MORE SPEED IN SHELL ROWING 
BY HENRY BURNETT POST 
Ex-Captain of the Columbia Crew 
HERE are two methods by which the 
speed of a racing shell can be in- 
creased. 
First, by increasing the force which drives 
the shell forward. This may be done either 
through harder pulling or a more advantageous 
application of the same power. 
Secondly, by eliminating some of those 
things which retard the ‘shell. This is princi- 
pally the “check”? at the beginning of the 
stroke. The most noticeable thing in watching 
a crew row is that the boat seems to proceed 
boat; and that the boat, therefore, tends to 
move as it would if the man’s body were station- 
ary, being free to move backward or forward 
according as it is pushed away from or pulled 
toward the man’s body. 
Now we can see what happens when a racing 
shell manned by several oarsmen “‘checks.” 
The bodies are moving toward the stern of the 
boat, the legs pulling the boat ahead at the 
same time. At the full reach the pull which is 
dragging the boat ahead ceases, and a: violent 
push is exerted against the stretcher, tending 

THE MIDDLE OF THE RECOVER 
The oar has been turned at the point B’ of Fig. 3 
in jumps—a very perceptible stop occurring 
just as the oars are going’ into the water. 
Taking for granted that the power at the oars 
cannot be readily applied to any more advantage 
than it now is, the most obvious and practical 
way of increasing the speed is by eliminating 
as much of the check as possible. If this is 
done we shall have more speed with the same 
energy expended; or the same speed with less 
energy expended, leaving the crew fresh at the 
finish. Let us study the causes responsible 
for this check, and then see if we cannot sug- 
gest a remedy. 
If a man sits on a sliding seat in a light 
boat with his legs straight, and suddenly jerks 
himself toward the stern by pulling on his 
toe-straps en ben ing his knees, the boat will 
ump forwar at the same time that he slices 
toward the stern. This shows that the inertia 
of the man’s body is greater than that of the 
to drive the boat backward. If no oars were 
in the water to anchor the boat, as it were, 
when this push backward is exerted, it would 
stop dead. The oars, then, serve as anchors 
to hold the boat from going backward when the 
legs are jammed down. Now if the legs be 
jammed down an instant before the oar is 
buried, the boat checks, as there is nothing 
to compensate for the violent push given by the 
legs in a backward direction. Here, then, we 
have the one primarily important factor in 
eliminating the check. No power must be 
applied until the oar is buried. Therefore, the 
habits of “clipping” and ‘‘kicking the slide” 
are the two faults which take most from the 
speed of the boat. 
The grest point to be striven for, then, is 
lu recuce lt as near zero as possible the time 
between the first push with legs and the time 
when the power is acting on the solidly an- 
