THE SPORT OF ROWING To the readers of www.row2k.com News concerning my four-volume book, The following .pdf is in the format in- now called The Sport of Rowing, Two Cen- tended for the final printed book. It is from turies of Competition, is coming thick and the fourth of four volumes. fast as the October, 2011 publishing date gets closer. I am now taking reservations I need you! for the hard-bound limited collector’s edi- tion. If you find any typos in this chapter, or Unlike the soft-bound regular edition if you have any questions, comments, sug- with its black & white images, the collector gestions, corrections, agreements, disagree- edition will feature full-color illustrations ments, additional sources or illustrations, if like you see in these row2k excerpts, and you would like to add your own perspective, each copy will be consecutively numbered, etc. please email me at the address below. signed and dedicated by me according to the Your input represents an essential contribu- instructions of the purchaser. tion to what has always been intended to be Each person who pre-purchases a collec- a joint project of the rowing community, so tor copy prior to publication will be listed as please contribute. If you and I end up final- a subscriber in both editions. I encourage ly disagreeing on some relevant point or everyone to visit www.rowingevolution.com, other, I will be thrilled to present both alter- read the blog and sign up for the newsletter. natives so the readers can decide for them- Those who wish to reserve a low number for selves. their collector edition may email me directly at [email protected]. Incidentally, many thanks to all who wrote to thank me and to make corrections This latest excerpt on row2k is the fifth and add comments, photos, anecdotes, etc. of five that touch on the women’s rowing in to the recent postings on the 1984 U.S. the 1970s, 1980s and beyond. men’s scullers, on Ted Nash, and on wom- The subject of this draft chapter is U.S. en’s rowing during the 1970s, ‘80s and ‘90s. women’s rowing during the early 2000s Drafts with all the updates are gradually be- under Coach Tom Terhaar. As Tom him- ing posted for you on row2k. self made clear in the chapter posted last You can always email me anytime at: week, this is a continuation of the narrative begun in the 1990s under Coach Hartmut [email protected]. Buschbacher. Many thanks. TThhee SSppoorrtt ooff RRoowwiinngg AA CCoommpprreehheennssiivvee HHiissttoorryy bbyy PPeetteerr MMaalllloorryy VVoolluummee IIVV PPlluuss ÇÇaa CChhaannggee ddrraafffttt mmaannuussccrriiippttt JJaannuuaarryy 22001111 THE SPORT OF ROWING 156. Tom Terhaar 2001 to Athens and Beyond bacher needed help on the National Wom- en‟s Team. “Jen Dore,7621 my girlfriend and now my wife, had been invited down to selection camp and spent most of the year in Chatta- nooga. She was a very good rower, and Hartmut wanted to be sure he kept her, so he called me up and said, „I could always use another coach. Why don‟t you come on down?‟ “I got totally lucky. It was incredible. I was the assistant from „94 through 2000. I have been the national head coach since 2001. Author Tom Terhaar Kernschlag to Schubschlag U.S. National Women‟s Coach For the 2004 quadrennial, the majority of women who tried out for the National Parallel Evolution Team had arrived pounding the catch as ag- gressively as their male counterparts. For the American women, 2004 Terhaar: “The number one reason why represented a rebirth similar to that of the everyone in America attacks the catch is not American men, the Olympic Silver Medal a technical thing, it‟s a psychological thing. after two decades of disappointment, and as You‟re in an eight, you‟re going, you want with the men, a supportive young coach led to win, and logically your body is telling the American Renaissance. you that if you put more pressure on . That coach was Tom Terhaar: “But rowing‟s not a power sport, believe “I rowed at St. Joe‟s Collegiate in Buf- it or not. Everything is slow-twitch. falo for about two and a half years. Then I “Starting with college kids, it‟s pretty went to Northeastern University my fresh- simple. Right away they can jump on it with man year and rowed heavyweight, and then the legs, they can go very hard for that first transferred to Rutgers and rowed little bit of the stroke, no problem, but ac- lightweights there. tually getting them to do that with the legs “Right after I graduated, I started coach- and to accelerate is what takes a lot of time. ing the freshman lightweights at Rutgers. From there, I heard that Hartmut Busch- 7621 See Chapter 153. 2214 THE WORLD COMES FULL CIRCLE “The biggest problem for American less skill involved. You can get away with a coaches today is that they don‟t get to coach lot more. small boats. If they did, then they would see “I‟m not an expert, but I would say that the inefficiency of attacking the catch. before the big blades when there was less “It‟s the culture. If you could get the surface area with a less efficient blade, if culture of everyone just rowing in eights to you got on it quicker and harder, perhaps change, then there wouldn‟t be that issue. you were going to get a little bit more bounce out of the boat, maybe a little bit “As it has been with the men, rowing more speed. pairs has been the biggest educator for the “Maybe it made sense. It was ineffi- women athletes on the National Team, so cient, but you could definitely get away with basically it‟s been my job to get them com- hitting it without as many repercussions, fortable in the small boats first and foremost. whereas today when you‟ve got a lot of sur- I feel that if you let everyone row the pairs, face area and you hit it, there‟s a lot more you don‟t have to coach nearly as intensive- resistance initially, and then in the second ly because they‟re getting a tremendous half of the stroke there‟s nothing. amount of feedback themselves.”7622 Anna Mickelson, 2004 5-seat, did just More Sprack Back7625 dreadfully early on in the pair: “The stronger you are, the more likely it is that you will be Terhaar: “The Canadian men have terrible in a small boat as you get started. made a definite impression on me. For a while, my teammates did not want to “There are some things which make be paired with me, and my coaches won- boats win consistently. Obviously, first and dered if I would ever get it. foremost, you have to have the athletes. “My best pair rows were always with You have to have the right bodies and the amazing women who could row a pair with right heads. That‟s always a constant, but anyone and win. It was Lianne Nelson, 7623 watching the Canadians row, it‟s fantastic Megan Cooke and Portia McGee who because it‟s something new and different led me to win races in the small boats. and makes you think. It makes you eva- “Each member of the squad worked tire- luate, and watching them row, I saw some- lessly in the pairs and singles. [By 2008,] thing very specific, and a lot of it had to do we could field three pairs to be competitive with training. at the World Cup stops, and the other com- 7624 “There wasn‟t a lot of technical coach- binations were not far behind.” ing of the layback with the Canadian men. It was something that the athletes came up Big Blades with themselves. This is second hand, of course, but I‟ve heard they were just rowing Terhaar: “If you think about it, there‟s in small boats and trying to move the boat as been another innovation in rowing that has far as they could at a controlled stroke rate, dramatically changed the way that people and they found that if they just really hauled row, and that‟s the big blade. There is a lot off on it, they got a little bit more out of it. “I have a lot of respect for Mike Sprack- len because the guy has been winning for 7622 Terhaar, personal conversation, 2004 7623 years. The training is very hard, and they The latter two would make the U.S. women‟s were able to do something in a race that a lot eight in 2006. 7624 Qtd. by Liz Bernal, Summer Downsizing, Rowing News, August 2010, p. 36 7625 See Chapter 151. 2215 THE SPORT OF ROWING of people weren‟t, which was to absolutely instincts out, instead I could say, „Okay, fol- kill off the field in the first 700 meters. low Lianne, let yourselves use your bodies a “I saw that, and that told me that per- little bit more, and go to town!‟ haps this was something that could help us. “Lianne‟s example made my job much “If you analyze women‟s rowing over easier. It let her teammates evolve naturally the past twenty years, pretty much every and let them row the way that suited their Gold Medal winner was ahead at the 700 personality. I just encouraged them to use a meter mark. little bit more body, let them swing.