Seasons of Rowing

Unlike many sports, rowing is a year-round activity with four distinct seasons. This can be a source of confusion to the uninitiated. A variety of competitions have evolved to fit the weather and training patterns of each season – each as much traditional as is practical.

SPRING – If there is a “main” rowing season, the spring "sprint" season is it. Practices start in February, but beginning in March crews throughout the rowing world compete in short-course races of distances between 1500 and 2000 meters. Sprint races range from dual competitions (between two teams) to races where six or eight crews square off simultaneously, depending upon the size of the course. The season culminates in league or regional championships in May and early June – regattas which bring together dozens of crews, all competing for a right to participate in the coveted national championship. Junior rowers usually have their regional regattas in May, and some will attend the "Nationals" (U.S. Rowing Junior Invitational Regatta) in Cincinnati in June. As you might expect, this schedule can cause quite a few conflicts with end-of-year school activities such as proms and even graduation ceremonies.

Spring races typically take between 5.5 to 6.5 minutes for the swiftest crews – hardly a “sprint” in the track and field sense of the word, but certainly exhausting. During the sprint races, athletes are pushed to their absolute limit by racing at cadences that can exceed 50 strokes-per-minute in the start and the final sprint.

SUMMER – The summer season finds clubs filled with collegiate and high school rowers searching for places to row, and a variety of summer regattas have been created to meet this need. Summer races generally follow the same 2000- meter format as spring races, although the world’s most famous and most prestigious regatta, the Henley Royal Regatta at Henley-on-Thames, England races of a course of one and five-sixteenth miles. Summer is also the season for a large number of master's regattas. Many masters rowers plan their summer vacations around these regatta schedules.

The summer season also features international competitions such as the Pan Am Games, the FISA World Championships (held each year in late August or early September), and the summer Olympic games every four years (both of which feature 2000 meter races).

FALL – Fall season offers a different sort of racing. The fall “head racing” season (from early September through mid-November) features much longer distances, including races ranging from between 2.5 and 4 miles (some even as much as 17 miles).

Besides being much longer than the Spring sprints, fall “head races” differ in a number of ways. “Head races" are run against the clock, with crews beginning the race in 15-second intervals. Under this format, a much larger number of crews can race at once. The race courses usually feature turns which gives coxswains a chance to show off their skills (or lack thereof). Since crews are paced only a few lengths apart, fall racing offers the opportunity for a trailing crew to overtake and pass a slower crew – as exciting for the challenger as it is depressing for the challenged.

WINTER – As rivers freeze in the northern regions and weather becomes too miserable to row outdoors, crews turn to indoor training to stay in shape and prepare for the spring season. The most common training tool is the Ergometer, which is an indoor rowing machine that helps measure and improve a rower’s strength and stamina. The Winter season culminates in the 2000 meter erg competitions held regionally (often called "Ergomania",and culminating in the U.S. in the "Crash-B Sprints" held in Boston every February.
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(Editor’s Note: This article was created by combining a variety of sources, the origins of which have unfortunately been lost).