Through the years I’ve thought about this sliding doors moment and wondered, what if I had biked over that morning just to find out? Could I have been a collegiate athlete? Last year I heard that my son’s high school had a very competitive rowing program, and I urged him to learn more. I must have been truly annoying in that way that mothers of teenagers so easily are, because in exasperation he moaned, “If you like rowing so much, why don’t you do it?”
Why don’t I? I wondered. And that day in early spring I registered for the Learn to Row class coming up in just a few weeks. The rest is, well, history.
I’ve been out on the actual Chicago River for these sessions just a handful of times, but each time it’s exhilarating. The coaches and my teammates have been so patient and kind. I’m so new; I have so much to learn. I make different mistakes and find some small measures of success each time, but I really enjoy all of it.
One aspect of the process that I find most challenging is my grip. The first time we were out on the river for real, I held the oars so tightly I had giant blisters on my thumbs. I covered them with band-aids and tape, which I tore off almost immediately the next week when I still bore down so hard with each stroke.
I turned to the Internet for advice on gloves, which some of my teammates wore, and found in Reddit rowing forums that gloves were not recommended by experienced rowers. Instead, the forums chorused, grip more lightly, using one hand to turn the oar into position and back, and both hands to pull through the stroke. That ‘light touch’ seemed to be the key, and the next week, I focused on this small tweak. My hands felt much better.
During that session, I had a flashback to decades before when I went to golf school at Pine Needles Golf Club in South Carolina. My favorite putting coach, Louis “Sweet Lou” Elder, would always tease me about my grip. “You’re tight as tree bark!” he laughed as he playfully tugged on my putter. “Nobody’s going to take it from you! You can’t swing when you grip so hard. Hold it like it’s a baby bird. Gentle.”
Those words echoed in my mind as I sat in the tank listening to my rowing coach; When I held on too tight, I could hardly move. When I loosened up, my entire form changed for the better.