THE LESSONS OF 200 YEARS possibly apply, much as a man pushes with his legs and feet upon the floor when he be- strides a half ton and lifts it – if he can. “This supreme push, far more forceful than any sudden kick could be, throws every ounce of pressure against that fulcrum that he can possibly impose. Hence he gets more power into his work than any less effective pusher could get, and it rushes him forward accordingly.”8736 Steve Fairbairn, Jesus College, 1900s: “The oarsman gives one clean spring from the stretcher, with the idea of moving the whole weight of his body as fast and as far as he can.”8737 “Draw the blades evenly through till he gets it to come through in one piece.”8738 “ . . . the pressure on the blade is nearly constant throughout the drive. . . During the main part of the drive the legs and back work evenly and progressively, and the legs, back and arms reach the finish together. Watching a crew rowing this way, one is struck by the steady acceleration on the pullthrough.”8739 “ . . . make the blade cut evenly through the water, and, with a hard finish, row the blade out, making the water swirl up behind the blade as if it were boiling.”8740 “ . . . he must sustain this draw at the oar and push at the stretcher to the finish of the stroke.”8741 “One should keep the legs and back at work right through the stroke and end it with a final whip of the oar. That gives pace to the boat.”8742 Gilbert C. Bourne, Oxford University, 1925: “ . . . in the twinkling of an eye the blade of the oar was covered to its full 8736 Harding, p. 27 8737 Fairbairn On Rowing, p. 156 8738 Ibid, p. 99 8739 Wilson, p. 21 8740 Fairbairn On Rowing, p. 233 8741 Ibid, p. 376 8742 Ibid, p. 164 depth, and instantly a mass of green water was piled up against it. “For the rest of the stroke, this solid- looking mass of water was swept back with unfaltering precision, and at the finish the blade of the oar left the water as it had en- tered it, without flurry or splash.”8743 “To make the boat shoot forward as far as possible, the oarsman has to sustain the pressure of the blade in the water with un- diminished energy. . . When teaching his crew to finish out, the coach should be ex- plicit on this point, that the boat is moving faster than at the beginning of the stroke, and that the movements of body and limbs must increase their pace in proportion.”8744 Haig-Thomas & Nicholson, 1958: “The muscular power of the oarsman is ap- plied at once to the blade and is used contin- uously until the blade is disengaged after a long, drawn-out finish. The legs must be used throughout the stroke at their hardest, which of course means that the slide must not stop going back until the base of the thumbs lightly touches the body at the fin- ish. (This is always done by the best Ameri- can and Russian crews.)”8745 The traditional American college rowing technique which dominated the world during the first half of the 20th Century was also based on the middle ground. Charles Courtney, Cornell University, early 1900s: “We experimented and found that we must start the leg drive and the body swing together at the very catch of the oar and carry them through together. In that way we got a single regular curve on the paper, like a wide letter U upside down, showing that we were getting the maximum power in the middle of the stroke, where it 8743 Bourne, p. 7 8744 Ibid, pp. 145-6 8745 Haig-Thomas & Nicholson, p. 51 2463