eate it, and meanwhile it is possible that he may overlook some other great fault which is gradually developing itself among ane or more of the men, And yet if he were asked to coach some other crew for the day, in which crew this same fault existed, he would be almost certain to note it, and to set to work to cure it.
For this reason, although it does not do to have too many mentors at work from day to day upon one crew, nevertheless. the best of coaches may often gain a hint by taking some one: else into his counsels for an hour or two, and by comparing notes,
We haye said that it is not absolutely necessary that a good ceach should always be in his own person a finished oarsman ; hut if he is all the better, and for one very important reason. More than half the faults which oarsmen contract are to be traced in the first instance ta some irregularity in the machinery with which they are working. That irregularity may be of two sorts, direct or indirect—direct when the boat, oar, rowlock, or stretcher is improperly constructed, so that an oarsman cannot work fairly and squarely ; indirect when some other oarsman is perpetrating some fault which puts others out of gear.
If a coach is a good oarsman on his own account (by ‘good’ we mean scientific rather than merely powerful), he can and should test and try or inspect the seat and oar of each man whom he coaches, especially if he finds a man painstaking and yet unable to cure some special fault. Boathuilders are very careless in laying out work, A rowlock may be too high or too low ; it may rake one way or other, and so spoil the plane of the oar in the water. An oar may be hog-backed (or sprung), or too long in loom, or too short; the straps of a stretcher may be fixed too high, so as to grip only the tip of a great-toe, and the place for the feet may not be straight to the seat, or a rowlock may be too narrow, and so may jam the oar when forward.
These are samples of mechanical discomfort which may spoil
