SLIDING SEATS.
I. THEIR ORIGIN.
When sliding seats were first used they completely revolutionised
oarsmanship, and caused old coaches whose names were household words to
stand aghast at the invention.
The best use of them was but imperfectly realised by those who first
adopted them; and many of the earliest examples of sliding-seat
oarsmanship were sufficiently unorthodox, according to our improved use
of them in the present day, to justify the declaration of more than one
veteran whose opinion was always respected that--'if that is sliding, it
is not rowing.'
The mechanical power gained by a sliding seat is so great that even if
he who uses it sets at defiance all recognised principles of fixed-seat
rowing, he can still command more pace than if he adhered to fixed-seat
work. It was the spectacle, in earlier days of the slide, of this
unorthodox sliding style beating good specimens of fixed-seat
oarsmanship which so horrified many of the retired good oarsmen of the
fixed-seat school. Before long the true use of the slide became better
understood, and thus oarsmen--at all events scientific amateurs--began
to realise that, while bad sliding could manage to command more pace
than good fixed rowing, yet at the same time good sliding (which will be
explained hereafter) will beat bad sliding by even more than the latter
can distance good fixed-seat work.
Just a similar sort of prejudice was displayed against the earlier style
of rowing in keelless boats. When these craft first came in, oarsmen had
little or no idea of 'sitting' them; they rolled helplessly, and lost
all form, but nevertheless they travelled faster in the new craft than
when rowing in good style in old-fashioned iron-shod keeled boats. In a
season or two style reasserted itself, and it was found that it was by
no means impossible to row in as neat a shape in a keelless boat as in a
keeled one.
Sliding on the seat had been practised long before the sliding seat was
invented, but only to a modified extent. Robert Chambers of St.
Antony's, the quondam champion, tried it now and then, and when
preparing for his 1865 match with Kelley he used to slide a trifle,
especially for a spurt, and to grease his seat to facilitate his
operations. Jack Clasper, according to Mr. E. D. Brickwood's well-known
treatise on Boat-racing, used to slide to a small extent on a fixed seat
when he rowed in a Newcastle four which won on the Thames in 1857. Of
this detail the writer has himself no recollection. Also, in 1867, a
Tyne sculler, Percy, tried sliding on a fixed seat in a sculling match
against J. Sadler on the Thames (so Mr. Brickwood relates). But none of
these earlier sliders made much good out of their novelty. The strain on
the legs caused by the friction on the seat prevented the oarsman from
maintaining the action for long, and meantime it took so much out of him
that it prematurely exhausted his whole frame.
In 1870 Renforth's champion four used to slide on the seat for a spurt,
but not for a whole course. They beat the St. John's Canadian crew very
easily while so rowing in a match at Lachine, but we believe that they
would have won with about as much ease had they rowed on fixed seats. In
the same year a 'John o' Gaunt' four from Lancaster came to Henley
Regatta and rowed in this fashion, sliding on fixed seats. They had very
little body swing, and their style showed all the worst features of the
subsequent style which became too common when sliding seats were first
established. They did almost all their work by the piston action of the
legs, and their limbs tired under the strain at the end of three or four
minutes. They led a light crew of Oxford 'Old Radleians' by three
lengths past Fawley Court, and then began to come back to them. The
Oxonians steadily gained on them, but had to come round outside them at
the Point, and could never get past them, losing the race by less than a
yard. Enough was seen on this occasion to convince oarsmen that the
Lancastrian style was only good for half-mile racing. In the final heat
for the Stewards' fours a good L.R.C. crew beat the Lancastrians with
ease after going half a mile. The Radleians would doubtless have also
gone well by the Lancastrians had the course been a hundred yards
longer.
So far the old fixed seat had vindicated itself for staying purposes.
