THE SPORT OF ROWING stroke rate below the trend line, with longer DPS. ITA, USA and especially ROM emphasized a higher stroke rate by means of a shorter DPS.”8394 Rating is often associated with length in the water, and this discussion will be extended and amplified in Chapter 163. The Karma of the Recovery Throughout rowing First, do no harm.8395 Rudie Lehmann, 1908: “Order all your movements at the end of the stroke and during the non-propulsive interval so as not to detract at any point from the pace created, and so as to prepare yourself to apply strength and weight vigorously to the next stroke.”8396 Robert F. Kelley, 1932: “They must move back with a controlled delicacy which avoids checking the forward progress while the oars are out of the water.”8397 Martin McElroy, coach of the British 2000 Olympic Champion Eight: “The momentum of the athletes in the crew is crucial. The athletes moving back and forth along the slide can be basis of a rhythm. You can either bang off the footstretcher and pull yourself back up the slide for the next stroke, or you can spring off the stretcher just as a good basketball player would to gain maximum height and then allow the forward moving boat to bring your feet to you before springing again.”8398 8394 Kleshnev, January 2003 8395 The Latin term is Primum non nocere and is of obscure origin but seems related to the Greek Hippocratic Oath, well known in a medical context. 8396 Lehmann, p. 34 8397 Kelley, p. 248 8398 Interview with Martin McElroy, www.irow.com history, the philosophy of the recovery can be summed up as follows: Volker Nolte, 2005: “The boat must move freely underneath the rowers during the recovery phase.”8399 Melch Bürgin: “Because the mass of the crew is bigger than that of the boat, you are able to pull the boat toward the body with the feet during the recovery.”8400 The most lyrical description of the recovery ever written may just be the following: Richard Tonks, New Zealand, 2005: “Rowers don’t come up the slide, they let the boat flow beneath them, visualizing themselves sitting still and allowing the feet to come toward the seat.”8401 Endless Chain There has also been widespread agreement that the recovery should be continuous. Bob Cook, 1890s: “It is necessary to execute all these movements in a thoroughly continuous circuit.”8402 Steve Fairbairn, 1920s: “ . . . endless chain . . .”8403 “The more even and the steadier the forward swing, the higher class the oarsman.”8404 Melch Bürgin, 1960s: “The most important thing is that a stroke has no beginning and no end. It is one movement, without end.”8405 Ratzeburg, 1960s: “ . . . mental and physical continuity from one stroke to the next . . . a ‘round-and-round’ rhythm.”8406 Allen Rosenberg, 1970s: “One must keep a continuous or circular movement 8399 Nolte et al, p. 181 8400 Qtd. by Ferris, p. 68 8401 Nolte et al, p. 174 8402 Qtd. by Kelley, p. 206 8403 Fairbairn On Rowing, p. 398 8404 Ibid, pp. 27, 100 8405 Qtd. by Ferris, p. 67 8406 Wilson, p. 33 2364
