THE LESSONS OF 200 YEARS cantly faster (i.e., Romania with the addition of Constanta Burcica) and we didn’t, not because of something we stopped doing right. In Sydney, our strokes probably looked a little less smooth and effortless be- cause we weren’t in the lead and may have appeared to struggle more.”8824 Perhaps it is coincidence, but Garner’s evolution to increasingly assertive legs mir- rored the unintended change in the 1996 U.S. Men’s and Women’s Eights, the 2000 U.S. Men’s Eight, much of the rest of the 2000 U.S. Women’s Olympic rowing squad in Sydney. None of these boats reached ex- pectations. The Fatal Double-Stroke An explosive catch is by definition a singular event. The rest of the pullthrough must be a second effort, but this is the very definition of a double-stroke, a two-part pullthrough, universally understood to be less effective than a unified effort. George Pocock: “There is no more piti- ful sight than a crew abusing a shell, with the boat checking at every stroke and the crew laboring hard – probably too hard – but with little or no skill or artistry. Usually with a double-stroke – a catch and a fin- ish.”8825 Ky Ebright: “The harder you hit, the worse it goes.”8826 Haig-Thomas & Nicholson: “ . . . the slide being driven on to the backstop too soon and the stroke being taken in two piec- es, first by the legs, whose power is used up at once, and next by the shoulders and arms, unassisted by the legs.”8827 Peter Klavora: “Because of [a dysfunc- tional segmented-force Kernschlag rower’s] 8824 Garner, correspondence to Jim Dietz, 2011 8825 Newell, p. 79 8826 Qtd, by Mendenhall, Ch. VII, p, 9 8827 Haig-Thomas & Nicholson, pp. 48-9 hard catch, his oarhandle speed increases rapidly, slackens abruptly, picks up toward the middle of the drive, then drops off. The pressure on the blade decreases soon after the forceful catch, and the boat speed drops sharply. The increases in boat velocity that result are therefore uneven.”8828 Not every segmented Kernschlag crew has been totally hamstrung by its double- stroke, but force discontinuity is always there for crews that pound the catch. Surely there have been World Champi- onships won with segmented pullthroughs, especially in earlier years. Of 69 Gold Medals awarded between 2005 and 2007, twelve were won by what appear to be smooth-curved or nearly smooth-curved Kernschlag boats, but history records that many, many more championships have been lost by fine, fit athletes rowing boats that didn’t swing and send. Among National Teams in Europe, only the Thor Nilsen-influenced Italians of the 1990s and Thor Nilsen/Harald Jährling- influenced Irish of the 2000s have recently employed versions of Kernschlag, and they achieved considerable success. Australia is now the only major rowing country still regularly sending Kernschlag crews to world competition, and they have achieved a generous measure of recent suc- cess. There is no question that Kernschlag can work, but history confirms that the dan- ger of the double-stroke is ever-present. In the United States, on the Kernschlag side is the majority of rowers, junior, col- lege, senior and masters. Among those on the Schubschlag side are a smattering of col- lege crews, including but not limited to the Harvard, California, Washington, Yale, Princeton and Northeastern men, the Prince- ton, California, Washington, Brown and 8828 Klavora, Canada 3, p. 28 2489
