THE SPORT OF ROWING 160. In the Land of the Blind . . . Pattern – Perspective – Either/Or Rowing technique is something often spoken of in clichés. “It has been said that ‘it does not matter what you do in rowing, provided that you all do the same thing, do it hard, and do it together.’”8325 Karl Adam often said something to the effect that training would get you lengths and lengths, while technique would only get you inches. Mike Spracklen:8326 “Rowing is a power / endurance sport with high degree of skill. Successful rowers are generally large, powerful athletes, but strength is of little value if the athlete cannot row, and the skill required to move a light, delicate racing shell at speed can only be acquired with coaching and hours of practice, which places technique high of the coaches list of priorities. “Once athletes are able to apply themselves, however, it is physical preparation that improves performance more than it is technique.”8327 Technique is certainly not the only thing, nor even necessarily the most important thing in making a boat go fast. First and foremost come the athletes, and then there is the infrastructure, the support system of the squad, the equipment, and above all the training. But technique is ever present. 8325 Haig-Thomas & Nicholson, p. 65 8326 See Chapter 130. 8327 Spracklen, personal correspondence, 2010 Ky Ebright: “Morale, Power and Form were of equal importance in winning boat races, but form was what tells in the end, getting ‘full efficiency from the amount of power available.’”8328 If Ebright was right that technique can make a difference, what I wanted to know when I began researching this book was how it can make a difference. The Challenge of Analyzing the Components of a Rowing Stroke The biggest challenge associated with analyzing rowing technique is merely trying to describe it in detail, in words, “a very inadequate medium,”8329 for in breaking the stroke down into its component parts, the sense of the organic whole tends to get lost. Steve Fairbairn was among the first to get this point across. “Steve taught his oarsmen to think of the end product rather than a predetermined conscious pattern of movement. He asked them to concentrate on bladework and left them to work out how best to do it.”8330 Frank Cunningham: “Taking all descriptions of the rowing stroke together, for instance Concept2’s or the USRA’s, Thor Nilsen’s or Korzeniowski’s, I have concluded that they each represent the 8328 Mendenhall, Ch. VII, p, 9 8329 Ian Fairbairn, Fairbairn On Rowing, p. 34 8330 Geoffrey Page, qtd. by Dodd, World Rowing, p. 162 2344
