Making the USA Olympic Rowing Team

Rowing. One of the most prestigious sports at the Olympic Summer Games. The United States Olympic rowing team. It is practically every professional rowers dream to make it to the world stage and compete with the best in the world. Getting on the team is no easy task, but it sure is easier than winning the sought after gold medal at the Olympics.

There are many procedures that are involved with getting onto the Olympic team. The selection process consists of many layers of regattas and evaluations by the official USA Olympic team coaches and staff. Basic categories separate the athletes into four distinct groups. Boats are named “big boats” and “small boats” which signify the class in which the boat will be chosen as. Then these boats are categorized into a qualified or non-qualified group of boats.

For the athlete, his or her steps for the selection process begin almost an entire year before the Olympics and of course he or she would have been training over the past four years to prepare for the process. Typically, there is a qualification race which is the World Championships or, at a later date, the Olympic Qualification Regatta. This is where the coaches can see the rowers in action and compare their times with the competition. The top two boats in each category of boat class sizes, eights, fours, pairs, doubles, singles, or quads, move onto the next round.

First of all, it is extremely hard for any athlete to even make it to these major regattas. The competition is fierce and only the best of the best move on. Unless the rower is incredibly strong, which there are only a hand-full in the field of competitors, the determining factor to their success is how they row. The efficiency of each stroke must be impeccably good. In rowing, power can only get a rower so far when racing at the highest level. Working together in a boat is the solution to a fast race. Finding and making four guys, let alone eight guys, row altogether in unison with each stroke is essential to speed and strength throughout the race. Even if one person is out of sync during the row, precious seconds will be lost and that could mean between a second or first place finish.

Every rower knows that the pressure is on during every Olympic trial race and that there are no second chances. Learning how to deal with that pressure is what can sometimes win a race and shape a dream into reality. Rowing takes athleticism and mental toughness to a whole new dimension and the Olympic rowers that have achieved this glory are the best examples of what the sport of rowing entails.

The Infamous Ergometer Machine

The rowing machine that transforms average athletes into Olympic caliber beasts. I am not talking about a magical pill that makes you stronger overnight. No, I am talking about a machine that can potentially make you extremely fit, but you need to put in the time.

The ergometer, or erg for short, was first created in 1981 when two Brothers Dick and Pete Dreissigacker thought of making a machine that was easy to practice the rowing technique while not always having to go on the water. Also, their machine was almost $2,400 less than the next indoor athletic machine on the market and this made it become extremely popular over the years. Over more than thirty years, only five models have been produced; each erg better than the last one. This just goes to show how the public began to love the design and simplicity of the machine. Rowing athletes ranging from Olympians to recreational people wanting to get a workout in the gym were all using the erg.

Key features of the erg is the stationary foot plate with the long track on which the seat slides on. The large fan that uses air resistance to increase or decrease the drag factor (how hard it is to pull the handle to make the fan spin) allows the rower to personalize his or her workout accordingly. Also, the ergonomic handle with the bicycle chain forces the user to maintain a certain handle height that mimics the rowing form. The body of the machine rests on two metal plates; one place at the back of the slide and one placed right beneath the fan enclosing.

The most important aspect of the erg is the ergometer screen which is adjustable to be directly in front of the athletes face while rowing. The digital screen displays the split, which shows the time it will take to complete 500 meters if the split is maintained. Also, the screen also shows the stroke rate, which is how many strokes the rower will take in one minute. Another key instantaneous statistic is the number of meters that the athlete has completed during the workout. These three main data collections are all averaged when the workout is completed and the athlete can even break down the workout by meters or time back in the memory section. All of these awesome features make erging one of the most fun workouts to do! (That was sarcastic).

But seriously, erging is a very healthy activity and I recommend athletes who are looking for some cross training during their sports season or after, to hop on and row some meters. I promised it will hurt badly in the beginning, but it will be well worth it. I guarantee that you will like the way you look after a few weeks.

The Racing Shell

Ever wonder how a boat that is so long and so delicately narrow and thin can be afloat in the water with nine people sitting in it? Well, I am here to clear things up a bit. I am going to start from the beginning of rowing time. When the racing shell was just beginning to find its shape.

