What is Rowing?

What is Rowing?

Rowing is a sport with 3 basic elements, the boat, oars and your strength. 

The boat is very skinny with riggers on the side that hold the oars. There are built in feet and sliding seats (on a slide) so you can apply maximum force. The oars are thin pieces of carbon fiber with a blade on the end. They are locked into the gate on the rigger to ensure they don't fall out. Your strength is the most important element, the majority of the power comes from your legs and the rest comes from your arms. 

Anyone can row, all ages and abilities. Around the world there are rowing events for everyone from juniors to masters (over 27). Rowing can be done at a beginner level or an elite level as far as the Olympics.

Here is a link to an Australian YouTube further explaining what rowing is.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9b5VY9XZzo

Here is another link to a similar blog explaining rowing

http://www.rowingrelated.com/

There is two types of rowing sweep and sculling:

Example of a four (four people, one oar each)

Sweep Rowing: Sweep rowing is when you use one oar, you always have crew members when sweep rowing. The grip handle of a sweep oar is longer so you can place both hands on it. The boats that use sweep oar are a pair (two people, one oar each), a four (four people, one oar each) and an eight (eight people, one oar each). 

Example of quad (four people, one oar each)

Sculling: Sculling is when you use two oars, you can have crew members of row by yourself. The grip handle of a sculling oar is thinner as you only place one had on each oar. The boats that you can scull in are a single (one person, two oars each), a double (two people, two oars each) and a quad (four people, two oars each).