We get a lot of questions about the recruiting benefits of institutional (short term) rowing camps. In other sports, attending an institution’s camp is one way to gain recruiting interest. However, in rowing this is not generally the case given we are an objectively evaluated sport based on 2,000m ergometer scores. We also receive a lot of question about longer term, more competitive camps, which can have some benefits. This article will attempt to explore the intricacies of rowing camps only as they pertain to recruiting.
First, it's important to understand that there are essentially three levels of rowing camps:
1. Collegiate/Institutional Camps
- Under a Week
- Larger groups averaging 2-3 seasons of experience
- Good for: Education & Inspiration
2. Intermediate Skills Camps (may involve racing)
- Generally 2-4 weeks, but can be shorter with more intensity.
- Smaller groups averaging 3-5 seasons of experience
- Good for: Technical Improvement, Education & Inspiration
3. Advanced Skills Camps (may involve international racing)
- Longer in duration with more intensive coaching and goals
- Smaller groups averaging 3-8 seasons of experience
- Good for: Physiological Improvement,Technical Improvement, & Education & Inspiration
Attending a short collegiate rowing camp will, generally speaking, not benefit a rowing or coxswain recruit’s chances at the institution. We spoke with one Ivy coach who claimed that in over fifteen years at his (NCAA Division I tier-A) institution, he had never recruited any of the hundreds of boys at their rowing camp. Of course, if a student is already talented enough to be recruited, the student will be recruited on the basis of their erg score and academics regardless of whether they attend the camp.
There are benefits to collegiate camps, no doubt. Sparks runs a few of them with a multitude of coaches from inside the Sparks collegiate camp network and outside of it, including former national team coaches. Collegiate camps work well to educate, inspire, and provide perspective to "younger" (9th and 10th grade) rowing athletes. They are an excellent way to get a sense of an institution, its coaching staff, and the other coaches at the camp. They can provide valuable tools for kids to apply in the next season at their school or club. But, in and of themselves, five day camps will not A) lower a 2K score, B) result in ingrained technical benefit (Sparks enables coaches to provide video feedback such that kids can take home coaching to ingrain) or C) result in recruiting.
With that in mind, there is a more serious group of junior rowing camps that tends to see a greater amount of campers in the recruiting process. These are longer camps that generally involve intense training, selection, and/or racing - competition is a must, regardless of whether that is relative to other athletes and/or one's self. That said: the erg remains primary. One Ivy recruiter we spoke with says "it definitely shows a greater level of commitment than a collegiate camp, but it's going to come back to their erg - which they may not be working on if they're focused on summer racing."
After collegiate recruiters evaluate erg score and academics to be within envelope for their programs and institutions, they then begin to guage whether they can trust recruits to retain over four years of up to twenty hours a week of a much higher intensity level of the sport than high school rowing. Camps have become supplementary to evidencing engagement and supplementing rowing IQ, which most recruiters agree is a positive indicator of an athlete's ability to grow into collegiate rowing.
The options for these camps range, and different levels of serious camps have begun to emerge between two week options as a stepping stone between collegiate/week long camps and the most serious 4-6 week programs.
It's important to address the USRowing junior camp system specifically given we get the greatest number of questions about it. USRowing's Olympic Development Program camps attract a wide variety of talent levels. An extremely large number of athletes are recruited into USRowing summer camps. There are three camps varying in selectivity. The camps as a whole are known as the Olympic Development Program. This number had varied significantly over the previous years, but has generally divided into three tiers - Youth Development, which is a generally non-selective larger camp and Development, which is a much smaller and more selective mid-tier camp meant to prepare athletes for Selection, which is the authentic junior national team camp.
USRowing's "Selection" camp feeds to the Junior Worlds Championships and CanAmEx, and is an elite entity. It probably makes the largest difference in recruiting prospects of any camp available for juniors, but also comes with the harshest admissions standards. It is important to take into account this camp can and does take rising collegiate freshmen who are already committed as well.
Other advanced options for rowers can range from summer programs with camps like ReadySetRow to the Sparks four week program in New Zealand. Advanced options for coxswains are extremely selective - out of 130 coxswain slots in its overall camp system, Sparks offers 12 advanced coxing camp slots in London and Amsterdam. These camps can vary in culture, but are usually dedicated to rising high school juniors and seniors and should be utilized based on their goals and athletes' needs (better 2K, better racing intelligence, better coxing skills, etc.)
The camp options that do include longer training cycles often do facilitate faster 2Ks and experience that interests college recruiters. Sometimes this experience is related to training intensity and types of training employed while for others it is manifested in race results. Regardless of the type of longer camp, the ideal recruit learns what upper-end training in the sport is like and begins to understand the discipline, maturity, and challenge of training on the collegiate level.
Finally, it's important to say that merely going to these longer camps is not enough – every recruit is evaluated on a case by case basis regardless of whether they’re coming from. Ultimately, in a point we’ve made many times before, recruiting comes down to A) how the athlete utilizes the camp experience itself and B) how they present the experience to college recruiters. The hard part isn’t getting “ID’d” by going to one of these camps. The hard part is being able to demonstrate an appropriate 2K and a greater ability and depth of understanding of the sport to recruiters – however, athletes at these longer camps undeniably have a better chance to do so than those who only row during the school year.
Regatta results from camp are a secondary indicator of recruit quality but are not as foundational a factor as erg, character, or thoughtfulness for most coaches who are seeking athletes who have the potential to develop in the future.
Ultimately, attending rowing camp should provide perspective regardless of where you go. But it’s up to the student to make it mean something, regardless of race results.