But in the following year a problem was practically solved. It seems
that (so Mr. Brickwood tells us) an oarsman comparatively unknown to
fame, one Mr. R. O. Birch, had used an actual sliding seat at King's
Lynn Regatta in 1870. Mr. Brickwood seems to have been the only writer
who took cognisance of this interesting fact. University men and tideway
amateurs, also professionals so far as we can gather, seem not to have
heard of, or at least not to have heeded, the experiment. Had Mr. Birch
been a leading sculler of the day, possibly the innovation might have
been adopted earlier than it was.
Meantime in America the sliding seat had been better known, but had not
been appreciated. Mr. Brickwood tells us that a Mr. J. C. Babcock, of
the Nassau Boat Club, constructed a sliding seat as long ago as 1857.
Also that W. Brown, the American sculler, tried one in 1861, but
abandoned it. In 1869 Mr. Babcock once more devoted himself to the study
and construction of sliding seats, and brought out a six-oared crew
rowing on slides. But the invention did not obtain much recognition,
although Mr. Babcock was of opinion that his crew gained in power of
stroke through the new apparatus.
How the seat came to be at length adopted arose thus. In 1871 two Tyne
crews went to America to compete in regattas. One of these was
Renforth's crew, and, as detailed elsewhere, Renforth died during a race
against the St. John crew. Robert Chambers (not the ex-champion) took
his place later on for sundry regattas. The Tyne crews rowed with a good
average of success in America. Taylor, who commanded the other Tyne
four, raced a States four, called the Biglin-Coulter crew, rowing with
sliding seats. These Biglin-Coulter men did not prove themselves, as a
whole, any better than, if so fast as, the British crew; consequently
there was nothing to draw especial attention to their apparatus. Of the
two British crews, that stroked by Chambers proved itself on the whole,
through various regattas, faster than Taylor's four.
Taylor bided his time. He proposed a match on the Tyne between the two
British fours, and the offer was accepted. The match came off in the
fall of the same year. Taylor's men had their boat fitted with sliding
seats, and kept their apparatus 'dark' from the world and from their
opponents. They used to cease sliding when watched, and kept their
apparatus covered up. When the race came off, Taylor's crew decisively
reversed the American regatta form, and beat Chambers's crew easily.
This was ascribed to the slide, information as to which leaked out after
the race. The next University race was not rowed with slides, but a
couple of minor sculling races in the spring were rowed with them. In
June of that year a very fine L.R.C. four (Messrs. J. B. Close, F. S.
Gulston, A. de L. Long, and W. Stout) rowed a four-oared match on the
Thames against the Atalanta Club of New York. The L.R.C. men used
slides. That did not affect their victory; they were stronger and better
oarsmen than the Americans, and could have won easily on fixed seats;
but what gave a fillip to slides was the clear testimony of these four
oarsmen of undoubted skill to the advantage which they felt themselves
gain by their use. Instantly there was a run upon slides. Henley Regatta
was impending. The L.R.C. crews were all fitted with them for that
meeting. Several other crews took to them after reaching Henley, and
after seeing the superiority which London obtained by them. Kingston and
Pembroke (Oxon) had their boats fitted with slides less than a week
before the race. Pembroke was a moderate crew, and only entered because
they held the Ladies' Plate. At first, in practice, Pembroke did about
equal time over the course with Lady Margaret, both crews being on fixed
seats. But the day after Pembroke got their slides they improved some 15
secs. upon the time of Lady Margaret, who kept to their old seats. It
must, however, be recorded that the Ladies' Plate was won by a
fixed-seat crew--Jesus, Camb. This crew was by far the best in material
of all the entries at the regatta. Their individual superiority enabled
them to give away the slide to Pembroke, and had they taken to slides
even for the last few days they would probably have also won the Grand
Challenge. As it was, that prize fell to the L.R.C., a crew which had
four good men, and then a weak tail. The sliding seat had now fairly
established its claims. It should be added that Pembroke, with two good
and two moderate men, won the Visitors' Plate from a very good Dublin
four, about the best four that Dublin ever sent to Henley. Pembroke used
slides, and the Dublin men had fixed seats. (Slides alone won this race
for Pembroke.) The Pembroke slides were on wheels--a mechanism which was
soon afterwards discarded by builders in favour of greased glass or
steel grooves or tubes, but which seems to be returning to favour in
1886 and 1887.
