"I'm not that great in singles and pairs, but I'm much better in big boats."
Or this one:
"I'm not very fast in the single, so I think I'll find a partner for the double and we'll really make some noise at the (insert championship regatta name here)"
By all means, if you enjoy rowing in the bigger team boats, you should take advantage of opportunities to do that. The greatness of team boats is apparent to all who have experienced them. Their virtues are numerous - cooperation, accountability to something larger than oneself, shared experience of victory (or just exhilaration) and so on. Doubles are sublime. Victorious eights are thrilling in a way that no other boat class can quite match. Quads and fours are fantastic. That being said, if you cannot row singles and pairs, you are not contributing optimally to the bigger boats you're in. The assumptions inherent in the two statements above amount to little more than common means of self-deception and guarantors of continued performance that is less than what you and your crew could be capable of.
The place where rowers and scullers get themselves into trouble is by engaging in the wishful thinking that it is possible to select or create a fast team boat full of people who row small boats poorly.
Scratch any world-class double and you'll find that it contains two world-class single scullers or something very close to that. You're just not going to find championship doubles composed of two athletes with big ergs who can't row singles well. Same for quads: in any quad race, bet on the boat that has the four best single scullers in it. Take apart any really fast eight and you'll find that the four component pairs are also pretty slick rowing the 2-. If you think that you and your doubles partner can be competitive with a double composed of two scullers who can defeat each of you by 10 seconds over 2k in singles, I'll cover all bets against that outcome. None of this is to say that if you are reasonably certain that you are not fast enough to win singles trials, you shouldn't take your shot in the 2X or 4X. It IS to say that you shouldn't be avoiding singles trials because you think you're "better" in the 2X (news flash - if you aren't fast enough to make the A/B semifinals in the single, you're not going to be in a double that wins trials), and it is also to say that the best path to optimizing your value to team boats at any level involves increasing your mastery of the single and/or the pair rather than continuing to row the vast majority of your kilometers in the bigger boats that mask your shortcomings. No one is better in the big boats. They're just better hidden.
"I'm not very fast in the single, so I think I'll find a partner for the double and we'll really make some noise at the (insert championship regatta name here)"
By all means, if you enjoy rowing in the bigger team boats, you should take advantage of opportunities to do that. The greatness of team boats is apparent to all who have experienced them. Their virtues are numerous - cooperation, accountability to something larger than oneself, shared experience of victory (or just exhilaration) and so on. Doubles are sublime. Victorious eights are thrilling in a way that no other boat class can quite match. Quads and fours are fantastic. That being said, if you cannot row singles and pairs, you are not contributing optimally to the bigger boats you're in. The assumptions inherent in the two statements above amount to little more than common means of self-deception and guarantors of continued performance that is less than what you and your crew could be capable of.
The place where rowers and scullers get themselves into trouble is by engaging in the wishful thinking that it is possible to select or create a fast team boat full of people who row small boats poorly.
Scratch any world-class double and you'll find that it contains two world-class single scullers or something very close to that. You're just not going to find championship doubles composed of two athletes with big ergs who can't row singles well. Same for quads: in any quad race, bet on the boat that has the four best single scullers in it. Take apart any really fast eight and you'll find that the four component pairs are also pretty slick rowing the 2-. If you think that you and your doubles partner can be competitive with a double composed of two scullers who can defeat each of you by 10 seconds over 2k in singles, I'll cover all bets against that outcome. None of this is to say that if you are reasonably certain that you are not fast enough to win singles trials, you shouldn't take your shot in the 2X or 4X. It IS to say that you shouldn't be avoiding singles trials because you think you're "better" in the 2X (news flash - if you aren't fast enough to make the A/B semifinals in the single, you're not going to be in a double that wins trials), and it is also to say that the best path to optimizing your value to team boats at any level involves increasing your mastery of the single and/or the pair rather than continuing to row the vast majority of your kilometers in the bigger boats that mask your shortcomings. No one is better in the big boats. They're just better hidden.
