Rowing is not only one of the most physically and mentally challenging sports (as evidenced by
lactic acid buildup analysis), but
lightweight rowing adds another dimension of
masochism to the equation:
making weight.
I think
lightweights are a crucial element of
rowing, in that it gives the opportunity for
smaller people to compete on an
international scale, and the
sheer athleticism and guts that is required to row lightweight often
surpasses the heavies.
Lightweights must train harder and pay more attention to
technique than
heavyweights because they can't rely as much on
brute pulling
strength.
However, this sport encourages
eating disorders in a manner that I believe surpasses all other weight and appearance dependant sports (like wrestling, gymnastics). For one thing,
height is crucial to be a good
rower, because you can get that much more
reach and that much more
leverage. A rower is, at a basic level, a
simple machine-- a lever to push the
boat. Naturally shorter and
smaller people, despite athleticism, cannot succeed in rowing,
lightweight or otherwise. This means that to row, men must be above
6 feet and women above 5 foot 7, and still make it under 155/135 respectively.
Weight also has a very
palpable effect on
boat speed-- When I'm in the
boat with somebody who has
crashed 10 pounds, I can feel the speed
pick up. When
I crash 10 pounds, nearly 10% of my body weight, everybody else can feel the boat
pick up. Some of this is psychological. However,
normal crash dieting doesn't work for
rowing as it might work for other anaerobic activity, such as
wrestling. For rowing, one must sustain a very
high level of concentration and
mental focus on the mechanics of the
stroke and be able to
feel the other
rowers in order to maximize
efficiency. This might be
compromised by short term
crash dieting.
Which leads many lightweight rowers,
men and
women, to develop long term
eating disorders. There is also a
strange symbiotic relationship between eating disorders and rowing-- one cannot say that one causes the other or vice versa-- they're intertwined. For example, the main goal of
crew is mind over
body.
I can wake up at 4:30 every day. I can hurt for 10k this morning. I will row until I black out and then keep on fucking rowing. This is the attitude that makes a good
rower.
I don't have to eat today-- Eating compromises my success, and is weakness. This mental control over
physical pain and discomfort, seen as '
building character' often manifests itself into unhealthy
weight loss.
This is losing weight, starving yourself, throwing up, as an expression of
discipline, not as an expression of
low self-esteem. It's a thin line to
walk between
contradictions.
For a few years, I've been coxing
lightweight men. Most high school and collegiate
programs have eliminated the lightweight
women entirely because of societal pressures to not judge women by their weight-- which I believe completely
counterintuitive to its purpose by
assuming axiomatically that all women have
issues with weight, thus defeating the
purpose. It also removes the opportunity for smaller
women to row. Incedentally, the heavy women are not called
heavyweights, but '
Open'.
What I've seen in these years has truly astounded me. I've known
men living on
carrots and multivitamins for weeks while doing full
workouts every
day, I've known them to completely
cut out water two days before a
race (drink after weigh-ins). Some of them were anorexic with the added pressure of
performing physically in
national level
competitions. We (I had to make weight also) took
illegal diuretics (illegal by the IOC). Every time you see somebody doing
jumping jacks in a warm up suit in a
sauna, or see somebody rent
Braveheart,
Gladiator, and
Die Hard, put them on one after another in front of a
treadmill, and just
run...
This extra element of
masochism inherent in the sport of
rowing draws the members of a lightweight crew
together-- Not only must they make weight themselves, we have to make sure
everybody in the boat makes it to make the requirements for the
average wieght of the
crew. It's a sort of self-induced hazing, while extremely
dangerous, leads to 'together'
rowing.
Seen painted on a bridge at
Tampa training center:
Princeton Lightweights 2000: Half the fat, twice the flavor