II. THEIR USE.
In order to understand the true action in a slide, it will be well to
recall the action of fixed-seat rowing. On the fixed seat the swing of
the body does the main work, being supported by the legs, which are
rigid and bent.
On a slide the legs extend gradually, while at the same time they
support the body. On a fixed seat the body moves as the radius of a
circle that is stationary; on a slide the body moves as the radius of a
circle which is itself in motion. Suppose a threepenny-piece and a
half-crown placed alongside of each other, concentrically, with a common
pivot. Let the threepenny-piece roll for a certain distance on the edge
of a card. Then any point in the circumference of the half-crown will
move through a curve called a 'trochoid.' This is practically the sort
of curve described by the head or shoulders of an oarsman who rows upon
a sliding seat.
The actual gain of rowing power by means of this mechanism is
considerable. The exact extent of it is not easy to arrive at, there
being various factors to be taken into consideration.
In the first place, the length of reach, or of the 'stroke,' is
considerably increased. Mr. Brickwood in 1873 conducted some scientific
experiments on dry land upon this subject, in conjunction with the
editor of the 'Field' and Mr. F. Gulston. The result of these
measurements was to demonstrate (in the person of Mr. F. Gulston) a gain
of about 18 inches in length of stroke upon a 9-inch slide.
In 1881 some casual experiments of a similar sort were conducted on a
lawn at Marlow by the Oxford crew then training there. The writer was
present, and, so far as he remembers, the results practically confirmed
the estimate of Mr. Brickwood above recorded, allowance being made for
the fact that the gentleman by means of whose body the ideal stroke was
measured at Marlow was longer-bodied and longer in the leg than Mr.
Gulston.
As a second advantage, the sliding seat decidedly relieves the abdominal
muscles and respiratory organs during the recovery. In dealing with
scientific racing we have previously remarked that the point wherein a
tiring oarsman first gives way is in his recovery, because of the
relative weakness of the muscles which conduct that portion of the
action of the stroke. It therefore is obvious that any contrivance which
can enable a man to recover with less exertion to himself will enable
him to do more work in the stroke over the whole course, and still more
so if the very contrivance which aids recovery also gives extra power to
the stroke.
On the other hand, there are two drawbacks to the slide. One of these
is, that when sliding full forward the legs are more bent than would be
the case on a fixed seat. The body cannot reach quite so far forward
over the toes on a full slide as it can on a properly regulated fixed
seat. This slightly detracts from the work of the _body_ at the
beginning of the stroke.
Again, when a slide is used to best advantage, the greatest mechanical
benefit occurs just when the body arrives at the perpendicular, and when
the legs are beginning to do the greater portion of their extension.
This causes the greater force of the stroke to be applied behind the
rowlock, in contradiction of all old theories of fixed-seat oarsmanship.
Taking all _pros_ and _cons_ together, it has been practically proved
beyond doubt to every rowing man for more than a decade that the slide
gains much more than it sacrifices. Even bad sliding secures sufficient
advantage to beat fixed-seat rowing (_ceteris paribus_), and good
sliding completely distances fixed-seat performances. It is often
remarked that the 'times' performed by sliding-seat crews are not
glaringly superior to those of fixed-seat annals. This is correct.
Nevertheless the balance is clearly in favour of sliding performances.
The actual difference is much greater than times happen to disclose; it
is somewhat fallacious to draw deductions from averages of recorded
times, unless the individual condition of wind and weather, and of close
or hollow races, be also chronicled for each year. On p. 106 record is
given of the actual gain attained by Pembroke College crew within ten
days of their essaying the use of slides. It may be added that Kingston,
who adopted slides about the same day, displayed much about the same
increase of speed, as shown by clocking and by comparing their times
with those of other crews before and after their adoption of slides.
