As a ninth grader AppleKid is loving crew at school this spring and is set on rowing next year as well. This is a new sport for the kid, although kiddo spent several weeks last summer in learn-to-row camps. Any advice on how best to train this coming summer? AppleKid is signed up for a one-week rowing camp, but that doesn’t seem like enough. Are regular erg workouts sufficient or should we try to get the kid out on the water in a summer club program? Is time in an actual boat worth the hassle of driving the kid back and forth and making our schedule a little bit more crazy given other summer activities? Thanks for any thoughts folks are willing to share about this! (I’m guessing AppleKid will ask the school coach about this too, but I’d really like to get some feedback from CC peeps that have had some experience in this area.)
We live in the desert, so no water time over the summer. We bought a Concept II on E-bay at the end of ChoatieKid’s freshman year. He erg’d all summer and lifted weights, every day. The difference in fitness and performance between freshman and sophomore year was significant. Even though he hung up his oar at college this term, he still uses the erg when he’s home. It was a great investment.
Thanks @ChoatieMom, I was hoping you would chime in. DH and I are seriously considering such a purchase. It would certainly help me out not to have to add any more driving, and kiddo could use it between other activities.
I will try to conjure @PhotographerMom into the discussion as I’m sure she will have some great advice to give.
I will keep my fingers crossed!
Row, row, row your boat. :))
Many college rowers in harsh winter climes go indoors for training for 3 -4 months in the winter. Lots of time on the erg +weights. Nordic tracks and running can mix it up. Personally, I would love to have a rowing machine in my house!
Thanks @gardenstategal. Running (and cycling) are NOT generally enjoyed by AppleKid, but I may try some bribery to entice maybe a little bit of running 
It is too bad that your kid is not into cycling. Road cycling is a great cross training tool, and the bit of balance control you learn after hours grinding away on the road is surprisingly helpful for crew. Unfortunately, it will take a few rides or up to a few weeks at least to get to the point where you can get a killer workout if you(r kid) are(is) not an experienced road cyclist.
@AppleNotFar could you tell me which summer “learn to row” camps your son tried/enjoyed?
@GnarWhail I never pushed the cycling because 1) I was hit by a car on my bike when I was a senior in high school, and 2) we don’t live in a particularly bike-friendly environment. It’s a small miracle the kid ever learned to ride at all. But yes, it would be nice if the kid could embrace cycling. Spinning actually happened quite a bit this winter, but I understand that the balance piece is missing from that. (I wonder if horseback riding would have similar benefits?? NOT that that’s something easily entered into! Just curious.)
@GMC2918 The first learn-to-row week was a 2 hour per day program through a local private school with a crew team. The next two weeks were 3 hours per day at a rowing club a good drive from where we live. (I would bring one of our dogs each day and go for long walks while the kid was learning to row.) The capstone was a week-long residential camp at Brown. All well worth it as I thought the enthusiasm for crew would die as soon as blisters started to appear.
@AppleNotFar , horseback riding develops great core strength but isn’t sufficiently aerobic for cardiovascular training. So you can spare yourself that route… (Although if you are looking for a highly addictive, lifetime sport that will allow you to write lots of checks, it’ll definitely fit the bill! )
I would think if he is in the water everyday, especially if he is doing doubles, between dry land and swimming, he would most likely be all set for other physical activity. It is long course season! The erg would most likely round out the training. I can’t imagine you would need to add anything else since swim is such a whole body and cardio workout and at least for us, summer dry land is pretty darn intense.
Perhaps this is the camp AppleKid is already signed up for, but my kids both attended Northeast rowing camp in Maine and really benefitted from the experience.
@momof3swimmers I guess the bigger question is how far can you get with cross training? I’m NOT an athlete or otherwise an expert, but I’m assuming that despite the benefits of cross training, at some point an athlete has to train in the sport they wish to improve their performance in. Strong athletes in a one sport (or maybe two) who go off to boarding schools that require different sports in different seasons are all experimenting with the limits of cross training for their primary sport. In this age of early specialization, it’s kind of back to the future for many boarding school kids whose parents played a different sport every season. DH was varsity golf, hockey and lacrosse, and was recruited for lacrosse until he blew a knee out. Thanks to the variety of sports, DH was able to attend a different college to play golf (where we met 
). It seems that AppleKid is far from declaring a switch in primary athletic focus, but definitely wants to continue to improve and contribute in crew and DH and I are on board with that.
@janesmith Thanks–that’s one we looked at!
Friend…I’m on the wait list for coxswain at the one in Maine…
^^^Fingers crossed!
ERG is a great investment. Mine rows too. Also runs, lifts weights, stationnary bike etc
Here’s a good link that @momof3swimmers sent to me:
http://archive.usrowing.org/news/details/10-01-01/Junior_Tips_Off-Season_Training.aspx