Pioneer Crew

Everything you wanted to know about crew, but didn't even know how to start asking. (Only once you begin to understand will you then be afraid to ask.)

Welcome to the crazy and wonderful world of crew. Part sport, part day at the beach, part traveling road show. There are a ton of things that go on in front of and behind the scenes to make this all possible, and it's easy to get overwhelmed by it at first. This of course is not helped by the fact that we use our own dialect, wear funny clothes, and frequently leave the state just to find a race.

The content of this page has been suggested by former novice parents like you who had to slog through their first seasons without the benefit of these invaluable informational tidbits. As a coach, I'm used to taking things for granted and watching people suffer, so until now it didn't even occur to me to help you out. What doesn't kill you makes you smarter, right? Or more aptly put, what doesn't kill you make you want to kill the guy who didn¹t tell you in the first place.

So, to foster whirled peas and greater community understanding, we give you, in no particular order and with only contextual assistance with the vernacular, the ins and outs of rowing. Good luck with that.

Jump to:
Season Overview
Cost
Equipment
Practice/Carpooling
Clothing
Regattas
Parent Contribution
The Crew Experience

Crew Safety
Any discussion of rowing is predicated upon safety. We're on the water, it can be dangerous, and people have died in pursuit of the sport. We do everything we can every single time we go out on the water to prevent harm to the rowers and to the boats, and we're good at it; we sleep well. Coach launches are mandated to be with each boat on the water, and always carry a full compliment of safety gear, including megaphones, flotation devices, hypothermic blankets, first aid, signaling equipment, and cell phones.

All rowers will watch a USRowing safety video prior to their first trip to the water, and all are required to pass a ten minute swim test.

All coaches are trained in CPR/FA, and are frequently certified lifeguards.

We do everything in our power to stay on top of the water, not in it. This is true for any rowing club or event. It is rule number one sport wide, and it is treated with the utmost seriousness.

That being said, we will row in almost all conditions except high wind and lightning. Extreme heat (90+) or cold (<40 or windchill <40) are sometimes avoided.

Inherent dangers include, but are not limited to:
- Hyperthermia
- Hypothermia
- Dehydration
- Ejection from boat (VERY rare)
- Various cuts and bruises from improper handling of equipment
- Various injuries resulting from repeated improper technique
- Infected blisters
- Epidemic illness due to sharing of water bottles

With proper attention to detail, all of these can be avoided. Here's a little something you can do for the most notorious of them; blisters:
-Pop blister if it hurts, using sterilized needle on at the base of the blister. If it doesn't hurt, don't pop it.
-Don't peel away the blister top unless you have to.
-Use Neosporin repeatedly to keep it moist while the skin underneath heals.
-You can use bandages to protect it while rowing if it is in a spot that a bandage will adhere to. Let air get to it otherwise.

Season Overview
Crew is a two season sport, but it works like a year long sport divided in to two halves. It is possible to do only one season and another sport fall or spring, but in all honesty, most kids who do this ultimately either drop the second sport or drop crew.

The Fall Season is basically preparatory. Runs from the week after Band Camp (late August) to the first weekend in November. The team spends most of its time working on technical issues, and the training is all geared towards building cardiovascular endurance. Races reflect this in that there are fewer of them, they are longer, slower, and in the opinion of many less exciting. It is necessary to get the body in shape and technically ready so that with the help of some less intense winter training indoors, the team is in a much better position to compete in the spring.

Winter training is done voluntarily, but those who attend have a definite advantage over those returning rowers who do not, and these same rowers make the boats that much faster in the races that follow. It is usually done 3-4x per week for one hour sessions.

The Spring Season is the ultimate aim of the program. This is the same sort of side by side sprint racing you see in the Olympics. Races are 6-8 minutes long in courses laid out 6-lanes wide. Very intense and thrilling to watch.

For more, see Regattas below.

Cost
General Assessments for each season run about $590. There are additional travel assessments which can be $120 in the fall, $100-250 in the spring. Individual fundraisers may be available to help rowers offset the cost. Additionally, there is a limited amount of scholarship money available for those who can demonstrate need.

And as a seque into equipment, each rower is required to have their own 7/16 inch combination wrench with which to rig the boats. They run $4-8. They should be labeled somehow for ownership identification.

The Achilles Heel of rowing: without it not one dang thing can happen.

Equipment
The boat. The boat refers to both the craft and the athletes in it. Such as, "Coach made us rack the boat because we hit the riggers on the boathouse," or "the boat never got focused today, so coach made us do jumpies." Boats hold eight or four rowers and a coxswain (pronounced cox'n), and can only operate with those exact integers in the line up (see Why Practice Is Mandatory).