The racing shell was designed based on the simple working rowboat that was used every day to transport goods and people. The sturdy hull designs, made from thick wood or metal, allowed for heavy loads and year around usage as they could withstand the constant beating of wear-and-tear. However, once boats with racing capabilities were developed in the 1800’s specifically for team racing, the same heavy materials could not be used. A more light-weight and sleek design was needed. This involved the difficult task of creating a narrower and longer boat with a sharper angle, while still remaining light and very strong. The process of lapstrake wood building was first introduction to create these boats in the early 19^th century. The labor intensive method of lapstrake wood boat building is where the edges of the boats hull planks overlap and then the planks are joined end to end into a strake. This old technique was developed in Europe and used by the Vikings, so it had to be somewhat strong. Unfortunately, due to the overlapping and hard wood that had to be used, this made the boats strong, but heavy, which detracted from the boats speed through the water. Slowly throughout rowing history, boat companies such as Resolute, Empacher, Vespoli to name a few, began to drift away from using heavy woods and instead used a composite material to decrease the weight and increase the strength. Early composite racing shells were produced from a mold of papier-mâché, which was popular in the 1870’s. The new and improved modern racing shells are now crafted out of carbon-fiber reinforced plastic that is set in a honeycomb structure. This provides an even stronger shell that lasts longer and maintains its shape through intense usage from a crew.

           

Why are there multiple racing shells companies if a boat is supposed to be made the same way with the same materials? The answer is that every company shapes their boats in unique ways that are special to the companies design. Some companies create boats that have a more prominent bow and that cuts through the water differently to maybe make the boat go faster. Some crew programs, especially at the collegiate or Olympic level, prefer specific boats that are made by a particular boat company based on how they feel the boat. The meaning behind “feeling” the boat can only be described by the crews that row in the shells. For example, how the boat sits in the water, high or low, and how the boat glides through the water, smoothly or roughly. These and many more are factors that crew programs take into consideration before buying a boat.

Interestingly, every boat company has their own thoughts on what makes a boat go faster and that is way they shape their boats the way they do. However, no company can fully prove that their boat design, with the minor changes that are different from the competitor products, is better and faster. This is because there is physically no way to accurately test the boats and compare with the various hull designs and modifications due to a row on the water being different than the next row on the water. Therefore, the companies name rests at the mercy of their boats dependability, attention to detail, and the big races that are won in them, such as at the Olympics.

Another important feature for the boats are the sliding seats that allow for the rower to move back and forth with ease while rowing with his/her oar. Now, it was not always like this. Back in the day, when rowing was first becoming a sport. The rowers did not have the luxury of the sliding seats, but rather wore thick and padded leather trousers that were greased so that they could slide back and forth while maneuvering the oar. Eventually, the sliding seat with tracks and four wheels on the bottom was invented and immediately implemented into the developing racing shells.

Lastly, the rowing shoes are an essentially part to the boat. Rowers do not just wear any ordinary shoes in the boat, as normal athletic shoes are too thick and would cause blisters to form on the feet. Also, there would be no logical way to attach them to the hull. Racing shells have evolved to have a foot plate where stationary shoes are attached at a sixty-five degree angle. The shoes themselves can pivot at the heel to get extra compression with the legs. The rowers uses the shoes with socks and straps in with either Velcro or ties. It is very important that the boat company makes good quality shoes that are padded just enough for comfort, but are not too heavy that they add extra weight to the overall boat. Some companies are now even designing special shoes that make the compression with the legs at the catch more efficient by inserting an elevation piece to make the whole foot become involved in the leg press.

As any rower knows, and now the reader as well, boat companies are constantly trying to make their boats faster and popular by advertising and showing the great crews that won races in them. Their reputation is in the hands of the rowers competing in their shells. The quality and sophistication of the boats are transforming the sport and the way people think about rowing. This is why the racing shell is a vital component to a racers speed.

One of the Greatest Sports Out There

Have you ever competed in a sport that pushes you to your limits? Do you enjoy working? Have you felt constant, excruciating pain throughout your body while doing a sport? Rowing encompasses all of this, due to its simple, yet mind-numbing athletic activity with teammates.

Rowing originated as a human work activity since before recorded history. It was a brutal way of life that provided the transportation of goods from point A to point B and the means of battling on the high seas. When the power of engine or wind failed, rowing was the fallback to propel the boat forward. As the activity of rowing evolved from a casual outing to celebratory events and then to racing, the classic “rowing motion” maintained its simplicity. Slowly, the task of rowing was molded into America’s oldest intercollegiate sport, and one that is ironically least understood by people. The sport of rowing takes mental toughness and personal sacrifice to the next level.

The difference between rowing and other sports is that rowing is not centered on the concept of a game, but rather it is an unparalleled team sport that is not intended to provide entertainment through a medium of a game being played. For example, in the game of football, there are many exciting moments when balls are caught during big plays and then there is a period of down time between plays or long time-outs when no significant action is done. In rowing, there are no breaks in a race, or major exciting moments, because there is simply no time for that. During a race, all minds are focused on getting across the finish line first. The rowers don’t have time to think about technique or how much pain they are in or where the other boats are around them. They just have to put their heads down and go. Any lose of concentration in the boat and the whole crew suffers and it could cost them the win.

