THE LESSONS OF 200 YEARS FISA 2002 DVD Canada Men’s Eight 2002, 2003 World Champion 7 Adam Kreek, 6 Andrew Hoskins As Kreek was rowing his blade in, note the twelve to eighteen inches that the blade traveled in relation to Hoskins’ footstretcher. no particular choice has been found to either guarantee or preclude success. The only consensus is that the operation must be done seamlessly and without interrupting the rhythm of the stroke. Putting on the Brakes Ned Hanlan: “The blade should descend to the proper depth before any force is applied, otherwise the stroke will cut. To effect this, the hands must be raised sharply, and the stroke must commence at once.”8497 Since the 19th Century, many rowing coaches have expressed concern that backsplashing would slow the boat down since it seemed to be “putting on the brakes.” The obvious solution they offered was to avoid backsplash altogether. Australian Steve Fairbairn, who did his seminal coaching in Britain, recommended that the oar be accelerated “into the water with an upward and backward [toward the bow] movement of the hands. If the blade is dropped in, it backwaters at the pace the boat is running.”8498 “To generate any power, as the blade hits the water, it must be moving faster than the boat is running past. [my emphasis]”8499 8497 Qtd. by Harding, pp. 7-8 8498 Fairbairn On Rowing, pp. 133-4 8499 Ibid, p. 255 When a Fairbairn crew executed their coach’s preferred entry, the blade would slice into the water, carving a momentary cavity behind it. When the cavity collapsed against the back of the blade, it would cause “a true bell-note as the blade strikes the water.”8500 This was the famous Jesus Bell- Note.8501 In the United States around the turn of the 20th Century, Charles Courtney coached “hooking the blade in like a sculler to avoid a backsplash or missing any water.”8502 Shortly thereafter, Hiram Conibear at the University of Washington came to a conclusion similar to Courtney’s with his bicycle-wheel experiment:8503 “It came to him that in order to keep the wheel spinning smoothly and continuously, his palm, the instant it struck the tire, must be traveling at a speed equal to or greater than the speed of the revolving wheel.”8504 Michael Macrossan is a senior lecturer at the University of Queensland Centre for Hypersonics in Australia. His brother, Neal Macrossan, intermittently coaches at St. 8500 Ibid, p. 259 8501 Ibid, p. 348 8502 Mendenhall, Ch. III, pp. 9-10 8503 See Chapter 44. 8504 Ulbrickson, p. 93 2387
