Rowing, sometimes referred to as crew in the United States, is a sport whose origins reach back to Ancient Egyptian times. It involves propelling a boat (racing shell) on water using oars. By pushing against the water with an oar, a force is generated to move the boat. The sport can be either recreational for enjoyment or fitness, or competitive, when athletes race against each other in boats. There are a number of different boat classes in which athletes compete, ranging from an individual shell (called a single scull) to an eight-person shell with a coxswain (called a coxed eight).
The rowing stroke may be characterized by two fundamental reference points. The catch, which is placement of the oar blade in the water, and the extraction, also known as the finish or release, when the rower removes the oar blade from the water. The action between catch and release is the first phase of the stroke that propels the boat.
At the catch the rower places the blade in the water and applies pressure to the oar by pushing the seat toward the bow of the boat by extending the legs, thus pushing the boat through the water. The point of placement of the blade in the water is a relatively fixed point about which the oar serves as a lever to propel the boat. As the rower's legs approach full extension, the rower pivots the torso toward the bow of the boat and then finally pulls the arms towards his or her chest. The hands meet the chest right above the diaphragm.
At the end of the stroke, with the blade still in the water, the hands drop slightly to unload the oar so that spring energy stored in the bend of the oar gets transferred to the boat, which eases removing the oar from the water and minimizes energy wasted on lifting water above the surface (splashing).
The recovery phase follows the drive. The recovery starts with the extraction and involves coordinating the body movements with the goal to move the oar back to the catch position. In extraction, the rower pushes down on the oar handle to quickly lift the blade from the water and rapidly rotates the oar so that the blade is parallel to the water. This process is sometimes referred to as feathering the blade. Simultaneously, the rower pushes the oar handle away from the chest. The blade emerges from the water square and feathers immediately once clear of the water. After feathering and extending the arms, the rower pivots the body forward. Once the hands are past the knees, the rower compresses the legs which moves the seat towards the stern of the boat. The leg compression occurs relatively slowly compared to the rest of the stroke, which affords the rower a moment to recover, and allows the boat to glide through the water. The gliding of the boat through the water during recovery is often called run.
As men's rowing is not sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association, the de facto national championship of Division I men's rowing is the Intercollegiate Rowing Association (IRA) Championships. Despite the IRA having a points system, the National Champion is generally considered to be the winner of the Varsity 8+ race. The Dad Vail Regatta is considered the national championship for second-tier schools. These include top club teams such as Virginia and Michigan as well as lower level varsity programs such as Hobart and St. Joseph's University. Other club programs and all programs outside the NCAA/IRA structure compete at the ACRA National Championship Regatta.
NCAA women's rowing is divided into three divisions with an official NCAA championship:
NCAA Division I Rowing Championship
NCAA Division II Rowing Championship
NCAA Division III Rowing Championship
Women rowers compete at the NCAA Division I Rowing Championship in a Varsity 8, a Second Varsity 8, and a Varsity Four. Most teams also field one or more Novice Eights for novice rowers who have never competed at the collegiate level. Points are awarded for the overall championship based on the performance of those boats. Other head races and regattas such as Head of the Charles or the Pac-12 Championships allow a wide variety of competition in less-prominent boat classifications such as pair, sculls, and lightweight racing.
1852 Yale challenges Harvard to a rowing race and the first Harvard-Yale Boat Race is held. This is also the first intercollegiate event held in the United States. Since 1864 this race has been held annually and since 1878, with few exceptions, it has been raced on the Thames River in New London, Connecticut.A
1864 Rowing became the first organized sport at Rutgers. Six-mile races were held on the Raritan River among six-oared boats.
1870 The Rowing Association of American Colleges was established by Bowdoin, Brown and Harvard Universities and Massachusetts Agricultural College, now known as the University of Massachusetts Amherst. The first regatta was held on July 21, 1871, at Ingleside, Massachusetts, on the Connecticut River. This can be considered to be the very first collegiate athletic organization in the country and devised a primary rule of eligibility: that only undergraduate students should be eligible to represent their college in the regatta—a rule which remains in the NCAA to this day
1870 Rutgers held its first intercollegiate competition on the Raritan River against the Lawrence Scientific School of Harvard, the then top-ranked amateur crew of the time. The distance of the course was three miles.
1875 Wellesley College established the first women's rowing program.
1891 The Intercollegiate Rowing Association was founded by Cornell, Columbia, and Pennsylvania: its first annual regatta was hosted on June 24, 1895. Today Navy and Syracuse are also members of the association. Cornell dominates the early regattas winning 14 of the first 23 varsity 8 races.
1916 Lightweight rowing was first introduced at the University of Pennsylvania.
1971 Collegiate women begin competing in the eight-oared boat (8+) at the National Women's Rowing Association (NWRA) Championship (collegiate and non-collegiate).
1980 The first Women's National Collegiate Rowing Championship is held at Oak Ridge, Tennessee, sponsored by the National Women's Rowing Association (NWRA).