RowingRelated and Potomac Boat Club Present: The American Club Rowing Experience, a Series

The American Club Rowing Experience (Photo: Lauren Schumer)

The following is the first in a new series on the experience of post-collegiate club rowing in the United States, one of the more under-appreciated—and yet perhaps the most historically significant—forms of American rowing. The series will examine a number of different factors, from balancing 'real life' with a rowing career, to building intra-club and inter-club culture, to preparing for international competition—that is, Henley Royal Regatta.

Below is the first installment, thanks to Peter Clements of Potomac Boat Club in Washington, D.C.

Welcome to the Club: A Modern Club Rower's Manifesto

Erging became cool at some point between June 2nd, 2015 and March 2nd, 2016. Between Colin McCabe’s 5:39.4 making it to YouTube, and the creation of the (ironic..... or is it?) Fat Ergos Instagram.

That has had an effect on masters rowing as well.

For example: Maybe you were rowing at a nominally "masters" level for a few years since college, and always caught weird looks for trying to sneak in extra afternoon sessions, or do 20ks; maybe, in the past, jokes about the beer tent, and weight-adjusting our erg scores, and getting cute with age averages had always been what was considered cool at that level.

But then, suddenly, pulling hard was cool, and not pulling hard was suddenly uncool. Around this time maybe you noticed a lot of so-called "masters" stopped thinking of themselves as, well, whatever "masters" means, and instead started thinking of themselves as simply "rowers."

If you’re going to start asking questions like, "why are we racing a shorter distance?," and embrace hard work for hard work's sake, and decide that the suffering and the grind and the frustration are all 'cool,' then the question becomes, simply, how fast can a club crew go?

This article will be the first of many to try to answer that question.

Bending pine (or now, carbon fiber), and pushing your limits after college, and actively rejecting the notion that you can't keep getting faster feels pretty good, too. Speed orders, trials, and national team aspirations aren't for everyone, and putting grad school or a full-time career on the back burner while spending time away from family—or putting off starting one—is not a sacrifice everyone can, or should, make. God bless those so dedicated to 'The Dream' that they do make it.

Pull up the results from Independence Day Regatta, or USRowing Club Nationals, or Canadian Henley, and do your best to subtract the summer, collegiate programs. (These summer programs are great, and serve a purpose, but putting trophies in the trophy room isn't the same as wearing divots into the stairwells.) We're talking the real club experience and identity—something closer to the old-school notion of the Amateur Oarsman, of "Kelly for Brickwork," and of "nasty-ass Vesper oarsmen" winning the men's eight in Tokyo over half a century ago. People that graduated from college, and continued to push their limits; continued to pursue boat speed, pure and simple.

It's not a crazy idea.

Go to England, and look at Head of the River, or Metropolitan Regatta, or Wallingford results. Molesey Boat Club, Thames Rowing Club, Upper Thames, London, Tideway Scullers, etc.—these are not "masters" teams, though some of them have a healthy age spread (and of course, there are veterans races in the UK as well). And while some of that old-school club identity and development has given way to the gravitational pull of a centralized national team training center, there are still many oarsmen competing at a high level who are full-time bankers and attorneys (ok, barristers) and grad students and everything else under the sun (ok, fog).

There are rivalries and traditions that go back nearly two centuries—rivalries that have nothing to do with weight-adjusted ergs, or age limits. Instead, they're based on what they've always been based on: Who crosses the line first.
The view from the boat bay, PBC (Photo: Hannah Wagner Photography)

 So, you're a serious, post-collegiate rower, and you want to make a point about your club? Show everyone how good and tough and bold its members are? Show everyone your lawyers and bankers and teachers and doctors never gave up the grind, and if anything are older, wiser, fitter, faster, and hitting it harder than ever before, or certainly harder than those other guys are?

Good news—there's already a proving ground. It's been there since 1839.

You’re going to Henley Royal Regatta.

-Peter Clements



 Coming up next week: What makes Henley Royal Regatta so different, so special, as compared to other races on the circuit, from the club rowing perspective. Note: This series will be regularly published on Tuesdays between now and 2018 Henley Royal Regatta.