Each rower holds one oar, and their seats alternate out each side of the boat. Rowers are therefore at times referred to by their side, port or starboard. "I've rowed starboard for three weeks now and coach put me on port today. Boy did that suck." One oar per rower is called Sweep Rowing. Two oars per rower is called Sculling. We don't do much sculling, so don't ask.

Boats, or shells, are made of fiberglass or carbon fiber, are 55-60' long, weigh around 200lbs, and cost around $26-28,000 new. We have 10 eights (demarcated 8+) and 7 fours (4+).

The Oar. Also called a blade or sometimes hatchet. Never ever called a row, rowing thingy, or paddle. 12' long hollow carbon with composite blade (the working part). Handles are polyurethane or wood (see Blisters). They can be used as a flotation device if necessary, but we've never had to test the theory. A set of eight oars costs $2500.

Riggers. Riggers are the aluminum devices that attach to the shell to hold the oar. They have an oarlock, also called an oarlock, into which the oar is placed. The pin of the oarlock acts as a pivot point upon which the rower generates sufficient leverage to propel the boat. Riggers can be damaged by catching a crab, or by hitting them against immovable objects such as the sides of boathouse doors, boat racks, oar racks, boat trailers, signs, trees, cars, trucks, or other boats or their riggers. I have witnessed each of these, and in every case it has been a result of a complete lack of mental fortitude throughout the boat. It is for this reason that I will often charge the rowers and cox involved for the price of the damage. Replacement cost for riggers ranges from $45-280.

The Skeg. The skeg, or fin, is the tiny blade-like object beneath and to the stern of the boat. The skeg sits directly in front of the even tinier rudder, and the combined efforts of the two give the boat steerage. With out either one the boat is helpless and all but uncontrollable. The skeg is designed to turn tail and run at the first sign of trouble to prevent transferring energy into further damage to the hull. These frequently break off on the dock due to the aforementioned lapse of mental acuity, and will again result in a charge to the crew. They cost $45. "We skegged the boat on the dock today, so coach made us do 75 minutes on the erg. And I have to bring in five bucks tomorrow."

Cox Boxes. Each boat has speakers wired into it so that the coxswain may plug in a device called a Cox Box. This device allows them to be heard clearly down the length of the boat through a microphone worn with a nifty headband, and provides information to the cox about what the crew is doing. Because nothing in rowing is cheap they cost $500. We have ten of them.

Other pricey equipment. Boat trailer for transport to regattas, $16,000. Food trailer for regattas, $3200. Four safety launches with 15hp motors, $3200per. 13 ergometers for land training, $750per. Ten various timing/GPS devices for the coaches/coxswains, $100-150per. Seeing little Timmy hurl after PR-ing on his 2K, priceless.

So there you go. Think fundraising!

Practice
Practices are almost always M-F from 4:00-6:15pm. Sometimes we may try to sneak in a Saturday practice, but generally the weekends are used for racing. Kids show up, help set up the coach launches, take down oars or bring out ergs, then we try to get right to it. Water time is precious, so we won't wait around for any latecomers. Show up before on time, and be ready.

A typical practice will consist of a brief meeting with the coach and their crews to discuss the workout and set line-ups, 75-90 minutes on the water, then a brief meeting with the boat once the shell and oars are returned to the boathouse.

There is a document elsewhere on this site called Your Child's Commitment, or Why Practice is Mandatory. As it implies, practice is mandatory. Period. The reason why, other than that we're teaching your child to be responsible for their commitments, is that without all eight rowers, or a coxswain, the rowers won't go out. If one kid fails to show, it could very well mean that eight others are screwed up by his/her absence. (Consider your car leaving the garage without a wheel, or perhaps the driver. No fun there.) This still happens more often than one might think, and it never fails to completely tick off the staff and crewmates. Please read this attendance document, and adhere to its guidelines as best as humanly possible.

Carpooling to Practice
As soon as we can at the start of the season we will try to set up carpools to and from practice. We understand the difficulties of getting your kids to the corner of town at 4pm, and will do what we can to find everyone a ride. There is no bus from school, and no AATA route nearby, so cars and bikes are the way to go.

There is a packet given out the first day of practice which has and informational form, waivers, schedules, code of conduct, contacts, and volunteer info. Some of it you keep, some gets turned back in. It is through these returned documents that we get your contact info, and from there we can start finding rides. Prompt return will insure better carpooling.

