When the T.C. Williams High School Crew first took to the Potomac River in 1947, there were only a handful of teams in the area. Today, there are 33 teams and several thousand student athletes.
Likewise, competition has gotten steeper, requiring T.C. Williams high-school athletes to do more than just train on the erg in the winter months. But with limited space at the Alexandria, Va., high school, coaches turned to nearby CrossFit Oldtown.
“So the biggest things we’re looking for is better leg development, lower-back development and being able to move with the high-rate met-cons we do here in CrossFit,” T.C. Williams coach Pete Stramese says. “That’s going to carry over pretty well in the high-school racing season. Our races are only about four minutes long.”
CrossFit, he adds, teaches the teenagers to push through challenges, both physically and mentally.
T.C. Williams rower Chris Porter says he can carry the “get-it-over-with intensity” attitude from CrossFit to other workouts—“be it a run or on the erg or weights or anything,” he says.
Video by Mike Koslap.
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Additional reading: From Rowing Indoors to Rowing on the Water by Judy Geer, published July 1, 2007.