ROWING.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2134, 7 March 1908, Page 2 (Supplement)

ROWING.

(By “Outlook.”! Tiie now boat lor the Gisborne club is expected to arrive at any time. During the past week training in the Gisborne Club has been confined to the Licensed Victuallers’ Shield crews and the ten-stone crew for Napier, all of the crews doing good work. In the Poverty Bay Club the tenstone crew have been doing solid work this week and the juniors have also been doing fairly well; but the senior crew has done practically nothing so far, and will have to hustle along directly if they liope to maintain the boating supremacy of the district. Next week I may have a few remarks to make oil the form displayed bv some of the crews. TIME AND SAVING. As promised in last issue I will give a few hints to rowers generally. These apply more particularly to those engaged in four-oar racing and are culled from the pen of one of England’s best University coaches. The first essential in four-oar racing is time and swing. “Time,” is taking the water with the oars at the same time and finishing together, and “swing” is the motion coming forward and going back on the slide, which must be in unison to be effective. At the word of command the body should be allowed to swing straight forward from the hips as far as possible, keeping the back rigid and head hack, and allowing the stomach to come down well between tiie legs, to enable the shoulders to be kept square. The inside wrist may be slightly arched inwards and upwards, but otherwise the arms should be perfectly straight. At the word “go” the oar is turned sharply and the hands raised to grip or catch the water. At the same time the' whole weight of the body, by the aid of stretcher and legs, is thrown Sack on to the oar. The force required to bring the oar through the water is obtained by the pressure of the heels against the stretcher, which pressure must be kept till the end of the stroke. The body, shoulders and back should be kept fairly straight and should be swung straight back until it reaches a- position about three inches past the perpendicular. The body should be swung as if oil a hinge low down the hips, the arms being still kept perfectly straight and acting like a pivot at the back of the shoulders. The blades of the oar should go into the _ water at right angles and be kept just covered. If it be not sufficiently covered it will cause, a splash generally resulting is a roll. If too deep it also causes a roll, .stops the boat and is on the wrists. In teaching a man to swing back he should be told to hold his head well up. The weight of it in throwing back will assist his swing, while if thrown forward it will have the contrary effect. I would like to bring this specially under the notice of the stroke of the P.B. junior crew. In bringing the oar into the chest the elbows should come closo past the side and be pointed downwards. The oar should be brought in on the same plane until tho roots of the thumb reach the chest, generally about Die same height as the place where the ribs meet.

Tho following are some of the primer rules of swinging: When the body is swinging the arms should be perfectly straight. The oar should be about twice as long out of the water as it is in. Slow through the air but not hang at the catch. In coming forward care must be taken to get the hands away before moving the body or the slide—a very noticable defect amongst many of the local oarsmen. Otherwise in clearing the knees the hands are likely to strike them and for this reason also, to relieve as soon as possible the muscles of the abdomen, the body should begin to swing forward first and then the slide. I would advise oarsmen to cut these hints out and learn them by rote, if they would aspire to bo more than working bullocks in a boat, and the difference in the sliced of the boats with minimum of exertion will be noticed.