Clothing
The only real crucial piece of clothing necessary are trou (pronounced trow). Spandex shorts. Absolutely perfect for a coed environment of this age group. No sir, nothing awkward here. An unfortunate necessity that instantly teaches your youngster to get over it and move on. There is a link from our website to JL Racing, makers of our preferred brand of rowing short which is required for regattas. For practice regular spandex shorts will be cheaper, since you'll want multiple pairs, and will suffice. As for tops, most kids practice in regular old t-shirts.

In case you were wondering, we have a dress code. Guys are not allowed to remove their tops, and the ladies cannot row in merely a sports bra, nor are they allowed to roll their shorts down at the waist. It may look like we're rowing in our underwear, but we do have standards.

Competition tanks are issued at no expense to anyone who wants one, but generally this is limited to novices. Team unisuits for competition are encouraged for continuing rowers and are purchased at the beginning of each season through a bulk team order, but at the rowers expense (~$70).

In the first two weeks of practice each season we have an organized clothing order for various Pioneer Crew gear; tees, sweats, hats, jackets, duffles, etc. They will need an outer garment for regattas, either a sweatshirt or a jacket, which come in two styles and are $65 and $175.

About jackets. The thing is, at some of these races, particularly in the fall, they'll leave the dock in their racing trou and tanks and have to row to the startline for up to 40 minutes before they race back. We will do this in the cold and in the rain, so it's good for them to have some protection.

Imagine if you will sitting in your bathtub, in your underwear, under a shower with no hot water at all. For three quarters of an hour. Ok, now move the tub outside (hi neighbors!). Now get the biggest fan you have and set it up next to you. While you may or may not have some extenuating circumstances necessitating this odd behavior, your kids will do this purely for the love of the sport. We should help them out, just a little.

Long legged trou and long sleeve athletic shirts under their tanks will help and sometimes be necessary. If it's raining a sweatshirt will merely water log, so it's better to have one of the jackets. The less expensive model is not as water resistant but does a better job than sweats, and the more expensive model is Goretex and is the most effective.

We don't expect you to buy a $175 jacket for a kid who may quit after one season, but we want you to be aware that your son or daughter will likely need protection from the elements sooner or later. Remember our last regatta is in early November, and we hit the water just after the ice clears in March. When outfitting your precious, try to avoid green. There's a high school downwind of us and a college up the road that have a strange affinity for the color. I find it to be crude and boorish.

Oh, and one last thing. PUT YOUR KID'S NAME IN ANYTHING YOU VALUE. Every purple jacket looks just like the next one, and every season we donate a garbage bag full of clothes left behind and unclaimed.

Regattas
It's what we call races. When we go to a regatta, we take apart the entire fleet, load the boats, oars, riggers, and accessories into our 41' trailer, get on a bus or two, or carpool if it's local, and head off down the road. We basically move the boathouse with us. We also pack up a food trailer and bring it along, because the foraging at some of these regatta sites is pretty meager.

When we arrive at the regatta site, which is on the banks of a river or reservoir, the kids set up the boats while the parents set up the food. Coaches run around getting the race details straight and make sure the equipment is ready to go. The other 20-30 teams present are all busy doing the same thing.

We typically arrive at a regatta between 6-6:30, and will remain until 4pm. Fall regattas last only one day, but several in spring run two or even three.

Fall regattas
Aka, Head Races. Fall racing is much like cross country running. It's done at a slower pace over longer distances. Courses will be 4.5-5.5km, or about 3mi, and last from 16-20 minutes. Boats will depart from a dock, row up the course to the start line, turn around, and race back down in a continuous single file progression. The racing is therefore done against the clock, and is timed by using continuous timing on the water by tracking assigned bow numbers.
What you will see from shore is a constant stream of boats coming down the course. Your child's boat will launch and disappear around the bend, and 45-60 minutes later they¹ll come down to the finish line. No one will know who has won until the times are calculated and the scores are posted by the regatta staff.

We will attend 4 or 5 Fall Regattas in Ann Arbor, Columbus, Toledo and Ypsilanti (Ford Lake).

Spring Regattas
Or, the reason we do everything we do. 1.5-2km, 6 lanes of side by side racing. Same launching and recovery procedure as fall, but the time frame is compressed, and you'll be able to see most of the race. Generally there are heats which determine who gets to the finals, so there are multiple races in one day, or over the course of the weekend for larger events.

We will attend 5 - 7 regattas each spring.

Overnight Regattas
We attend two overnight regattas in the fall and up to three in the spring. We charter commercial busses, travel as a team, and stay four to a room in hotels near the sites. In fall we leave after school, in spring we leave earlier in the day to get a practice at the site. Busses travel with two parent chaperones each, who are also in charge of the crew at the hotels.

