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History of Rowing
As the competitive exploits of these early watermen grew, so did the the sport of professional rowing. The Doggett's Coat and Badge race for competitive Watermen has taken place every August 1st since 1716 over four and a half miles of the River Thames in London, England. In the 1800's it was thought that the oars people who earned their living doing manual work (even if not rowing related) held an unfair advantage over the relatively idle gentry of the upper classes and the organization of the sport broke in two; professional (for manual workers) and amateur. Competitive rowing as we know it today has its roots in amateur rowing and, until only relatively recently, manual workers were excluded from competition. The quest for speed has seen many developments in the rowing boat, one of the most important being the introduction of the sliding seat in the 1870s. This allowed more force to be applied to the oar through greater use of the legs in co-ordination with the back and arms. |
Rowing began with the
Egyptians and was soon adopted by the Greeks, Romans and the Vikings. Modern day rowing grew from the competitive instincts of the watermen
who would ferry pilots to incoming ships, so that they could navigate
the ships into harbor. The first pilot to reach the ship would get the job, so speed
became an essential component.