Rowing Scholarships: What is a weight-adjusted ERG score?

Weight-adjusted ERG Scores and Scholarships?

When rowing, speed is not everything, and power is very important.  Typically, larger, heavier rowers have the capability of producing more power.  On the water, a heavier person contributes to a boat that sits deeper in the water, which creates more drag.  Drag is a resistant force that the other rowers in the boat need to overcome.  The ERG has no way of adjusting for this weight difference, and a larger rower can seem to have more potential than their lighter peers.   So when evaluating ERG times, coaches will create a weight adjusted score, using a specific calculation.  Here is a link to the Concept II Weight Adjusted ERG Calculator.

So the real question is "How does the weight-adjusted ERG come into play in Rowing Scholarships?"

Coaches will evaluate the weight-to-power ratio for their recruits.  So for women, typically D1 coaches will look for weight adjusted scores below 7:00.

Here are some other great links about the topic:

Weight adjusted calculations for rowing

Weight adjusted ERG discussions

Weight adjusted Scholarship ERG discussion

Rowing Scholarships at DI, DII and DIII Schools:  A list

Rowing Scholarship Statistics

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