<p>I'm currently a junior, and I'm interested in rowing in college. I have the body type and athleticism, but absolutely no experience. The nearest rowing team to me is an hour away, which isn't very practical. </p>
<p>What are my options to get involved?
Is it possible to be recruited by a lower-level Ivy school (Dartmouth, Brown, etc) without any prior organized rowing experience?
Am I already too late?</p>
<p>Based on a previous post, I assume you are male (3 yrs football). Honestly, the likelihood of you being recruited for crew without significant rowing experience is very low, but if you truly want to row in college, you can walk on. If you are looking for admissions help by being recruited, please know that there are plenty of guys out there who have great stats and have rowed all through high school. What do you have to offer a coach/team that these experienced rowers don’t?</p>
<p>As fishymom said, there are a lot of experienced, talented rowers looking for those spots, even at the “lower” Ivies.</p>
<p>But if you’re a 6’5", 210 lb champion 500m swimmer they may be interested.</p>
<p>I read somewhere that there are twice as many rowers in college as there are in high school, which implies that there are many opportunities to row in college for kids who did not row in high school. </p>
<p>Whether you can be recruited or not and get an advantage in admissions is another story.</p>
<p>Take a look at the thread to which fishymom was referring:</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/athletic-recruits/1376714-how-can-kid-take-up-rowing-if-local-high-schools-dont-have-rowing-programs.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/athletic-recruits/1376714-how-can-kid-take-up-rowing-if-local-high-schools-dont-have-rowing-programs.html</a></p>
<p>^^^^
I was also just going to cite the thread mentioned above.</p>
<p>However, without trying to sound hyper-critical or condescending, I must comment on the following:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>An attitude like that is a sure way not to get recruited to row in college.
An hour away to row is actually quite common.
To row one needs water and not every high school or college is situated on the banks of a river or lake.</p>
<p>My D has to wait around after school for at least 15 to 20 minutes for the team bus and then travels around 30 minutes each way to practice on the water *from her high school<a href=“longer%20if%20there%20is%20traffic”>/i</a> and then has to travel another 20 minutes from HS to home. Each way. Every single day. And she is lucky. Her boat center is full. Many HSs here have to travel even further to another body of water.</p>
<p>As they like to say, to row, one needs to “manage one’s time.” ;)</p>
<p>Crew is not for the faint of heart or commitment.</p>
<p>Also, I don’t know if this makes a difference, but I was being recruited quite a bit for football by several schools, including Harvard and Yale, before I quit due to concussions. Would this help any?</p>
<p>If you’re an experienced athlete, a good student, and you can pull a competitive erg time, I think you’re recruitable. In our experience, coaches are focused first on erg, test scores, and GPA’s.</p>
<p>It is possible to get recruited to row in college if you start working right now. I started rowing my sophomore spring (a couple months earlier then were you are now) and now I’m committed to one of the lower ivies for rowing. </p>
<p>The most important thing you can do is find an erg and get well rowing on it. The most important things coaches are concerned with when it comes to recruiting is erg score. Some won’t even care if you have ever rowed before if you a pull a big erg. Like fishymom said a lot of colleges rowers are walk ons and many of them have gone on to the National Team level. However, in order to get well at erging you are going to need someone to teach you the form as well as show you some workouts you can do to get better. Joining a rowing club is your best bet if you want to learn this information, however the commute may be difficult since the nearest boat house is an hour away.</p>
<p>Realistically you want to be at least sub - 6:35(heavyweight) or 6:45(lightweight 165lbs) on your 2k time by the beginning of Senior fall, in order to get into rowing programs like Dartmouth and Brown(probably a little faster for Brown). This also takes into account that you have a solid GPA and good Test scores. This goal is possible considering that 8 months after I started rowing I got around a 6:25 on my 2k with only moderate training. If you have a good work ethic and are athletic (which I am assuming you are since you were being recruited for football) you can defiantly reach this goal.</p>
<p>One last piece of advice I have to give you is that before you start rowing make sure you are rowing for rowing and not just using it as a tool to get into college. While it sucks that recruitment in football didn’t work out for you don’t take up crew to get recruited. Row is very mentally and physically exhausting and will take up a lot of your time if you decide to row in college. A lot of your close friends will be rowers and you will spend a lot of time rowing and training, maybe even having to miss out on study aboard opportunities and other extra curriculares. It will define your college experience. </p>
<p>So as I said before yes you can get to a level to be recruited in college if you start now. But, make sure that before you start training you are willing to wake up at 6:00 on a Saturday morning after a frat party to row for 10 miles on Connecticut River in the freezing Dartmouth falls.</p>
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</p>
<p>Corrected. ;)</p>
<p>You missed the boat…</p>
<p>Great post but the times seem unrealistic. Hard to imagine any heavyweight being worth recruiting unless he’s under 6:30 and 6:40 is more realistic for a lightweight. 6:35 and 6:45 respectively are too slow. Plenty of HW recruits will be under 6:20 and the better LW’s are all under 6:35.</p>
<p>Walk on to the team.</p>