THE SPORT OF ROWING sparing the oarsmen from unnecessary labour and exhaustion.”8340 This last quote recognizes that an ideal approach to rowing must be both effective and efficient. In 1963, Jumbo Edwards wrote, “There is only one best way to transmit the oarsman’s muscular power through his limbs and body to the oar handle to propel the boat.”8341 Then there is also the counterpoint. In 2001, then Canadian Head Coach Brian Richardson expressed a sentiment shared by many: “What we need to recognize is that there are different ways of producing fast or winning crews, with no conclusive evidence to prove that one method is better than another. [my emphasis]”8342 I am emphatically suggesting that history does provide plenty of “conclusive evidence” that the various possible methods do differ in effectiveness and efficiency. In fact, the sweep of history provides the ultimate real-world test of all the various theories of rowing technique that have ever existed. If one passionately believes in a particular approach to boat moving, but it has repeatedly failed throughout history, isn’t that sufficient evidence that there must be something fundamentally wrong with it? Or, conversely, if one disagrees with a particular approach for whatever reason, but that approach appears and reappears in successful crews throughout the decades of the last two centuries, then don’t one’s basic assumptions deserve serious scrutiny? And what if history consistently and repeatedly comes to the same conclusions? 8340 Bourne, pp. 2-3 8341 Edwards, p. 26 8342 Coach Boat View, Rowing Canada Aviron Magazine, Summer 2001, p. 18 With the perspective of two hundred years, it is now possible for us to go back over the rowing stroke and take a fresh, unbiased look at the relatively few practical alternatives available, and perhaps, just perhaps, identify the characteristics of the ideal rowing technique. History Breeds Humility The peerless 19th Century Eton College coach Edmond Warre said it all when he wrote, “He teaches best who, while he is coaching, remembers that he too has much to learn.”8343 Historian and philosopher Richard Burnell: “Two qualities of success are patience and humility, humility to recognize that there is always more to be learned about the simplest aspect of what one is doing, and patience to learn from the bottom up.”8344 Two centuries of rowing history have the capacity to knock a chip off the shoulder of any coach, if only he/she has the eyes to see and the willingness to look and to learn. I include myself on the list of those who have been brought down a peg or two by the lessons of our collective history. “Don’t Confuse Me With the Facts!” Mike Spracklen: “There are three stages to coaching: 1. Know nothing, eager to learn. 2. Know everything, deaf to ideas. 3. Eager to learn again. “Some coaches seem to get stuck in Stage 2.”8345 8343 Warre, Notes on Coaching, 2nd Edition, unpublished, May, 1880 8344 Burnell, Sculling for Rowing, p. 36 8345 Spracklen, RCA Coaches’ Conference, 2005 2348
