The St. Louis Republic. [volume] (St. Louis, Mo.) 1888-1919, 1904-07-17
SEES LESSON IN
E|GHT-OAR RACES
Julian Hawthorne Deplores Fact
That College Crews Have
Shown No Improvement in
Forty Years.
BLAMES PARTICULAR STROKE.
Thinks Coaches Are Trying to
Teach an Impossibility Instead
of Following Example of the
Famous Ward Brothers.
BY JULIAN

New York. July It's anything to be
learned from the college boat races this
year? Do the crews row better and faster
now than they did forty years ago?
Much time, money and effort have been
spent during that period in trying 10 teach
them TO do so. Has the attempt succeed
ed? II not. why not?
Back In the sixties there was a profess
sional crew known as the Ward brothers;
it won easily over all rivals. II was com
posed OF Hudson River fishermen. They
had no coach but experience; what they
knew about owing they had taught them
selves.
Individually tough. ~tireless and masters
Of workmanship, it occurred to them that
there might be money In siX-oar COMPETE
tons: so they got a boat and rowed it I'M
I'll they had got together" They never
looked well. their form was not smooth
or finished: each man seemed to pull in a
style of his own. but each pulled for all
he was worth. and somehow. in spite of
looks. they all pulled as one man.
These men, on still water, with a turn,
rowed three mics in something less than
seventeen minutes. and were never fully
extended. To-day. after forty years as
slduuus study, our crews. eight oars. with
a tide IA voring them. and without a turn.
row the same distance at their best in
about the same time. In other words. no
crew rows as well to-day as did the Ward
brothers more than a generation ago
What means. then. to attain the desired
end have we omitted! The men compos-
Ing our crews are the best physical speCi-
mems of the several colleges. and phys
zeal training nowadays has been perfected
to a degree undreamed of forty years
ago. Practice for the crews IS active for
six months. and often is pursued for the
better part of a year.
are better than they used to be. And
finally. the crews are furnished with
coaches. professional or amateur. or both,
who attend them day and night from one
season to another and never cease to in
still principles into their heads. All these
things. in addition to the tide. the absence
Of a turn. and the two additional men in
the boat. have produced no result so good
as that attained forty years ago without
these things. What is the trouble?
TEACHING PARTICULAR STROKE.
The prime trouble, It seems to me, may
teach our crews to row some particular
stroke-variouslv called the English. the
Courtney. the Hanlan. the Bob Cook, or
what not-instead OF teaching them how. |
simply, TO row. That is to say. We have
been trying to perform an impossibility.
Let us turn the thing over a bit. An
eisht-oar crew is a highly complex organ
ism. The eight men have, each OF them. u
personal equation None can do any
thing quite the same as any of the others. |
Among other things no two Of them can |
row alike-that is. although the crew as a
whole may contrive to acquire an outward
similarity OF style. winning the applause
of lookers-on. yet only one out of the
whole eight. II he. will be putting his whole
possible power into his work. the one. |
namely, whose personal equation that par
ticular stroke happens to fit.
All the rest will inevitably he Sinking
more or less. because. instead of letting |
themselves out to row. each one with his
whole heart and force. they are all hold
ing themselves In In order to intimate a
style of rowing which does not belong to
them.
They seem to be together. their bodies |
move alike. their oars enter and leave the !
water at the same time, yet all the while
the main thing-thate each should pull with
his whole possible Strengths lost sight
of. and the race, or at any rate, the rec
me, IS what has happened. and forty years
of coaches. professional. amateur and
both. have never yet happened to guess
the truth. |
Crew rowing and sIngle-scull rowing are
two different problems. The latter we have
fairly mastered with the consequence that |
at single sculls we have beaten the world. |
In crew rowing. the English. without put
ting themselves to nearly our pains. con-
stantly beat US easily. and the very fact
that they nave not tried so hard to per- !
they have beaten ua.
In single-scull rowing we give the per-
sonal equation full sway in crew rowing
we arduously suppress II. and the rest fol-
lows as a matter of course.
EACH IN HIS OWN STYLE.
The way to form a college crew that
cannot only bea. other college crews. but
can row absolutely well. is to follow the
old example of the Ward brothers. Sc
lect as material men physically competent /
who know how to row, each in his own
style. Put these men into an eight-car |
and keep them there. rowing and doing
nothing else bat row. Put all notions
about any particular stroke out of your
head and keep il out OF theirs. ]