Evening star., 1896-11-03
NEW STROKE At HARVARD.
An English Rowing Expert to Coacb
the Crew.


The rowing authorities at Harvard Tn;.
versity. not satisfied with the remarkab,v
flhe work of the Harvard crews at Pough-
keepsie. n. Y, last summer have invited
Lehman. the English rowing authority
to come over and coach the Harvard eish,
Lehman has accepted and will sail from,
England tomorrow. II will be remembered
that HarVardS $ varsity crew last summer
broke the record for four miles, coming in
a good second to Cornell's eight Because
Cornell had sent a crew to England the
year before some rowing men obtained the
impression that the good work of the crew
last year was due to knowledge gained
abroad. 1t was asserted that Coach Court
ney had modified the Cornell stroke using
the English one as model. This Courtney
has denied. He aserts that the stroke used
by Cornell last summer was the one Cor
nell has used for years. 1t was rowed by
Jcnn Ostrom and Jack Lewis long before
Cornell ever thought of having a profes-
sional coach. However. the rowing men
have gone off on the contrary opinion and
Harvard is to have an English coach and
Iale has already been trying the long and
narrow English oars and the English ar
rangement of seats. A Harvard man saws
of Lehmann:
'One of the first things he will endeayor
TO impart to the crew will be lengthening
OF stroke, for he believes in a good body
swing and hard leg drive.
Il doubt if there will be much of change
in the rigging. for even in England opinion
Is divided very evenly on the advantage
gained by pairing off the seats.
Even if he should decide to do it only
half the seats will be paired for the others
will be over the kelson. l think most row
ing men. including Mr. Cook. will agree
that our American crews have abandoned
the body swing in a great measure. and
the result has been an increased slide,
which means more leg work
Lob, 1,rItn
instead of twenty. as most American crews
do: he believes in utilizing both the body
swing and the leg drive to the fullest ca
pacity.
"He also believes that a six-incb h,,aa
with increased length, and leverage In
board. will be productive of greater results,
ard 1t really looks as though the Ameri-
cans who have given the matter any at
English idea.
''One thing is certain-Lehmann will
lenSthen the stroke and the men will he
taught to drop their blades in on the full
past.
All agree that Cornell could never row
Harvard down with her old short snappy
stroke. as she did on the Hudson river last
June. 1t was the long English stroke that
Courtney saw in England and copied that
won for Cornell. If there were no other
reason for changing our style at Harvard
that race would be sufficient. Harvard NAV
turn out good crew this season and she
may not: but no matter what her luck she
Will have inaugurated a system of rowing
ard that will be a step in the right direc-
ton. Summing the whole thing up, 1t
means longer oars, narrower blades. less
Slide more back and arm work and the
stroke must be longer and pulled through
more quickly than heretofore. The num-
Der of strokes per minute will depend en-
tirely OH the quality of the men, but thirty
six will be about the standard for an ay-
erage crew for a four-mie race. Lehman
will coach the men on the river If the sea-
son is sufficiently open. and later on will
watch them at work III the rowing tank
He will have nothing to do with selecting
the candidates or training them, his work
being simply to teach them how to row.