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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Usually every day but Sunday pp[/quote]

From a club team....

Life of a Rower
As a member of the Penn State Crew Team, or cult if you will, I routinely face questions from casual skeptics. When a typical student complains about his 8AM class and I mention I have practice on the lake at 5AM, I’ll admit he has a pretty good reason to call me crazy. When I tell my roommate I spend seven hours a day practicing for a club sport and only three hours sleeping, I expect to be labeled insane. The vast majority of the time, it’s easiest to chuckle and casually agree, as justifying myself would require extensive time and effort. Honestly, I often question my own decision to dedicate my life to the team. However, after an intense practice or race, these qualms disappear; after every rower, running on pure adrenaline, commits his mind and body to the consummate team effort required to succeed, the many pains suddenly seem a small price to pay for victory.

In all honesty, 5AM practices suck. There isn’t a man or woman on the team who joyfully rolls out of bed at 4:30, outwardly thankful for physical punishment hours before anybody else on campus considers waking up. Nobody wakes up at the crack of dawn so they can brag about it to other kids, because they seek to impress and satisfy no one but themselves. The serious athletes with an intense drive to succeed believe deep down inside that every 5AM practice, every hour in the gym or on the lake, is an opportunity to improve as an individual and as a team. They realize that every minute of pain and suffering shaves a fraction of an inch off of their race, and that “when we add up all those inches, that’s going to make the f***ing difference between winning and losing, between living and dying” (Any Given Sunday).
At the end of the day, it is this passion that drives the crew team, pushes the rowers individually and collectively through brutal workouts and agonizing races. We torture ourselves on the ergs, the weight benches, and the boats because that’s what it takes to succeed. I can push myself further with my team than I could ever go by myself because when I look into the eyes of the man next to me, I know that he will match my commitment and intensity, that whatever happens he will go the distance with me. That’s what a team is. As graduate Lauren Viscount realized early in her career, “‘It’s hard to find a group of people like the crew team with such an amazing camaraderie’” (Freiss).

Every rower has pride in himself and what he pushes himself through, but it is pride in his team that truly keeps him going. For those unfortunate people who have never experienced the commitment and harmony of a united team, 5AM practices may seem extreme or downright ridiculous. I can talk all day about the internal and external rewards of rowing on the crew team, and you can nod your head and agree, but you can never truly feel my feel my message until you go the distance yourself. When you come to your first practice, you may feel like killing the coaches who planned the workouts, but when the day comes to an end you will find yourself wanting more. Furthermore, since “most high school students don’t participate in crew, you don’t need to have any previous experience” to get caught in the action (Bueter). You will soon find yourself addicted to the pain, to the camaraderie, to the pure passion flowing in the veins of every dedicated rower, and pretty soon you will gladly let crew drive your life. I leave you with a message from the entire team, an embodiment of the commitment to excellence we share day in and day out:[/quote]

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