Another matter throws light on the question, and that is the records of
practice times--which are, on the whole, more trustworthy to prove an
average than race times. Races have to start at fixed hours,
irrespective of weather, whereas practice can select smooth days for
trials. The records of sliding trials--over Henley courses and
tideway--when wind and water have been favourable, show a much greater
advance over similar practice trials of fixed-seat crews than is
disclosed by the racing times of sliders. The writer believes that he is
not far wrong in estimating the difference between sliding and fixed
seats, in an eight or four, over the Henley course at 15 secs. (rough),
and at something well over half a minute over the Putney course.
Scullers gain more by slides than oarsmen, because they can work square
throughout to the stretcher, whereas the oarsman's handle tends to place
the strain at different angles to his body as the stroke progresses.
Not much importance need be attached to the fact that the first
University race rowed on slides eclipsed all its predecessors (and
successors) for time.[8] It is well known that a gig eight with fixed
seats on a good flood could do much faster time than a racing and
sliding ship on a neap. The 1873 race hit off a one-o'clock tide and
fair weather; and it would equally have surpassed all or most
predecessors if the crews had not used slides. But still it was
fortuitous that the first race of this class in the U.B.C.'s series
should thus indicate the novelty by time record.
[8] See Tables.
What is more striking is the ease with which times of about twenty
minutes or under are now repeatedly accomplished, and by moderate crews,
on moderate tides, and often with breezes unfavourable. Till slides
came in twenty minutes had only once been beaten, and that was by the
Oxford crew of 1857 in practice (19 min. 53 sec.); and as Mr. T. Egan,
at that date editor of aquatics in 'Bell's Life,' then recorded in that
journal, the oldest waterman could hardly recall such springs as foamed
through Putney arches that week, and especially upon that day of trial.
[Illustration: PRACTISING STROKE (1).]
[Illustration: PRACTISING STROKE (2).]
[Illustration: PRACTISING STROKE (3).]
[Illustration: PRACTISING STROKE (4).]
In 1871 Goldie's (third) crew were supposed to do wonderful time (20
min. 11 sec.), on a good spring and smooth day. It sufficed to make them
hot favourites. In these days a sliding crew that could not beat 19 min.
40 sec. on a smooth spring tide would be reckoned to have a bad chance
of success.
The value of slides is therefore beyond dispute, but the oarsman should
realise that good sliding distances bad sliding quite as far as bad
sliding can beat fixed seats.
Hence the importance of using the slide to the best advantage. To
realise what he has to do, let a man test separately his two forces
which he has presently to combine. Let him row an ordinary fixed-seat
stroke: this shows him the power of his swing; then let him sit upright,
holding his oar, and, having slid up forward, kick back with rigid back
and arms. He will feel that he grips the water even more forcibly for
the instant by the second than by the former process. The fallacy of bad
sliders is to be content with this gain of power in the action last
named, and to substitute slide for swing (the arms eventually rowing the
stroke home in either case). The problem which an oarsman has to solve
is to _combine_ the two actions.
In order to do this, he should realise an important fact, viz. that the
body cannot work effectually unless it receives support from the
extensor muscles of the legs. Therefore, if he slides before he swings,
or if he completes his slide before he completes his swing, any swing
which he attempts after the slide is played out is practically
powerless. Also, if the swing is thus rendered helpless, so also is the
finish of the stroke with the arms, for these depend upon the body for
support, and the body cannot supply them with this support unless the
legs in their turn are doing their duty to the body.
Bearing this amount of theory in mind, the oarsman should put it into
practice thus. He should get forward (and immerse his blade, as on a
fixed seat). Then, at the moment he touches the water, he should bring
his body to bear upon the handle, just as if he were for the instant
rowing on a fixed seat; his legs should be rigid, though bent, at the
instant of catch. (See No. 1, p. 110.) So soon as the catch has been
applied, the oar-handle begins to come in to the operator. Now comes a
bit of watermanship and management of the limbs which require special
attention, and which few oarsmen, even in these days of improved
sliding, carry out to exact perfection. The knees have been elevated by
the slide (if it is anything over 4 inches) to a height over which the
oar-handle cannot pass without being elevated in its turn. Therefore,
having once made his catch with rigid knees, the pupil should then begin
to slide, contemporaneously with his swing, for a small distance, until
he has brought his knees to such a level that the oar-loom can pass over
them (No. 2, p. 110). He should during this period of the stroke slide
only just so much as is required in order to bring his knees to the
necessary height before the oar reaches them. By the time that the oar
comes over them he will be about the perpendicular (No. 3, p. 111). Now
comes that part of the stroke which, on a slide, is the most effective.
