Photo by Patrick Case on Pexels
Perhaps, when I have more energy, I’ll write more about the terrible business of children’s sports. Basically, it has become this enormous business that sucks time, energy, and money from everyone involved, and every year it becomes more and more expensive. The opposite of what I used to think of when I thought of children at play.
Thankfully, my daughter made the move from the cutthroat world of youth soccer to crew (rowing) for her freshman year of high school. Even though soccer had been fairly intense (even not being on a travel team), I really wasn’t prepared for what type of support crew was going to take and how much time the sport would ask of my daughter.
In crew, you have separate boys and girls teams that are then separated by novice and varsity levels. Within each level, you have groups of 8, 4, 2, and singles that row boats on rivers in races. Or rather regattas. To prepare for each all-day regatta, these young teens practice three hours each day, including Saturdays, and then race on Sunday.
All of those hours practicing cardio, strength workouts, practices out on our small local pond, and rowing sessions in the erg room (an indoor rowing room) are meant to prepare the teens for 8-10 minutes of maximum effort to race 2,000 meters down sparkling rivers.
I’ve learned a new language to understand this sport that has fully captured my daughter’s passion, including the aforementioned erg (short for ergometers, another name for the indoor rowing machine), coxswain (the small person at the stern or bow of the boat that steers the boat and shouts rhythm and encouragement to the team), crab (when you lose control of the oar), a regatta (boat race), the list goes on and on.
I’ve also learned to bring books and snacks to the regattas, which start for the rowers at the early hours of the morning and don’t wrap up until close to four in the afternoon. I’ve learned to bring cowbells to help cheer my daughter’s teams on. I’ve learned that despite our raucous yelling and vigorous cowbell swinging, my daughter lets us know that they can’t really hear us across the water, though they’re still buoyed by our cheering.
Since we can only sit in one spot on the long river, we don’t get to see the entire race. Usually, we’re only able to witness a few seconds of the boats slicing through the water as they race toward the finish line.
Still, even though it is only for the briefest of moments, watching my daughter pulling with all of her might in unison with her teammates so that they can fly their boat across the water fills my heart with the most expansive feeling of pride and joy.
As the end of this spring season wraps up, I suppose I am now officially a crew mother, and I could not be prouder of all that my daughter has accomplished.
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