It is impossible on a professional system to give these rudimentary instructions. The coaching of the whole squad usually devolves upon the one man, and his position at the same time depends upon his success ; he has no time to go into things while the crew-making mill is in action.
The whole system of rowing depends upon one man, and should a coach such as Courtney or Ward die, chaos would result ; we have come to think that the speed of the crew depends more on the coach than on the men, but that is non sense ; he can only teach the men to row, he can not make them row. With an amateur system, no one man would be essential to the develop ment of the crew ; with a stroke that each knew well, the work of coaching could be shifted among a number of men. In England it is usually thought best not to have a single coach for the whole season. The only approach that we have ever had to such a system in this coun try was in the years at Yale, preceding the trip to Henley when, with Cook as director, the actual coaching work was done by several gradu ates, all of whom were in harmony and fully understood the stroke.
Yale's rowing was then in the best position that it has ever occupied ; since then profes sional coaching has gradually crept in. At Cam bridge, the coaching has been amateur, but so singularly inefficient that other colleges have hesitated to adopt the unpaid way ; Harvard has never kept the same stroke long enough to have a school, the members of which could take up its precepts intelligently.
I have no doubt that the inauguration of a universal amateur rule would lessen the speed of our crews for some years, for we have not now the amateurs who know enough to coach or, especially, to rig a crew. The employment of regular professionals is preferable to paying former college oars, and the only plan that is worthy of recognition is one that has its founda tion on a system of rowing, and is administered by oarsmen who are willing to give up the time to the work ; and there are plenty such in every rowing university in spite of the absence of the true leisure class.
Amateur coaching is bound to come in time ; the present race of professional coaches belongs to an older period, and the fact that there is no professional rowing to-day means that no men will rise to take their places. The club profes sional, sometime an amateur sculler, has not the mental capacity of the gieater professional coaches, and will not be able to take their places. It may be that our colleges will then hire their own grad uates instead of instituting an amateur system, for the college man seems ready enough to sell back to his alma mater what she has given him in athletic skill.
Rowing at the present time is a very expensive sport ; the shells and oars, the maintenance of a launch, the salary of a coach, and the keep of the squad while on the scene of the races brings the total for a university season around the ten thousand-dollar mark. Small colleges cannot afford to row ; they will not go in fours and without a coach. With an amateur rule, a great portion of this big bill could be lopped off, and I do not think that the sport would suffer ; one may play or row very badly and yet have a great amount of fun. The skill is bound to increase with experience, and the fun will not diminish. A real and scientific attention to rowing by col lege men will result in a permanency of stroke and system which in time will mean speed.