5 Insights for Adult Novice Rowers
The fastest and best teams in the country are those that welcome everyone. There is room on a squad for all types, especially in the novice year of rowing. A novice squad is the most diverse squad on a rowing team – often including men, women, adaptive (para-rowing), college age, and masters age (21+) rowers. A good coach can strike a balance between all the rowers, ensuring everyone learns the basics of the stroke, avoids injuries, and has the opportunity to row to their potential.
Novice rowers: In order to be a successful rower, learning HOW to row is just one piece of the puzzle. Check out these five insights that will help you develop sportsmanship and become a better teammate.
1) ATTEND PRACTICES
As an adult with a career and life, rowing often takes a back seat to a lot of things. You just joined an athletic, sporting, competitive (whether you actually ARE or not) TEAM. The word TEAM is important here. Unless you played sports in high school or college you may not understand the concept of what teamwork really is. Attendance is a part of good sportsmanship, so be willing to reassess what you deem “important” and decide if certain things can be re-scheduled to accommodate your practice schedule.
The learning curve for rowing is exponential in the first months and those first practices are especially crucial to learning. If your squad only practices twice a week, make time to commit to those practices. If you are lucky enough to have a team that practices three or four times a week, missing one of those might be excusable. Rowing is a difficult skill to learn and takes a good part of a year to do well enough that you are truly considered a “rower.” If you only make every fourth practice your novice season you will likely fall behind, making it difficult for the squad to have good, successful rows.
Missing a practice once in a while is understandable and permissible, but make an honest effort to attend. Remember that there are at least seven other people depending on you to row. If there are not extra people on the team then there is a chance that your teammates won't be able to take out a boat. Those people, like you, joined a rowing team to ROW, not to sit on an erg indoors. Only skip practice if you absolutely have to. Some of the acceptable excuses for missing are: an important work crisis, family illness, personal illness, something with the kids, injury. Some of my favorite bad reasons for not coming to practice are: “I think it is too cold/hot;” “I don’t feel like it today;” “I have a date;” and “I got tickets to a show.” Notice that those all begin with the word “I”? There is no “I” in team. Rowing is all about TEAM. Suck it up. Putting yourself before the team in that way is not acceptable.
A good rower is selfless. As a team you are a part of something larger than yourself. Other people depend on you. You add something to the boat and without you the boat is missing something. Be there for your team.
2) COMPETE!
You joined a rowing team, and rowing teams compete. If you were looking for a recreational water activity, the single scull or a kayak might have been a better choice. Even if you are not a competitive person you can gain much satisfaction from participating in racing. Schedule time to attend regattas that your team is going to. It is perfectly acceptable to miss a regatta for a wedding or big family event you can't get out of, but do try to go race. Be a good team player. Every team sets their regatta schedule at the the beginning of each season. Mark your calendar as soon as possible.
If you are injured or not rowing, attend the local regattas with your team. This sportsmanship shows your teammates that you care and support them.
If you are in a lineup that is racing, be extra sure to attend practices the week leading up to a regatta. Those practices are crucial to making sure you have the best race possible. Your coach will set the final race day lineups about a week before the regatta and then start focusing on those lineups at each practice. If you do not think you can commit to those practices, you may want to think twice about committing to the regatta. Even if you are NOT racing, you should still come to practice in case you are needed to fill seats for people who are racing but may be unable to attend practice. Also, you do not want to get rusty in the meantime because perhaps you CAN attend the next regatta and you want to be ready.
Think of rowing as an investment: you only get what you pay into it. Even seasoned rowers forget that. If you invested little to no time in your boat and teammates, you will not have a successful row, no matter what. If you invest in each other and compete, the team will have a great row despite the outcome of the race. One of the biggest disappointments in rowing is finishing last place when there was something your boat could have done to prevent it. The compound effect of committing to row and race together is an overall increase in skill level and success of a team.
Lastly, don’t worry if you have never competed before. Just remember to pull hard, do what your coach and coxswain tell you to do, and row your best form and technique. As you become more experienced at racing you will have even better races.
3) YOUR SECOND YEAR OF ROWING: BIG FISH/LITTLE FISH
Once you complete a novice season, you can join a squad that will best meet your needs and wants as a rower. Most advances in a rower’s career come in the second year of rowing. Many adult masters clubs have club, competitive, and/or recreational squads. Within those three squads you'll still find varying degrees of competitiveness and dedication. If you decide you want to be competitive, do not get frustrated if you find yourself rowing with someone not up to your standards. Trust that your coach will set line-ups of similar skill supplemented with rowers who need a shot at knowing what it feels like to row in a set and balanced boat. A rower that needs more special attention may be asked to row with a recreational or club program to develop their skills before rowing at a higher level.
