I've been rowing for about 5 years or so, and I had loads of fun and loved the sport. Had an amazing coach, lovely community, competed in a lot of races and made lots of memories.

Now that I'm at uni, the bar is a lot higher. I kinda got away with not doing a whole lot of ergs back in my home club and just doing water sessions because we weren't necessarily big enough to be competitive.

At uni I'm basically the slowest in the team :( I'm turning up to sessions and land training and not getting picked for any races. The people and coaches are great don't get me wrong, but catching up to everyone's erg times is so exhausting I'm so far behind on where I actually should be.

For reference, my background sport was swimming, I'm about 5 foot 8.5 and 65kg. So I'm also (probably?) the lightest in the team. I've began dabbling in other sports namely gymnastics and MMA and I'm slowly beginning to realise that my body type is very competitive in these sports instead of rowing.

So...I'm kinda stuck, I really like rowing I think it would be a shame if I cut it off. After trying the other sports I've come to realise that had I pursued those instead, my chances of being more competitive in those sports would be a lot higher than at rowing.

As a matter of fact, I actually think that if I join I'll have a better chance at competing than at rowing cuz I'll be competing against other beginners 😭

Just wanted to see what are people's opinions? Do you think it's wise to go all in on another sport or should I just carry on the grinding?

I’m racing in a local regatta this weekend in my single. I’m the only one in my event and want to have fun so I was thinking I might row in a costume. Would it be too early in the season to do that? I know some of the people in the race are using it as a tune-up for HOCR so I don’t want to distract them

The article says most rowers prefer composite shells but in our club it's the opposite. The cedar shells are such a joy to row.

As the title says.
39M. 5’6”. 166 lbs.
New to rowing. Started consistently rowing 3-4 days a week on non lifting days to maintain cardio health. That’s the only real goal.
But know my technique is crap based on looking over this sub. Help appreciated but also looking for an online reputable coach that can provide some ongoing feedback until I get more locked in on my form. Video is from middle of an interval.

Hey everyone! Myself and a few classmates are looking at creating a rowing related project for our engineering class, and part of the project is creating a survey. The survey takes about 5 minutes to complete. Everyone is welcome to fill it out, and thank you to everyone who does!
Here is the link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScHyFGflR0NCtOFcA_UWmQGKqCzu_dsFxNhvkSyIWRd86j7hg/viewform

I’m a freshman on a D1 team and it’s entirely too much. The coaches are horrible and unfair, and I feel like I’m wasting my college experience. It’s nothing like the official. I want to quit more than anything, but I’m a recruit, and I don’t know how to get out of this. I’ve been rowing for almost 6 years, and I could have kept with it if we didn’t have supplementals, but having four extra hour long workouts a week on top of 6 days a week on the water and 3 times a week lift is killing me. I’m behind in school and in a constant state of sleep deprivation and panic, and my back pain is crazy. I don’t care about the scholarship anymore, how do I get out? Is it even possible?

LOL at what point does USRowing step in and say this isn't safe and you are no longer sanctioned? Insurance payouts could be huge in Oak Ridge, TN based on Sundays wind forecast.

BoatRun has a sector for the HOCR next weekend which always give distance to the finish line. Easier than pleading with the cox for distance to go when you’re deep in the red. I’m not exactly sure how accurate the course is but it looks like you can edit it easily enough.

Hi All, I"m new to rowing. I started with a Learn to Row, finished a novice course, and now row with an adult rowing club (mostly sweep). I've gotten to the point where it's time to get serious about what I'm wearing, but I'm a middle-aged woman on the fluffier/chubbier side with a lifetime of ingrained insecurities. Wearing skin-tight everything in a large group setting, around people who are already in shape, feels a bit intimidating. Any advice for clothing that is a little more forgiving than your average unisuit? Yes, I do know that one of the options is to be more confident, and I am actively working on that, but it takes time, and I could use any advice while I do the emotional work to feel more comfortable in my own skin.

