stick to, When the hands begin to cross, he should still try to keep the arms stiff, and to clear the way by slightly lowering one hand and raising the other. Not until his hands have opened out again aftcr having crossed should he begin to bend his arms and to bring the stroke home to the chest. He should try to bend each arm simultaneausly and to the same extent, and to bring each hand up to his breast almost at his ribs, at equal elevations. He must try to feather both sculls sharply and simultaneously,
Tf he finds any difficulty in this, he will do well to give him- self a private lesson on this point before he proceeds further. He can sit still and lay his sculls in the rowlocks, and thus practise turning the wrists sharply, on and off the feather, till he begins to fecl more handy in this motion,
On the recovery he should shoot his hands out briskly, the body following but not waiting for the hands to extend—just as in a ‘rowing’ recovery, When the recovering hands begin to cross each other the lower and upper must respectively give way, and so soon as they open out afler the cross, they should once more resume the same plane, and extend equally, so as te be ready to grip the water simultaneously for the succeeding stroke.
Very few scullers realise the great importance of even action of wrists. If one scull hangs in the water a fraction of a second more than another, or buries deeper, or skims lightér, the two hands at that moment arc not working evenly. Therefore the boat is not travelling in a straight line ; therefore she will sooner or later, may he in the latter half of the very same stroke; have to be brought back to her course. In order to bring her back, the hand which, earlier, was doing the greater work, must now do less. Therefore the boat has not only per- formed a zigzag during the stroke, but also she has been, while so meandering, propelled by less than her full available forces, first one hand falling off through clumsiness, and afterwards the other hand shutting off some work, in order to equalise matters.
