Rowers. You’ve probably seen them around Town Lake. From an outside perspective, the sport can seem deceptively simple – a slog of an exercise consisting of a single, repetitive motion. I had a similar perspective before I had started rowing myself.  So you might be wondering – why row? What motivates people to do it?

For one, the camaraderie of rowing is a benefit all to its own. When you’re sloughing through a two hour session of rowing that just isn’t turning out right, or languishing in the heat, nervous and waiting for your next race at a regatta, it’s your fellow rowers that are by your side, and get you through. On that inevitable day where the boat flips and a rower is sent plunging into the water, their teammates will be there to fish them out and stop that boat from capsizing. When a rower is struggling with a workout on a rowing machine, their teammates are right behind them, expressing encouragement in a flurry of shouts. Over the time that I’ve been rowing here in Austin, the friends that I’ve made on my team have made even the most gruelling tasks seem doable. They’ve motivated me to push my limits.  When you row on a team, you struggle with your friends and you thrive with them.

Rowing is all about personal and group achievement. It’s about rowing fast – both faster than those other teams at the races, and faster than yourself. As author Daniel James Brown said about the sport, “It’s not a question of whether you will hurt, or of how much you will hurt; it’s a question of what you will do, and how well you will do it, while pain has her wanton way with you.”   When you sit down on a rowing machine to see if you can beat your personal best time -usually on an Olympic standard 2000 meter race – it’s all about setting a goal, and achieving it. It’s going to hurt no matter what, and chances are, if you’re beating your best time, it’s going to hurt a whole lot. But rowing will quickly teach you how to manage that pain, and how to break through those barriers to achieve your goals. Being able to do this isn’t just important in the sport, it’s important in life.  

At the end of the day, though, rowing boils down to just two things – getting in shape and having fun. It’s a strenuous sport, but the results are well worth it. When you’re in a boat that’s just gliding it doesn’t really matter how hard you’ve worked to get there. If rowing is at all something that interests you, I recommend you give it a try.  Taking a boat out onto the water for a long, slow evening row is an experience all to itself.   There are a number of rowing clubs down Ladybird Lake. As a member of Texas Rowing Center, I’m of the firm opinion that it’s one of the best clubs in town – the coaches are great, we’ve got plenty of boats, and the team spirit is ever-present.