Rosenberg tradition.5785 THE SPORT OF ROWING Several athletes bridged the transition from Jabo to Korzo, among them Charles Clapp, 2-seat of the eight in ‘82 under Jablonic and 7-seat in the eight in ‘84 under Korzeniowski. The contrast in technique [previous page] is subtle but stark in the extreme. Though the hybrid-concurrent body mechanics, the catch position and even the angles the back swung through did not really change, force application was completely transformed. In 1982, the U.S. rowed with a two-part pullthrough. The stroke began with an impressive Kernschlag explosion that shook the athletes heads, followed by the unavoidable force discontinuity at the end of the explosive singularity. Then came a second effort that combined back swing with arm draw. The crew was effective and well- coached. They led the ‘82 World Championships in Lucerne to the 1,000 meter mark, but then fell to fourth at the finish as they were overhauled by New Zealand, then GDR and finally the Soviets. The three medalists were rowing Schubschlag pullthroughs, and all looked to be stroking much more smoothly and economically than the Americans, who were straining mightily on every pullthrough. By 1984, Jabo’s American segmented- force Kernschlag had been replaced by Korzo’s “natural” Schubschlag. The crescendo had moved from the entry toward the finish. Theory Versus Practice Kris also analyzed several specific athletes on the 1985 tape: Here we have [1984] American Straight- Four, Silver Medal in Olympic Games, one of the best crews technically probably I have ever seen. Members of this crew a couple of 5785 See Chapter 106. months before Olympics didn’t row like you see here, but we worked on their technique a lot, and we were able to make some changes. That’s Phil Stekl [Penn ‘78], number 3 on straight-four [following page]. We had a lot of technical problems with Phil and decided to make some necessary changes to start moving the boat. Let’s analyze his technique. Catch [Frame 2], there is no lifting of shoulders. Only hands were raised to put blade into the water. First part of drive [Frame 3], not too much opening, just holding with back. Phil already starts hanging on the oar, hanging but without opening body, just driving legs. In fact, even though Stekl’s leg motion predominates early in the drive, the film frames show that his back was not merely holding the legs. The back was swinging, albeit quite slowly, right from the catch. In either case, the back must be engaged and doing work from the entry to transmit the leg drive to the handle. Middle of drive [Frame 4], very nice stretched arms, hanging on the oar. Body is almost vertical position. There is some leg drive left, but very correct position. Later, in criticizing another crew, Korzo said, “The arms should be much more stretched, much more relaxed. No tension should be on upper body, and lats should be prying backwards.” Kris’s repeated reference to “stretched arms” can be misleading. In order for the lats to be engaged, the whole chain of muscles between the fingers and lower back also needs to be engaged. Allen Rosenberg has effectively made this point as his rationale for what he called “alive arms,”5786 arms engaged and working but not yet bending. Steve Fairbairn and biomechanist 5786 See Chapter 112. 1604
