The Why, What, and How of the George Pocock Rowing Foundation

Taking a page from Simon Sinek’s “Start with Why”, and in an effort to help myself, the staff and board at the George Pocock Rowing Foundation more deeply understand our purpose as an organization, we’ve been diving into the biggest question every organization should be asking themselves on the regular: Why are we here? 

The answer that so easily comes to mind for so many of us, especially rowers, is that “rowing/sports changed my life”, or in some cases, “changed my kid’s life”. We say it so regularly and cavalierly that it doesn’t even sound profound anymore- but if something changed your life (and I have no doubt that it did), then it seems worth unpacking a bit.

Why was rowing so impactful? This question is usually answered with something to the effect of, “rowing taught me resilience, hard work, and discipline”, or “rowing introduced me to my best friends”, or one of my personal favorites, “rowing kept me out of trouble”. 

Which leads to the ultimate “why” I want to discuss and question with you today, and the conversation I’d like our community to consider: Why are sports so important for young people, and why are we so passionate about giving them opportunities to participate? Or put differently and to bring this full circle…why do young people need rowing, and why are we here?

So we have the right question. Awesome. Let’s get in the right place to answer it. After all, I'm guessing you are not a young person growing up in the year 2022 - am I right?

If you can’t already tell: I want to challenge you to think differently and dive deeper. Before we go any further, can we stop for a second, and make it not about us? Think about how loaded these assumptions are, based on our experiences with sport as a young person, which for me and probably for many of you, was over 20 years ago. Let’s take a pause with the rowing stories, glory days, experiences, and assumptions about how great a kid might turn out if we just get them in a boat. Let’s dive deeper into the why.

Help me answer another question we need to ask before we get the “rowing is the solution to all the world’s problems,” party started (trust me, I do want to get there with you): What are young people struggling with today? What problem or problems are we trying to solve?

The simple and hard truth is: young people are struggling with issues, some of which we experienced and some of which are unique to their time. At the top of the list? It’s hard to know where to begin. Today’s young people are exposed to on-screen violence and unhealthy social media, leading to inaccurate portrayals of lived experiences, including body image, and a myriad of other issues. They face bullying—online and off. They are at risk of mental and physical health issues that are only exacerbated by the pandemic and the ongoing social isolation. And to solve all these problems? They are tempted to begin risky patterns with behaviors and substances which are far more readily available than ever before.

As a sport-based youth development organization, the GPRF is attempting to solve some of the biggest problems young people are trying to overcome. While we know we can’t do it all, we believe we are most equipped to address three significant areas of need: 

Inactivity, trauma, and a lack of access to play and to sports. Let’s dive deeper:

• Inactivity: The average child today spends less than three years playing a sport and quits by age 11. According to the State of Play report from 2019: only 19% of youth met the CDC recommendation of 60 minutes of physical activity a day in Seattle-King County. Additionally, the Aspen Institute found that in 2020, the average young person spent 6.5 hours less per week on sports and play than before the Covid-19 pandemic. Youth physical activity and mental health have declined precipitously as a result of the pandemic and associated school closures and lockdowns, making the need for interventions urgent. 
• Trauma. Childhood trauma is a pervasive public health issue in the United States with significant lifelong impacts. Researchers have studied this issue using a group of traumatic events called “Adverse Childhood Experiences” or ACEs since the 1990s. *The traumatic events are: physical abuse, verbal abuse, sexual abuse, physical neglect, emotional neglect, a parent who’s an alcoholic, a mother who’s a victim of domestic violence, a family member in jail, a family member diagnosed with a mental illness, and the disappearance of a parent through divorce, death or abandonment.  This research is expanding to include microaggressions and invalidations as a source of trauma for people as well. Studies on ACEs show that almost half (46%) of young people in America have experienced at least one of these traumatic events*, while one in five young people have experienced at least two. Trauma affects people across racial, socioeconomic, and geographical lines; however, the numbers are more severe among low-income and minority populations. 
• Access & the cost of participation. The youth sports industry is a $19 billion industry. The gradual shift toward the privatization of youth sports in the United States has created an unfortunate reality for many young people and their families—access for those with financial resources and limited to no access for those without. Low-income families often cannot afford participation fees, and, in historically under-served communities, choices for participation are limited.

Now that we have a sense of what problems we’re trying to solve, and which of these we are most poised to address, the next step is to talk about what we provide and how we go about providing opportunities for sport and for healing.

Our approach stems directly from the barriers we’re trying to help young people overcome. Some aspects of this work are easy to understand and have been part of our work for years. Other aspects are new and evolving as we learn more. 

1. To combat inactivity and cost, we provide fun and free rowing programs so young people can play, move, exercise, and experience movement without worrying about the cost of participation. This part of our approach is easy to explain. Put simply: sports cost too much- so we make them free by creating donation and grant-funded rowing programs, financial aid, and camps so that young people can experience the life-changing sport of rowing no matter what means their families may or may not have. 

