THE AGE OF ENLIGHTENMENT placing emphasis on the straight back to reduce this risk, but other benefits became evident. Connection between legs and blade was improved, and the body worked more effectively as a lever that increased the acceleration of the blade. “The straight back has been coached by me in the past ten years, but habits are hard to break and athlete changes have been small. The straight back however remains as important for rowing as it is for weightlifting, and a rowing coach is just as responsible for the safety of athletes as is the weight training instructor.”6060 Leverage Spracklen: “Teaching athletes to row with straight backs brought into play other aspects of the English Orthodoxy. Moving the hands away, swinging forward before moving to front stops and holding the knees apart in true Orthodox fashion supported good posture. The result was a longer stroke, more power and better connection between legs and blade that produced more boat speed. This encouraged the athletes to use their bodies more and more and more, until we reached the state we’re at now [2005].6061 “Perfect posture has not been achieved, but some improvement has been made, and backs are generally straighter than before. The improvement can be seen in the height of the chin over the knees at front stops. The Recovery Spracklen: “Nice relaxed flow around the turn with light hands that lead the body onto the feet before the seat leaves backstops. Early in the recovery, we set the body angle we are going to carry to the front stops. 6060 Spracklen , personal correspondence, 2010 6061 “The Sprack Back.” See Chapter 151. “The sliding forward is smooth and unhurried with blades clear of the water. The athlete approaches the forward position and prepares for the next stroke. “We want to go to vertical shins, or a little bit over. By going to vertical shins, it’s a compromise between dynamism of the legs and achieving length. If you go past vertical, it’s less dynamic.”6062 In practice, crews coached by Spracklen have tended to row at relatively high rates with a smooth, accelerating recovery from his “relaxed turn” at the end of the pullthrough. This is another trait shared with GDR. The Fairbairn Entry Redgrave: “Mike could really use psychology. “We had stopped using rowing tanks many centuries ago, it would seem, but he would get people rowing in tanks to get a bell-note catch. In some ways it meant hitting the water too hard, but you got this nice bell-note of a good connection. “He would get in there, and out of a group of twenty athletes, there were maybe two or three that could do it, but the best person that could do it would be Mike. Why? Because he would get down there maybe two or three hours before and practice to make sure. “But he would say, ‘Oh, even a little old man like me can do it.’”6063 Spracklen: “Length is where the blade bites, not where you reach. When you’re in a boat, the blade has got to travel a bit before it bites, and you’ve got to use your legs dynamically before the blade bites, so there’s a delay between the legs driving and 6062 Spracklen, RCA Coaches’ Conference, 2005, edited and added to through personal correspondence, 2010 6063 Redgrave, personal conversation, 2008 1697
