Chapters 5 - 10 Summary and Analysis

Chapter 5: John Biglow & Joe Bouscaren are able to be friends and teammates. Biglow is hard to befriend, mainly because he is very sensitive about himself and insensitive to how he affects others. Joe Bouscaren tries a number of sports before he finds out that he has a talent for being rowing crew. People in his family are taught to not waste talents. His skill improves a great deal from training with a man named Scott Roop. Cultivating mental toughness is vital to success as a rower. There are 3 extremely important endurance rowing races. Head of the Schuylkill race, which is 2.75 miles long, Head of Connecticut, which is 3.5 miles and Head of the Charles which is 3 miles long. At one point, Joe Bouscaren actually wins against Tiff Wood.

Chapter 6: Halberstam reminds readers of how painful this sport really is. Tiff...