USNA Crew

JohnPaulJones

5-Year Member
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Jul 12, 2013
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80
Does anyone know if you have to be recruited to participate in the Crew team at USNA? If I have no prior experience, is it almost impossible to be on the team?
 
My girlfriend is a walk on this year as a plebe, and is now a coxswain.

"Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies." - Sir Ernest Benn
 
I've also heard of other walk-ons in the past. Search for past threads on the topic.
 
Yes, the team accepts walk-ons as getting experience in high school is almost impossible. The Plebe team is the place to start and stick with it to make Varsity.
 
Yes...however.

Not for the faint of heart...

My three children row, we have been involved with CREW for over 8 years now with a competitive program. Great sport, some very hard working kids. You will either love it or well just the complete opposite.

You can walk on just like any other sport; however, there are things you should know. Without going into too much detail I'll touch ever so little on a few things.

1st. Are you long and lean in body. 6' is a good place to be. Yes you can be a little shorter (not much, like an inch at best) but the Navy has some really big boys, this includes the light weight. I have meet a few on the team.

2nd. If this is what you want, go to your local YMCA, have someone show you the "correct" way to erg. Start very slow and work your way up to a 2k, this will take time. About 3 or 4 months after building yourself up on the erg see what you can pull for a 2k. If you can pull around a sub 6:45 your getting there...but pull harder. When you think you pulled your hardest reach down and pull harder. !!MAKE SURE YOU ERG CORRECTLY!!

3rd. Check http://row2k.com/ lots of information here. Take a look at photos of some of the D1 college kids. 8 rowers, the 9th smaller person will be the coxswain.

4th. If your going to do this be prepared to wake up before everybody else for morning workouts and when classes are over its back to the boathouse for afternoon workouts.

Are you applying this year? If not look into the Navy crew camp for next summer.

Good luck.
 
Thank you very much for the info. Yes, I am pretty lean (6 ' 1" and 165 lbs.). I am applying for the class of 2018. When you say "2k" does that mean 2 kilometers?
 
Row

2,000 meters...

I can't say it enough, make sure you erg correctly, you do not want to hurt yourself.

Do not come out of the gate like a craved race horse...work your way up.

6 ' 1" and 165 lbs, that's light wight. Do some research on the web site I posted. Become a student of rowing videos, focus on hand responsibility and form. Good luck!
 
Ex.BT had a great recommendation: if there's a sport you think you're interested in, go to www.navysports.com and sign up for that sport's camp and learn more about what it takes to participate, including some of the coaches involved. The sports camp is also a good way to learn more about USNA. Do your homework and best wishes.
 
Hi JPJ,
Over the summer I went to navy crew camp and it kindled my enjoyment of rowing. If you have any questions about the camp feel free to pm me.
It was one of the best experiences of my life so far.
 
Thank you very much for the info. Yes, I am pretty lean (6 ' 1" and 165 lbs.). I am applying for the class of 2018. When you say "2k" does that mean 2 kilometers?

Crew is divided into heavyweight and lightweight. You sound like you have a good body type for lightweight rowing. There are more walk-ons/true rowing novices in the lightweight program at Navy than the heavyweight program (my incoming plebe year the lightweight crew program sent a mass mailing out, never figured out if it was to all incoming male plebes or just those over 6 feet tall). The idea of going to Navy's rowing camp (or getting involved in a local rowing program in your community -- many cities do have some youth rowing programs) to learn technique and see if you like it is a good one.
 
DS is the same build as you and was a cross country runner through high school and middle school. He decided he wanted a change of sport and my niece, a 2nd class who is in womens first boat, told him that crew was very cool and was easy to walk on. He soon dicovered that her info was right and wrong. Womens crew has far fewer walkons, recruits, and former experienced high school rowers than the mens team. The crew coach was glad to have him walk on as he was over six feet and about 165lbs. There were an abundance of recruited rowers there as well, his roommate is one of them. HE discovered that the 165 lbs body weight to be a real problem, he would have to either cut wieght to be on lightwieght crew, very hard to lose 10 lbs when when you don't have much body fat to start with and you are constantly doing pushups and situps, and he was just not tall enough or strong enough to compete with the guys close to 200 lbs or 6'3" and taller. He loved the guys and the sport but took the chance to switch to silent drill when one of the firsties recruited him after plebe summer. He is very happy with his choice but also very glad he took his shot at crew. Take your shot! The Academy is all about opening up your vision and looking at new things in different ways. Learn to do things the Navy way but always know that the Navy wants officers who can think creatively, be problem solvers, and are bold enough to beat the odds.:thumb:
 
If you read this and were like "crap.. i'm short and i have no chance..." dont believe what anyone says. anything is possible. I'm a plebe right now standing 5'6", the shortest rower here on the light weight team as a walk on. They wanted me to be a coxswain because of my height but they also wanted me to lose another 15 pounds since i weighed 145ish. So for plebe summer and the first 2 weeks of the academic year, i practiced as a coxswain. I knew i couldnt cut the weight so i asked our coach if i can participate in our 5k evaluation. I was able to beat out about a third of the actual rowers so he changed me to a rower. Although I'm not the best rower, they need some lighter rowers since the average weight has to be 155 in the spring. Anything can happen so dont give up hope
 
You can walk on just like any other sport

The marquee sports are not "any other sport" and walk-ons are virtually unheard of. I do not think crew is one of those marquee sports, however. Therefore, walk-ons are not that uncommon.

In the past, the crew coach has sent out invitations (via mail) to candidates with appointments encouraging them to consider trying out for crew once they get to the Naval Academy. He probably gets a list of all appointees taller than 6' and sends out the letters. :)

...be prepared to wake up before everybody else for morning workouts and when classes are over its back to the boathouse for afternoon workouts.

Like most sports at the Naval Academy, it can be very time consuming and it often conflicts with any attempt at academic excellence. Then again, it all depends what is important to you. If you can do the balancing act between academics and sports - that's a big plus. There are a lot of smart athletes with 2.8 GPAs who could easily have 3.3 GPAs if they didn't play their sport.
 
Ahhhh!

Lesson learned. I thought the Academy would have had the open door to their D1 sports like many colleges will allow. Thank you for the correction.

My DS asked the coach and B&G about being in the sport and studies. Much like you said, "if you can do the balancing act between academics and sports - that's a big plus." They also said that there is a very strong support system for the kids on these teams.

Good stuff, cheers!
 
I agree with Memphis, you have to make sure you don't lose sight of the forests for the trees. You main goal needs to be remaining academically sat.....in order to graduate. You can easily get involved in too many other things that your grades could suffer.

Many CANNOT sucessfully balance a varsity sport, academics and all of the other time demands one finds at the academy. Know where you need to place your priorities based on what all you are able to handle.
 
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