I am going to be a new junior and am trying to decide between cross country and crew. I have never done either sport before. I am thinking fall crew might be an interesting sport, but every time I talk to people about crew, they comment on how athletically demanding it is. I am not terribly strong, esp. with respect to upper body strength. Any advice is appreciated!
I’m so excited for crew! I’ve done two week-long clinics and loved it. There’s nothing more amazing than everyone’s blades slicing the water in unison.
I’m no expert, but I’d say that you can build strength with crew. Then again, XC is awesome too! I’m hoping someone who knows what they’re talking about will see this.
I started crew! The thing about crew is that it will help you to get stronger. Also, are you a small, light person? There is always the option of being a coxswain. I would say go for crew. It’s one of the sports that most people don’t do until they get to HS, and so it evens the playing field a bit. You can learn the technique and get stronger and see if you want to keep with it. I definitely recommend it!
I was a rower at BS and college. As far as I’m concerned, it’s the greatest sport in the world! I fell in love with it almost immediately, when I started recreational crew in the fall term of my sophomore year. I wish I would have discovered it as a freshman, so I could have had one more year of bliss! Crew is a lot of fun and very challenging. It also builds a sense of camaraderie that you can’t find in a lot of other sports, because you are all rowing in time, following the person in front of you. As far as having limited upper body strength, crew is mainly a leg sport anyway, so don’t worry too much about that. I was never particularly athletic as a child (although I was on a swim team for a while, but I wasn’t particularly good), but being a tall girl who is not stick thin meant that I was ideal for crew. As catinthehat stated, if you’re small you can always be a coxswain, and since few people row crew before high school you aren’t faced with being the only novice. It was basically my life for five years. I ate, slept and thought crew. Boy do I miss it!