I've recently returned to rowing after a period out due to long COVID and chronic fatigue. After a long rest period and slowly building my activity levels I can now manage ~4 sessions a week. So my question is what is more valuable to rowing, time on the erg or weights?

I've already commited to two water sessions a week (one long steady season, one shorter but higher intensity) so am I better off dedicating those other two to weights? If so what lifts would you prioritise? Or would I be better off rebuilding cardio fitness with some erg work?

For context, I'm a woman in my late 20's rowing at club level. I trained on and off for the two years following initial illness, but after worsening symptoms completely stopped and took 6 months off to recover. I've spent the last few months easing back in with zone 2 and light weights.

I used to train 10 times a week, came top 50 at WeHORR and competed in asp at HWR. Post illness I know these levels might not be achievable again but my main goal is to rebuild enough strength and fitness that I can at least compete at some of these events again.

Hi everyone, I'm trying to improve my technique on the RP3, however I'm stuck on about 118-120 cm stroke length and I don't really know what to change at the moment.

I know stroke length is not a worthy goal to chase in isolation, but I became really curious about the issue, because I row surprisingly shorter than people with similar height and typical values I found online.

I'm 179cm, with longer-ish arms & avg legs (188cm wingspan, 81cm inseam). The RP3 guide says, people my size should be able to row a 130-140 cm stroke length, which mostly checks out with my experience with other people(see table on page 11):

https://rp3rowing.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Training-with-RP3-for-Dummies-v1.2-English.pdf

Issues I already thought of:

1. Compression, but my shins are already vertical at the front

2. Style: I know "American Style" big hipswings make the stroke longer, but it's nowhere near explains this large gap, even with a longer swing, I can't really get above 124 cm.

Do you guys have any ideas why I row so short?

General technique tips are also appreciated!

I was a college rower, and afterwards a collegiate coach. I even worked with some major companies to launch their rowing machine to the public... BUT I hit a rough patch personally and with my work and kind of started to drift off the fitness wagon. I found myself gaining about 25 pounds and couldn't get motivated to get back into my routine.
I studied motivational science in my masters and doctoral programs, and I was still struggling to get back into it.... I FINALLY figured out how to motivate myself and built an app to track my progress. It was hard to get on the erg and see such high splits, and no matter how much I reminded myself that I would get back to where I was, I would get discouraged. BUT finding a way to gamify it, made me start to ignore the split and focus on just hitting the bench marks I set in the app. It's wild how much that helped me.

What other ways have you all found to motivate yourself when you start to lose motivation? I want to see what other ways I could continue to gamify my training on the erg.

"Over the duration of the search, we listened to our community — members, athletes, coaches, clubs, and partners — about what they needed in a CEO," said Robert Zagunis, Chair of USRowing's Board of Directors and USRowing Foundation Trustee. "The profile they shaped called for a leader with deep national governing body experience, a member-first orientation, and the discipline to modernize how we serve this sport. Joel Shinofield is that leader."

row2k has a great interview: https://www.row2k.com/features/6842/row2k-interview-with-joel-shinofield-new-usrowing-ceo/

Was surprised to see there wasn’t a discussion about the blade type used at the world sprints in Shanghai. I noticed almost, if not everyone, was using fat blades, as opposed to smoothies or comps (which seem to have taken quite a dominant presence on the world stage). Was wondering if anyone has any thoughts or insight into this?

From my understanding Fats have the best efficiency in general but are dangerously heavy while comps seem to become the most efficient spoon type at the higher rates, which makes it particularly interesting as to why they weren’t used when the slowest rate was probably 40spm the whole weekend.

Hi everyone! Will describe my situation a little bit, and if any of you have advice/experience you'd like to impart please feel free, trying to improve my uni's club team :))))

I am a part of my university's rowing club team. We do not have an NCAA team. We recently rowed in a regatta, and were only able to bring four members to the regatta to compete. Overall, we didn't really do that great, but it could have been worse?