The body should from this point swing well back, much further so than
would be orthodox upon a fixed seat; all the time that the body is thus
swinging back the legs should be extending, and the pace of extension
should be regulated according to the length of slide. In any case the
slide and swing should terminate contemporaneously (No. 4, p. 111). The
arms, as in fixed-seat rowing, should contract and row the stroke home
while the body is still swinging back. They should not begin to bend
until the trunk has well passed the perpendicular.
The oarsman must bear in mind that the moment for finishing his slide
should be regulated, not by the length of the _slide_, but by _the
length of his swing_, and the latter should go well back until his body
is at an angle of about thirty degrees beyond the perpendicular. Suppose
he has a long slide, say of 10 inches or more, and he decides, either
from fatigue or because he need not fully extend himself, to use only
part of his slide; or suppose he is changed from a boat fitted with
11-inch slides to one with 9-inch ditto, he must not, when using the
shorter slide, allow his legs to extend as rapidly as they did when they
had a longer distance to cover. If he fails to observe this he will
'hurry' his slide, and will bring it to an end before the swing is
completed, thus rendering the latter part of the swing helpless
for want of due leg-support. If slide and swing are not arranged
contemporaneously, it is far better that a balance of slide should
remain to be run out after the swing has finished than _vice versa_. The
legs can always push, and so continue the stroke, even if the body is
rigid; but the body cannot conversely do anything effective for the
stroke when once the legs have run their course.
The recovery on a sliding seat is not quite the counterpart of that on a
fixed seat. On the fixed seat the recovery should be the converse of the
stroke: i.e. the arms, which came in latest, while the body was still
swinging back, should shoot out first, while the body is beginning its
return swing; and just as the first part of the stroke was performed
with straight arms and swinging body, so the last part of the recovery
should disclose a similar pose of arms and body. But upon a slide there
is not exactly such a transposition on the recovery of the motions which
are correct for the stroke. The hands play the same part as before; they
cannot well be too lively off the chest and in extension, because the
knees require more clearing on slides, and the sooner the hands are on
the safe side of them the less chance is there of fouling the water on
the return of the blade. But, as regards the relations between slide and
swing, these should _not_ bear the same relation conversely which they
did to each other during the stroke. The pupil was enjoined not to let
his slide run ahead of his swing while rowing the stroke through; but on
the recovery he may, and should, let his slide get well ahead, and be
completed before the body has attained its full reach forward. The body
should not _wait_ for the swing to do its duty first, but it should
begin at once to recover, though more leisurely than the legs. The
reasons for this are:--
1. The pace of the slide lends impetus to the trunk, and eases the
labour of the forward swing; it transfers some of the exertion of
recovering the trunk from the abdominal muscles, which are weak, to the
flexors of legs and loins, which are much more powerful, and are better
able to stand the strain.
2. The body needs some purchase upon which to depend for its recovery,
and the legs can aid it in this respect much more effectually when bent
than when rigid. Therefore, since staying power is greatly affected by
the amount of exertion involved in recovery (as explained in previous
pages), the oarsman will last longer in proportion as he thus omits the
recovery of his trunk, by accelerating his slide on the return.
Many good oarsmen slide until the knees are quite straight. In the
writer's opinion, this is waste of power: the knees should never _quite_
straighten; the recovery is, for anatomical reasons, much stronger if
the joint is slightly bent when the reversal of the machinery commences
(No. 4, p. 111). The extra half-inch of kick gained by quite
straightening the knees hardly compensates for the extra strain of
recovery; also leg-work to the last fraction of a second of swing is
better preserved by this retention of a slight bend, and an open chest
and clean finish are thereby better attained. Engineers, who know what
is meant by a 'dead point' in machinery, will at once grasp the reason
for not allowing the legs to shoot quite straight.