Rowing demands the most from one’s body and mind unlike any other team sport. From experience, the effort that is put into the activity during a race becomes numbing to the point that your mind takes over and plays games inside your head. It continues to tell you to stop and end this painful infliction to your body. You become so immersed into the rowing in a race that you are not pulling for yourself anymore, but for your friends and teammates around you. Your body might want to fail and give out during the race, but your mind won’t let you do that because you cannot let down your crew. I have never done any other activity that transforms one’s self into such an animal of athleticism as rowing does.

Whenever I talk to my friends at school or people I meet about crew, they always ask me “Don’t you get bored just rowing a boat all the time?” or my favorite one, “I don’t do rowing because it is so easy that I would get bored.” My response to both of these is, go and try rowing for yourself. Like I said before, rowing is not a game, but rather a form of work that is incomparable to any other activity. This is why people have more things in common with rowing compared to the other conventional sporting games such as football, baseball, soccer, swimming…etc.

The varieties of sports that exist in the world are immense and they all are built upon a providing entertainment to an audience. If a sport did not create a form of enjoyment for people to watch, then the sport would have not been popular enough to continue existing and thus deteriorate. A rowing regatta clearly does not have the same audience as an NFL football game, but yet the sport of rowing still maintains its prestige at the Olympic level. How? I believe that rowing takes on a form of different entertainment that keeps it “playing” with the big name sports. A team aspect that is central to a winning crew creates the entertainment. No one can say that watching eight completely different humans, working in unison and maintaining professionalism with every stroke, is not interesting to watch.

Popularity of a sport is not essential in making a sport the hardest in the world. People don’t have to agree with what I am saying, but I want to make it clear that a crew race is not like any other competition. The amount of mental determination and human energy exertion that is needed from the beginning till the end of the race is incredible. That being said, other sports are difficult to perform in with their own respects to exerting the human body, but rowing simply requires more of the both the body and mind.

Another point I want to make before opening the floor for discussion is the fact that there is not other sport out there that takes a group of athletes and makes them perform as one unit. Rowing is the ultimate test of a team working together, as everyone feels it in the boat if one person is not trying their hardest. Crew puts the definition in teamwork because if its work environment that eliminates all fear of failing as an individual on a field during a game play, and instills a fierce mentality of thinking together as one entire group. If one person does not connect with the water at the same time, power, speed, and fluidity will be lost throughout the boat. The key to a fast crew on the water is mastering finesse of working together with little effort. This is what makes rowing the greatest sport in the world.

This Pretty Much Sums up Rowing:

From a 1996 New Yorker article:

The paradox of rowing is that this most physically demanding of sports is about eighty per cent mental, and the higher you rise in the sport the more important mental toughness becomes. Rowers have to face the grim consequences of starting a two-thousand-metre race with a sprint--a strategy no runner, swimmer, cyclist, or cross-country skier would consider using in a middle-distance event. Since rowers race with their backs to the finish line, the psychological advantage of being ahead in the race--where you can see your opponents but they can't see you--is greater than the physiological disadvantage of stressing the body severely so early in the race. If you get behind, something like "unswing" can happen: the cumulative effect of the group's discouragement can make the individuals less inspired. Therefore, virtually every crew rows the first twenty or thirty strokes at around forty-four strokes a minute (which is pretty much flat out) before settling down to around thirty-seven for the body of the race.

As a result of this shock to the system, the rower's metabolism begins to function anaerobically within the first few seconds of the race. This means that the mitochondria in the muscle cells do not have enough oxygen to produce ATP, which is the source of energy, and start to use glycogen and other compounds stored in the muscle cells instead: they begin, as it were, to feed on themselves. These compounds produce lactic acid, which is a major source of pain. In this toxic environment, capillaries in the hardest-working muscles begin to dilate, while muscles that aren't working as hard go into a state of ischemia--the blood flow to them partially shuts down. Meanwhile, the level of acid in the blood continues to rise. Mike Shannon, a sports physiologist who works at the new Olympic training center, outside San Diego, told me that the highest levels of lactic acid ever found in athletes--as measured in parts per million in the bloodstream--were found in the blood of oarsmen, about thirty parts per million. "That's a tremendous amount of pain," he said.

Marathon runners talk about hitting "the wall" at the twenty-third mile of the race. What rowers confront isn't a wall; it's a hole--an abyss of pain, which opens up in the second minute of the race. Large needles are being driven into your thigh muscles, while your forearms seem to be splitting. Then the pain becomes confused and disorganized, not like the windedness of the runner or the leg burn of the biker but an all-over, savage unpleasantness. As you pass the five-hundred-metre mark, with three-quarters of the race still to row, you realize with dread that you are not going to make it to the finish, but at the same time the idea of letting your teammates down by not rowing your hardest is unthinkable. Therefore, you are going to die.

