How do you get middle school-age students interested in the sport of rowing?
If you’re the Shaker crew team, you offer a free, week-long introductory program.
In its second year since being offered as a free program (there was a fee associated with it in the past), the program attracted 18 students in sixth, seventh and eighth grade to learn the basics at the Shaker boathouse on the Hudson River in downtown Albany. The students worked on how to hold the oar, rowing motion and moving as a cohesive group with head coach Dylan Hartwick and members of the crew team.
Hartwick said what he likes about offering the learn-to-row program is how it gives younger athletes a chance to learn a sport they can compete in long after they graduate high school.
“For me, I think it’s the idea of having a lifetime sport they can carry through high school, college and beyond,” said Hartwick. “Most areas of the country have at least one adult (rowing) club where you can come, sign up and get in the water.”
Sixth grader Ruby Slyer said she wanted to try rowing because it was something new she could do in the water.
“Well, I like swimming, and I like trying new things. I’ve never done this before,” said Slyer.
The most difficult aspect of teaching the younger students how to row tends to be deciphering the language of the sport, according to junior Jeffrey Endler – one of the veteran rowers with the Shaker crew team.
“Putting terms into understandable words … I have to think about it because doing it for three years, it becomes second nature to me,” said Endler.
The program worked well in its first year. Out of nine students who signed up, six joined the Shaker crew team for the 2014-15 season.
Hartwick said it’s the concept of pulling together as a single unit that makes rowing attractive to young athletes.
“There’s a lot of team building involved in it,” said Hartwick. “It’s really great to see kids coming together.”
That fact isn’t lost on a novice like Ruby Slyer.
“You have to row at the same time to make sure the boat doesn’t tip,” she said.