Rowing and climbing

Yesterday, a Sunday, we had to get up barbarically early.

Mulan had signed up for a have-a-go rowing session with her school, and we had to be lakeside (Lake Pupuke) at 8:15am.  I went along with Mulan for the initial intro talk to parents, before leaving them to it.

But apparently this was a sleep-in for rowers.  If Mulan wants to continue with school rowing, the beginner "learn-to-row" winter training is three mornings a week, including a 6am start.  Over summer it's several training sessions a week and most days before school.

School rowing takes an all-or-nothing approach to activities.  At most, students may fit in a winter sport alongside rowing, but there's no way that they could do other activities over summer.  They boldly claimed to be the toughest sport training-wise, and said participants need excellent time-management skills.

Competitively, this makes them very successful, but I do wonder if it's healthy for teens to focus so much on one activity at the expense of a more well-rounded learning environment.  It's a shame they don't offer a slightly more part-time option.

Clearly, school rowing is not going to suit Mulan.  She'd likely have to give up most of her music (three instruments in two bands), dance (eight lessons per week), swimming (two lessons per week) and athletics (multi-events).

But nonetheless it was a fun morning for her and a great experience to try out the boats on the water.

When we asked Mulan if she'd like to sign up for more school rowing she said no -- she wants her morning sleep-ins.

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Today Miya and I went climbing as usual.  We videoed Miya on two new yellows: