THE SPORT OF ROWING Allen Rosenberg, 1970s: “Anchor the blade in the water at the catch by contracting all the muscles from the lattissimus dorsi up through the shoulder muscles and down the arm to the fingers.”8589 “I personally call for active use of arms but not active pulling per se. Engaged but not bent.”8590 Tom McKibbon, 1970s: “Breaking the arms took the load off the joints and made the connection strong. Otherwise, you risk injury.”8591 Tim McLaren, 2000s: “When Volker talks of hanging in a tree, your weight is pulling your sockets forward, and it’s not connected. “I don’t like to pull too much. I’d rather use a little more body weight [back effort]. “It’s such a fine line. I could show you video for hours. Is that pulling, or is it not? It takes so little to engage the lats and the shoulders. If you’re really stretched out there [demonstrates] and you put it in, the lats are not tense, but you have such a full range of movement that you have activated them in a small way through the back. You are not trying to break the arms, but the arms and shoulders are activated, engaged.”8592 Richard Tonks, 2000s, New Zealand National Coach: “This is not a one-two-three movement - move the legs, now the back, now pull with the arms. At the catch all the muscles work, but the strongest dominate. The body and arms try to swing and pull but don’t come in until boat speed picks up.”8593 Frank Cunningham, 2000s: “Bill Tytus and I have been coaching the Lake Washington scullers for a good many years. Bill came up with a simple way to ‘teach’ coordination: hold on to an open-wheel ergometer, letting it rotate slowly to the 8589 Rosenberg, USRA Clinic, Chula Vista, CA, Sept 11-2, 2004 8590 Rosenberg, personal correspondence, 2010 8591 McKibbon, personal conversation, 2008 8592 McLaren, personal conversation, 2009 8593 Nolte et al., p. 171 rower’s efforts to move the handle. Two things became immediately manifest: the lower backs straightened to initiate the draw, and the arms were being left behind until the legs were down and the layback completed with the result that the torque at the wheel had almost vanished. “It was instinctive for the rowers to stabilize the lower back, but not so for them to keep their arms straight. They had all been taught to do that by their former coaches. “[Through our holding the ergometer wheel] they started to understand that the only way to keep pressure on the footboards and the handle was to introduce the arms early in the pullthrough.”8594 The Real-World Test of History The reasons that Modern Orthodox coaches put forward in objecting to the early use of the arms are based on their common sense conclusion that it is inefficient and wasted effort. This utterly and conclusively fails the real-world test of history. Proponents of no arm effort after entry believe they are in the overwhelming majority. However, this is a myth, a figment of the imagination completely debunked by even a cursory survey of the records. The reality is that most international champion crews of the past and of the current era have used their arms throughout the stroke, despite the English Orthodox and later the Modern Orthodox positions to the contrary, something Valery Kleshnev readily acknowledges: “Famous coach Marty Aitken ex- pressed a guess that ‘grabbing the arms’ at the beginning of the drive can help more effective initial boat acceleration. This ‘arms grabbing’ is generally considered a technical mistake by the majority of rowing 8594 Cunningham, personal correspondence, 2008 2416
