Day: April 10, 2014

College High School Q&A

Question of the Day

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Hello, so going into the spring racing season, I knew that I wanted to improve as much as possible etc etc (coming off an unsuccessful fall) but then I also knew that there are things that I need to do as a junior (such as college touring). There’s a fair sized regatta at the end of my April break, but that’s also the only time I’ll have until August to college tour. Also what if I get asked by college coaches why I’m not racing? I know this is mostly my decision, but could you help me out?

Ooh, that’s tough. Between crew, marching band, SATs/ACTs, and all the other stuff I had going on, I didn’t have time to start going on college visits until the late fall (read: November) of my senior year. I had already narrowed down the schools I wanted to visit to three so that made it easier but I didn’t go visit any of them until pretty late in the game. I would have liked to have started the process earlier but I don’t think it hurt in any way going when I did. If you end up having to wait until August I honestly don’t think you’ll be too far behind the curve as long as you’re not trying to look at like, eight or nine schools. There were several kids that came in the fall to look at Cornell who were in similar positions as you so if you end up having to wait til then I wouldn’t stress about it – there are plenty of other people doing the same thing.

If you decide to go at the end of April then it can easily be explained to any coaches that ask that this was the only available opportunity that you had to look at colleges until August and looking ahead to the fall you didn’t want to try to juggle the start of your senior year, getting back into the swing of training, filling out applications, etc. with trying to travel all over the country to look at schools. As long as the regatta you’d be missing isn’t a championship of some kind, I don’t think they’d look that closely at it. You have to weigh the pros/cons though and decide if this is a race that you can afford to miss. Obviously that’s something only you and your coach would know but it does require some thought and consideration.

Ultimately you should do whatever you think will make the whole process as smooth and stress-free as possible for you. Don’t try to balance traveling to visit schools with a million other things because you’ll just end up overwhelmed and distracted, which will take your focus off of why you’re really there.

Q&A Rowing

Question of the Day

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I’m starting to fall out of love with rowing and it scares me because I don’t know whether it’s because the sport is so stressful or it’s just because I’m not progressing, which is stupid, but I don’t know what to do because its been a huge investment for my family.

Are you not making any noticeable improvements because you’ve hit a plateau or because you’ve stopped trying? Be honest. If you’ve been doing the same types of training for awhile it might just be an issue of switching things up so that your muscles become un-bored. That’s what happens when you plateau – your muscles adapt to the training you’re doing to the point where they’re so used to your routine that they get bored and stop responding. If it’s because you’ve given up for whatever reason then you’ve got to make the decision for yourself whether or not you want to readjust your outlook and keep trying or if it’s no longer worth it to you and it’s time to move on. You should also consider whether or not you’re burned out. If you’ve been doing crew non-stop for a year or more then you’re probably just tired, mentally and physically, and that’s contributing to why you’re not progressing the way you want to be and why you feel like you’re just kinda over it. The solution to this is taking some time off, even that means just a couple days to start with. If you can, try to take the whole summer off from rowing and then once August rolls around, reevaluate how you’re feeling and go from there.

The investment that your family has made should be something you keep in mind because obviously that’s an important factor to consider but don’t base your decision off of that. You shouldn’t continue to do something just because you feel guilty over the amount of money, time, etc. that other people have put into it. If you’re genuinely not enjoying yourself anymore then that’s reason enough to take some time off. It’s OK to stop enjoying something you once loved doing but you’ve gotta be honest with yourself about it and recognize when you’ve reached that point. Talk to you coach and/or parents, tell them how you’re feeling, and get some feedback from them. See if you can negotiate a break with your coach so you can clear your head and reassess the situation. Sometimes looking at it from the other side when you’re not overwhelmed by a million different things can help you come to a decision.