The winter practice is usually taken on rowing machines, or in a rowing tank, but the former are to be preferred ; the tank is supposed to familiar ize the man with the handling of an oar, but the fact that the boat does not roll, and that the small basin of water soon becomes very rough, makes the practice of little use and only serves to take away elasticity by the dead-weight pull. The modern rowing machines are a better substitute, and, although watermanship cannot be taught, it never can be instilled outside of a shell, and the machine has the advantage in body form which can there be perfected. At the same time the condition of the man can be gradually brought up. The early rowing is very generally done in barges ; in some places the men are taken from the winter work to shells, but this method is not the best, and a short season in a barge helps to teach the elements of watermanship so that the candidate will not be quite helpless when he first sits in the rolling shell.
During the early season, and in fact until two or three weeks before the races, the crews row only once a day; when they are taken to the training table, their diet is plain, but wholesome. Beef, mutton, and chicken, done as the man likes, together with plenty of fresh vegetables, and tea or coffee for breakfast. Men are cautioned not to drink too much water, but no set limit is now placed. In other words, the diet is simply de signed so that the stomach will be kept in good condition, and plenty of variety is given ; the amount of rowing is also regulated by common sense.
Coaching in pair-oars is indulged in during the early season to some extent, but not so generally as in England, and the men are coached largely as they sit in the shell. Some coaches row their men in pairs and fours during the early season in order to give individual attention, but this is a poor method, for the weight of the boat is apt to deaden the stroke of the pupil. It would be bet ter to take the man out in a pair rather than give him a long pull dragging the whole eight.
An amusing feature of the training of our American crews is its gravity ; a feeling prevails that this sport is a very serious matter, and that the least levity on the part of the oarsman is going to hurt his condition. Few visitors are
permitted nearing race time, which is rather good because of possible excitement, but then the train ing man is never allowed away from his quarters, and he is generally made to feel that he is engaged in a very great and sober occupation for which he must have the keeping attitude. The English man takes his sport gravely, but his mien is light and joyous compared with that of an American college oarsman in June.
A disagreeable and quite unsportsmanlike phase of the training is the secrecy regarding the crews, which is carried to most absurd lengths. Coaches somehow have the idea that the time trials of crews should be taken like the speed trials of horses, and that the mere view of their crew in action is going to do them not a little harm. Yale and Harvard have reached the ultimate of this silly notion, and their practice is quite child ish, though it has somewhat improved in late years. The Freshman crew is no longer sent out in University jerseys, to be followed by the other's spies, while the University eight goes away on a course, but they still refuse to row in each other's presence, and keep out the substitutes with stop watches.
Up at Poughkeepsie things are better. The crews must row in the presence of rival crews ; otherwise, with the number of boats in train ing, the greater part of each day would be spent in idleness. But time trials are still concealed, and quite too much mystery surrounds the prepa ration.
These actions are all survivals of the days when betting was very prominent at the races ; betting is still done to some extent, but it is largely the betting of college men and not of the book-makers.
A gradual infusion of real sportsmanship into college rowing has been going on for some years, and in time this sport will have emerged from the atmosphere which now envelops it, and become a medium of real pleasure; at present the fun of a college oarsman is largely retrospective.