The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-04-28
NO FIXED STYLE OF ROWING BEING
 TAUGHT PERRY
Each Man Permitted To Develop Own Style By
 U. s. Coaches
By LAWRENCE PERRY

Now that the various crews of the various aquatic universities are on the water, facing the near approach of the spring regattas, one hears the usual amount of talk about this style and that style of sweep swinging. One hears mention of the Courtney stroke, the Washington stroke, the Jim Rice stroke and so on until the man not versed in sweep swinging is inclined to a decided opinion that rowing Is far too technical and involved to interest him in any way.
 Yet the fact is that none of our great rowing coaches has ever adhered to a fixed and rigid style of rowing. All have had cardinal principles, to be sure: but when they were boiled down they amounted to nothing more than a policy, said policy being to teach eight men a manner of stroking best suited to them.
 Two Distinct Styles
 When it comes to distinct styles of rowing. there are. broadly speaking, only two. These are the English style and the American style. Both strokes are developed on what are believed to be the mechanical principle that will insure the application of a maximum of power out of each dip of the oar. You will see an English crew bending forward when they catch their oar in the water preparatory to the pull until their heads are well down toward their knees, hook the water hard and pulling through until their backs are almost down in the bottom of the boat.
 You will see the American crew, on the other hand, dip their blades into thA VvafaP fhafr ahnuIdAx.m Faa rhtnor mt too far forward, then pulling the oar through with a snappy, powerful drive, finishing the stroke with the body only slightly beyond the perpendicular.
 Is Severe Test
 Reasons for this difference In stroke are mechanical. The seat upon which the British oarsmen sits slides only twenty inches, as a rule, and the shoes in which the feet rest are set some distance from the seat. This makes the oarsmen lean far over in order to secure the proper length to his stroke. Then, at the finish, his slide stops sev- eral inches in front of the thole pins in which the oar rests, and so he has to lie far back in order to get powerful finish.
 This involves terrific punishment upon the mid-section of the. body, and stroke from hoyhood can stand the strain. American crews have a much longer slide-at Syracuse, for instance. the slide has run to 30 inches. and the average Is 26. The shoes are compara- lively close to the slide, so that whereas the Engnishman gets his power from his waist and shoulders. the American gets his from terrific leg drive and, of course, from the shoulders.
 Have Varying Methods
 Different American coaches, as said, have varying methods of teaching, but none of them has anything like a set style of swinging the oars that are rigtdly applied to crews year after year. In all American crews you will see the pronounced les drive, and as a general thing you will see them at their best rowing a 32 stroke, with an ability to hit up to S6 when pressure is applied. But there never was time whef the expert observer could watch a yell coached crew in action, not Knowing what university is represented, and with certainty say that is a Courtney eight, or a Spaeth eight, or a Leader eight, or another eight. The wise coach adopts his methods to his material, not his material to stock, cutsandsdried meth cd. And most coaches arc egise.