THE AGE OF ENLIGHTENMENT finish not only gave their boat more speed but helped with a lively follow-through into a smooth recovery. The time saved early in the recovery gave them more time in which to slide forward and prepare well for each stroke without disturbance to the run of the boat. “Chris Baillieu and Mike Hart responded well to the technical coaching I gave them. They were great athletes, but more importantly they were great people, and I enjoyed being with them. “I had showed them an 8mm film I had taken of them sculling, and with slow motion and frame-by-frame pictures they were able to see their blades dragging out of the water at the finish, which showed clearly how their boat would be slowed down by this poor control of the blades at this critical part of the stroke.”6102 Baillieu: “One of the very first outings we had [with Spracklen], we were sculling along, and he stopped us and he said, ‘Why do you touch the water coming forward?’ because occasionally we touched. He said, ‘Now look, every time you do that, you take an inch and a half of run off the boat. You do that every stroke, and you’ve just given the opposition a length because you’re lazy. If you wish to go with me, you’ll never touch the water again.’ “We knew that if we were going to win we had to be uncompromising, which we were not by nature. Mike was what we needed, so we spent a lot of time paddling squared up, so we didn’t ever touch the water again. “That imprinted in my mind the sort of levels of perfection that Mike was after.”6103 Spracklen: “Clean blade extraction was the technical point on which I placed most emphasis, but I also emphasised blade 6102 Spracklen, op. cit. 6103 Baillieu, op. cit. control generally and its effect on stroke length and balancing the boat. “Chris and Mike agreed that the higher rate and intensity of Janoušek’s programme was not conducive to acquiring the finer skills of sculling. I also pointed out that their performance improved through the workout, which suggested inadequate warm- up. The full affect of the training load was not being achieved if the first part of the load [high-intensity portion of the workout] was used as part of their warm-up, which they both accepted. “I suggested that practicing skills for 30 minutes before the session would improve their warm-up for the work, and they agreed to spend the extra time on the water before and after each work session.”6104 Strategy Baillieu: “We had tried all sorts of race strategies. What we could do was dish out a constant speed, but in order to do that, we had to incrementally increase rate down the course. At 1,500, if we had been sculling at 34, we were quite happy to scull the last 500 at 38 to 40. We were relatively easily geared, and so we could change the gear and keep the pace. “We later found by reading East German training manuals, which were fascinating, that they had been studying the way we rowed and had concluded, ‘This is interesting. These guys row even splits!’ “That was not the way people did things in those days. It subsequently became the way everyone does it, but we did it because we had to do it, not because we wanted to do it.”6105 In 1976, The British were the fastest of all the Olympic finalists in the last 500 into a stiff headwind. The Soviets lost their chance at a medal with a sluggish third 500, 6104 Spracklen, op. cit. 6105 Baillieu, op. cit. 1707
