College Rowing

Question of the Day

Is it unrealistic for someone who is 5’7 to row at a D1 school or would I be better off on the club level? I’m really interested in the challenge of rowing in college, I just don’t know if I’d physically be able to. I was just wondering since in your last answer you said the average person on your club team is 5’3-5’7.

Depends – are you a guy or a girl? If you’re a guy then you’re gonna be on the short side by several inches if you’re looking at pretty much any of the Sprints schools. If you’re a girl, you might still be on the shorter side but not so much that you’d be out of the running for any of the boats.

Height is just one factor when it comes to rowing (and it’s far from being the most important). If your erg times measure up to what college teams are looking for and you’ve got a solid rowing resume there’s no reason why you wouldn’t get an equal look when compared to someone who’s 6’0″. Plus, if you’re a lightweight that can work in your favor too when looking at colleges. Lightweight teams were in essence created specifically for shorter rowers – and by shorter I mean “average height” people, not the freakishly tall amazons that dominate most collegiate teams. Not a lot of teams have dedicated lightweight squads, so you’d have to do some research to find out what schools have them if that’s something you’re interested in.

Ultimately, I wouldn’t worry too much about your height. Your height isn’t something you have control over but how strong you are, your erg times, what you bring to the team … all of that is stuff you have control over. Focus on the variables you can change, not the ones you can’t.

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