Sweep Rowing

There is a dearth of rowing literature. When I was young and in college there was even less, and I had a devil of a time finding anything intended expressly for the novice coxswain, oarsman, or early coach. More than 20 years later, I was still nagged by this gap in rowing prose, so I decided to make an attempt to fill it in a little. Sweep Rowing, The Short Story is a manual that addresses all three the oarsman, the coxswain, and the coach. I set myself a limit on page count, so the book is straight meat and potatoes, and not an autobiography. I’ve tried to set down details I’ve learned over the years but have never seen written down anywhere. The object is to remove mystery and improve a crew’s enjoyment of rowing in one quick read. No book on rowing has ever made this approach, and it’s about time. I wanted to make this contribution as many as 20 years ago, but I guess that God doesn’t give me some things before I am ready to have them. Now, after 25 years of experience with crew, I’m ready to offer this book. There is very little literature that caters specifically to the oarsman, coxswain, and crew coach, I think the rowing community is plenty ready to have this book also. The book is finished now, and it will be helpful for me to learn people’s thoughts and needs as it is prepared for release. I thought I’d offer a preview here so you can get a glimpse of the tenor and content of the work. Below is the foreword to the book and, on the next page, an excerpt from Chapter XI. Perhaps you’ll want to offer me in return some words from your experience; I will be very grateful if you would.

There is a dearth of rowing literature. When I was young and in college there was even less, and I had a devil of a time finding anything intended expressly for the novice coxswain, oarsman, or early coach. More than 20 years later, I was still nagged by this gap in rowing prose, so I decided to make an attempt to fill it in a little. Sweep Rowing, The Short Story is a manual that addresses all three the oarsman, the coxswain, and the coach. I set myself a limit on page count, so the book is straight meat and potatoes, and not an autobiography. I’ve tried to set down details I’ve learned over the years but have never seen written down anywhere. The object is to remove mystery and improve a crew’s enjoyment of rowing in one quick read. No book on rowing has ever made this approach, and it’s about time. I wanted to make this contribution as many as 20 years ago, but I guess that God doesn’t give me some things before I am ready to have them. Now, after 25 years of experience with crew, I’m ready to offer this book. There is very little literature that caters specifically to the oarsman, coxswain, and crew coach, I think the rowing community is plenty ready to have this book also. The book is finished now, and it will be helpful for me to learn people’s thoughts and needs as it is prepared for release. I thought I’d offer a preview here so you can get a glimpse of the tenor and content of the work. Below is the foreword to the book and, on the next page, an excerpt from Chapter XI. Perhaps you’ll want to offer me in return some words from your experience; I will be very grateful if you would.

Dave Cherry learned to row and cox as an undergraduate at St. John’s College in Annapolis, Maryland. He became a USRA Certified Coach in 1991. After some graduate work in physics at the College of William and Mary, he returned to Annapolis and coached crew from 1994 to 2008 while serving as the Assistant Director of Admissions for St. John’s.