Re: Rowing is fun

But Mike,

It is a tradition for the Washington crew to use a skeleton:

"Shortly after Conibear moved to Seattle, Grinstead told him Washington was in desperate need of a crew coach. Conibear jokingly replied: "I'd make a good one . . . (but) to tell you the truth, I don't know one end of a boat from another." In the spring of 1907, he became Washington's crew coach. Then the experiments began. Conibear borrowed a skeleton from a laboratory and dragged it up the boardwalk of Brooklyn Avenue and set it on a rowing seat in his basement. Into the skeleton's hands, he slid an old broom handle to serve as an oar. Then, with painstaking patience, he moved the skeleton through a stroke noting the position of the bones at each stage. Next, he turned an old bicycle upside down and began turning the wheel with the palm of his hand. In his mind, the wheel was the water, his palm the oar blade. He began to realize that unless the oar blade struck the water at a speed equal to or greater than the water's speed, there would be a moment of unwanted "drag." His experiments led to a stroke with a shorter layback, a snap to the oar blade the instant it was inserted in the water, and a "shot" of the blade out of the water at the completion of the rower's drive." ("The Glory of Washington: The People and Events That Shaped the Husky Athletic Tradition," by Jim Daves and W. Thomas Porter)

Thought you might enjoy.

Charles

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