When you look up rowing camps online, the vast majority of them are in the United States. This is in part due to America's overwhelming love of summer camps and in part due to the rowing community capitalizing upon this so rowers can keep training during the summer (and coaches can keep getting paid). However, America is not the only country that has rowing nor the only country with great summer rowing opportunities. While you may love your home club and enjoy traveling without the assistance of a passport, we would like to suggest expanding your horizons (rowing and otherwise) and seeing what else the world of rowing has to offer.
Here are a few reasons of our reasons to train abroad:
A new perspective on the sport.
Every country approaches the sport of rowing a little differently. In America we have a vast collegiate system where essentially each coach has his or her own philosophy they implement. On the opposite side of the globe, New Zealand Rowing requires specific training for all coaches to keep everyone on the same page. When you row in a different country you gain new insight on how to approach the sport. Simply having a foreign coach and talking to the other rowers can be enough to broaden your views.
A new perspective on life
We live in a globalized world. We have near constant access to people all over the world. But there is only so much you can learn from looking at a screen. Going abroad opens your eyes to how life is elsewhere. You don't have to go so a small village in the middle of a third world country to have greater insight, simply spending time in a foreign country helps.
Learn a new language
Whether it's learning conversational Italian or understanding why Australians wear thongs on their feet (hint: it's what they call flip-flops), being in another country forces you to adopt a new lingo that you can bring back to show off to your friends.
It's fun
At the end of the day, we want to enjoy ourselves. If you are going to be training hard and pushing yourself to new limits (or just doing some technical work), why not do it in a beautiful location most people only dream of visiting? There are intensive training camps, like the one run the company that manages this blog has, and there are casual rowing tourism trips. Depending on your goals, there are options for you.
When looking at rowing camps outside of the US, there are not many options. However, you don't have to limit yourself to just camps. There are clubs worldwide who would be happy to host a foreign rower for a few weeks to a few months. While this may be scary for junior rowers, it could be a great adventure for masters rowers looking to mix things up.