We work hard to keep our kids on their best behavior on the road, and they respond incredibly well to this. We frequently have requests by our bus lines and hotels for repeat business, and we always get unsolicited compliments on our sportsmanship, good behavior, and responsibility. Regattas are not field trips, or dates, or parties. Our rowers are unequivocally clear on this point.

Attending Regattas
Regattas simply would not happen with out the parents. While the kids and coaches are doing their thing, volunteer parents are busy setting up the food tents and getting ready to feed the starving hoards.

Aside from that, it's important you bring other necessities to the events. Here are some suggestions:

-You never know what weather you'll encounter during the course of a regatta. Have at least one change of dry rowing clothes, a sweatshirt and windbreaker, and couple pair of extra socks.
-Chairs to spend lazy afternoons on the water during regattas
-Sun Glasses and a hat and SUNSCREEN
-A book or an iPod
-Camera, the team needs pictures of the novices in action
-Change of clothing for the rowers and yourself, also rain gear.

The Club generally reserves a few extra rooms for parents who wish to attend overnight regattas. The location of the event is also posted with our schedule, so you can find other accommodations near by.

Additional Parent Contributions to Crew
There are over a hundred different volunteering jobs that need to be done by parents over the course of the year. These range from board membership to food trailer transportation to chaperoning to food purchasing to event organization and on and on. Once you get a feel for how we do things, look for a way you can help with as much of your time as you can. We'll absolutely need some of your time at some point.

Results of our workouts and the crew experience
If they stick with us, we will get your child into the best shape they've ever been in, and perhaps the best shape of their life. Make no mistake, this sport is hard to master and requires superior fitness. We will get them there, so help us out. They're going to start eating more than you could imagine, like 3-4000+ calories per day in some cases. Be ready for it and provide good nutritional food. If you're vegetarians be extra careful that daily requirements are being met. And remind them to stay continuously hydrated.

A key ancillary benefit of crew is that it will force them to budget their time more effectively than they have in the past. They'll learn quickly to come home, eat, then hit the books as fast as they can before exhaustion takes over. Somehow they all learn it. We boast one of the highest GPAs in the school, and the entire staff stresses the importance of grades first.

The district policy is to put a kid on a week to week travel card if they get below a 2.0 or have an E in two classes. I'm a bit more demanding. Anything below 2.5 gets a nice conversation, as does any grade of C or lower. If the GPA gets around 2.1 I will recommend dropping crew for the duration of the season, and in some cases insist. I've gotten some resistance from parents in the past who say that crew is the only thing that keeps little Timmy working hard. I say, if working hard results in a 2.1, it isn¹t hard enough, and the removal of the distraction will help. Crew is a privilege, not a right, and we¹re not running this team for you to use as a motivational tool.

Moving on. Your child will develop close friendships with other members of the team, transcending grade and gender lines. We really are a coed sport, with boys practicing side by side with girls, and when we travel and compete, the entire team has to help each other out all day long, so you'll find Seniors helping frosh and everything in between. We like to see as much integration as possible, and we're a better, faster, and more well behaved team as a result of it.

To finish up tooting our horn, here's what one parent sent along, verbatim, to add to this page:

Crew provides extremely high overall value per dollar to your child, including:
- Athletic training- your child will become amazingly fit
- Sportsmanship- great sportsmanship is taught, and a core part of Crew
- Top notch coaching- Our coaches are the best! Consistently take our kids to State, Regional, and National championships
- Rigorous, reasonable training schedule- after school
- Co-ed team- chance to belong, meet life-long friends, and build healthy social skills
- Travel- opportunity to travel- overnight regattas
- Competition- compete on state, regional and national (and international-Canada) levels
- Build confidence and maturity- your child will grow into a role that requires commitment to the team, taking on responsibilities to care for each other and the equipment. This is the only team sport I'm aware of where the "team" (crew) is completely separated from the coaching staff during the actual competition (race)- to me this is an amazing leap for novice rowers- self reliance and needing to completely rely on each other.
- Pioneer Crew provides an extremely robust and supportive parent group to ease you and your child into the sport, make you feel welcome, and provide opportunities to become involved.
- Pioneer Crew prides itself on providing the best, state-of-the-art equipment for our rowers, to make them competitive on any level, and provides a safe experience to create world class athletes, great-well rounded young men and women, and future leaders.

Toot!

Some Final Advice
Take the learn to row class at Ann Arbor Rowing Club next summer.

Attend the beginning of the year events, really helps parents get up to speed and you get the chance to quickly learn how nice everyone is.

Have fun and be enthusiastic and flexible because nothing seems to go as planned, but always works out in the end.

Be careful. This sport has a sneaky way of becoming addictive. Your entire life may soon revolve around it, and the whole family may become involved, both from the shore and within the boat.