THE SPORT OF ROWING anything new in America coming out of international rowing. It wasn’t entirely true. Mid-century British historian Paul Wilson appreciated just how much Parker had diverged from the Adam model. “Much that is labeled ‘Ratzeburg Style’ in the United States would be rejected by Karl Adam (its originator) with alarm and disgust.”4619 Tiff Wood, Harvard ‘75: “Wasn’t Ratzeburg more upright than Harry’s technique? I think Harry had people get a little more body angle at the catch and then open with the back more than Ratzeburg. “I do remember Harry mentioned that one of his early influences was watching the Russian crews, and their greater emphasis on using the back. “I think that Harry brought to U.S. rowing much more than the Ratzeburg Style. “What Harry also brought was the interval training methods, higher cadences and bigger oars. He introduced European equipment, using a Stämpfli eight, if I remember.”4620 Parker: “From ‘65 on through ‘67, we were using a modification of what Adam and the Soviets were doing. “Vesper had its own version of the ‘Ratzeburg’ Style. I got a slightly different version.”4621 Not for the first time, Allen Rosenberg vehemently disagrees today with Harry on this point: “It is very easy but grossly erroneous to say that my work copied what Ratzeburg did. The body angles are sharply in contrast, with virtually no forward lean at the catch for the Germans and no layback. “No wonder. They rowed using eleven centimeters through the pin, prohibiting any body swing. The result was huge thrust at 4619 Wilson, p. 12 4620 Wood, personal correspondence, 2005 4621 Parker, personal conversation, 2004 the catch, and they repeated this over and over again at 40 strokes per minute and more. “There is nothing in the body mechanics and rigging which I taught which can be confused with Adam’s work.”4622 This is true. Stop & Shop Harry Parker’s new approach to rowing was taught to Harvard crews by Freshman Coach Ted Washburn, the coxswain of Harry’s 1964 Olympic Four in Tokyo. Eric Sigward: “Harry Parker and Ted Washburn? They were opposites, Ted always nervous and Harry omniscient. I remember early freshman pre-race talks where Ted would say, ‘I’ve been throwing up all night, and I’ve only had two Saltines and a Dramamine today. If I see you again after the race, I hope you did well,’4623 . . . whereas Harry would have the whole thing forecast: “‘They’re going to take a half-length lead in the first half mile. Then you’ll come back in the second half mile. Then you’re going to have to push the second mile,’ and it was all sort of prescient. “But then of course with both of them there was this idea that you might have to die at the end of the race. But don’t worry. You’ll pass out before you’re actually dead.’”4624 From Parker and Washburn, the technique spread around Boston and soon the rest of the country. Charlie Hamlin, Harvard ‘69: “My freshman coach, Ted 4622 Rosenberg, personal correspondence, 2007 4623 Ted Washburn: “It may be true that I characteristically ‘motivated’ my crews by creating alarming scenarios in which they might lose to any crew, but Saltines and Dramamine? – not a chance!” – personal correspondence, 2008 4624 Sigward, personal conversation, 2008 1282
