THE ERA OF POLARIZATION is my natural style and actually makes me stronger.”7723 In their final in Gifu and after a relatively slow start, the Italian Lightweight Coxless-Four came on strong in the second 1,000 and when the finish line came, they were moving fast only two-thirds of a length down on the winning French Four. Diffusion Interestingly, the Silver Medal went to a four from Ireland and will be discussed later in Chapter 154 examining their coach, former GDR Champion Harald Jährling,7724 who has become a strong proponent of Modern Orthodoxy. The second-place Irish Four clearly displayed Thor’s preferred legs, body, arms sequential motion. It was so extreme that their seats were kicked out from under them by the initial leg drive. What most caught the eye with the Irish, however, was the strength of their surge to the release. The pullthrough was made up of the initial horizontal leg drive followed by the back swing to the finish. There was a distinct discontinuity between the two phases of the pullthrough, but this was not segmented Kernschlag. Force application was focused on building boat speed to the finish rather than simply on an explosive catch and then a second effort to the finish. Incidentally, the 2005 World Championship Gold Medal in the men’s lightweight fours was won by France ticking the boat along Schubschlag at 39 using +15-20° to -15° back swing and 0-6, 0-10, 5-10 motion, with less effort spent sending the boat at the finish and more on seamless transition to the next stroke. The Modern Orthodoxy of Thor Nilsen After teaching Classical Technique early in his career, Thor Nilsen converted to Modern Orthodoxy, and he fully embraces it today in its smooth Kernschlag version. When asked what had prompted his personal evolution from the technique of the Hansen brothers in the ‘70s to that of the Irish team in the ‘00s, Thor replied, “I think that it’s common sense. It is the natural way.”7725 And in the hands of the master, it obviously works. In his career, Thor Nilsen’s crews have won eight Olympic and more than thirty World Championship Gold Medals, many of them after his conversion to Modern Orthodoxy. Nilsen’s greatest and most lasting contribution to rowing history is in spreading the gospel of rowing around the world. “I don’t look at people as a nationality.”7726 He has officially coached in Spain, Italy, Ireland, and China.7727 FISA: “He insists on coaching athletes, not countries. Officially he counts the number of nations that he is involved with as seven. Unofficially, it is much more extensive, with the Nilsen influence felt in most South American nations, chunks of Europe, countries in the former USSR and Asia.”7728 The technique he continues to spread is Modern Orthodoxy. 7725 Nilsen, personal conversation, 2005 7726 www.fisa.org 7727 Alison Korn, No Borders, Rowing News, 7723 Luini, op. cit. 7724 See Chapter 154. August 2010, p. 45 7728 www.fisa.org 2151
