Lightweight Rules

MSRA and SRAA Men’s Weight Maximum: 150 lbs. (no averaging)

MSRA and SRAA Women’s Weight Maximum: 130 lbs. (no averaging)

NOTE: MSRA no longer requires pre-registration of lightweight rowers. However, this is still an SRAA requirement. https://www.sraa.net/lightweights.html

Rowers must bring a School ID to weigh ins.

WEIGH-IN PROCEDURES

US Rowing rule 4-110 does not apply for this regatta.

Rowers must bring a picture ID (School ID preferred or driver’s license)

The windows for weigh-ins are:

Friday, 4:00-6:00pm

Saturday, 6:00am to 9:30am.

There will be no test scales. Rowers that do not make weight on the first try will be excluded from all lightweight events for the entire regatta. Rowers not making weight on Friday cannot re-weigh Saturday.

All weigh-in procedures must be completed two hours prior to the published race time.

Rowers scheduled in the earlier races will be given priority on Saturday.

All rowers, must be present by boat in their team racing uniform for weigh-ins, either Friday or Saturday. Crews cannot be divided between days, or re-weigh one day to the next.

Teams can choose to weigh in all lineups on Friday or on Saturday, or may choose to weigh some lineups each day.

Coxswains do not weigh in and do not need to be present with their crew.

All substitutes will weigh in with their boat mates.

Weigh-ins will be conducted as a yes/no system without actual weight being announced.

Rowers making weight must attach the lightweight wristband to their “outside” hand before leaving the weigh-in area.

Wristbands are to remain in place until the conclusion of rowing in the regatta.

Problems with wristbands must be brought to the attention of the referee in charge of weigh-ins

Food is not permitted in the weigh-in area.

Rower health and safety remain paramount in the MSRA’s mission. Any observed incident of unsafe, abusive, or aggressive weight loss practices (including but not limited to “garbage bag runs”, sweat suit runs, or verbal references to unhealthy practices such as purging, laxative use, or sweat runs), either directly by or reported to a MSRA Board member, will result in the immediate exclusion of the athlete from any lightweight event.

Bodyweight-delimited rowing: athlete safety issues, coaching and administrative concerns

Rather than apologize for the length of this document, we recommend that all coaches, athletes and parents thoughtfully review the information that it contains in an effort to understand where the Midwest Scholastic Rowing Association (MSRA) stands on the issues involved in lightweight rowing. There are many sides of this issue, some of them emotional and historically significant for some programs more than others. The members of the Lightweight Committee and the MSRA Board hope that this exposition of where we have been and where we are going will help begin a new dialogue about athlete safety.

THE HISTORY OF LIGHTWEIGHT ROWING

In all sports, and particularly in the high school age group, athletes of all sizes and athletic ability participate. In only a small number of these sports are body weight categories specified, most involving in contact sports such as wrestling and boxing as an effort to protect athletes with lower body mass from injury during direct contact with heavier, stronger athletes. College lightweight rowing has been prominent since the 1920’s, and World Rowing initiated men’s events in 1974 and women’s events in 1985. Lightweight events were added to the Olympics in 1996 to increase the number of countries participating in rowing events. High school races commonly include lightweight events. Currently, lightweight events are being dropped from the Olympic schedule in favor of other open weight events and some nations are as a result dropping lightweight components of their national teams.

The fact that athletes with relatively low body mass participate in rowing is not a problem. However, the delineation of a specific weight to separate athletes into “open” weight and “lightweight” events (independent of what the weight chosen happens to be) does create safety issues for athletes and concern for coaches who must oversee safety issues resulting from artificially designated body weight categories.

THE MSRA EXPERIENCE

The Scholastic Rowing Association (SRAA) had been in the forefront of concern for lightweight rower safety.  They have developed a system of pre-regatta testing which includes a hydrated weight and body fat determination performed by a Certified Athletic Trainer to be performed before April 1 of the year of the SRAA National Championship. This Health Form is submitted to the SRAA and uses a computerized assessment similar to that used by the National Wrestling Coaches Association to assess whether the body fat determination and body weight at the time of the testing safely allows participation at the Regatta in May at the lightweight level. Weigh-ins at the Regatta permit rowers less than one pound over the specified weight to re-weigh within one hour to attempt to make weight. Only one weigh-in is required for the two-day event.

