Rising senior Chinny Njoku was selected for the Ready Set Row (RSR) Elite Girls Racing Team. She is currently attending a training camp for the team at the University of Alabama, where she will stay until Sunday.

RSR is a summer program that focuses on a rower’s mental and physical skills to create more disciplined individuals. Njoku said it especially works on strengthening the mental side of a rower’s mind because of the complexity and difficulty of the sport.

“The camp is really about building the mental skills so that when you go out into the real world or the rowing world, you can use them to make yourself stronger, be less afraid of failure and accepting of challenges that you are going to face in the future,” said Njoku.

The team practices twice each day for seven days a week. The first practice begins at 6:15 in the morning and the second takes place in the afternoon.

“Personally I had a lot of mental blocks,” said Njoku. While applying to the training program, Njoku believed the program’s admissions officer “could tell that I wanted to get over my fear of failure and stop thinking negatively about the pain that comes with rowing. I think she could tell when we were on the phone that I was ready, I wasn’t afraid to be around faster people or people who have been rowing longer than me. I just wanted to be better, I think that’s why I was chosen.”

Njoku started rowing in the summer of her sophomore year. Her mother’s friend rowed in college and they recommended it to Njoku because she loved the water and moved to Pelham that year, so it was an opportunity to create friendships.

“I like the hard work and the achieving feeling that you get after you are done with doing a hard piece, a hard workout or just rowing in general,” said Njoku. “It takes so much energy out of you to be a good rower and to finish a piece.”