THE SPORT OF ROWING his weight on the handle and footstretcher and not on the seat. The issue of active or passive arms will be discussed in depth in Chapter 166 at the conclusion of this book. Approaching finish [Frame 5], exactly how I pointed out before, very little leg drive [left], transition point from legs to upper body. In true hybrid-concurrent fashion, this is a transition from more leg motion to more back motion. In reality, both muscle groups have been engaged and working since the entry, and they both continue to work. In this frame [Frame 6], we can see that the legs finish drive, but Phil is continuing to pry his back, and he begin to squeeze his arms, but he still is applying his [body] weight. He didn’t put his weight on seat and wait for the arms to come, but he is still going backwards, using his weight. He is pushing against footstretchers, and all the weight of his body is hanging suspended to the oar handle. Even in the very last point [Frame 7], just fraction of second before he lifts blade from water, we can see that he is hanging on the oar. He is squeezing the last inches of his arms, and back is working towards bow. He is able to maintain body weight on the oar. And now [Frame 8], body weight is on seat. He has relaxed, body position not too stiff, slightly arched shoulders, head straight, nothing unusual. All his motion is done smoothly, steady speed without any dramatic acceleration or deceleration of the motion. Kris’s detailed description of the overlapping sequential motion of the various muscle groups is very much like that of Allen Rosenberg more than a decade earlier, but Kris’s description of hanging on the oar handle from entry to release went far beyond the Rosenberg model. By combining Modern Orthodox body mechanics, with which American rowers were comfortable, with Thor Nilsen’s 1984 After the U.S. Men’s Sweep Camp Coxed-Four stroked by Mike Teti5788 competed in Lucerne, it had to return to the States for Olympic Trials, just like the Sculling Camp Double and Quad.5789 Like their two-oared counterparts, they, too, were soundly beaten by “three men cut from the sweep camp, one cut from the sculling camp and not invited anywhere.”5790 Coached for four weeks by Dietrich Rose and rowing as Penn A.C./Vesper, Bow Ed Ives, 2 Greg Springer, 3 Michael Bach, stroke Tom Kiefer and coxswain John Stillings won by open water. When they got to Lake Casitas, they came in Silver Medal position behind a British four with Steve Redgrave on board collecting the first of his five Olympic Gold Medals.5791 Their technique is an example of the progress Kris had made in leading America at the National Team level away from 5788 See later in this chapter and Chapters 155 and 156. 5789 See Chapter 142. 5790 Kathryn Reith, Trials ‘84, Rowing U.S.A., August/September 1984 5791 For the British perspective on the race, see Chapter 130. Schubschlag acceleration, Kris Korzen- iowski’s hybrid technique is a classic example of the cross-pollination that characterized the Age of Enlightenment in world rowing. However, for the American athlete sitting in a boat coached by Kris during those early years, he needed to be less concerned with overlapping sequentiality or hybrid-concurrency and instead concentrate on orchestrating his various muscle groups together to get the continuous “hang” that was the ultimate goal of Kris’s Natural Power Style. 1606