What do Rowers do when there is no Water?

Rowing is a sport that requires more than just an athlete and a pair of workout clothes. It needs a boat, an oar, and a body of water. What happens when you have everything, but the water part? You have to find an alternate training method.

An ergometer is a stationary, one person rowing machine that mimics the rowing motion that one would perform on the water. The “erg,” which people call it for short, is a machine of pain and extreme mental toughness. When you are rowing on the water, you at least have the beautiful water and teammates to keep your mind off the pain and push you through the workout. But on the erg, it is just you and the monitor screen that is conveniently position right at your eye level to constantly remind you how hard you are pulling with each stroke. You probably get a better workout physically on the erg because of the more self-determined and focus atmosphere, but the mental strength needed to actually do it is incredibly hard.

When the erging becomes monotonous and the rowers want to cause mutiny on the coach, another working out method is implemented. Cross-training is an excellent way to balance the muscles that are being used during the rowing motion and the cardio needed. Swimming and cross-fit have been scientifically proven to increase muscle endurance and prevent injury during rowing. Not only does the cross-training help the bodies of the rowers during the winter months when the water is frozen over, but it also helps to keep the minds of the rowers sound and at peace. Everyone enjoys switching up a work-out routine to keep the body alert and in this case, it keeps the rowers from going backwards in athletic progress during the off-season racing period.

Motivation is the key to success in rowing. The motivation comes from your teammates, coach, but most importantly, yourself, and when this gives out, there is no hope. The winter can make or break a team’s progress and this shows in the spring season. Therefore, the types of activities that rowers do when there is no water, is critical to the development and athleticism that they will have in the spring season of racing. 

2015 Youth National Championships: Changes to Rules

“Ten to CRUSH THEM!!!” yells the coxswain in the Men’s Youth Eight A Finals. The Youth Rowing National Championship exhibits some of the craziest racing at the high school level of competition. The regatta hosts crews from all over the country who qualified in their region at a prior regatta. The best of the best crews come together at the six day event to show what they are made of. Especially at the high school level, rowing student-athletes are the most ambitious students that exist, due to their high tolerance of pain and commitment to excel in rowing and the classroom. Therefore, the specific rules that apply to the Youth National Championship regatta are very to the rowers who compete.

Recently, the USRowing Association, which controls the rowing events in the United States, created a proposal to make changes to the entry packet rules for the 2015 Youth National Championships. This proposal was apparently created due to criticism about the rules enforced in the 2014 Youth National Championship, except some of the proposal changes are very abstract and effect many of the rowers in the United States.

       

    
The most glaring proposal change is to eliminate all lightweight events. In rowing, there are two categories that rowers can be placed into based on weight class standards. Men under 160 lbs. and women under 130 lbs. during the spring season are considered lightweight rowers, while Men over 160 lbs. and women over 130 lbs. during the spring season are labeled heavyweight rowers. This means for lightweight boats, every rowers must weigh in prior to their race under their gender specific weight class. The reason for this division by weight class is that it would be simply unfair for small and less muscular rowers to compete against big and more muscular rowers in the same event. Makes sense, right?

I am a lightweight rower, so the proposed change to eliminate all lightweight events in the 2015 entry packet, at the biggest regatta of the high school spring season, caught my attention immediately. I could not understand how a proposal that diminishes half of the rowing community could even be considered by the USRowing committee. Lightweight rowing even exists at many of the elite colleges in the country and is highly respected. By eliminating the lightweight events at a youth level, it is harming the rowing at the lightweight Ivy League schools and beyond. Youth rowing is supposed to prepare dedicated rowers to row at a higher level at school, so by eliminating the lightweight category is taking away the preparation and encouragement of lightweight rowers to excel. I believe that the lightweight events at the Youth Nationals should be kept because lightweight rowers deserve an equal amount of recognition and competitiveness as heavyweight rowers receive.

Another big proposal change to the entry packet rules is to waive the “minimum weight of boats” rule, which would eliminate the need for weighing boats at the regatta. I also thought that this proposed change is ridiculous because all boats should be required to weigh in, as this will level the competition field and make sure that no one will be at a disadvantage. All boats weigh different amounts due to their individually unique maker specifications and if there is no standard weight minimum for a boat event, then lighter boats will have an automatic advantage over the heavier boats for the race.

Clearly, the USRowing committee must see the issues with these two major proposal changes and not include them in the 2015 entry packet for the Youth National Championships.

The committee is also taking any comments on the proposed changes.

Just email alvin@usrowing.org before December 31, 2014.

Visit: http://www.usrowing.org/Libraries/Events/2015_USRowing_YNC_Entry_Packet_Change_Proposals.sflb.ashx to see the 2015 proposal to the entry packet rules.