Greg Kamp explains the sport of crew, also known as rowing

So many times when we discuss youth sports the attention is given to the more traditional sports like baseball, soccer, hockey, lacrosse and basketball. Over the course of the last year, we've discussed non-traditional sports for kids like fencing, synchronized figure skating, swimming and more. We've discovered that snowboarding is a pretty big deal in our region as is volleyball. In fact, our area has become a very highly recruited region when colleges are looking for volleyball players. Ask Penn State, who seems to have a pipeline from Rochester directly to the campus. However, as we are moving into the spring sports season, which of course will stretch into summer and fall, one sport has been coming up with the youth that I talk with and it is crew — in other words, rowing.

The Rochester region is graced with natural resources like the Genesee River and the Erie Canal. It is not odd to see the men's and women's crew teams from the University of Rochester out on the river practicing and competing. Many of the high schools have crew teams and are training many months ahead of the actual competition season. Of course, right now our ice-jammed waterways prohibit this training, but with indoor rowing machines, weight training and conditioning taking place in schools everywhere, it's clear that these kids are just as serious about their sport as the kids who participate in other sports. We even have clubs where kids can train in the summer and get ready for the season.

However, before we can discuss this sport in detail, we truly need to take an English course. In speaking with the true leaders of the sport, I learned that the term crew is commonly misused. Using the word crew as a noun can refer to either the people in a specific high school or collegiate rowing boat or the entire sport of rowing in high school or college. Saying crew team is redundant and is not used properly. After college, the term crew is no longer used to describe the sport or people in a boat, and rowing team or rowing club is proper. Why? Hey, I have no idea and it seems not even the experts know why. In the sport of rowing, crew is never properly used as a verb. One does not go crewing, rather one would go rowing.

OK, so now that we've settled that issue, let's get to the sport. Rowing is a sport in which the athletes compete against each other racing in watercrafts called shells. The shells are propelled in the water using human energy as the team pushes and pulls the oars in unison. Physical fitness plays a huge role in the sport and it is not for the faint of heart. Rowing is one of the oldest sports and is one of the primary Olympic sports.

Much like boxing and wrestling, there are different weight classes in the sport and competition is tied directly to those weight classes. While the entire team is vitally important in the sport, the coxswain is the member who sits up front, steers, and coordinates the power and rhythm of the rowers by communicating through a device called a cox box and speakers. Traditionally, we've seen in movies the coxswain yelling, “stroke, stroke” to keep the team together.

So next time you drive over the canal bridge by the river, think of warm breezes, sunny skies and your kids learning a new, healthy and exciting sport. Have them give it a try.

Greg Kamp is a 23-year veteran of youth sports as a coach and administrator and is currently the President of Penfield Little League and sits on the board at the District level. He is the host of Youth Sports Now, a weekly radio show on WYSL-AM/FM and also runs Strategy First, his own public relations and marketing business.