Word: crews
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Dates: during 1910-1919
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Coach Courtney of Cornell has criticized the four mile crew race because of its strain on the participants and even more so because of the prolonged training required for such a long race. Because of his long association with rowing and his prominence as a coach of winning crews, Courtney's opinion carries much weight. Coach Abbot, of the Yale crew, however, has written a letter to the Yale News, pointing out his arguments in favor of the four mile contest and refuting the statements made by the opponents of the long distance...
...There are three stock arguments which the opponents of a four mile race are forever propounding. They say first, that the strain on the oarsmen is too great; secondly, that a crew ahead at the third mile usually wins; and, thirdly, that the training for a four mile race is much more severe and takes more time from the athlete's college work than athletic should...
...gradual if a long pull, and is not so weakening as would be a shorter race. In a race of four miles, then, when the stroke attains an average of 30 strokes to the minute--and in spite of newspaper reports it is very seldom that any four mile crew can attain to this average--taking 20 minutes to row, the oarsman will have breathed 600 times. In a three mile race where the spurting would be fast and furious because of the shorter distance to be covered, we may safely assume that an average of 36 strokes...
...Secondly, does the crew that is behind at the third mile race usually lose? Yes, it does, but this is from the fact that the crew ahead at the third mile is greatly superior to the other crews. In all my 20 years of studying rowing I have never seen a crew which won a four mile race and was a length ahead at the third mile which was not superior in every way to the other crew or crews. This crew would have won just as easily if the race had been the shorter distance. Moreover I have seen...
...Spaeth, coach of the Princeton crew, is one of those opposed to the four mile race and he states his views as follow...