@makamo7 that would be subtract a minute from competitive men’s erg scores. So if sub 6:30 is the starting point for men…generally look at 7:30 range. I’m sure some folks with women’s rowing will chime in 
Good luck!
Thank you! @tonymom Anyone feel free to chime in here, how often did you train, outside of practice, as a high school student to be recruited? I have been erging 2-3x a week outside of practice, as well as running 2x a week long distance. Is this enough to continue lowering my erg scores? Or do any of you have a better strategy? I have only been rowing for 2 months, and so my erg score is still pretty north of 8 minutes, therefore, I know it can be lowered pretty rapidly at least until I hit 8. Also, what are good erg scores for a novice girl? After talking to some of my more experienced team members on the top boat, I think I have pretty good split times, compared to the rest of my team and those who have been doing it for 8+ months, but I also live in TX, so my club isn’t exactly Marin or Oakland Strokes level…
@makamo7 thanks for joining the thread. A few quick points:
First of all, don’t stress over your 2k now. Seriously. All that matters is that it is steadily improving. If you keep training steadily and smartly, there is plenty of time to get to where you want to be come recruiting season. Focus instead on becoming a skilled rower.
To underscore the importance of this point, let me share a dirty secret about erging - some rowers use an erg style that improves their time relatively quickly, but actually undermines their form in the boat. This is one reason why you sometimes see rowers with terrific erg scores whose performance on the water is underwhelming. This kind of erging also increases your chance of getting a back injury, which you really don’t want. (The new issue of Rowing magazine has a good article about back injuries; if you don’t subscribe, you should.)
As for the right way to improve your erg time, there’s lots of detailed discussion about this on the Rowing subreddit on Reddit. (Short answer: do lots of steady state) You’ll also see some good advice about the perils of over-training (short answer: make sure to plan for regular rest days).
None of this is meant to deter you - on the contrary. Just pace yourself. It’s a corny line, but quite true: this kind of serious, long-term training is a marathon, not a sprint, and you should only do it if you really love to row.
Good luck!
Seems to be getting quiet here. Perhaps people are still in shock over the Princeton heavy men beating Harvard in Boston, or the national champion Cornell lightweight men losing to Princeton and Yale, back to back? Not a good weekend to be wearing red.
More likely kids are juggling unofficial visits and correspondence from coaches with getting back on the water (here in the Northeast) and studying for APs, ACTs, and good old-fashioned exams.
Lots of folks in the East are heading off to Saratoga this weekend for two days of racing on an historic, well-staked course ten lanes across, well protected from wind (relatively speaking). 1300 entries from 56 teams. Spectators can stand on the bridge and watch the boats go by underneath you. . . . If you don’t enjoy rowing/spectating there, this is not the sport for you.
Yale Bulldogs 2 for 2!!! Pretty impressive.
Yay Bulldogs! the Yale lightweights seem to be on fire
PNW rowers will be traveling to the great white north for the Brentwood Regatta next week! Any advice for novices?
Whatever you do, don’t post anything in advance about how wonderful the regatta site is! This morning the rowing gods rewarded my too-cheerful comments about Saratoga with moist, chilly, windy weather and very choppy water. Lots of parents were standing around, shivering, saying to each other “I thought it was supposed to be sunny and warm?”
Hi ! they’ll have fun! it’s organized well and gets a huge turnout. Brentwood is a private school with a really dedicated rowing program. The Regatta also serves as a last shot in shaking boats up on the Canadian high school level before Nationals in St. Catharines Ontario. Rowers will be there from BC, Alberta, and northern US. The viewing area is pretty good so you can see how things are going. Good luck
What were yall’s 2k times novice year? Looking for female times in particular.
Sorry @makamo7 I just don’t know women’ novice times. Maybe others can PM you, or you can troll around the r/reddit discussions about novice erg times - there’s lots of detail there.
Having said that, I should add that unless your rower is a junior, novice erg times don’t matter much, if at all, for recruiting. (And, as they note on Reddit, erg times alone don’t tell you much; you also need to know height, weight, etc. to have an idea of what is a “good” or “great” erg score.) They do matter in terms of getting a place in a good boat, and getting more training in rowing technique from the coach.
Even with that info, novice erg scores don’t matter much because coaches are trying to gauge how fast the kid will be in college. They want to see fast times by junior year, with a steady decline in erg times through junior year and into senior year. In that calculus, novice year (including 10th grade novice) erg scores matter little. Most of us have seen, or heard of, a rower or two who posted fast times as a frosh/novice, but didn’t get much faster very quicker over the next year or two. And we’ve also seen rowers who started late but showed a very steep decline in erg scores through junior year. If all else is equal, which one would you recruit?
