The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1898-03-08
POINTS FROM CREW COACHING.
Chapters by Lehman and Niokalis in
Recent Book.

The London Illustrated Sporting and
Dramatic News, in commenting upon a
recent publication upon rowing matters,
saws. "There was a decided want of a
good, handy volume on rowing; such
one as, without entering too much into
detail, would give a man who thought of
becoming an oar "a clear idea OF the art
and of It's pleasures and rewards. X. q.
lehman, whose devotion to the car has
been we'll known for 20 years, has pro-
duced a capital addition to the Isthmian
library, and his book will be read with
equal interest by novice and old hand.
There is no royal road to rowing, and
but(very few examples could be produced
Of first rate oars who have not learned
the rudiments on fixed seats. Mr.. Leh-
mann utters very much needed caution
when he advisessa coach to start his men
on short slides, for one with play Of
eight inches. coming to point six inches
from the work, will give man conf
dence at first, and ennbIe him to master,
instead of being run away with, by his
seat. The length of the slide can be grad
ually increased as q man becomes used to
the work.
"The chapter on scu1ling is written by
Guy Nickalls, and few men are more
competent to deal with the subject. Mr..
Nickalls is equally proficient as an oars
man and as q sculler, but many excellent
amateur scullers prove inferior oars
The reason probably is that in a sculllng
boat man has to depend entirely on
himself, and when placed in an elght,
finds 1t difficult to assimilate his style TO
that of another man, or to go at another
mans pace AS to the reason why heavy
weight oarsmen seldom are good soullers
it seems to lie in the fact that they ire
uuently get muScle-bound IN the should-
ers and arms, and therefore lack the elias
| ITCHY and quickness with tho hands SO
necessary in sculling boat. Again, IL
| is difficult to get boat big enough Ior
| a heavyweight, and as Cam bridge man
admitted their arms generally give.
Steering has chapter all to itself, writ
| ten by that most famous OF modern cox
SWANS, G. l.. Davis, of the Cam bridge
and Leander Fights. Mr.. Davis wrote an
article some years ago for weekly pa
per, but as a rule the cox is lost sight OF,
unless some one is wanted to be blamed
| Mr.. Davis is short and to the point in
his remarks, which deserve study by all
men ambitious of holding the lines.
Many q O rev will be grateful it their coz
will implicitly follow the rule here laid
down, especially as regards sitting erect
and keeping the body balanced from the
hips, without, however, rolling with the
boat, or swaying to and fro with The ac-
| ton of the rowers.
"Mr. lehman, having recently been
coaching Harvard, writes with fresh
knowledge on rowing in America, and
points out that what the American uni
versity oarsmen lack is the prolonged
racing experiences, which makes the Eng
lishman SO formidable and robust an op-
ponent. At Harvard. even there has
| hitherto been no race or series OF races
| for tours, pairs or sculls, and there has
| teen far too much work done on the ma
chine and in the tank. Mr.. Lehman
holds, and we think perfectly justifiably
| that none of these oarsmen were in any
way weakened by rowing, but rather
| that the fight with disease was aided by
the exercise they had taken. AS for Mr..
Sandow's proposal to train crew, Mr..
| Lehman will have none of 1t, for gym
nasium work does not train good oars,
who want quickness, suppleness, pre-.
cislon and neatness. rather than enor-
nous muscular strength. In the appen-
dices will be found all the important laws
and rules of boat racing. The illustra-
| tions are very good, but it is pity that
the snapshots of a crew in motion are
American. 1t is said about that crew in
motion.