Concept2 Forum

Hi All,

I am currently at the end of my sophomore year and have never rowed or trained to row competitively. My sister’s boyfriend was a very competitive rower and said I should try. I did a 2k on an erg and got a 6:40. I am 6’2 and roughly 195, 20% bf. If I train consistently over this summer I hope to get my time down a significant amount. Is it too late for me to start rowing and have hopes of being recruited by a high-tier d1 school(ivy+ ideally)?

D1 rowing is minimum 15 hours/week max 20 hours/week time commitment. Compared to the late 70s when I rowed the college training time commit is crazy. This blog has some insight. https://www.2adays.com/blog/lets-talk-ivy-crew/

Suggest you talk to your high school rowing coach and join the on the water team and see if you enjoy rowing enough to make that time commitment. If you don't really enjoy it the time commit will be brutal.

In the meantime, watch videos on training and on rowing technique. Do enough erging to see if you like it. Ramp up slowly so you don't get hurt. Then drive towards a life balance you can sustain knowing grades and extra curricular activities (like rowing!) are critical to college acceptance.

Even if you decide you don't want the commit of full time college team training, suggest you continue with erging and on the water rowing. You'll get huge strength and endurance gains from erging. And OTW is really fun.

Quick confirmation, was the time on a C2? MAny machines are not equivalent and so the times given are not representative of what you could achieve on a C2.