On a separate, more general note, I just came across an article in the Brown student newspaper about their athletic program. It notes that “Brown’s current average AI is 217 on a scale of 240, Schlissel said, with a floor of 203.7 for recruits — and when he looked at the most recent class’s data, he found that athletes had an average of 207.”
There was no breakdown by sport, but the real headline is that “floor”. Brown has NO recruited athletes with an AI under 203.7. Not the star point guard, not the highly-recruited wide receiver, not the guy with the amazing erg score and a medal from Worlds. The days of the “dumb jock” in the Ivy League are long, long gone.
@makamo7 I walked on when I got to college and my first 2k was a 7:51 with my novice year PR being a 7:41. My teammates were mainly hovering around the mid 7:50’s for the walk-on’s. if you have any questions about women’s rowing, i’d be happy to answer!
Any suggestions for a good Rowing camp to Knock down Erg times and increase potential for getting recruited? My son is currently a HW junior- thanks
Rowers Dad - Depending on where you are geographically, there are lots of rowing camps available throughout the summer. In the northeast, Brown (Providence Rowing Camp), Yale (Bulldogs), Harvard (Charles River), Dartmouth (Green Mountain - something like that) all offer one week camps - along with UVA, Princeton, etc. On the west coast, Stanford offers one, and possibly Cal Berkeley, UCLA, et al. In the southwest, Univ. of Texas Austin offers a camp. These are just the ones I know of off of the top of my head, and there are definitely many, many more. A non-school affiliated one in the northeast is Northeast Rowing Center in Maine, which has coaches from several college programs on staff. That would offer a broader exposure in terms of potential recruiting. Craftsbury in Vermont might offer a good program too. For a longer commitment, Southeast Juniors in Chattanooga, TN offers a three week long program which has a more formal application process/2K time requirements, etc. Hope this helps!
If you want a rigorous camp, I’d avoid the college-based camps which are more aimed at beginners. You want to look at camps with a presence at club nationals like Penn AC. Some of the clubs may appear to be local only, but if you contact them, they’ll often accommodate rowers from a distance. Both my sons have rowed in the summer programs of locally based club teams in other states, staying with locals. I’d get on this quickly though.
Excellent suggestion by @classicalmama.
We’ve now had the various national championships (Stotesbury, Youth Nationals, etc.). Not surprisingly, several college coaches were there in person, watching the races and chatting with club and HS coaches - and each other, it seemed, trading notes and observations. All this just underscored some points already made on this thread, but worth repeating:
- Your coach's opinion of you as a rower, and a person, really matters.
- Look for the highest-quality competition you can find. College coaches know you're not going to win every race, but they want to see if you show poise and good form under pressure.
- Be honest with the college coaches; don't think they don't share information. They will understand if you haven't decided on your first choice school, but they won't like hearing that you told three different coaches that they are your first choice.
- If your program is small, remote, or just not successful, get as much high-quality video as you can, preferably from the side, at a good rate of speed over some distance, and send the coaches a YouTube link.
There is a College Expo next week in Phili - is this worthwhile? thoughts? comments?
That’s really up to you, in terms of gathering general information about the schools. In terms of getting information about the rowing program, I think it would be a very lucky coincidence if the recruiter had any specific information about the specific rowing team that your kid would join.
its a College Expo for Rowing kids over 40 schools with Rowing Programs are going to attend
I’m sorry - I just looked this up. It’s taking place as part of the Independence Day Regatta, which is a big event for rowers at all levels. They’ve done this for a few years now, and they plan to have dozens of coaches or assistant coaches there, all looking to talk to rising high school seniors.
This sounds like a really terrific opportunity. If it’s not too far to travel, I would recommend that you bring your son/daughter there. There is nothing like for in-person conversation between the rower and the coach to build a relationship that would lead to being recruited - and also for the rower to find out if the program is right for him or her (there are real differences between how, and even when, teams train, and the coaches’ styles). You as the parent can ask the questions you need to ask about academics and the like.
I don’t know whether you can contact the coaches in advance to schedule a time to meet, but I would ask the organizers of the event if that is done. Either way, make sure your rower has sent introductory emails or updates beforehand to the coaches who will be there (the organizers can tell you who that will be). Good luck!