Most junior rowers in the United States train primarily in eights and fours. It makes sense — team boats are how you race, how you build program culture, and how most coaches organize their training. But the athletes who develop the fastest and the furthest tend to have something in common: they can move a small boat.
Singles and pairs training reveals and develops skills that larger boats conceal. This isn't an argument for abandoning sweep or team boating — it's an argument for incorporating small-boat work as a development tool that accelerates everything else. Here's what small boats teach, how to approach the learning curve, and what to look for if you're considering a camp or program with sculling or pairs training.
The Case for Small Boat Training
A single scull is the most honest boat in rowing. There's no crew to compensate for your imbalances, no coxswain to correct your course, no seven other athletes smoothing out the moments when your timing slips. Every flaw in your technique shows up immediately — as a wobble, a check, a pull to one side. And every improvement shows up just as clearly.
Balance. In an eight, balance is a collective achievement. An athlete with poor individual balance can be masked by seven teammates who compensate. In a single, balance is personal and non-negotiable. Athletes who learn to sit a single develop a relationship with the boat's equilibrium that transfers directly to their sweep rowing — they become more stable, more aware of their weight distribution, and better able to contribute to set in larger boats rather than relying on others to create it.
Blade work. Sculling provides immediate, unmistakable feedback on blade entry, depth, extraction, and squaring timing. When you're holding two oars instead of one, and the boat responds instantly to everything you do with both of them, the sensitivity of the feedback loop intensifies. Athletes who develop clean, precise blade work in a single carry that precision into sweep boats — and their coaches notice.
Body awareness. Small boats demand a level of kinesthetic awareness that larger boats don't require. An athlete in a single must feel where their weight is at every point in the stroke cycle, sense how the boat is running beneath them, and make constant micro-adjustments. This awareness — the ability to feel the boat and respond to it — is one of the most valuable and most difficult skills to develop, and small boats are the most efficient environment for building it.
Independence. There's a self-coaching dimension to small-boat training that aligns naturally with developmental philosophy. In a single, you're responsible for everything. You diagnose problems, experiment with solutions, and evaluate the results — in real time, without coaching interruption. This isn't a replacement for coached instruction, but it develops the observational and problem-solving habits that self-directed athletes rely on.
The college connection. Most college programs value athletes who can scull. Bilateral competence — the ability to row sweep and scull — gives college coaches flexibility in lineup decisions, broadens an athlete's developmental ceiling, and signals technical sophistication. An athlete who shows up to college having rowed only port sweep in eights has a narrower range than one who's also competent in small boats.
Sculling and Sweep: Different Skills, Complementary Development
Athletes and parents sometimes worry that sculling will interfere with sweep technique — that the different hand coordination, different recovery sequence, and different balance point will create confusion. The evidence suggests the opposite.
What transfers between sculling and sweep includes the fundamental movement patterns that govern all good rowing: the rhythm and ratio of the stroke, the connection at the catch, the suspension through the drive, and the controlled recovery. These are universal. An athlete who develops good rhythm in a single brings that rhythm to the port side of an eight.
What's different is primarily hand coordination (two oars moving independently versus one shared between two hands), the balance point of the boat (a single's equilibrium is more sensitive), and the recovery sequence (sculling recovers with both hands simultaneously rather than one leading the other). These differences are real but learnable, and most athletes adapt within a few sessions of transitioning between the two.
Why sweep rowers benefit from sculling: it isolates and develops balance, blade work, and body awareness that sweep rowing can mask. An athlete who returns from sculling to their sweep boat often finds that skills which were invisible before — subtle weight shifts, small timing adjustments, the feeling of a clean extraction — are now perceptible.
Why scullers benefit from sweep: sweep develops power application, crew timing, and the coordination required to move in synchrony with other athletes. The combination produces athletes who are technically versatile and adaptable.
The athletes coaches most value — at the junior, collegiate, and national level — tend to be bilaterally competent. They can sit in any seat, row any side, and adapt to whatever boat the program needs. Small-boat training is the foundation of that versatility.
Progression in Small Boats
The learning curve in small boats is real, and approaching it with appropriate expectations makes the experience productive rather than frustrating.
The single (1x) is the starting point and the most demanding small boat. First sessions in a single are typically about survival — learning to balance, getting comfortable with the wobble, figuring out how to take a stroke without capsizing. This is normal and universal. Even accomplished sweep rowers usually spend their first few sessions in a single focused primarily on staying upright.
