El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1897-07-08
ENGLISH OR AMERICAN?
The Cornell Stroke Not 50 American"
After All

| Ilc N-oIIlc1l .DtIOhf1 4NOt 81
After All
MANY reporters a. the Poughkeepsi
races got the idea that the stroke rowe
by Cornell which brought victory :
often to the red aud white is slmO
pure American product evolved entire
ly from the Uranium OF Coach COuri n y
More competent obs rivers, like Caspa
w. Whitney, of Harpers Week.
think othe wise, and Mr.. Whitney i
the last number of the Weekly aptl
says:
This year Harvard used the strok
employed by oxford and Cambridge il
their four mile rowing. Yale used
stroke evolved by Mr.. Cook out of hi
American ideas and his experience a
Henley last year: Cornell used th,
stroke evolved out of MIR. Courtney
ideas and his experience at Henley two
years ago SO after all, we are indebt
ed to the mother country for the pres
ent perfected state of our rowing.
The Har' ard stroke was the straigh
| English, with the extreme swing back
and short slide. Mr.. Cook modified
the swing back and gave the men q
trihe more reach, bat he either ig uored
or could not get out of his men good
slide work. Courtney was the clever
est of all. He realized the weakness
of the very short American swing, and
the strength in the American leg drive
He saw the advantage of com bining TT e
English swing with the American leg
drive, rather than emphasizing the
first, as the English do, o. the second,
as the Americans, himself included,
expert in oarsman-hip to know Just
where on the back swing the man
ceased to be pr 'pelling force. Just
at that point COur tney dropped the
English and continued on with the
powerful American leg drive and
smooth recover.
Il have noted that Cornell men mot
Courtney, for he knows Of what he
talks, while the others talk of what
they know not) invaria bly, resent with
Indignation the statement that their
pre- sent stroke is the result of the
Heoley experience. An opportunity
of scouting the idea is never lost. But
the fact remains that the Cornell stroke
OF 90 and '97 does combine the English
swing, modified to permit Of its as
with the American leg drive
ard recover.
THE smooth and powerful combina::
tion that Courtney had attained for
Cornell was evidently what Cook was
striving to reach, for the Yale crew
showed none of the extreme back swing
seen in the Harvard boat. Yale had
the idea safe enough, but it was en-
for the work of the crew was
rough and unfinished. Such rough
work in fact, has not been seen in a
Yale boat for number of years The
men were together, and they had plen-
ty of power, and but for that quality
they would have finished astern Of
L am inclined to believe
that had Il man of less endurance and
l,,i StrNlznl ha Vo1o
crew it Won not have made a show
ing nearly as good
Mr.. Whitney also ascribes the etfec-
tivenesS Of the Cornell stroke largely
to the way the boat was rig ged which
was reall Y the only distinctively Amer
lean feature. A noticeable part of this
is the down bill slide on the recover,
tn At is, the rowing seat is so arranged
that when the stroke is being pulled
the water the seat runs up
slight incline W hich incurs no incon-
yenience or calls for no effort to over
come, as when a man is pulling and
pushing back the natural tendency is
20 rise in his seat. Then on the recov
~. the ROVER glides swiftly down the
ncliue relieving him of all effort in
hat part of the rowing motion, while |
where the scat is horizontal exertion is
to propell the body forwards. |
4 al the ale boat this device there |
you'd have been different tale to tel |
If the late races. Some such change |
will no doubt be made in the Yale boat |
his fall.
Whether Yale, Harvard ard Corn |
I'll will row together again next sum-
nor is yet an unsolved problem. Pub |
ic opinion prOmis-s to bring this |
bout, althou- h the big New Eng land |
are not particularly stuck
IN the proposition. The Yale and |
Harvard men are not saying anything |
lOw-a days about the next race, but |
hey are doing pile of thinking.
JornelI's gentlemanly :and sportsman
ike conduct since the race has won
Golden opinions from the public for
he Ithaca boys and the respect of the
lefeated colleges. COrnells attitude
his year bias been great improvement
'ver her dem eanor in years past. The
oud mouthed, staggering air has en-
irely disappeared, and the crews
rom the older colleges are feeling
low that they have to DO with gentle
men now and not braggarts.
Now is the time for our stockmen t.
-ppcLx ba horns off thair al