THE SPORT OF ROWING If you look at the pelvis of the guy at the top of the accompanying slide [this page], he’s sitting with a straight back, and if you look at the other guy sitting on his coccyx, that’s how many people row. “Straightening the back creates a very long and powerful lever, so by contracting the muscles around the lower back and the gluts and the hamstrings, one small contraction moves the upper body by a big margin. It increases the leverage, and increasing the leverage increases the power, no question about it. “One other very significant factor is that when I sit slumped, I shorten my hamstrings, and the hamstrings play a very significant role in the opening of the leverage of the back. So if I have a curved back, a sloppy back, I shorten my hamstrings, and I have reduced leverage. By sitting tall, I’ve extended my hamstrings, so that when they are brought into the stroke, I create more power with the leverage of my back. “And that is exactly where the [post- 2000] Canadian men’s technique of rowing long through6058 came from, from that principle. We didn’t want herniated disks, so I pushed the straight back. “The advantage of the straight back is that it protects the spine, and you can see [demonstrating] it increases the length of the stroke. Also, it provides a better connection. If I have a floppy spine and I drive my legs, some of that power is absorbed in my spine, and it’s very clear to demonstrate. If you straighten your back on an ergometer, the score goes down, and the difference is instant. “But doesn’t the Orthodox posture conflict with Fairbairnism? Yes. Fairbairn was in direct conflict with the Orthodox posture, but Fairbairn’s success was not due to his oarsmen rowing with round backs but 6058 See Chapter 151. Mike Spracklen because they rowed more miles than their opponents. “‘Mileage makes champions’ is the most famous of Fairbairn’s cries. It was the work his crews did on the water that brought them success more than it was the way they rowed, and I know! I was taught to row the Fairbairn way!”6059 The above quotes come from the 2005 Canadian Coaches’ Conference and represent Spracklen’s mature thinking. As we will discover, he was in less of a position to insist on highly disciplined posture earlier in his career. Spracklen in 2010: “At Marlow Rowing Club we were taught the Fairbairn Style. Fairbairn had criticised the rigidity of the straight back of Orthodoxy, and the arguments that ensued between the two sides led him to disagreement with other parts of the English style. Fairbairn’s success attracted others to copy what they saw or what they thought they saw in his crews, and Orthodoxy gradually went ‘out of date.’ It became ‘old fashioned’ and discarded. “Coaches stopped teaching the straight back, but as mileage increased, injuries to the lower spinal column escalated. I began 6059 Spracklen, RCA Coaches’ Conference, 2005 1696
