Reasons to Row (Youth)
- Aodhán Ridenour
- Sep 22
- 5 min read
Updated: Oct 17
Rowing is a foreign sport to some. Most of us don’t grow up rowing like we do playing Tee Ball or community soccer. There are more moving parts, usually, and a four-year-old might find pulling on a sweep oar challenging . . .
For these reasons, most youth rowers don’t get in a boat until high school. Or, if they are lucky, middle school.
TRRA Youth brings the sport into schools via erg challenges and meetings with Phys-Ed teachers. We also host a variety of Learn to Row events throughout the year so interested athletes can get into the tanks at the Millvale Boathouse or get on the water at Washington's Landing for an introductory session.
First Row 2.0 offers free-of-charge summer camps and a competitive league to get kids time on the water before joining the TRRA Youth team, which is fifty athletes-strong and growing.
Need some help getting friends interested in the sport? Below is a running list of the many reasons to row as a youth athlete.
Scholarships
Rowing represents a not-so-famous opportunity for recruitment and college funding for talented athletes. Especially for girls.
Because of Title IX, every university must direct equal funding to male and female sports. Since football typically consumes a large portion of money on the guys' side, that leaves a bigger chunk of funding for women’s rowing. It is not unheard of for girls with several years of rowing experience, good grades, and a solid 2k score to receive full-tuition scholarships to top D1 schools. Additionally, some schools, such as Monmouth in New Jersey, have recently started brand new teams, meaning they are a clean slate and are ready to recruit.
The recruitment process itself can be fun, too. College visits are memorable and provide opportunities to “sell yourself,” if only for practice. Eventually, recruitment offers can also be used as bargaining chips when negotiating scholarships with other schools.
Team Travel
Sure, most team sports include some form of travel, but with rowing travel takes athletes to more places. Some of them, far away and exciting. In the last few years alone, the TRRA Youth team traveled to Cuyahoga Falls, Tennessee, Boston, Columbus, New Jersey, and Virginia.
Plus, every race course has totally different scenery (as opposed to seeing the same basketball court, over and over, for example). There are opportunities to explore new cities, parks, venues, restaurants, and hotels with your team. Because the set-up of rowing at a regatta is so involved, many travel trips take place over a three-day weekend.
Typically, official forms are required to be signed by high school teachers for travel, but generally teachers are supportive.
Co-ed Sport
Rowing is one of the only truly co-ed sports (aside from swimming and water polo). Throughout the day at a regatta, girls and boys races are interspersed, so both teams cheer for each other. Boat line-ups themselves are typically partitioned by gender, but most other activities and responsibilities are shared with both teams.
From rigging and boathouse days to tent set-up, travel, clean up, and board meetings the boys and girls teams become one team. What other sports offer this type of co-ed community and cooperation? Not many.
Lifelong Friendships
Due to the sheer number of hours spent together during regattas, practice, and everything involved, friendships formed on the team can last forever. Once a rower, always a rower. Rowing is also special in that it is a sport that can be practiced for life. Movements in the boat have a low impact on joints and can be practiced at various levels of intensity.
Lifetime rowers often purchase a single racing shell at some point and find time to row privately. Even after a pause in practice, many youth rowers return to the sport at a later age to participate in Masters level rowing, where new friendships and team bonds are possible, offering nostalgia and community.
Get Fit:
Rowing is debatably one of the world’s most difficult sports considering the immense cardiovascular exertion and muscular workout associated with competitive racing.
Most rowers can attest that a serious race will push the body to its limits in the physical dimension. While technique and mental fortitude are essential elements of performing at a high level in a boat, physical fitness is an essential part of winning races.
Through weight training, cardio exercise, and hours spent on the dreaded (though practical) ergometer, rowers develop great physical fitness. Hard quads, strong backs, swole arms, and shredded abs; the effective rowing body is something to marvel at.
College Applications
There is wisdom in the old adage that colleges look for well-rounded applicants. Rowing provides not only something to put on your first resume, but also stories for explaining who you are as a person.
Simply getting good grades will, of course, get you somewhere academically. But good grades (even perfect grades) are not the only thing colleges look for. Colleges look for people who are likable, socially adept, and willing to learn new things. Rowing represents a “new thing” and shows you are able to perform at a high level, travel, and handle expensive equipment–not to mention you can work together with others.
Access to the Boathouses
At TRRA we are lucky to have access to two beautiful boathouses. This is a privilege that should not go remiss. Most teams only have one, and many are simply tenants, renting from a bigger club or landlord.
As a TRRA member, you are privy to the ins and outs of many spaces at the boathouses, including boat bays, weight rooms, locker rooms, meeting rooms, balconies, docks, and parking lots. It might not seem like much as a youth, but the boathouses are truly amazing spaces for self-development and community-building.
TRRA has also been known to throw some pretty good parties at the boathouses, either for fun or for fundraising.
Mental Toughness
Aside from erging a 2k (which is for sure one of the most challenging physical tests of all time) rowing involves some potentially difficult trials. By that I mean it can be a tough sport–if you want it to be. For instance, races often take place on rivers.
Waterways are some of the least protected areas from the elements short of oceans. It’s just you and the water (and some bridges and other boats, maybe some ducks). If it rains, you feel it. If it’s cold, you feel it. There’s no protection aside from your rain jacket and maybe a hat.
Don't let this be a deterrent from getting in a boat. When the going gets tough, the tough get going. In time, your brain adapts to the potentially harsh environments, and you are mentally tougher on the next row.
That all said, safety is THE top priority for our sport. So, if it really is dangerous due to weather or water flow, we don’t go out. Then you get to practice your mental toughness on the erg :)
As a former collegiate & masters rower, high school coach, and mom to several youth rowers, I can attest to the positive impact of the sport. Watching a young person move from the sidelines of "I could never do that" to seeing them cross the finish, ahead by a bowball is absolute joy. A joy that is accesible to all if willing to give it a go!