The other page we excerpted an article from The Independent Rowing News on coaches views a the transition from high school to college rowing. This month we excerpt rowers views. Three questions were posed to rowers on the row2k.com website. This is a sampling of the answers published. “What is the biggest difference that you find between high school and college rowing?” My high school team was much more laid back than my college team. In high school, we had people who would consistently miss practices for one reason or another. In college it seemed like everyone came to practice every day. So far the biggest difference between high school and collegiate rowing is the massive amounts of time rowing in college requires you to dedicate. . . Up at 5:30 for morning practice. you need to go to bed early, so it cuts into your evenings too. The mileage HUGE separation between the men’s and women’s teams. In high school, we all worked side by side, used the same equipment, traveled together, were FRIENDS. In college? We were made fun of by our heavyweight counterparts.
“We often hear it said that rowing helps you to manage your time. Please comment on this.” Not so much in high school since it was only 3 months per year and academics were not as challenging, but in college, we trained all year between 3 -5 hours a day. The time itself was not unworkable, but the physical exhaustion and early mornings mode it hard to get in good studying. You make better use of your time because you have less of it to waste. Definitely true, especially with morning practices in college. I made myself start studying earlier as I knew would hove to get up at 4:30 and be alert enough to row (or cox). It was also much easier to go from practice to morning classes since I was already awoke. Rowing definitely helps manage time. You know what practice schedule you have and that most definitely after the workout you will be tired, This forced me to get my work done ahead of time so that I wasn’t up lighting off falling asleep to finish homework. It makes you much more disciplined because you know that three hours is for crew and nothing else can be done in that time slot each day.
“The thing I like most about college rowing is . . ." The camaraderie. It was nice to have rowing and my teammates as a constant during the four years of strange and wonderful college experiences. …friendships I formed, I am still friends with all my rowing buddies from school. These are people you spend most of you time with in college, party together, practice together, eat together, etc.
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