit. 5997 Staines, op. cit. “Not exactly a good strategy for a heat or a semi-final, because it would take a few days to recover, but this was to make the Olympics. “It was so foggy that morning that you could barely see across the lanes. We took off and immediately separated ourselves from the other boats. I didn’t look out. I just executed the race plan. “When I finally did look after the third the Ratzeburger Ruderclub, whose impact on rhythm was still visible worldwide but on the wane by 1976. 500, there was nobody there, and I realized that I’d have to collapse and die for us not to make it to the Olympics . . . so we just stroked it in. 1682