In the traditional areas of what most people consider “access”- the GPRF has excelled at this for years. It’s why we’ve brought ergs to the classroom through Erg Ed®, normalizing the sport and making rowing an option. It’s why we’ve provided hundreds of financial aid awards to cover the cost of rowing fees, pay for transportation to and from practice, swim lessons, uniforms, and more.

In our time doing this work we have discovered that access is complex and requires more inclusive thinking. This has driven us to be more thoughtful and considerate of whom we’re aiming to serve, what might interest them, and make them feel welcome in a rowing space. Camp Lucy and Discovery Crew are two new access-driven programs we launched this year. Both approach rowing differently than we ever have before by focusing on sport sampling, organic play, and use not just rowing, but workshops, mentorship, and games to build an enriching environment for developing social-emotional and life skills. They are built alongside and in partnership with community organizations that youth and families already trust so that we get more buy-in, more feedback, learn faster, and better long-term results.

2. To combat trauma: coaches must approach every practice, every interaction, and every athlete with a trauma-informed lens. This has less to do with what programs we’re providing, and more to do with how we provide programs, support coaches, and ultimately, make the impact we seek. This requires that you stay with me for one last super important deep dive. 

We have learned that when a young person has experienced trauma it changes the way their brain works. 

To break this down simply, we think it’s helpful to first understand how information enters the brain and how the brain works. 

First, information and any experience enter through the Brain Stem, the survival state part of the brain that helps gauge if something is safe or not and prompts us for a fight-flight-freeze response. Think about feeling safe in a boat and how long it takes for the average person to get comfortable sitting in a rowing shell, to feel confident when you put that oar in your hand. 

Once our brains let us move past the “am I safe” zone, information enters the Limbic System or the emotional brain. This part of the brain is very important when you think about excelling in sports because it allows us to experience and excel in the areas of motivation, emotion, learning, and memory. Its main functions are to regulate voluntary movements, including eye movements, help with balance as well as posture. Think about how repeating the stroke and learning to take better strokes is such an important part of learning to row well. We make mistakes, we adjust, we take another stroke, we learn, accumulate good habits, and improve over a period of time.

The executive state or Logical Brain is the optimal state of problem-solving and learning. The frontal lobes also subsume what is collectively referred to as executive skills. These functions include attention, reasoning, judgment, problem-solving, creativity, emotional regulation, impulse control, and awareness of aspects of one's and others' functioning. Think about rowing in an eight, being able to feel the boat and work as one, responding to others, keeping focused amongst distractions, and staying calm despite whatever happens on the racecourse.

Now that we know how the brain works in an optimal situation- from the brainstem to learning in the limbic system, to thinking about high-level team functions in the logical brain…let’s talk about what happens or what has happened in the brain of a child who has had adverse childhood experience(s). 

For someone who has experienced trauma- their brainstem has been overstimulated, overworked, and is on high alert before they even step foot in the boathouse. The information we want to get to the limbic system and for high-level functioning is never going to get there unless we create a safe space. 

Through our partnership with the Center for Healing and Justice Through Sport, we’ve learned that there are some simple ways that coaches can adjust their strategies to create a better result for someone who has experienced trauma. For example, to feel safe, we know that young people need consistency. They need a coach who’s going to show up every day, in the same, predictable ways. They want to know the plan or the workout, and they need to know they can trust and depend on their team and coaches before they can learn. A coach can have all the best intentions in the world, but if they regularly show up late to practice or make assumptions about where kids are at when they walk into the boathouse - they can actually do more harm than good. 

The great news is that with a trauma-informed approach and bringing this training to more coaches, more young people can experience sport by fully utilizing all the areas of the brain. Even those without a traumatic background stand to benefit from having a coach that is trained in this approach. In the long run, if we can help coaches adapt ever so slightly, it means we can help more young people gain access to the areas of the brain that allow them to excel, learn, trust, build relationships, and work hard while being part of something bigger than themselves. 

And the even better news is that through our regional grantmaking, we’re committed to sharing this and anything else we learn with coaches and rowing leaders throughout the Pacific Northwest. We assume there’s a lot more to learn, especially from one another, as we work to make the impact we seek for children who need us most.

So to come full circle and answer the question about why we are here…it is, after all, because rowing can change lives. 

We have learned that our “why” centers around the fact that for many young people, their team, boathouse, and community can serve as a sanctuary of sorts, a place where they can be themselves, be respected, be part of a positive setting, and think about a positive future. It may be the one place in their lives where thriving is a real possibility- but only with the right approach. 

By talking our “why” openly at the GPRF and engaging in these kinds of conversations, it has helped and will continue to help us set priorities, steer resources, and serve as a north star for our decision making because it is at the core of why we exist. 

We know we have a lot to learn as we pilot new programs and hope to gain your support as we go about this important work. It takes a team to make these possible, and we’re glad you’re on ours. On that note- here are some questions we have that I’d love to get your thoughts on:

• Why do we assume that the rowing experience we had, and the rowing that we know and love- is for everyone/the next generation/young people today? What still resonates and is valid…and what does not?
• How did sports impact you or your children? What are we missing and whom can we continue to learn from?
• What’s another sport-based youth development organization that you love and why?