THE SPORT OF ROWING The vast majority of coaches and rowers who have considered Allen Rosenberg their mentor have never had the opportunity to study films of the 1964 Vesper Eight frame- by-frame. Instead, they have analyzed Allen Rosenberg’s words, often syllable-by- syllable. Ted Nash, Allen’s assistant in 1974: “Al was the first one in the United States to do truly segmented rowing,5240 where you’d row a whole mile with only one part of the body, long-term segmented units, and then he’d string two together and then three, very patiently, to get the continuity. These were not rushed drills but actual portions of a stroke separated from all confusion. “The difference is that Al knew how to bring you out of that and put it all back together, whereas most of the coaches who are rowing ‘caricatures’ of him today can’t get it back together. They can do the individual segments, but they can’t bring it together without the discontinuities. “Today Mike Teti5241 is one of the coaches who can also do it well.”5242 John Riley, World Champion for Penn A.C. in 19865243 and now a coach: “Our downfall in rowing in America is we’ve lost the finesse on the front end. We hit it too hard on the toes. You’re taught you’ve got to be long, and you’ve got to be leg-only, and you’ve got to hang on it. “Across the country, I get athletes from juniors to wannabe elites, and all of them are taught to hang on it, and they’re all taught to do it in a way that’s long in their minds, and 5240 It appears that Allen was continuing a drill known in Philadelphia for at least thirty years, at least back to Jack Kelly, Sr. See Chapter 107. However, Allen believes he developed the segmented rowing drill independent of historical precedent. “I have always been concerned with ‘how things work’ and what are the parts to achieve it.” personal correspondence, 2007 5241 See Chapters 155 and 156. 5242 Nash, personal conversations, 2004, 2007 5243 See Chapter 132. the feeling of ‘long’ comes from their head being at about a 30° down angle and their chests being sloped over and their arms and shoulders reaching way out. Then they go leg-only off the toes, and the next thing you know, they’re about to go through perpendicular in an upper body posture that couldn’t lift [squat]. They’re so jammed on their legs, and they’re stuck there. They try to carry it past perpendicular, but they open up after the pin. “I think the leg-only idea in America has gone steroidally out of control. You can only be on the front end up to a point. Before perpendicular your upper body has to tie in against it so that when you go through perpendicular your upper body is suspended or cantilevered against your legs, and all of your body peaking through the middle. But I’m afraid the leg-only is overdone in America.”5244 North America is full of Allen’s disciples, including in recent years second- and even third-generation disciples who may never have even heard his name. Allen’s detailed descriptions of overlapping sequential pullthroughs have been passed down on paper and by word of mouth, but only in their most basic, literal and visual sense. None of the nuances. None of the subtlety. Nothing of the rhythm and feel of Allen’s championship crews, now many years in the past. And all too often the message has come out sequential recruitment of muscle groups. It’s also come out mutant segmented- force Kernschlag! The Philadelphia dipsy- doodle. This is definitely history repeating itself. Frank Muller’s 1930 Penn A.C. Big Eight, a beautiful concurrent Schubschlag crew, yielded at least three members, Joe Dougherty, Bear Curren and Jack 5244 Riley, personal conversation, 2009 1444
