Is this coach genuine or just trying to sell me on a membership?

SprintTriGuy

New Member
Ok, so in case I am about to make a fool of myself due to my ignorance of rowing, I'm not going to name names right now (like the club I recently went to) and sorry if some of my info is vague (to protect the innocent), but here goes:

So my wife was a lightweight rower in college and over the years she has been in grad school she has talked about how much she misses rowing. My For the last couple years I've thought about taking up rowing with her, as something to do / talk about / exercise / whatever. I thought it would be a good chance for me to take this year (her last year of grad school) to learn and then when she's done with her degree, and we relocate, we could row together or something since she will hopefully have time to come back to the sport.

So I go in to a local club and talk to a coach and shake hands with a few members, etc... Everybody is nice, they give me a quick show of the boat house and asked if I wanted to get on an ergo machine just to "try it out" and see how it feels since I've never been on one. He asked me "out of curiosity," if I wanted to try to row a 2k, I said sure, why not. I know that it is the standard test or whatever, just from knowledge of my wife talking about stuff years ago, so it wasn't a big deal for me, I more or less knew what I was getting myself into based on horror stories.

I get on the thing (I believe it was a Concept brand if that means anything) and he sets the little computer thing, tells me the basics on what to do and then lets me go at it. After I about kill myself on this thing, the computer tells me I'm done. The coach looked at my score startled (evidently a 6:32 is great for a first timer of my height and weight: 6'01" - 156 lbs).

The people there kinda seemed amazed like I was an alien or something. I told them that I was in pretty good shape, but even still, I have never used a rowing machine in my life. In high school I was a state wrestling champion at 152 pounds (in a very competitive state for wrestling), then in college, all conference NCAA at 157 pounds. Since undergrad, I have been competitively doing sprint triathlon (1/2 mile swim, 12 mile bike, 3 mile run). So it isn't that big of a shock (at least to me) that I can get a "good" time on a rowing machine since it's basically a test of your overall fitness and endurance, plus it's not like it's that hard, at least it felt about equivalent to running a mile on a slight uphill gradient.

Anyway, the point of why I made this account is that after that, the coach was super interested and behaved almost like a used car salesman (sorry if that's cliche or if that is what any of you forum members do for a living). He was kinda probing as to how interested I was, how serious I wanted to get, how many days a week I could practice, talking about membership rates, team dues, and lots of other stuff. He said stuff like "your build is perfect to be a champion lightweight." Even when I responded to his question about how serious I wanted to get with "I don't know, I'm pretty competitive, but I'm mainly interested in rowing to have more in common with my wife," he responded with "Well, don't make any plans yet for the summer of 2016," but he said it with a straight face, not as a joke or anything.

Now ok, this is why I made this account: is this guy just trying to sell me on this $1500 a year membership by blowing smoke up my butt? Is that a normal price for a club membership? That included stuff like coaching dues, team membership, weight room privileges, boat house maintenance, regatta expenses, etc... I don't have much to compare it too since my wife didn't have to pay for stuff, other than tuition for school anyway, and yeah they didn't have any of the prices on the club's website so I was kinda blindsided by the prices and then how they behaved all buddy buddy when I got off the rower. Was that just a tactic of: tire him out on the machine, butter him up by alluding that I shouldn't make plans for the 2016 Olympics, give him a Gatorade, and make the sale before he recovers all his electrolytes, haha?
 
Well, it seems you are naturally athletic and sporty - the coach will obviously be keen for you to join if you are naturally talented in the sport. Membership fees will vary but $1500 does seem rather expensive, compared to clubs I have been involved with. You could do a little research to figure out whether it is just a ploy to rip you off.
 
Well if there are less costly alernatives that deliver great quality and good service you may as well go in that direction. Your wife has some experience, she can guide you in the right direction. You could try asking other members if you can see any of them coming and going ut of there what their experience is like. But something tells me you're not comfortable with this coach.
 
It has been over a month since your post. It would be good if you could update us with your decision and what has happened since. Did you decide to join the club? I hope you have pursued your interest in rowing because it seems you are naturally talented.
 
$1500 does seem high, why don't you read reviews about the club online? I think the coach is getting his share of profits when he recruits somebody, at least that' how I feel from the way you have described things. It is also possible that he is a friend of founder of the club or is a member of the governing body, that would explain why he was trying so hard to sell the membership.
 
$1500 does seem high, why don't you read reviews about the club online? I think the coach is getting his share of profits when he recruits somebody, at least that' how I feel from the way you have described things. It is also possible that he is a friend of founder of the club or is a member of the governing body, that would explain why he was trying so hard to sell the membership.

Most of the rowing clubs in my area do not make a profit. The membership fees cover the costs of keeping the club running. It might be different where you live but rowing clubs where I live are virtually non-profit organisations. How much do you pay? i think anything over 600 dollars is far too expensive.
 
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