<p>Hey guys! </p>
<p>Just here to see who's interested in rowing for their boarding school... if you're on the fence, do it! It's such a fantastic sport, and fits a lot of people (big rowers, small rowers, coxswains) :) I had heard that some people had questions about the sport, so just ask! </p>
<p>Also, many people call the sport a cult, but we're not :)</p>
<p>@frosty6,
If I go to BS i definitely want to row. I already work out on a rowing machine and it'd be cool to actually do crew. Where do you go to school?</p>
<p>I think I'm interested... I'm 5'1. Is that the right size for a cox?</p>
<p>ifax - you can pm me about where I row, but regarding the erg (rowing machine) - make sure someone who knows how to erg has taught you! You can get really hurt if you're not doing it correctly.... also I have a lot of friends that say crew isn't that hard because when they erg it's not difficult (they're pulling 2:30 while i'm at 2:00- hahahha) but because you've already been working the back muscles and your legs you should go for it! Erging before the season gives you a HUGE advantage. And most rowers hate the erg anyway, so if you can suffer erging then you're going to LOVE the water :) </p>
<p>wickedcrazy - 5'1 is a great height for a coxn! coxing actually goes by weight and not by height (but if youre 5'1 your going to be a-ok in that area). Coxing women in college is a base of 110 lbs - if youre under they add sand, but that doesn't really happen in high school unless youre at nationals or stotes. A lot of coaches don't really care about how close you are to the 110 (125 for men) mark, because most high school races don't weigh coxswains, so you could get away with an eighty pound girl coxing boys! But great coxswains are great multi-taskers... you're in charge of a lot. Coxswains become a rowers mind in the middle of a race - trust me coxswains have called crazy moves in races but the rowers just roll with it because we trust our coxswains with our lives and just think what you say :) </p>
<p>ps rowers ADORE their coxswains :) favorite people on the team by far! You should try for it - coxing really helps with confidence and such... it takes nerve to boss around people a foot taller and a lot more muscular than you ;-) not to say that some coxswains aren't swole though - some can out-do their rowers on the erg and in the weight room</p>
<p>Haha, I think I will! Yeah, I'm under 110, so that should be fine. Exciting! Is the workout really incredibly intense? Coxswains work out with the rowers, right? So its not that much less physically strenuous?</p>
<p>im sure you'll enjoy it - literally the best sport ever! I have never felt like such a part of a community... its the ultimate team sport, and when you tell people you row/cox you have an instant connection! It's great :) </p>
<p>And races are defiantly that way - in lower boats you might not hit that level but in the top boat of each program the rowers go blank. Haha as my pair once said, a good race is a race that you don't remember. And no, coxswains don't work out with us unless we're inside, but they tend to run workouts with time and instructions and such. You may have to run with the team, but it tends to be optional for coxswains. So yeah, much less physically strenuous but a lot more mental</p>
<p>These answers are so great! Detailed, thoughtful, and really helpful. Just one more question-- for girls' teams, are the rowers generally as big? </p>
<p>Also, what school do you go to? I'll be a ninth grader at St. Paul's in the fall.</p>
<p>I'm pretty much 110! That's cool. I really want to be a coxswain! Yay(:
Do you need to do a lot of working out to be a coxswain?</p>
<p>Hey!
I saw crew in the viewbook and I thought it would be an amazing sport to try! I want to be a coxswain, and I weigh in at about 100 pounds. So I'll be a freshman at Exeter next year, and I know crew is in the spring. The thing is, I've never done this before and at Exeter, you're required to take the P.E. program unless you're on JV or Varsity for something. So how would I try out for it without prior knowledge and I'm not allowed to take crew as a class freshman year?</p>
<p>Thank you so much!</p>
<p>For guys, how much should you weigh?</p>
<p>@wickedcrazy - I don't go to SPS, but that programs great. They race in 8+ (eight rowers and a cox), but I race 4+, so i've never raced them but I do go to some of the same regattas that they do :) And no, girls teams generally aren't as physically big as the mens teams. However, this is if you're comparing boat to boat... ie girls 1st boat will be smaller than boys 1st boat. Typically if you go a boat or two down on the mens side the sizes will be comparable. Though you will find exceptions... </p>
<p>@nerdgeekdork - It depends on your program... in mine the coxies don't work out with us much (it's all optional for them), but work out by themselves. (However I do know coxswains that wouldn't dream of doing anything like that).</p>
<p>@2014 - Your program is SO GREAT ahhaha. I know a lot of the girls on the team (and they're fantastic). And your Varsity coxswain is coxing Junior Worlds right now, with a few Exeter girls in the boat. With trying out, they know that crew isn't a huge sport like lax or soccer, so they're going to expect that you don't know anything! Coxswains also aren't normally cut because, really, you have no idea how good they're going to be until they cox a race. </p>
<p>@ifax - men's coxswains should be around 125. Rowers weight - and this goes for both genders - goes with how strong they are. If you're weak, you can't be that heavy. If you pull insane erg scores (2k - men sub 6:30 women sub 7:30) then you can weigh more because you're going to need the heavy muscle in order to move the boat that fast. So it's all relative... sorry that doesn't really answer you're question, but I don't know your build and erg score, so I can't say!</p>
<p>@frosty6,
Lol thanks. I weigh more than 125 so I guess I'm good.</p>
<p>Thanks! Sound like fun. Out of curiosity, what's your experience with crew?</p>
<p>what do coxswains do exactly?</p>
<p>The coxswain is the person who sits at the front of the boat. They keep the rhythm, steer... they're basically the leaders.
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coxswain_(rowing%5B/url%5D)">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coxswain_(rowing)</a></p>
<p>O_O Thanks a lot for this thread, it's really helpful!
However, I was hoping that we could also expand this thread to include info about other fall sports. I'm currently on the fence between soccer, which is something I've been really involved with during middle school (I'm proud to say we won a few championships!), or football, which I love watching but haven't played yet. Advice?</p>
<p>@5SchoolApplicant, what school are you going to?</p>
<p>This might be stupid but do u have to know how to swim to roll?</p>
<p>@nerdgeekdork - I row in high school and am being recruited for college :) Also, the coxswain doesn't keep the rhythm... thats a common mistake (nor do they ever say stroke). The coxswain steers and calls race moves. They also let us know where other boats are and what the other boats are doing. The coxswain is a very important part of the boat, but by no means are they the most important. Crew is the ultimate team sport - every member of the boat is needed in order to win! </p>
<p>lindha - yeah, most programs require it! But you're never going to use it :)</p>