power of rigidity that they possess when the shoulders are well drawn back at the outset. The earsman gains a little in reach hy extending his shoulders, but he Joses in rigidity of muscle, and consequently in the force which he applies to the oar.
3. The legs and feet should combine to exercise pressure against the stretcher at the same moment, and contempora- neously with the application of the oar to the water. If they press too soon, the bady is forced back while the oar is in air ; if too late, the hold of the water is weak, for want of legwark to support the body,
4, The oar should be held in the fingers, not in the fist ; the lower joints of the fingers should be nearly straight when the oar is held. The hold which a gymnast would take of a bar of the same thickness, if he were hanging from it, is, as regards the four fingers of the hand, the same which an oars- man should take of his oar. His thumb should come under- neath, not over the handle.
§ and ro. Government of the depression or elevation of the blade, respectively, during stroke and recovery, is a matter of application of joints and of muscles. This much may be borne in mind, that the freer the wrist is, the better is the oar governed; and if an oar is clutched in the fist the flexibility of the wrist is thereby much crippled.
6. The arms should begin to bend when the body has just found the perpendicular, ‘he upper arm should swing close to the ribs, worked by the shoulders, which should be thrown well back,
7. The ‘biceps’ should not do the work; for, if it does, either the hands are elevated or the level of the blade altered—if the elbows keep close to the side; or else, if the level of the hands is preserved, then the elbows dog’s-ear outwards. In either case the action is less free and less powerful than if the stroke is rowed home by the shoulder muscles.
8, The part of the hand which should touch the chest when the oar comes home is the root of the thumb, not the knuckles of the fingers. If the knuckles touch the chest defore the oar