If you find yourself in a boat full of intimidating and skilled rowers, the best thing you can do is let them know you appreciate their skill and make an honest effort to row your best, listen to coaching feedback and try to improve. This will show the rest of your team you are respectful of their experience.
Skilled rowers can make newer or more “raw” rowers feel welcome by encouraging them to work hard and be serious in the boat. Without being a know-it-all, they can still help guide, and should never degrade a teammate by saying “that person has no business being here”. Whatever happens though, keep in mind that it is the differences that make a team interesting.
4) YOUR TEAM IS NOT A DATING/MATING SERVICE
You are at the boathouse to row. It is healthy and normal to find love and romance with someone that has the same interests and hobbies as you, and lots of positive, healthy relationships can result from teammates coupling. If you are “single and ready to mingle” when you join a team, look around, maybe that special someone is there waiting for you! However, keep in mind that romance has its own time and place. A team needs to operate as a cohesive unit to function and win races. Leave the dating on land and the flirting to non-practice hours.
Some do's and don'ts for dating on your team
Be smart. Choose wisely. Don't date (or be) a serial dater – dating multiple members of the same team tends to cause animosity amongst teammates which creates hostility and drama.
Be open about your intentions with your love interest and with your teammates. “Secret love affairs” might sound exciting, but they often end in tears, not necessarily your own.
Don't expect or ask your teammates to keep things a secret. It is disrespectful and likely inappropriate or ill-timed in the first place.
Act like adults. Some of the most fracturing things that can happen to a team are when people’s feelings get hurt and a coxswain(s) or rower(s) (or a coach!) have to leave the team because of drama. When things stop being fun, people leave. The whole team suffers as a result.
Use good judgement. If they already have a special someone, hands and eyes OFF. That pretty much goes for outside of rowing, but it is worth repeating.
Admit freely “we are dating” to each other and your team. Avoid confusion and miscommunication. Avoid hurting.
Agree beforehand to not let it affect your rowing or commitment to the team no matter how it ends. Preferably, end it as friends.
If you are a person of authority (coach/board member) or rower/coxswain respect your positions and conduct yourself appropriately. Showing favoritism toward your romantic interest can cause harm to a squad, so be sure to exercise caution and common sense. What is best for the team should come before what you desire. If it becomes a problem, step down, take time off, or wait till end of season.
Never put yourself in a position of lost inhibitions at a rowing-related event. Post-regatta over-celebration can result in regrettable situations and disappointing walks of shame. As we say in the rowing world, “What happens in Boston does not stay in Boston.”
5) USE YOUR ROWING COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS
Unlike most adult sporting leagues, rowing teams compete locally with other teams in and around your city and will travel great distances to compete with other teams from around your region of the county. A couple times a year your team will travel to national championship level regattas. Sometimes, about once a year, your team may also send representative rowers to international level regattas.
The best thing about the travel is meeting new people and competing with them. Oh wait... actually, the best thing is going out afterward and drinking with them! Yes, rowing is a sport where after the racing is over everyone gets out their party hats. There's an oft-repeated saying... “my drinking team has a rowing problem.” Sometimes, that is very true – either because you are celebrating a huge win, or drowning your sorrowful tears of loss in your beer. Either way you are in good company. Both are perfectly acceptable ways to show sportsmanship.
Each October at the Head of the Charles regatta, in Boston, Mass., rowers from all around the world unite to compete in the largest regatta on Earth. Racing is held on Saturday and Sunday, and throughout the weekend, rowers from everywhere can be found at one specific local bar: John Harvard’s in Harvard Square. If you didn't know the bar was full of rowers you may think you walked into the Land of the Giants. The only people under 5’11 are the coxswains! Take this opportunity to buy a round of beers for everyone around you. Wear your team shirt proudly. People there will remember you if you talk about your race and ask how theirs went. Also, get their names, ask for their emails. Maybe next time you are visiting their city you can hop in a boat with their team and make more new friends.
Rowing opens you up to the possibility of lots of networking. If you are mindful and altruistic in you go about it, you can avoid being seen as just a user. Think of the wealth of information, not just about rowing that you can gain access to. All those rowers you will meet have a professional job to keep them paying their rowing dues. If you find yourself needing a job, a reference, or maybe some professional advice, reach out to your rowing friends, they might shock and amaze you at what good people they are. Be a good sport, and help out your fellow oarsmen (or coxswains!). What better way to show your sportsmanship than partaking in a tradition of the sport?
AC Chacon is a men's program assistant coach at Colgate University • @rowingcoachac