training, else it may be too late to remedy them or to change the man on the eve of battle.
Towards the close of training the crew should do their level best once or twice over the course, to accustom them to being rowed out, and to give them confidence in their recuperative powers ; also to enable the stroke to feel the power of his crew, and to form an opinion as to how much he can ask them to do in the race, The day before the racing begins, work should be light.
In bumping races, if a college has no immediate fear of focs from the rear, it is well not to bring men too fine to the post ; else, though they may do well enough for the first day or two, they may work stale or lose power before the end of the six days of the contest. It is better that a crew should row itself into condition than out of it. In training for long-distance racing, it is customary to make about every alternate day a light one, of about the same work as for college racing. Lhe other days are long-course days of long grinds, to get men together, and to reduce weight. When men have settled to a light boat, and have begun to row courses against time, and especially when they reach Putney water, two long courses in cach week are about enough. Many crews do not do even so much as this. As arule a crew are better for not being taken for more than ten or eleven minutes of hard, uninterrupted racing, within three days ofthe race. A long course wastes much tissue, and it takes a day or two to feed up what they have wasted. Nevertheless, erews have been known to do long courses within 48 hours of a Putney match, and to win withal : c.g, the Oxonians of 1883, who came racing pace from Barnes to Putney two days before the race, and ‘beat record’ over that stretch of water.
Strokes and coaches doa crew much harmif they are jealous of ‘times’ prematurely in practice. Suppose an opponent does a fast time, there is no need to go to the starting point and endeavour to eclipse time. Possibly his rapid time has been accomplished by dint of a prematurely rapid stroke, while the pace of our own boat, with regard to the rate of stroke em-
