Rowing or crew is a sport where four or eight athletes row a small racing boat, called a shell down a river in competition. My son rowed in college for Seattle Pacific University. He traveled to Philadelphia and rowed in a national race too. The women's team went to NCAA Nationals in Atlanta and did quite well.

Since Crew is not a common high school sport, most colleges recruit from the freshman class. The men are usually limited to a club team due to Title 9 limits (the schools have to have as many women athletes and scholarships as they have for men) This makes for many opportunities for women to get scholarships in rowing. Most get them for their sophomore year after rowing as freshman.

A good health club /gym usually has a device called an Ergo. It is a rowing exercise machine that calibrates how strong you are and how much endurance you have. You can post your scores to the colleges and get offers without ever getting in a boat.

Crew is a great way for women to maintain a fabulous figure. It can take hard work but the camaraderie is much stronger that a sport like basketball and soccer since all of the crew are required for every competition and practice. There is no riding the bench in Crew.

Here is a link to the Wiki about ergo machines. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indoor_rower

Read the whole article and you will see how you can use the machine to get a spot on a Crew.

Rowing is one of the best fitness exercises there is. It blows the doors off spinning on a stationary bike. If you have ever seen the movie with Meryl Streep called The River Wild, it opens with her rowing on the river in Cambridge/Brookline Massachusetts.

Check out your favorite colleges and see if they have a Crew. Tall women often do very well in Crew, so basketball players are a good fit.

You can continue to row for all of your life, especially if you live near a river or large body of water. You can row singles, doubles, fours and eights and in different weight classes, lightweights and open weight.

It would also be a good exercise for rehabing a concussion since you can work up to your maximum effort. The adrenaline rush can be amazing.

And, no risk of a concussion.