Rowing is a sport which requires strength, endurance, balance, flexibility and coordination – plus mental focus to keep a crew in sync.

Rowing is a sport that uses all of the body’s major muscle groups; arms, legs, back, abs and buttocks. The power comes from the legs, while it takes core and upper body strength to transfer that power into the stroke. Therefore, in order to become a good rower, you need to exercise varied, from hard interval workouts to long low intensity sessions and heavy strength training. Examples of training types for rowers are therefore running, cycling, cross-country skiing, rowing machine and of course rowing in addition to some strength training with weights.

In rowing, there are two types of forms:

• In sweep or sweep-oar rowing, each rower has one oar, held with both hands. This is generally done in pairs, fours, and eights.
• In sculling each rower has two oars (or sculls), one in each hand. Sculling is usually done without a coxswain, in quads, doubles or singles.

You may have seen Olaf Tufte at the Olympics? Olaf Tufte Olympic Games Athens 2004

There are long-standing traditions eights-rowing in student environments. Most famous is the annual competition “The Boat Race” which runs between the universities of Oxford and Cambridge. This competition runs on the River Thames and are very popular. In 2010, it was estimated that there were 250,000 audience members by the river and millions watched it live on television, also in Norway the race is broadcast live on television. In Norway, the long traditions of student rowing in student sports have been taken up by the fact that student regattas usually take place in eights, this also applies to the annual student championships.

In recent years, Olaf Tufte has rowed boat types with two oars, this is called sculling. In NTNUI Rowing, we mostly deal with what is called one-year rowing (one year per row). Most of the time we row in eight, the largest and fastest boat type. Eight is a one-year boat type, but if you start in the rowing group there are still good opportunities to try the couple rowing as well. Here is a video of the Eight Final of the London 2012 Olympics: Eighth Final of the 2012 London Olympics.