The progression moves from stability (can I sit still without tipping?), to basic blade work (can I take clean strokes on both sides?), to rhythm (can I string strokes together into a sustained pattern?), to refinement (can I adjust technique, change pressure, and maintain quality under fatigue?). This progression takes time — weeks, not hours. Athletes who expect to be comfortable in a single after two sessions will be disappointed. Athletes who commit to the learning process will be rewarded with skills that improve every other aspect of their rowing.
The double (2x) adds the dimension of coordination with a partner. It's more stable than a single, which makes it a less intimidating entry point for some athletes, but it introduces communication and synchronization challenges that singles don't involve. Rowing a double well requires not just individual technical skill but the ability to adjust your timing, pressure, and movement to match another person — in real time, without a coxswain mediating.
The pair (2-) is widely considered the hardest boat in rowing. It combines the balance sensitivity of small boats with the sweep-rowing dynamics of one oar per athlete. Pairs training accelerates sweep development because there's nowhere to hide — every asymmetry, timing error, and connection failure is amplified. Athletes who learn to row a pair well have typically developed an advanced understanding of how their individual stroke interacts with the boat and with their partner.
Integration with team boats. Small-boat training doesn't need to replace sweep training — it complements it. Many programs incorporate small-boat sessions alongside their team-boat work, using singles and pairs as diagnostic tools (what's happening with this athlete's balance that we can't see in the eight?) and development tools (let's isolate this technical element in a setting where the feedback is immediate).
What to Look for in Small Boat Training
If you're evaluating camps or programs that include sculling or small-boat work, several factors indicate quality.
Equipment quality matters more in small boats. A poorly maintained or inappropriately sized single makes learning harder and can create safety issues. Programs should have singles in good condition, appropriately rigged for the athletes who'll use them, and enough boats that athletes aren't waiting extended periods for water time.
Coaching ratio and launch coverage. Small boats require closer supervision than larger boats. Athletes in singles, particularly those learning, are more vulnerable to capsizing, equipment issues, and navigational challenges. The coaching ratio during small-boat sessions should be at least as favorable as during sweep training, and coaches should be in launches close enough to provide real-time feedback and safety oversight.
Protected water. Conditions that are manageable in an eight can be dangerous in a single. Programs with small-boat training should have access to water that's appropriate for the skill level of the athletes — protected from heavy boat traffic, manageable in typical wind conditions, and suitable for the learning process without excessive risk.
Progressive programming. How does the program build small-boat skills over time? Is there a structured progression from basic balance work to integrated technical training? Or is sculling offered as a one-off session with no developmental arc? Programs that build skill progressively produce better outcomes than those that treat sculling as a novelty.
Connection to sweep goals. The strongest small-boat training connects explicitly to the athlete's sweep development. Coaches should be able to articulate how sculling work contributes to the skills the athlete is developing in their primary boat. Small boats used as a diagnostic tool — "let's put you in a single to see what's happening with your balance" — indicate sophisticated coaching.
Common Misconceptions
Several persistent myths about sculling deserve direct response.
"Sculling will mess up my sweep stroke." Research on motor skill transfer and decades of coaching experience suggest otherwise. The fundamental movement patterns are shared. The differences in hand coordination are learnable and don't create lasting interference. Many national team programs require athletes to be competent in both sweep and sculling, specifically because the skills reinforce each other.
"I'm too tall or too heavy for small boats." Singles come in a range of sizes and weight capacities. Equipment has improved significantly, and boats appropriate for larger athletes are readily available at quality programs. Size is not a barrier to sculling.
"I should master sweep before trying sculling." If anything, the opposite is more supported by coaching practice. Athletes who learn to scull early — before sweep habits are deeply ingrained — tend to develop broader technical foundations. Waiting until sweep technique is "mastered" (a standard that may never be met, since mastery is a moving target) delays the development of skills that would enhance sweep performance along the way.
"Sculling is only for lightweights." A glance at any national team sculling program disproves this. Athletes of all sizes and weight classes benefit from small-boat competence. The developmental value of sculling is independent of body type.
Small-boat competence isn't a separate discipline — it's a foundational skill that makes everything else in rowing better. The athletes who can sit a single comfortably, who've felt the immediate feedback of sculling, and who've developed the balance and awareness that only small boats teach tend to be the most technically complete and most adaptable rowers in any program.
If you're interested in programs that incorporate small-boat training, ask about equipment, coaching ratio during sculling sessions, and how the program connects small-boat work to overall development. And consider starting sooner rather than later — the earlier these skills develop, the more they compound.
Several Sparks programs include sculling and small-boat work as part of their curriculum. Visit our program pages for specifics, or reach out in the lower right hand corner with questions.
