Show T ENGLISH ENGLIS ROWERS RO HAVE fAVE SU SUPERIOR rE METHODS ET I PHILADELPHIA Sept 20 The 20 The re recent recent re- re re-I re cent vii ton of the tho Belgian oared eight Boat Hont club at the thc crew rew over o the Leander English Henley Henly t the iho hI second in in eion sion calls ails attention to the fact that the tho superiority of of tho the Engl English stroke strode and En English lish rowing methods is is 18 much ch ota ofa of ot la last t or seven a myth Until the six l undoubtedly supreme su years ears tho the En English lish were preme on the water water water-so so much so that j American or other foreign crews had but little chance to win from them onI on i I their own courses This continued run I of victories tho the English attributed to toI I their peculiar slide and stroke o the they taught i Most lost critics know that ono one of the most important factors in the continued I success of the tho English crews has been their persi persistent rc refusal sal to row in in forI foreign for for- I ei eign n waters and that the they have havo unfairly un un- unfairly to tonn toan tonn fairly attributed Americas America's defeats I nn an inferior stroke and coaching methods methods meth moth instead alt of oC to the great handicaps of youth and a n foreign n climate It has remained for Ellis Ward coach of the University of Pennsylvania crows crews to disprove e that tho the English stroke and slide are arc superior to those of the American When hen the University University sit sity of Pennsylvania crew went to the Henley regatta in 1901 and rowed the Leanders stun sl a breaking heart race I Ione one of the criticisms criticism the Englishmen I volunteered most frequently to Mr I Ward was wag that the r American mer can stroke e I II I was shorter than the English ane and therefore there there- fore e defective Not long n ago o Mr 11 Ward determined to make a thorough test of the tho matter and aDd to have o every singe of oC tho the experiment photographed so that he would have cO convincing evidence What Mr W Ward Waid Ild set out to prove pro was that the American slide permits a n longer stroke than the tho English To fo demonstrate this he rigged a pair oare oared shell and had hail it equipped with English and American slides In explanation ex ex- explanation it should be he stated that the English slides on a rail from front sixteen to twenty inches lon long while in the American Ameri can boat tho slide is is from twenty seven to twenty-nine twenty in inches The Tho English use a longer oar 12 feet 3 inches to 12 feet for tho the American Since the English have ha tho the shorter slide they use a slightly longer handle handlo to their oar an and thus get n n. leverage of four forty-four or forty forty five he compared to two forty and one half to three forty-three for the tilo Ameri Ameri- can It was on account of this extra leverage levera lev- lev lev 1 era c that the English were cre le led to be be- hove that flint Ute they had the longer stroke To find the truth Mr Ir Ward took a n full stroke with the American slide and the tho point to which the oar reached was marked with an nn American flag The finish of ot the stroke was 3 similarly marked Then the English slide was v.-as substituted and a n full i stroke taken with it The point to which the oar reached leached on tho beginning and end of the stroke w was s marked with English flags When measurements were completed it was eras found that the lon longer cr American slide elide permitted the oar to reach ei eight ht inches farther on nn the catch and right night inches farther on un the tho finish an ad all van tags tag f of sixteen inches on the full stroke Ward used the tho American oar in in both tests land ho lie used tho the English oar which is inches longer the ad advantage advantage vanta vantage e would have been still greater in favor of tho the American slide The conclusions of Mr lr Ward whose rowin rowing I experience covers co a period Deriot of forty I years cars as oarsman and coach are that th American rowin rowing is progressing as fast as ns can reasonably be expected and that when the American preparatory schools nay ay as lS much attention to rowing as ash ray they h y do on the tho other si side e. e American crews will be able to defeat the Britons The great disadvantage under which the Americans labor was especially evident evi dent when P Pennsylvania n a went to Hen Hen- ley In this eight were two men rowing rowing rowing row row- ing for the first time in a university shell while none of the thc others had hart rowed more mono than three years The average av o crage age ago of or this crew was only 19 Ye years rs a difference of fully ten years oars in favor or a of the En Englishmen l The Thew American Ameri Amerl can crew was recruited from less than fifty candidates while the Leanders were selected from several thousand ex ex- Oxford and Cambridge oarsmen Mr r. r Ward claims claim that if jf he a were ere given iven the tho same latitude in selecting an au all all- American for crew crew for for the Leanders aro are aroI v virtually an all English crew crew he he would guarantee to win th the grand challenge I cup at t the English Henley at his first trial |