-RR

Trending posts this month

"I Row Crew" — Rowing in 'The Social Network'

Image
Like many of the rowing faithful, I've been keeping up with the saga penned by Dan Boyne about the filming of the rowing scenes in David Fincher and Aaron Sorkin's The Social Network , and I must say I had high hopes going into the film. The first problem I encountered: the phrase, "I row crew." It was uttered so many times before anyone "rowed crew" on the water that I had trouble buying any of it later. It's understandable that the character of Mark Zuckerberg makes that mistake, since he has no idea about the sport. But when the Winklevoss twins themselves utter the phrase several times, one begins to wonder where Boyne was when these lines were not being chopped or changed. Seriously, who says that? As far as the actual rowing goes, the first scene, which has the twins out training in a pair along with the rest of the Harvard squad, is not all bad — it just ends that way. The line, "Those guys are freakin' fast" is certainly every b...
Read more

The 30 Best Rowing Coaches of All Time, Part 3: The Top 10

Image
The top 10 best rowing coaches, including guess who (Photo © Iain Weir / Rowing Photography ) It's time for the third and final part of our 3-part series on the best of the best in the rowing coaching ranks. These coaches not only command respect based on performance, but have also shown the ability to adapt to new circumstances, build dynasties, and ultimately help shape the trajectory of rowing as a sport. Honestly, it would be easy to extend this series into 10 more posts... But we wouldn't do that to you. As we've said before, the hope is that the following may serve to educate and spark discussion, as both an appreciation of history and of the coaching craft. Also note: As we stated in Part 1 and Part 2 of this series, there are few women in this list, but that is a reflection of a general underrepresentation of women in the head coaching ranks in our sport—and indeed (as has been well documented ) a growing number of NCAA sports in the United States. ...
Read more

So, are Naked Rowing Calendars a Thing Now?

Image
Warwick rowers are all in again this year (Photo courtesy of Warwick Boat Club)  The phenomenon started four years ago with the Warwick Rowing men's squad. Then, the following year, the Warwick women's team joined the fray. Now, Newcastle University's men and women are back on the naked calendar train. So, the question is, have rowing and naked calendars become a thing? The above video features the 2014-2015 Warwick women's squad—the third edition of the calendar , and, from the looks of it, the raciest. However, perhaps not so racy as that of the 2014-2015 Warwick men (see below). But raciness aside, all four of these teams have chosen worthy charities and have gone "the full monty" to make sure that those causes have received considerable contributions. The Warwick women contribute to Macmillan Cancer Support —a cause for which Warwick reports it has donated some £5,000. The Warwick men? Sport Allies —a charity that combats homophobia in spor...
Read more

Will It Make the Boat Go Faster? At Marin Rowing Association, Culture is Key

Image
Hands in after training  My alarm goes off—it’s 4:22am.  It’s been a while since I did this. Immediately, I think back to a college dorm room, rolling out of bed and running down the steps to carpool caravan to Marina Del Rey.  Not this time, though. It’s a Tuesday in late September, and I’m heading across the Golden Gate Bridge to Greenbrae, California, where I’ll meet with the Marin Rowing Men’s Masters squad. Fortunately, it’s an unusually warm morning—and when I roll in, the boathouse is already buzzing with activity.  Launch time: 5:10. Heading out into the Bay before dawn The Marin Rowing Association program has both men’s and women’s masters boats competing to win at every event they attend. In the fall, that can only mean one thing: The Head Of The Charles .  The boat that Coach Rodrigo Rodrigues and I spend most of our time with is the Grand Masters eight—average age 60+. But that’s just one of five crews that launched with us that morning. Everyone’s ...
Read more

Winter Workouts: Why Do Rowers Fear the Erg?

Image
Op-Ed from the RowingRelated Editorial Staff Friend. Not foe. (Illustration: B. Kitch) I am really frustrated by our sport when it comes to the erg being viewed as a torture device rather than a helpful tool that people can enjoy. This negative mindset, which is extremely contagious, plagues the sport, preventing athletes from training to their potential and possibly serving as one of the reasons that careers in rowing, at every level, are often so short. When compared to other endurance sports, I have not encountered an equal level of disdain for such fundamental mental and physical endurance training. My main problem is that everywhere I turn in the rowing community, whether it's high school rowers, college athletes, or even national team hopefuls, I hear of people dreading the erg. I've never heard about a cross country runner 'dreading' a track workout. True, basketball and football players may dread running wind sprints or other such conditioning acti...
Read more