Average Height

Question
QUESTION: So i know lightweight rowing was invented to make rowing more accessable to average height people, but it seems to me that you still have to be extremely tall to row lightweight for a good school.  what is the average height of a lightweight for a upper-level school like Cornell or any of the ivy leagues?  would they consider taking someone who is only 5'7"?

ANSWER: Dear Jared,

In all of my experience as a rower and a coach I have yet to encounter any evidence that a good lightweight rower's height is related to how fast he/she pulls. Don't get me wrong, being tall helps your length of each stroke, but really it is all about the muscle mass/VO2 and lactic acid threshold of said athlete. Lightweight rowing only requires that you be under a certain weight (155 lbs for high school rowing in the USA), there is no height restriction, and because of this it is inevitable that there will be super tall people who suck down to weight. However for the most part the average height for a lightweight rower is between 5'7" - 5'10".

In the prime of my high school rowing days I pulled a 6:45 2000 meter piece. I was 145 lbs (flyweight) and 5'8". I had plenty of lightweight rowers on my team who were much taller then me, however I trained harder then them, and eventually got my reward by being contacted by most of the high level Ivy-League schools.

To answer your question, YES any rowing school would most definitively take someone who is 5'7" if your 2k score was exceptional. In fact, I have no qualms saying that they would take someone who is 5'3" if they pulled an amazing 2k. If you are interested in attracting the attention of the higher level schools, most (such as Harvard, and Princeton) have online recruiting forms on their athletics page that you can fill out. For any that don't, do not feel hesitant to send an email to the freshman crew coach detailing your athletic scores and achievements, along with your academics.

To be quite frank, in the sport of rowing the more you put into it, the more you will get out of it. To be an exceptional rower you have to push yourself beyond what you believe you could have done each and every practice. Also getting into a habit of doing 50-100 push ups/sit ups a night (before bed) is something that really helped my core/upper body strength in a remarkably short time. I wish you the best of luck, and encourage you to achieve excellence.

Sincerely,
Richard Izzo

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thanks! But that being said, what's a good way to increase your VO2 max?  I currently have a 6:55, and i'm hoping to have somewhere in the low 6:50's by february, but i feel right now that the only thing stopping me from achieving that may be my VO2 max/lactic acid threshold.  Is there any way i could significantly improve that in a month?

Answer
Dear Jared,

Using the Concept 2 VO2 Max Threshold calculator found at this URL (http://www.concept2.com/us/interactive/calculators/vo2max.asp), I have estimated that your VO2 max is about 69.31 (using 150 lbs as the weight limit). This is very good for a lightweight rower, but as with all things it could be better.

Every time you do an erg piece you build strength and increase your times just a tiny bit. What happens is when you break 7:00 on a 2k, it gets exponentially harder to decrease your time. This is inevitable, so as i mentioned before, you have to push yourself beyond what you believe you can do every single time. If you are in a club/school program right now you are undoubtedly erging almost 7 days a week right now. If you follow the advice of your coach and do the workouts as he prescribes pulling your hardest on most of them, it may be possible for you to drop those 5 or so seconds. Once again I would say to supplement these workouts with some home made body-circuits. Take pushups, situps, jumpies, squats, planks, and anything else you could think of and do a set of 20, followed by a short (maybe 1/8th mile) jog, before doing the next excersize in line. If you do this say 2-3 times a week for half an hour you will greatly supplement your existing workout.

If you are not part of a team, or you are not erging now, I would join a gym (with an erg of course) and follow the wolverine plan, which was a erging plan created by the U. of Michigan (http://www.concept2.com/forums/wolverine_plan.htm), it is difficult, yes, but if you follow it I can almost guarantee an score increase.

As I said before in my last message, what you put into your workouts is what you will be rewarded with, just showing up at practice is not enough, you need to want to be there and be willing to put yourself through the pain you are probably familiar with each and every workout. Erging is only one aspect of rowing, and it is impossible to measure how good a rower is based only on the erg only, "ergs don't float", just try and throw one in the water if you want to see it for yourself. If you have athletic accomplishments I would not be to worried in your position. Erging is great excersize, but nothing can beat the on the water experience and that is really why you do this, right?

Best of Luck,
Richard Izzo