What rowing means to me and what it has taught me

Rowing is the most important activity to me. rowing is my passion; rowing is my life. rowing did not only grow me as an athlete but as a person as well. Those strangers that sit with you in your quad become your family and friends, they will always be there for you. The coaches that always breath down your neck telling you to sit up tall and push harder will support you through out and always want to see the best in you. Rowing gives you chances you never thought existed, rowing is a way to escape your life at home or at school. The feeling or the water, the rhythm of the boat, everything is meant to be where it's supposed to be. The river, lake or dam becomes your second home, becomes your second language. Most importantly rowing becomes a part of you. I had never really done a team sport but if I was convinced , if there ever was one for me this was it. One thing you need to know about rowers is that we eat together, sit together and laugh together. We are always there for each other out on the water as much as off the water. If there was ever a fight between rowers, the problem would be resolved faster than your ordinary teenage girl fight.

5 things rowing has taught me:

1. Time management – When you are a full-time student involved in extracurriculars regularly don’t have any time for anything else. Now imagine adding about 6 practices a week and a Sunday regatta, which is a race, and trying to create time for yourself, a social life and time to do homework. As a rower everything you do is timed down to the minute like how many meters you should have done per minute to what your supposed to eat in a certain amount of time before practice or your race.

2. Motivation- As you might know rowing is a really hard and painful sport and it takes a lot to keep your self-going when you are 1k into the race and trying to breath as much as you can. Its at this point where you ask yourself why you even do this sport because it causes you so much pain but its at this point in the race where you are reminded why exactly you do this sport. In life when you are feeling overwhelmed you need to remember that this is just an obstacle that you need to get past in order to get to the end of the race. So when rowing as you get tired and tell yourself you cant do it anymore this is exactly that point where you push even more and go even faster because you know you are not the only one feeling this pain all the other crews do , so you need to take advantage of the moment and push with everything you have left for the last meters of the race.

3. Understanding my role and how it affects the team- The key to winning a race isn’t always how fast your row, it’s about timing and technique. The key is balance. Your hands must be the same height as you slide up the catch and everyone has to drop their blades in the water at the same time. Pulling as hard as you can without pulling at the same time as your crew member actually slows the boat down. If your boat is racing and all of you focus on technique and pushing instead of just going fast you will be flying across the water and might actually win. Stay determined, committed and motivated.

4. Toughness- Waking up at 4 or 5 am? Practicing 4 times a day on water and 2 times a day on land? Pushing yourself until you are on the verge of throwing up or passing out? All parts of rowing and if you can’t handle that, this sport is not for you. The season before all the big competitions is all about how fast you row, how much time you take every 500m and who you row faster than. If you want to be in the winning boat this is the tie to push your hardest and fight for your spot. On the water its all about being focused and making sure your eyes don’t wonder around from the boat even for a split second , staying in time with the person in front of you and pushing of your footplate as hard as you can even if your legs are starting to give up on you.

5. Humility and discipline- As much as you train and try your hardest you are not always going to win. You are not always going to be the fastest crew and you are not always going to be perfect, but how you handle it depends on the type of person you are. You can get mad and blame it on your other teammates but at the end of the day everyone put in the same amount of effort and you just have to suck it up and use that anger to train even harder the next time. Every time you will see yourself coming out even stronger and that’s what makes it all worth it. There is no other sport that requires not only a lot of physical action but a lot of mental action as well, than rowing. If you apply the same discipline and work ethics in life you will become very successful