THE LONG ECLIPSE OF AMERICAN ROWING The 1960s were a period of social and political upheaval in the United States and around the world, and Harvard seemed to be leading the counterculture charge. They were the first with European equipment, the first to grow their hair long, and since they never lost their shirts, they had the oldest, dirtiest uniforms around and were the first to make hippie grunge chic. In an era of civil rights marches and antiwar protests, Harvard was also perceived to be the most politically active. As a crew, Harvard quickly achieved icon status, and many other college crews attempted to copy their techniques, the accelerated recoveries and especially the “explosive” catches, which would shake the locks of their hair flowing from under their dirty bandannas. But were they really explosive? Was force application only about a their Kernschlag catch, as most outsiders assumed and adopted? Ian Gardiner’s force graph shows a strong initial Kernschlag effort, but the rest of the stroke mirrors a Schubschlag parabola. Lawrence Terry, Jr., class of 1968, was one of the great Harvard stroke-men of the era. He stroked the undefeated 1966 Eastern Sprints and Thames Challenge Cup Champion Harvard Lightweights, coached by M.I.T.-grad Bill Weber, and then switched to heavyweight. Son of the coach of the 1936 Olympic Coxed-Four4675 made up of Harvard grads rowing for Union Boat Club, Monk Terry would stroke the 1968 Olympic Coxless- Four and later the 1972 Silver Medal Eight: “Harry always used to say that you’re not accelerating the slide on the recovery, so the slide’s moving at the same speed, but when you get up to the catch and before you go the other way you’re going around the bend, 4675 See Chapter 59. and we did it hard! So we came up there, and it was wham! Everything happened at the same time. The catch was fast and hard, and the backsplash thing was a matter of how fast you could get it in the water. It was pretty intense. Our catches were not soft. “But I never thought of hammering the catch. Instead, I thought of being quick!”4676 “Fast and hard.” Fast . . . or hard . . . or both? They are not the same thing. Steve Brooks: “We certainly were encouraged to be quick at the catch, but it was a speed thing rather than a power thing. There was an effort to get on it as quickly as you could. “The 1968 Olympic Boat felt great up at race cadence. It was certainly the best thing I’d ever been in. We weren’t hammering. I think the whole thing was pretty smooth and uniform.”4677 This is a description of Schubschlag, not Kernschlag. The ‘68 Crew may or may not have begun their Harvard careers faithfully following the GDR definition of Kernschlag: “solid stroke with a hard beginning,”4678 but despite their continuing histrionics after the catch, force application by 1968 was definitely Schubschlag. And it still is. As I got to know the members of the 1968 Harvard Crew while writing this chapter, I was invited to join them in a short row in an eight at Red Top on the occasion of their 40th Reunion. From inside the boat, the Stop & Shop recovery felt remarkably smooth and disciplined, but the gathering momentum into the catch was stunning. One had to give oneself entirely over to the increasing rush into the stern, and at the end of it there was no sense of transition. One instant we 4676 Terry, personal conversation, 2005 4677 S. Brooks, personal conversation, 2005 4678 Herberger, p. 74 1299
