THE SPORT OF ROWING to ask for ‘action’ at the catch. How can you ask for action at the catch if you are ac- tually interested in the speed of the boat at the finish? “You pick up the boat at the speed the boat is running, and the changes can only come into focus at the finish because, you know, it’s like you throw the javelin or shot put. At the exit, that’s what decides how far it is going to travel.”8783 Tony Johnson, Georgetown Uni- versity: “You’ve got to be very careful about what you’re asking athletes to do at the catch in terms of getting the blade in and thinking that you’re trying to make the boat go faster there. “Boat speed is established at the finish of the pullthrough. That’s the point at which you want to really be pulling. “Perhaps the catch is the point where everyone feels things the most, but in fact the boat should be accelerating all the way through, so you’ve got to make sure that (1) you get the blade in, and (2) you get pres- sure on all the way through.”8784 Of the twelve singles finalists in 2004 in Athens, ten were Schubschlag rowers. Two were Kernschlag.8785 Of the sixty-nine medalists in 2007 in Munich, sixty-three were Schubschlag, and six were Kernschlag. Of the twenty-three winners in 2007, nineteen were Schub- schlag, and four were Kernschlag. Of the two greatest lightweight men’s doubles in history, one was Kernschlag, and one was Schubschlag.8786 History provides a two hundred year sta- tistical sample. If rowers and coaches have gotten to do pretty much whatever they wanted for all that time, it seems to me that just about every alternative imaginable will 8783 Babraj, op. cit. 8784 Johnson, USRA Clinic, Chula Vista, CA, Sept 11-2, 2004 8785 See Chapter 166. 8786 See Chapter 146. Valery Kleshnev Rowing Science Consultant Biorow Ltd. have been tried by now. Then if you test everybody regularly, like every year, in the early decades at Henley, more recently at FISA Championships, and at the very high- est levels the winners split 80-20 or 90-10 in favor of one alternative over all the others, then that provides pretty strong statistical evidence that the winning alternative has a survival advantage over the other options. But let the readers decide for them- selves. Many thanks to Valery Kleshnev, a kind, thoughtful and very intelligent man, for spending time with me discussing the conclusions of this chapter. His newsletters are required reading for all serious students of rowing. 2472
