<p>@violinjaa that would be helpful, I kinda don’t know which sports I want to do (besides squash of course) but I know I want to try a team sport so I get to know people better. </p>
<p>@violinjaa and @squashisawesome I’m really busy now, so I’ll try to answer quickly. Crew is the first time I felt like I was part of a team. You must work together with your teammates to succeed; simply being skilled yourself is not enough. It’s extremely time-consuming and physically strenuous. But if you can handle that, it is an enriching, wonderful experience in which you get to know your teammates better than any people you’ve ever worked with before. Sorry for the rushed answer!! I’ve got to run.</p>
<p>@DocScratch Don’t you mean you’ve got to row? :D</p>
<p>Jmoran, I know you must be trying to help too. do you have a better answer?</p>
<p>@DocScratch Thank you! What do you mean by time-consuming? How often/how long are practices? </p>
<p>@stargirl3 isn’t crew a fall sport?</p>
<p>Crew is primarily a spring sport, but some large schools offer an instructional program in the fall. @squashisawesome</p>
<p>@violinjaa In the fall, practices are every weekday except one (you choose) from 3-5, and in the spring, practices are a little longer and every weekday (no off day).</p>
<p>Prospective student athletes may be interested in this recent Phillipian article:
<a href=“http://www.phillipian.net/articles/2013/10/24/can-i-make-varsity-how-andover-athletes-have-made-jv-varsity-transition”>http://www.phillipian.net/articles/2013/10/24/can-i-make-varsity-how-andover-athletes-have-made-jv-varsity-transition</a></p>
<p>Crew is an excellent sport, and one of the few you can start in high school without being at a huge disadvantage to kids who have done it for years. </p>
<p>Also, it has the highest proportion of “scholarshipped” athletes of any college sport. And, yes, I know from my son’s experience that it does require a level of teamwork not found in other team sports – colleges know that too. </p>
<p>Don’t be put off by the time commitment, you will quickly find yourself surrounded by a great group of friends, making it lots of fun.</p>
<p>I second all these comments about crew, but I will add that it is a three-season sport, there is no off season if you commit to it. You will row in regattas in the fall, erg your tail off all winter, and race in the spring. Crew is unique as a team sport in that the rowers are pulling simultaneously; no one moves independently. Anyone out-of-sync causes the whole boat to flounder. Mastering the precision, strength, focus, and technique to row well is incredibly difficult.</p>
<p>@bj96xy Oh gosh I hope I haven’t come off as some crew master! I am not on the first boat, and I tend to be 6 seat on whatever boat I’m on. Crew has boosted my teamwork skills more than my leadership skills, but I have helped new coxswains learn the ropes when I have been stroke on their boats, which has, in turn, made me a better explainer to those who need help. If you would like to talk about the more technical aspects, please PM me!</p>
<p>thank you for everyone’s answers, it really helps esp in preparation for revisit day! 
reading this thread made me want to try out crew but i’ve never done it before and i wouldn’t exactly describe myself as an all-star athlete, so is there a tryout process? thank you!!</p>
<p>bmyfeyonce: Go for it! You will row as a novice, and you will not be expected to have any experience, very few freshman do. Crew is unique among sports in that there’s no pee-wee league; little kids can’t move a boat, so you won’t find anyone in high school who’s been rowing since they could tie their shoes. Our son had no sport or athletic experience at all (none!) before trying crew. He has stuck with it and loves it. But, I will also say, that you will either love it or hate it. The intensity of the sport does not leave anyone in-between. There are no casual rowers. Crew is the one sport you can try with no experience and end up on the varsity team if you truly love it, commit to it, and give it your all.</p>
<p>You don’t exactly “try-out” for crew in the traditional sense. You row as a novice, and you will practice and monitor your progress (measured by stroke rate and split time) on the ergometers or “ergs”. Based on your progress and performance, you have the ability to move up, seat by seat, boat by boat. You are competing against the other rowers on your team for seats in those upper boats but, wherever you land, if you stick with it, crew can be a truly life-changing sport for a non-athletic freshman.</p>
<p>For a riveting description of all aspects of the sport, a marvelous introduction to crew, and an overall great read, pick up “The Boys in the Boat” by Daniel James Brown describing the quest for the gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics.</p>
<p>bmyfeyonce: I know you are asking about Andover and I jumped in to answer rather generically about crew. Andover may handle “try-outs” differently than Choate, so I will leave this thread and let the Andover folks answer more specifically for you. Good luck!</p>
<p>Do the crew teams practice/train during the winter season? </p>
<p>@voilinjaa @Choatiemom said:</p>
<p>"I second all these comments about crew, but I will add that it is a three-season sport, there is no off season if you commit to it. You will row in regattas in the fall, erg your tail off all winter, and race in the spring. Crew is unique as a team sport in that the rowers are pulling simultaneously; no one moves independently. Anyone out-of-sync causes the whole boat to flounder. Mastering the precision, strength, focus, and technique to row well is incredibly difficult.</p>
<p>@violinjaa I think they “row” on the ergs indoors. </p>
<p>(I didn’t see squash’s post!)</p>
<p>Until DocScratch comes back to give you a more accurate answer - there’s no tryout to just row crew in Andover. The less experienced will be in the intramural team/boats and work their way up to the varsity team/boats. One doesn’t sign up for crew in winter but some serious rowers choose to erg indoors on their own.</p>
<p>Hi all! I apologize for delay; I’m back at school, so you should expect replies to be a bit more hasty… Benley and ChoatieMom got it just right about tryouts. Anyone can row, but you’re placed on boat by erg times. Crew is wondeful, and I never played a sport before PA, and I don’t feel at a disadvantage at all. You should give it a go in the fall to see if it suits you, and decide whether you want to do it competitively. I stress the time commitment because I am also a serious musician, and I think I’ll have to choose one thing over the other; I simply do not have time for both. But fall crew is not nearly as serious as spring, and is open to those who want to experiment. We do have an informal winter crew program with team workouts and such during the wintertime as a supplement for your winter sport (if you choose something like yoga or spinning). </p>