THE LONG ECLIPSE OF AMERICAN ROWING Back Motion On the subject of back usage in the Ratzeburg crew, Harry says, “They had the backs engaged, but the backs were not swinging. With Vesper you got the sound fundamentals of the more assertive back motion that U.S. rowing had.”4611 Analysis of films of both these crews at speed indicates that the only real difference in back usage between Vesper and Ratzeburg was the number of degrees of arc through which their backs swung, and the amount of difference considering the rhetoric was less than one would expect. Films show the Vesper Eight swinging through a 45° arc, from +30 to -15°, and the Soviet Four also swinging through a 45° arc, from +35 to -10°. Ratzeburg swung through 35°, from +25° to -10°,4612 a net reduction of less than one quarter of Vesper’s or the Soviets’ arc. The back swing of the 1964 Soviet Four was very strong with a high arc that united its Kernschlag pullthrough. It was much more prominent than Ratzeburg’s and more vertical than Vesper’s. By way of comparison, the 1955 Penn Eight with Harry in the 2-seat swung through 50°, from +30 to -20°, and the 1957 Cornell Eight swung through 35°, from +30 to -5°. Arm Usage On the subject of arm usage, Harry observed that Vesper did “nothing with the arms until the legs were down.” 4611 Parker, personal conversation, 2004 4612 Von Groddek in the 6-seat in 1964 layed back only -5°, but as the largest member of the crew, he was the exception. In other years without the prevailing headwind of Tokyo, Ratzeburg layback occasionally approached 0°. 4613 Rosenberg seminar, 1975. I believe the word “rigid,” suggesting muscular effort to keep the arms locked straight, is misleading. Rosenberg intended to convey the fact that other techniques included no effort at all to pull with the arms until late in the pullthrough. 4614 Parker, personal conversation, 2004 4615 Ratzeburg Clinic, p. 4 In truth, though their arms did not bend a great deal early, the entire Vesper crew clearly employed their arms at the entry. Note the film frames in Chapter 109. Rosenberg has described his arm usage as ‘alive,” “not relaxed, not actively attempting to bend either. They’re straight but not stiff, as opposed to many other techniques, where the arms remain rigid.”4613 In Tokyo, Parker observed that Ratzeburg, too, “rowed with straight arms. They used the arms mostly after the legs were down, after they had really powered with the legs. It was a very quick . . . They didn’t start bending them at the catch. That’s for sure.”4614 Film analysis shows that Harry correctly describes the Ratzeburg arm motion of 1964: significant bending occurred only later in the stroke, even though effort to bend the arms actually began at the entry. Again, the hybrid-concurrent enigma! Adam’s writings confirm this inter- pretation as well. “The power should come on with the arms, legs and back at the same time, and a slight bending of the arms at the catch is permissible. As the power comes on in the middle of the stroke, the arms will straighten out. “The loss by expending the arms is not measurable and is insignificant because the pressure is constant. Arms take over automatically, lifting toward the edge of the rib cage.”4615 In his analysis, Adam closely followed Fairbairn’s teachings. 1279
