THE LONG ECLIPSE OF AMERICAN ROWING 112. The Rosenberg Style Theory and Practice British Pathé Newsreel, 1812-01, Royal Regatta 1965 Vesper Boat Club Men’s Eight Racing Ratzeburger Ruderclub in the Grand Challenge Cup, Henley Mid-drive with legs at 80% of their travel, backs at 40%, arms at 20%. Commitment of every muscle from fingers to toes, but contrary to Rosenberg’s writings, the camera undeniably captured all three muscle groups in action simultaneously. In Allen Rosenberg’s words, the intent of the stroke as a whole is to reach peak effort immediately and then “keep pressure on the blade to maintain boatspeed.”5210 This is Schubschlag, not Kernschlag, mentality, and for Allen the key to achieving this result within the Rosenberg Style is to integrate the legs, backs and arms in their overlapping sequential motion. Allen has described his stroke to me many times as “roughly seventy percent legs, twenty percent back and ten percent arms, so the first phase would be your leg drive, and before the legs are totally exhausted, the back is now beginning to 5210 Rosenberg, personal correspondence, 1989 move. As the legs phase out, the back comes in. As the back phases out, the arms come in, so there is no point where back, arms and legs are used together.”5211 However, the newsreel frame on this page clearly shows this was not the case in practice. The Vesper crews of 1964, 1965 and 1974 all moved the three muscle groups simultaneously, albeit with the legs leading. Yet again, the hybrid-concurrent enigma! Rosenberg: “These are not separate and distinct functions, but rather overlapping ones, so that the legs begin first, and as they are finishing the back takes over, and as the 5211 Rosenberg, op. cit. 1437
