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.