In 2011, out of concern for athlete safety, The MSRA adopted a lightweight testing system similar to that used by the SRAA, with the addition of a tightened requirements for a urine specific gravity determination (to insure that the athlete is adequately hydrated at the time of testing), and the utilization of skin fold calipers to determine body fat percent. What follows is a summary of our five-year experience with lightweight testing using this protocol.

1. Concerning the testing protocol itself:
   1. Hydrated weight determination is indeed important to insure that all athletes are measured in a controlled manner. This aspect cannot be controlled at any race-day weigh in.
   2. Body fat determination measurement has intrinsic potential examiner bias, and does not correlate well with measurements taken by electrical impedance devices.
   3. There have been reports that weigh-in testing is  psychologically stressful to some athletes, and that caliper measurement of body fat percent has been described as being “invasive” or “uncomfortable” by others.
   4. A study done by the NCAA has linked sports that place emphasis on weight, body size and dietary regimens (in an effort to attain or maintain low body weight), place athletes at risk for the development of eating disorders including anorexia nervosa. And bulimia.
2. Concerning the testing process itself:
   1. We have no evidence that a single testing event carried out months ahead of the regatta in any way predicts that an athlete can safely participate at a certain weight level at the MSRA championship.
   2. A single pre-testing does nothing to insure lightweight athlete safety for any subsequent event.
3. Concerning athletes and weigh-ins at races in general:
   1. Every weigh in event introduces the potential for abuse by athletes (self-dehydration, starving, induced vomiting, laxatives…).
   2. A review of internet articles about lightweight rowing in the college ranks is full of unhealthy suggestions for weight loss in rowers, many of these same dangerous practices are used in high school.
   3. If an athlete is “slightly above weight” close to the event, only dehydration and starvation are helpful in acute weight loss, both of these practices unhealthy for athletes, and particularly those with already low body weight.
4. Concerning coaches and weigh–ins in general:
   1. Even coaches who attempt to manage lightweight athletes properly and who monitor athlete weights closely may underestimate what some athletes who are close to weight go through to maintain lightweight status at races.
   2. Our experience is that a number of MSRA coaches either ignore or encourage weight loss efforts by their athletes, thus putting the athletes in danger for health consequences of weight cutting.

SUGGESTIONS FOR GOING FORWARD

Our Board and Lightweight Committee have suggested removing lightweight events from the MSRA Championship in the face of the fact that the SRAA and Junior Nationals events maintain lightweight events. The member organizations of the MSRA responded in an overwhelming negative vote to this suggestion. In response to this opinion and in light of our experience with lightweight testing, we suggest the following protocol top maximally protect MSRA athletes from the potential dangers of weight cutting:

1. Weigh athletes randomly and frequently from day one of your year or season. This will allow coaches the best chance to assess at what baseline weight athletes function best and will allow coaches to track weight gain or loss without the bias of scheduled weigh-ins.
   1. Remember that lightweights who are consistently UNDER the weight limit for lightweights will not need to cut weight and will be functioning at maximal body weight during racing.
   2. Remember that any athlete OVER the weight limit for lightweights close to weigh-in can only lose weight by either dehydration or starvation, both dangerous for young athletes.

Regarding weigh in testing at the MSRA Championship:

1. It is evident that any testing event will necessitate starvation or hydration by any athlete close to but over weight. Realistically, for those athletes who will be cutting weight in an effort to row as lightweights because coaches have allowed them to be enrolled in a lightweight event:
   1. A single weigh in event either on Friday afternoon or Saturday morning will at least allow those athletes who are cutting weight to eat and hydrate prior to their race, thus giving them the best chance to participate in a healthy state.
   2. By having a single weigh-in, we recognize that some true lightweights will be participating at weight or in many cases under weight, while others will be participating above weight. Our bias is to proceed based on the best way to allow athletes to compete in as healthy a state as possible.

The future of lightweight rowing is in question. We will continue to pursue a dialogue with SRAA and USRowing as we promote safe rowing for all MSRA athletes and education on the risks of weight cutting for coaches and parents.

The MSRA Lightweight Committee

An addendum to the above should be made to note that the US Rowing Board voted on December 3 to change the lightweight limit for junior male rowers to 160#. Due to unprecedented negative feedback to the CEO of US Rowing, Patrick McNerney, the change was rescinded at a special meeting of the Board.  Thus, the weight limit remains at 150#. In addition, a Junior Lightweight Task Force is being organized and will begin discussions in 2018.