Rowing , Its Not Just For The Olympics Its For Life (Rowing)

Member Name: DudeGlove

Product:	Rowing
Date:	30/04/01 (145 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Anyone can do it

Disadvantages: Blisters ! Oh the pain!!!

I've just read the majority of the articles in this category and it seems to be that very very few of them know what they are talking about. All of this category has been taken up by the hype surrounding Steven Redgrave and his coxless four at the Olypics in 2000 all of them completely purile . Sure enouh the man is a living legend and deserves to march proudly and smugly with his medals , and be knighted for being such a symbol of pride to the English Nation. But why do so few people address the sport itself. I will now attempt to try and describe this sport.

Rowing is a fairly simple sport , if you go right down to the basic level , its just a bunch of men (or women) pulling sticks. But its so much more than that . There are two types of rowing , the conventional "sweep" rowing with one "oar" or "blade" as they are referred to (there are two types of blade called "spoons" and "cleavers" depending on their shape) and the more skillful second type called sculling in which you have two shorter blades and you can be in a boat by yourself if you want to .

Boats are different shapes and sizes , you can have a scull (one seat) pair (two seats) , double (double scull) , four (coxed or coxless) , quad scull (coxed or coxless) and an eight which has to be coxed otherwise you end up going everywhere in the river. Octosculls do exist but they are far too expensive and unfeasible.
Coxes are steerers of the boat and are usually migdets weighing less than 6 stone any more and they slow the boat down.

All these technicalities may seem boring but the main thing about rowing is that its a social sport . Obviously there are races or "regattas" and "heads" but the main thing is that there is no viscious sportsmanship and everyone has a good time. The only thing that is bad about this sport is that its usually freezing in the river and after the first week of rowing , you will g
et countless amounts of incredibly painful blisters all over your hands . Persevere and you hands become like leather and you no longer fear pain.

The beauty of rowing is that anyone can do it , its so ridiculously simple and from any age too. Small 7 year olds in sculls go up and down the river as do old age pensioners going for a relaxing row , reminiscing about the old days of school regattas. Myself , i enjoy it though i could be much better , technique is very important to the sport as is timing . Get both of them wrong and you could end up in the drink.

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