Rowing / crew hook

[Anonymous]

Recruiting is almost entirely done off Erg times---i.e. how strong the rowers are on the rowing machines.

As a previous poster mentioned, coaches will "seat race" to see who works best in each seat. They can also visually have things they look for to determine who has the best oar strokes--both into the out of the water.

Ironically, many rowers who are great on the water are not great on the erg and vice versa. My daughter is very strong on the water (and is always put in stroke seat) but is not a good erger at all! As such she won't be recruited.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, rowing is a massive hook because all the top universities have programs and yet very few high schools do (as most are not located near a body of water that will allow for training and the boats, etc are expensive).

That said, rowing recruiting has become more competitive and by-in-large the kids getting recruited to the elite colleges these days won the genetic lottery: the 3 girls i know this year (Princeton, Duke, Stanford) are 6'+ and the boys (Stanford, Princeton) are 6'5"+.

Both of my kids have rowed crew for all 4 years of high school, and I can tell you with all confidence, that almost ALL of the high schools around here have a crew team -- although, it's usually not considered a "school sport". Rather it's a "club sport".

Almost all of the schools in MoCo (both public and private) row out of either the Bladensburg Boathouse, in Bladensburg, MD and row on the Anacostia River, or row out of The Anacostia Boathouse and also row on the Anacostia River or the Thompson Boat Center and row on the Potomac.

My kids go to/went to WJ and row/rowed out of the Bladensburg Boathouse, which is only about 30 minutes by bus.
The kids leave on the busses right after school and we pick them up back at the school when the bus returns at 7:30pm.

It's an amazing sport, and it becomes like a really tight family (a very big family, as we have 80-100 rowers on the team every single year at WJ). They train 6 days a week together, all year-round (it's a year-round sport if you chose it to be, but my kids don't train in the winter). Every Friday night, a different parent will hosts the Friday night pasta "carb-up" at their house, and everyone brings something, plus we travel for regattas together almost every weekend, and we have a whole team of parents who travel to the regattas exclusively to feed the kids breakfast and lunch every weekend -- it's super impressive.

You don't have to have THE most athletic kid to row crew, as it's truly a team sport.
They want hard work, dedication and team spirit. Contrary to what people believe, it's actually a leg sport, but an arm sport. So it's OK if your kid has skinny arms, lol.

If your kid wants to play a sport, but doesn't know where to start, but they know they want a team/family environment where they will totally find their tribe (all kinds of kids row crew, they don't fall into one particular demographic) then crew might be for them!

Every school has a "learn to row" week at the beginning of each season (they also invite the incoming 8th graders).
Send your kid to that and let them try it out for a week for free!

They'll make lifelong friends and memories, and I know I don't have to tell you how great it looks on a college application. 😉

Sounds great! Is any one boat house better than another ? If your high school does not have a crew team can you independently organize your own crew? How does it work?

If you are in Montgomery County, MD, the team at Montgomery Blair high school takes rowers from all different schools- even homeschooled kids have rowed Blair Crew. If you’re close by, check us out!

And seconding the plus for Washington Rowing school out of Bladensburg for adult learn-to-row classes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can someone answer a question from somebody who knows nothing about rowing (but who went down an insommina rabbit hole with this thread and now feel oddly invested in this thread despite having no kids in this sport):

If rowing is a bunch of kids rowing in unison in a boat, how do you identify who is actually a good rower? I always thought the ideal was uniformity of speed and strength, so what singles out a kid to be a Div I prospect vs. a kid who probaly isn't good enough to row in college? Does the boat start moving in circles depending on what side they are sitting on lol? Forgive my ignorance, but I'm just so dang curious (my kids do stopwatch sports, so it's pretty easy to see who's fastest!)

It’s a science and an art

The science ways:
2k times on the erg rowing machine
Seat races (switch rowers and see if the boat goes faster with rower a or rower b)

The art ways:
Puddles (the water swirls created by the oar) look different based on the power being created.
Form, strong rowing form just has a certain look to it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What about DII schools? Why do people always talk about DI and DIII but never DII?

There just aren't as many, and crew is pretty heavily concentrated in DI.

There's a ton of rowing at the D3 level. When I rowed D3 at the big regattas, the events we competed in were always labeled D2/3.

[Anonymous]

There’s also club rowing! Penn State, for example.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It also costs a ton of money, so the vast majority of crew kids are full pay

It’s a lot less than club soccer in my experience.

Or club volleyball. I’ve got one of each. Volleyball is by far the most expensive because of the tournament travel requirements.

Crew only really exists at HS, so you don’t have the costs from younger ages.

The costs is also very dependent on how long the club team has been around and the amount of already purchased fixed equipment.

You also have a limited number of regattas to attend each year. It’s a production to secure river permits and have security and what not on the river so it’s not easy to just create a new regatta.

There is youth (MS) crew in DC, Richmond, Annapolis, Baltimore, Philly, Pittsburgh, NYC, Long Island, Greenwich CT, Boston, etc. etc. etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It also costs a ton of money, so the vast majority of crew kids are full pay

It’s a lot less than club soccer in my experience.

Or club volleyball. I’ve got one of each. Volleyball is by far the most expensive because of the tournament travel requirements.

Hockey is the worst. Not even close. AAA programs all in can approach 50,000. Low end is probably 25,000.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My daughter is 5’2” and weights 98 pounds. Is it even worth trying to row in the high school crew team? Clearly she doesn’t have the body type of a rower.
She is rising 9th grader and does competitive XC and track.

do you only want her to row if she'll be a recruit?

There's no way she'll be recruited at that size but she could still enjoy the sport in high school.

She is actually a good size for a cox. They typically only get soft support though so I wouldn't do it with an eye towards recruitment.

[Anonymous]

The rowers at DC's New England boarding school went to HYPSM.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My daughter is 5’2” and weights 98 pounds. Is it even worth trying to row in the high school crew team? Clearly she doesn’t have the body type of a rower.
She is rising 9th grader and does competitive XC and track.

do you only want her to row if she'll be a recruit?

There's no way she'll be recruited at that size but she could still enjoy the sport in high school.

She is actually a good size for a cox. They typically only get soft support though so I wouldn't do it with an eye towards recruitment.

Soft support doesn't hurt!
-former coxswain

[Anonymous]

Crew was a very happy chapter for my kid, although he didn't pursue it in college. One of the nicest compliments I ever got on his behalf was when his coach told me, "He makes every boat better." He had good technique and was a quiet worker.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My daughter is 5’2” and weights 98 pounds. Is it even worth trying to row in the high school crew team? Clearly she doesn’t have the body type of a rower.
She is rising 9th grader and does competitive XC and track.

do you only want her to row if she'll be a recruit?

There's no way she'll be recruited at that size but she could still enjoy the sport in high school.

She is actually a good size for a cox. They typically only get soft support though so I wouldn't do it with an eye towards recruitment.

Soft support doesn't hurt!
-former coxswain

No it doesn't but it is different than full support and people need to be aware of it.