Keeping An 8 Year Old Interested In Rowing

[[old] sellsworth]

Greetings - I've recently really gotten into erg rowing and am new to this forum. The weather has been so bad here in Reno, Nevada that I haven't been able to do my usual winter cycling (my main hobby). I did the 200k rowing challenge and now an hooked. My eight year old has decided that he wants to join me on this rowing kick. Last night he did 6k while I did 10k. He loved it! I was surprised that he went that far (it took him 47 minutes). Now he wants to try 10k. Do any of you have experience rowing with young kids? Any tips on how to keep them interested?

[[old] PaulS]

Let them keep themselves interested. The interest may just stem from "wow, can I do the same cool thing you are doing?", with you setting a good example.<br><br>He probably has a great capacity for watching and then imitating, so watching the video to see how it's done, together, may be a good idea, but he'll probaly get it figured out pretty well on his own.<br><br>You already have a built in handicap from that workout, 6K vs 10K, if he is a competitive kid, setting a timed challenge based on that could be fun and keep you motivated also.<br><br>Most of all, keep it a fun thing, you can even set up a ranking for him, there are several in his age group that have been active in the past.<br>

[[old] gw1]

My little fellas like doing a relay (even their old slow Dad joins in) one rows for 1000 or 2000m then jumps off and the other one jumps on. While they are not on the machine they are doing sit ups, chins, pushups and encouraging, they are 7 and 9. They just look at it as a game!<br>GW<br><br>

[[old] PaulS]

Gary,<br><br>Hard to imagine a better example than "old slow dad".

[[old] gw1]

Thanks Paul, i'm certainly feeling that way now. After a great summer of training and results, i'm STILL slowed down by a couple of injuries from a wipe out, surfing the last hurricane swells that passed through FL.<br>I'm about to start some base training towards next summer.<br>Cheers<br>Gary

[[old] Mike McGuirk]

<!--QuoteBegin-sellsworth+Jan 10 2005, 06:53 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td class='genmed'><span class='genmed'><b>QUOTE</b></span> (sellsworth @ Jan 10 2005, 06:53 PM)</td></tr><tr><td class='quote'><!--QuoteEBegin-->Do any of you have experience rowing with young kids? Any tips on how to keep them interested?<!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><br>Hi Sellsworth - <br>All the above suggestions are great and have the added benefit of gently encouraging performance and competitiveness. My eight y/o completed the recent Holiday Challenge and seemed to be motivated by:<br>1) Getting to log her times in the C2 Log and watch and plan her progress toward the goal in a simple spreadsheet. Best part of the spreadsheet was that she could tell it how many days off she wanted and it would tell her how many meters she would have to row in the remaining days. <br>2) She got to watch TV/movies while rowing. She doesn't get to do that much especially on school nights so it was a big incentive. Kinda sick, eh?<br>3) Having a goal (HC) was a big motivator. It became really important to her to make it.<br>It's great seeing the little ones get on the erg and do more than play around. <br>Hope this helps -<br>MM

[[old] makesureyoudoitright]

At 8, Id try and keep my kids interested in balls games and other such sports, rowing is far too repetitive for kids to keep interested in.

[[old] gw1]

makesureyoudoitright,<br><br>The C2 is great when my boys can't go outside and swim, play baseball, basketball, soccer, tennis, golf, street hockey, handball, ride their surfboards, skate boards, mountain bikes or in-line skates. <br><br>GW

[[old] gorow9]

My six year old brother wants to be stonger than his friend, David so he has taken to rowing... but we have the "ten minute" rule... machine can't be touched unless it's for more than ten minutes... that way it doesn't become a fun "slide toy"<br><br>Also I started on water rowing around 9 or so so try to get him into that if there's a boatclub nearby see what their max young age is. They have floating bathtubs for newbies to rowing so tippiness isn't much of a prob w/that. Als yougher kids tend to have good balance too.<br><br>~Sara~<br><br>"Life's short... row hard"<br>"Row till you die, the power 10."