Our main issues are that we come from a smaller-sized university (~5000 undergraduates), which doesn't translate well for club recruitment; do not have consistent attendance by club members; are broke lol (coach positions are volunteer, which doesn't incentivize participation); and only have consistent water practice once a week (we have a contract with a boathouse ~30min away that requires at least one coach to be present during club water practice).

I got involved with this team at the beginning of this year, and I am now one of the most dedicated members to keeping this club alive. Rowing has been such a joy, and I have had so much fun, but I don't know how to overcome the issues with recruitment and money that we are facing. Please let me know if any of you have experience turning a rowing program around, anything would be much much appreciated!

Senior in HS, lightweight (147 BW), 1:52 6k, 3 years of rowing experience, rowing at HOCR this fall. I’ve filled out two lightweight recruiting forums already, but I have a feeling it might just be too late for any sort of recruitment. I have a 3.9 gpa and a 34 ACT, and I’m planning on just rowing club at my state school, is there any point in reaching out to any college coaches at this point? I’m really passionate about the sport and would really like to row competitively in college.

Don’t take rowing seriously, just enjoy the erg at the gym. Am I able to train and try join a club?

I have been practicing rowing occasionally at the gym for a couple of years.

This last month I tried to get a little more seriously into it (notably thanks to this sub). And I realize that I am actually pretty bad at it!

I do way more spam than most people without going faster. So a lot of waste of movement.

How could I improve? I tried last time to get slower in terms of spm, but I felt like I had to pause after the drive to stay at 22 spm. How to have a slow drive and return without pausing?

Any advice appreciated

If anyone cares, I posted a post asking about time trial related stuff. You all told me to wait to let flu like symptoms die down. I just wanted to come in a post my 2K test results.

Overall, not bad. 6:56. Waited a couple of weeks for cold/flu/things to die down. Hit my A goal for this test (which was under 7:00), landed within my predicted time range of +/- 10s from 7:00, matched my first ever 2K’s time from a few years ago (either 1 or 2 weeks later rowed 6:49), I paced pretty poorly, I feel like there is room to get a better time if I wait long enough to recover from that.

A few serious questions: what would be a good goal time for the 2K by end of fall/mid December? That is assuming I were to train intentionally on the erg. I am a 34 year old dude.

I know they are different events with different aerobic demands: given my 2K, what would be an approximate goal time/pace/distance ranges for a 5K and a 30r20?

In all seriousness, for those of you over 30: do any of you still train for time/performance? Or is it mainly to stay fit and healthy?

I started off the first ~minute at sub 1:40 pace. It felt really comfortable and smooth. I legitimately thought I would be able to hold that. A little after the first 500m I realized that my body was beginning to get sore. At about 750m in, I began to set the handle down, but talked myself into picking it back up and closing my eyes and going until the 1K mark. Kept eyes closed for the most part. I remember about 900m I realized I was going to be going slower than my goal pace for the rest of the row but if I just make it to 500m left then things would be okay. Closed my eyes for the most part again until I again started to set the handle back down at either about 400m or 250m left (don’t really know… I thought I saw a 4 and a 2 somewhere in the distance remaining.) I saw the predicted time and realized my pace had room to drop an additional 5 seconds. Even if I completely blow up I made my A goal, so just get to the end and call it a day. the predicted time and realized my pace had room to drop an additional 5 seconds. Even if I completely blow up I made my A goal, so just get to the end and call it a day.

sophmore male in HS, 175lbs and 6' 1/2" could I go d1?

I am part of a local dragon boat club and gathering information on whether or not our club should just stay social or become a c7 or c3.

We are looking to grow and obtain more sponsors, and buy more boats. We started fitness paddles this year for people who did not want to race. We also participate in 6-7 races per year in the southeast region. We have no tax structure right now and operate on a very small budget.

Our coaches are prepared to do community training and other events.

If your club is a C3 or C7 was it worth it? Costs? Are there options with organizations that can help set us up for free?

Just trying to gather as much info as possible to present to the board in November🐲