The motion of the body should be as con stant, smooth and steady as that of a pendulum, while the action of the hands and the wrists, producing the dipping and the feathering, should be entirely free from jerks. When the boat contains a number of oarsmen, each one keeps his eyes on the back of the oarsman in front of him, and times his swing from him; or in other words "keeps eyes in the boat." A boat is "held" or has its headway stopped, by laying the blade flat and then sinking its forward edge slightly into the water. The blade is thus buried at an acute angle and checks the way of the boat gradually until it has been sufficiently reduced to allow of the blade being reversed square, to "back water." If the boat is under much headway, any at tempt to back water before it has been held would be attended with disastrous results, as the resistance would prove greater than die strength of the oars and •cause a fracture.
In sculling, a scull or oar is held in each hand, instead of one oar handle being held in both hands, as in rowing. The grip on the scull is governed by the rules applicable to the grip on the oar handle in but with the ex ception that the thumb should cap the butt of the scull handle with the top joint and not clasp around it. The action of the body, legs, arms, wrists and hands are also the same as in rowing, but in sculling some advantage may be gained by allowing the body to swing far ther back at the finish of each stroke. Both hands should work together, and both blades should enter and leave the water at the same time. Up to 1856 racing boats were clinker,. built; the smooth skin boat was then introduced, and in 1857 was generally adopted as somewhat faster. The sliding seat invented in America by Walter Brown, in 1869, was used by the Yale crew in its race with Harvard in 1870, and Yale won. It was used at Henley for the first in
1872, and in 1873 was instrumental in cutting the time on the 4% mile course by half a minute. The changes since then have been few. It was at one time believed that shortening the boat would make it speedier, and the dimen sions of the 8-oared boat were changed from 63 feet in length and 16 inches in width, to 58 feet in length and 20 inches in width. No appreciable gain was secured; although the shorter boat was faster' with some crews, the longer was faster with others. For the single scaler,' however, the short boat proved un questictiablY'faster. As now in use the oars are 12 feet 1 inch 'to 12 feet 6 inches in length, blades 'vary from 5% to 7% inches in width; the short oars having the wider blades. In America, as a rule, the long oar with the narrower blade is preferred. The slide of the •seet varies from 12 to 17 _inches, although up to 20 inches is allowed, &wading upon the individuality of the oarsman. it has been defi nitely proved that if the body bends too far backward it is impossible to recover quickiy, and that the muscles of the back Quickly show fatigue. With the longer slide the back need not incline so far. While formerly the sway ing of the bodies of the men in the crew was carefully synchronized, it is now recognized that this is of little importance so long as the action of the oars in the water is symmetrical and exact; and far more freedom is permitted to the individual in body movement so long as his work at the blade of the oar is accurately timed. Consult Stevens, A. W., (Practical Row ing> (Boston 1906) ; Warre, E., 'On the Gram mar of Rowing> (Oxford 1909).