The Student Room Group

sport- feeling overlooked and upset as an athlete

Hi, I am a rower, and i row pretty much everyday for my club, im currently in year 12. I have been struggling mentally with rowing for the past year and a few months. I have suffered a couple overuse injuries which led to a month or 2 of cross training and rehab. Last season was my first ever prpoer injury and my age grou squad is very small as it is, and i missed out on being selected for the top crews, if any crews in the summer. My crew members who did make the crew actually went on to win a few national medals too. I felt really upset and jelous then, but thought i should stick it out and hoped that this season would be better. spoiler alert, it wast. I got another injury again this season, and i also missed out on selection , and recentl i had the worst race of my life in a single as i had no crew, and this really knocked my confidence, which was already really low from the past years expereince in rowing. In about a months time is a massive race which i had been told all season (and this kept me positive and resilient when i was feeling down) that i would be able to seat race to get into this crew. However i have now only just found out that the year below me are just going to enter the race in my age category and race without me even being an option for this crew. Im watching so many people in my squad win medals, all the way from local medals to national champions and i have not won ever. But the thing is, i work REALLY hard, potentially the hardest in the whole club, yet i get nothing out of it, even some people who dont work hard win, and i am so upset over this. For British Championships this year, i am actually going to be in a crew, however im just in this crew to fill up the numbers for the top rowers to do a different event so they can win it. but the thing is, if they were in the crew with me, we could possibly win a medal, and that would make me over the moon, especially as i have never won anything, but these athleted are just medal hunting for more medals for the club, yet these are the ahletes that have already won LOADS o fmedals (they have medalled at every national event this season) and a this point it just seems eally unfair that they get everything and everything gets taken away from me. I really dont know what to do, whether to stick it out for another season or just quit. I know im not getting what i deserve and i constantly am upset by rowing and cry on the daily about it. However, as much as i am jelous of my winning squadmates, i do love them and i enjoy training with them (when there not in a cre without me) and i dont know if i can face quitting, but at the same time i dont think i can face another season of depression and feeling overlooked and treated unfairly. anyone got any advice i would really appreciate it to help put my mind at ease. Thankyou
Reply 1
Original post by ippleboz
Hi, I am a rower, and i row pretty much everyday for my club, im currently in year 12. I have been struggling mentally with rowing for the past year and a few months. I have suffered a couple overuse injuries which led to a month or 2 of cross training and rehab. Last season was my first ever prpoer injury and my age grou squad is very small as it is, and i missed out on being selected for the top crews, if any crews in the summer. My crew members who did make the crew actually went on to win a few national medals too. I felt really upset and jelous then, but thought i should stick it out and hoped that this season would be better. spoiler alert, it wast. I got another injury again this season, and i also missed out on selection , and recentl i had the worst race of my life in a single as i had no crew, and this really knocked my confidence, which was already really low from the past years expereince in rowing. In about a months time is a massive race which i had been told all season (and this kept me positive and resilient when i was feeling down) that i would be able to seat race to get into this crew. However i have now only just found out that the year below me are just going to enter the race in my age category and race without me even being an option for this crew. Im watching so many people in my squad win medals, all the way from local medals to national champions and i have not won ever. But the thing is, i work REALLY hard, potentially the hardest in the whole club, yet i get nothing out of it, even some people who dont work hard win, and i am so upset over this. For British Championships this year, i am actually going to be in a crew, however im just in this crew to fill up the numbers for the top rowers to do a different event so they can win it. but the thing is, if they were in the crew with me, we could possibly win a medal, and that would make me over the moon, especially as i have never won anything, but these athleted are just medal hunting for more medals for the club, yet these are the ahletes that have already won LOADS o fmedals (they have medalled at every national event this season) and a this point it just seems eally unfair that they get everything and everything gets taken away from me. I really dont know what to do, whether to stick it out for another season or just quit. I know im not getting what i deserve and i constantly am upset by rowing and cry on the daily about it. However, as much as i am jelous of my winning squadmates, i do love them and i enjoy training with them (when there not in a cre without me) and i dont know if i can face quitting, but at the same time i dont think i can face another season of depression and feeling overlooked and treated unfairly. anyone got any advice i would really appreciate it to help put my mind at ease. Thankyou


Have you spoken to your coaches about why you are not making selection? There may be a perfectly valid reason and something you can fix in order to be selected in the future. Unfortunately sport at high level isn’t always « fair » Hard work will go a long way but natural talent will make a difference, and time off for injury can be a big set back. All the time that you are getting over your injury and easing back into training the others have been working full out and perfecting their technique as a team.
It can be heart breaking, but with a sport such as rowing as long as you stay injury free you can make up for lost time. So it’s up to you, either you say that you’ve had enough or you work through the deception giving it your all and maybe getting payback sometime in the future.
Reply 2
Hi, thanks for your reply. I have spoken to my coach about my frustration of not being selected or even considered, and my coach basically said I wasn’t good enough and that my technique hasn’t improved this season- I have worked really hard on my technique and also really hard physically to get fitter, however I am constantly coaching myself because the coaches dedicate all their time on the top crew so I never know if I’m doing the technique right or not, so it is a massive struggle for Me. I’m feeling really overlooked and upset atm and I’m not sure I should stick at it for another year even though I love many elements of it

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