THE LESSONS OF 200 YEARS a crucial distinction intuitively well under- stood by Melch Bürgin in a boat, but the English language failed him, as it has for so many coaches when they try to describe it in words. John Ferris is not one of those coaches. A former IRA-winning oarsman of Ted Nash and Joe Burk at Penn as well as the former Cornell men’s coach and editor of the seminal compilation, Rowing Funda- mentals, Ferris uses the terms correctly: “Steady pressure on the pin will result in a constant acceleration of the boat and yield the greatest power output. . . As the boat accelerates, the oarsman must move the handle faster to keep a constant force on the pin.”8677 So the handle moves faster, the power goes steadily up, but the force remains con- stant.8678 Jumbo Edwards8679 called it “unwavering force but increasing speed.” Fairbairn: “An even, elastic draw, making the water boil at the finish, means real rowing.”8680 This may be simple physics to those with a scientific background, but it isn’t simple to me! Or to most rowers. But the concept does ring true if you think carefully about it. It is far less challenging to apply force early in the pullthrough when things are go- ing their slowest, and it becomes increasing- ly difficult to maintain that very same pres- sure, that same force, on the blade as the boat picks up speed. The rower feels that an increasing ur- gency is required to maintain the now meta- phorical bend in the oar. The last few inches and the weight of the crew has begun to shift toward the stern on the recovery. 8677 Ferris, p. 27 8678 consistent with the changing leverage during the pullthrough. 8679 See Chapter 78. 8680 Fairbairn on Rowing, p. 282 are the most challenging of all from a skill and mental concentration standpoint, even though the arms are the portion of the hu- man body most adept at fast motion. The last portion of the pullthrough is the most demanding for the rower to execute well because it requires the most power. Edwards: “At the catch when he springs off the stretcher, the oarsman must feel himself suspended between the stretcher and the oar handle. The difficulty is to keep the pressure up as the boat accelerates dur- ing the stroke. This can be done if all the movements of the body [i.e., concurrent body mechanics] accelerate while the oars- man concentrates his attention on keeping the oar bowed under the strain. Then he will be achieving not only the catch but the fol- low-through. “But perhaps the most difficult thing is to keep the power applied at the finish. Very few oarsmen achieve this.”8681 Even Power or Even Force? Kleshnev: “One of the advantages of the front-loaded drive in rowing is a more even power distribution.”8682 In Kleshnev’s preferred F2 model, the force decreases as the speed through the water increases, so power theoretically stays about the same. This would seem to conform to Nash’s language in describing his state of mind as a Lake Washington Rowing Club rower, but I can think of no reason to persuade me that even power as an ideal is more attractive, or more useful, or more effective, than even force as an ideal – not in the laboratory, not in the library, and certainly not in the boat. Let me repeat. When you maintain your maximum sustainable force, power rises as speed through the water increases. What’s wrong with that? 8681 Ibid, p. 94-5 8682 Kleshnev, June 2006 2441