When a crew are being coached upon slides, it is of great importance to
get the slide simultaneous, and as nearly as possible equal. A
long-legged man, sculling, may use a much longer slide than a short man.
But in an eight, if the long man fits his stretcher as if for sculling,
he will be doing more than his share, and may be unable to shoot so long
a slide through in the required time, except by dint of 'hurrying' it;
and, if he does this latter, the result is to cripple his swing, as
shown _supra_. There must be a certain amount of give-and-take in
arranging slides in an eight or four oar. That length of slide is best
which all the crew can work simultaneously and effectively, preserving
uniformity of swing and slide.
When tiros are being taught their first lesson in sliding, they should
be placed on very short slides, say 3 inches at most. The centre of the
slide only should be used. The runners should be blocked fore and aft,
so that when the slide stands half way (1-1/2 inch from foremost block),
the distance from the seat to the stretcher should be just as much as
the man would require if he were on a fixed seat.
Young hands are less likely to make their stroke all slide and no swing
if they have at first only such length of slide as above indicated. When
the slide of 3 inches has been mastered, it may be lengthened, inch by
inch. In thus lengthening the slide, it is best to add, at first, more
to the forward part of the slide than to the back part, i.e. say, for a
4-inch slide, 2-1/2 inches before and 1-1/2 inch behind, the point of
seat for fixed-seat work, to the same stretcher. This arrangement
prevents the pupil from lacking leg-support at the end of his swing, and
teaches him to feel his legs well against the stretcher till the hands
have come home to the chest. When 4 inches have been mastered, add
another inch forward and about half an inch back, and so on. In time the
beginner will reach the full range of his slide forward, while yet he is
'blocked' from using the full distance back. When he becomes proficient
in this pose, his slide back can be increased by degrees until he
attains a full slide. The great thing is to induce him from the first to
combine his slide with his swing, and not to substitute the former for
the latter.
When slides first came in shocking form was seen upon them, as
previously stated. This was a venial result of oarsmen being driven--by
emulation to win prizes in races immediately impending--to attempt to
run before they had learnt to walk, so to speak. The year 1873 saw worse
form among amateurs than the writer can recall in any season. In 1874
matters began to mend. The two University strokes of that year, Messrs.
Rhodes and Way, had each been at pains to improve his style since he had
last been seen in public at Henley. Each seemed to realise that he had
been on a wrong tack, and set to work to alter his style radically.
These same gentlemen were strokes of their respective U.B.C.'s in 1875,
and the improvement was still more palpable. The Oxonian had an
exceptionally fine lot of men behind him; the Cantab had two or three
weak men in the bows who did not do justice to him. But none the less,
when these crews performed at Putney, old-fashioned critics, who had
been till then prejudiced against the new machinery, as being
destructive to form, were fain to admit that after all, when properly
managed, slides could produce as good form of body and shoulders as in
the best of the old days. The Leander crew which won the G.C.C. at
Henley in that year showed admirable sliding form. It was stroked by Mr.
Goldie, who had rowed all his University races on a fixed seat. When he
first took to a slide (for sculling) he fell into the same error as many
other amateurs, almost entirely substituting slide for swing. But for
this oversight he might have won both Diamond and Wingfield sculls. He
soon saw his error, like Messrs. Rhodes and Way, and when he stroked
Leander in 1875 no one could have recognised him as the same man who had
been contesting the Diamonds in 1872. These three fuglemen strokes did
much to elevate the standard of sliding among amateurs; it was chiefly
through their examples, crowned with success, that the earlier samples
of sliding oarsmanship became better realised. Professionals remained
blind in their own conceit, as is shown in another chapter, but from
this date amateur oarsmanship completely gave the go-by to professional
exhibitions of skill and science in aquatics.
[Illustration: A COLLEGE FOUR.]