Senior Maddie Bramson: Finding Power in the Paddle

Senior Madeline Bramson was no stranger to the challenges of navigating Miami’s ocean waters, but the first time she found herself gliding in a rowing boat last year, the discomfort of a new competitive atmosphere was both overwhelming and exhilarating.

“It was scary starting a new sport,” recalled Bramson, who had years of experience as a competitive sailor until she began rowing. “But I’ve come to love rowing because there’s such a community and I’m able to improve with others around me.”

During her junior year, Bramson realized that she had lost much of her passion for sailing and felt eager to try something new. She gravitated towards rowing, sometimes known as crew, a water sport in which teams of athletes race in long boats, propelling themselves forward with oars.

Bramson has rowed in multiple types of rowing boats, including sculling eights and sweeping eights, where sculling has two oars per rower, and sweeping has one. The training necessary to succeed in rowing is intense, ranging from erging to running to weight workouts, as well as interval training in boats. Bramson’s team practices six days a week, including morning workouts at six a.m. on Saturdays.

“On the water, a common workout we do is ‘thirty off twenty’, which means you row with power for thirty strokes, then you row more steadily for twenty strokes as a break,” explained Bramson. “You do this about sixteen times for the workout.”

Bramson competes with her team in monthly regattas against rowers across Florida. However, the most essential aspect of the sport of rowing is its emphasis on teamwork and unity. 

“In rowing, no one is the best on the team, but I love that only by working together will you become the best boat,” Bramson said.