Dr. Bock sees no reason why rowing should hurt a normal individual who is in good condition. But there are many peculiar situations which may arise even when an oarsman is in A-1 shape.

For example, last year at the end of the Yale race at New London an oarsman suddenly slumped over in his seat. He was operating under an old psychological reflex which required that after he had rowed a certain definite time he should stop and rest.

Unfortunately there was a strong ad- verse tide that day which lengthened the race by two minutes. When the oarsman had rowed for the usual length of time, his old reflex went into effect and he stopped--despite the fact that there were still two minutes to go.

Alumni Grumble

In connection with incidents like this many alumni have wanted to know why there is not closer supervision of oarsmen. Bock thinks it's great that people are interested in this sort of thing, but he emphasizes that there is a good deal of supervision anyway.

"We'd have a bunch of hypochondriacs on our hands if we examined all oarsmen every two weeks," he says. He stresses the intimate knowledge the coaches have of their men in all organized sports, such as track, crew, football, and swimming.

"We fall down on intramural sports," he admits, "but that is the price you have to pay for the freedom from supervision in informal sports." Bock says that the share of injuries is much greater in intramural sports than in organized sports