Rowing at USNA

Alice19

Banned
Joined
Sep 28, 2012
Messages
25
This might be a bit of an odd question, but something I should probably ask now than wait until when I`m actually AT USNA (Assuming I actually get there! :eek:)

I`ve been wanting to try crew, seems like a cool sport, something I definitely might be good at, but there`s no crew team at my high school, nor around here...the closest thing we have around here is a lake, but no rowing teams. But since all mids at USNA have to participate in some type of sport, well, you can guess what I`d like to do :rolleyes:.

My questions is, it seems like most are recruited athletes, so how could I walk on, especially if I have no experience? Is this something that I`d have no chance of doing? Even for something like track, even if I wasn`t on a team, I can always run, and try to walk on, even though I`d have a extremely slim chance of doing so, but you can`t really just row...

So what to do? Any ideas, suggestions, experience?

Thanks everyone.
 
Last edited:
I rowed in high school and started out doing it over plebe summer at USNA but decided not to continue during the ac year.

It's very possible to walk on to the Navy crew team, provided you're willing to work hard and dedicate a lot of time to it. The majority of those on crew (based on the people I know from my class who did it) had not rowed before coming to USNA. That's very unusual compared to the other varsity sports. If you're really that interested, see if your gym has an erg and look up some rowing workouts online. If nothing else, it's a great workout.

Be aware that a varsity sport, especially one like rowing, is a huge time commitment. When you're in season, you can expect to be practicing multiple times a day: a morning workout, lift during lunch, and practice after classes that last through dinner. The crew team also misses out on spring break to do a training trip.

That's not intended to scare you off, but it's something to be mindful of. Try it out during plebe summer/year and see what you think.

I think you might have a slight misconception about how sports work at USNA. "All mids participate in sports" does not equal "all mids participate D1 varsity." Only about 25% (maybe a little more?) of the Brigade are varsity athletes and the rest are split up between club athletes and intramural warriors.
 
That sounds encouraging. I didn`t realize that many on the team hadn`t done it beforehand. I also thought that most did participate in varsity sports.

So you can try it out over the summer? How does that work?

Also, I know there a lot of sports camps over the summer for high schoolers at USNA...can people who have no experience do crew then? Or is that just for those who are already participating in said sport?
 
This might be a bit of an odd question, but something I should probably ask now than wait until when I`m actually AT USNA (Assuming I actually get there! :eek:)

I`ve been wanting to try crew, seems like a cool sport, something I definitely might be good at, but there`s no crew team at my high school, nor around here...the closest thing we have around here is a lake, but no rowing teams. But since all mids at USNA have to participate in some type of sport, well, you can guess what I`d like to do :rolleyes:.

My questions is, it seems like most are recruited athletes, so how could I walk on, especially if I have no experience? Is this something that I`d have no chance of doing? Even for something like track, even if I wasn`t on a team, I can always run, and try to walk on, even though I`d have a extremely slim chance of doing so, but you can`t really just row...

So what to do? Any ideas, suggestions, experience?

Thanks everyone.

There was a thread on rowing last year here:
http://www.serviceacademyforums.com/showthread.php?t=26044&highlight=rowing
 
Back
Top