Month: November 2012

Holiday gifts for coaches

Teammates & Coaches

Holiday gifts for coaches

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Whether it’s for your coach or for the coach in your family, you know they deserve something totally awesome. One thing that athletes often forget is how much time their coaches put into helping them become the best they can be. They sacrifice their time, time with their families, and many other things to spend countless hours working with us. Make sure this Christmas you take some time, get together with your teammates, and figure out a fun way to say “thank you” for all the work they put into the past season/year. The tricky part is figuring out what to get for the coach that seemingly has everything.

One of my favorite rowing traditions is seeing teams get one of their blades, sign it, and present it to their coach. Not only is it a really creative gift, but it’s also unique to your team. If you have some old oars lying around, you can use one of those or you can get a custom miniature one made.

Don’t be turned off by gift cards, they’re a great gift if you’re stuck on what to get. Do you know your coach’s favorite restaurant? Get them a gift card so they can go and have a nice dinner. Are they constantly talking about how they need to get some new cold weather gear? How about a gift card to Dick’s Sporting Goods? The options here are endless. Starbucks, Dunkin’ Donuts, etc. is always an easy go-to though.

For more gift ideas, check out the “rowing gifts” tag.

Image via // @dianetheadventurer
Holiday gifts for rowers

Rowing

Holiday gifts for rowers

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The holidays are fast approaching, which means you’ve got to start looking for gifts for the rower in your life or start thinking of things to put on your own holiday wish list.

Heart rate monitors are a great gift so you can’t go wrong here, regardless of whether you go with the traditional ones or a smart watch. To further help your training, Volker Nolte’s “Rowing Faster” is a good read if you’re interested in learning more about technique, developing your strength, and … getting faster. Lastly, no rower will turn down more spandex so a uni or pair of trou from JL’s bargain bin would make a great and simple gift. The more offensive to the eye, the better.

For more gift ideas, check out the “rowing gifts” tag.

Image via // @martiningley
Holiday gifts for coxswains

Coxing Rowing

Holiday gifts for coxswains

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Know a coxswain but have no idea what to get them for Christmas? You’ve come to the right place. My friends and family used to joke that they were going to get me nothing but cough drops since I was always losing my voice when the weather was cold but if you’re looking for something a little more creative, here’s some ideas.

If you know someone who just started coxing, The Down & Dirty Guide to Coxing is a good resource to help them get up to speed. It covers the basics so it wouldn’t be great for someone who’s been at it for more than a year or so but could be a helpful gift for someone new to the sport. Similarly, a notebook or one of Vespoli’s coxswain wrenches, which has both 7/16th and 10mm measurements on it, would make a solid addition to their toolkit. For more experienced coxswains, it’s important that they locate as many educational opportunities as possible so they can further their own knowledge and skills so registration to a clinic or summer camp could really help them take their coxing to the next level.

Warm gear is always a simple and much-appreciated gift, as are Hot Hands. Two of my personal fave brands are Patagonia (their snap-t fleece pullover is a staple) and Smartwool, because nothing saves you from being miserable on the water like a thick pair of socks to keep your toes warm.

 For more gift ideas, check out the “rowing gifts” tag.

Image via // Sofia Donnecke
How To Survive Winter Training: Coxswains

Coxing How To Novice

How To Survive Winter Training: Coxswains

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Previously: Rowers

We all know that winter training is the bane of every coxswain’s existence. It’s boring, there’s nothing for us to do, and … there are a ton of other things we could be doing besides watching people erg. When I was a freshman in high school, I did a lot of standing around and observing. My team didn’t really have a fall season because the majority of the team participated in other sports (soccer, cross country, etc.) or were in marching band (*raises hand*). I spent the winter season, which started the first day we got back from Christmas break, learning everything I could about rowing and my responsibilities as a coxswain. If you’re a novice, educate yourself. If you’re on varsity, continue educating yourself by helping to educate others.

In addition to what I’ve mentioned here, something that all coxswains should consider doing is working out with the team. So what if you can’t hold the same split as them? You can hop on the ergs once or twice a week, right? There’s no rules against running core sets and doing them at the same time. While they’re lifting, you can run or hop on the bike for 45-60 minutes. Coxswains should not look at exercise as a bad thing. “I’m not athletic/strong/coordinated” is not a legitimate excuse for not working out with your team. Some teams don’t care, some require it. Regardless of whether or not it’s mandated by the coaches, the rowers will notice if you do the workouts with them and it will help them formulate an idea in there head as to whether they want you as a coxswain or not.

Have a positive attitude

Don’t go into winter training thinking “ugh what am I even doing here, I’m so bored, I’m just going to sit and watch this paint dry while you guys do 2 x 6k.” No. No, no, no. When has going into something with a less than positive attitude EVER worked out for anyone? Never, that’s when. As the coxswain(s), the rowers and coaches look to you to keep the atmosphere light and upbeat during winter training. The rowers look to you for motivation and encouragement while the coaches observe your leadership skills and ability to take charge of a crowd. Like I said in the rower’s post,  your attitude at the beginning of a task determines how successful you’ll be at completing it. You can either go into winter training with an objective or you can go in without one. Which leads me to…

Set some goals

What are your goals this season? What did you do last season that you hope to improve on this season? Which regattas are you REALLY planning on going hard for? Which of your skills needs work? What about college – have you started emailing coaches and looking at potential majors? All of these things are goal-worthy, meaning you should be making a list of all the things you want to do or get out of this season and set some “deadlines” for them. Just because you’re not on the water doesn’t mean you can’t get better.

If you’re a varsity coxswain and already know roughly what your lineup will be, sit down with some of them and discuss what your goals as a crew are for the season. Look at how quickly you covered courses last year and figure out what you should be able to do them in this year. Talk with your coaches about what they’d like to see you do this season, both as a leader of the team and with your boat. Take it upon yourself to take the novices under your wing and help them set some goals of their own.

Take some time off

If you need a break, now is your shot. Everyone needs a break every now and then but coxswains have the luxury of actually being able to take it in the winter without getting too much shit for it. Talk with your coaches and explain why you want to take a week off from practice so you can come back refreshed and ready to go. Have a legitimate reason though – you know there won’t be anything for you to do is NOT an acceptable excuse. Staying at practice and just going through the motions doesn’t help anyone and it’ll become obvious quickly that you don’t want to be there. Listen to your brain and your body when it tells you it needs a break.

Do something fun with your team

Get to know your new teammates. If your team doesn’t do the fall season or there are people that have joined since then, organize a game night, social, dinner, etc. to introduce yourselves and the team to the new rowers and coxswains. Have a team Christmas party and do Secret Santa. Get with some of the varsity rowers and organize something fun to kick off winter training. Team triathlons sound like a ton of fun to me and would be a great way to start the indoor season on a fun, happy note. You could also organize a boathouse cleanup – the team breaks up into groups of nine and are each given a list of tasks that need to be completed around the boathouse. The team that finishes first wins a spectacular prize!

Strategize

Have a plan for how you’re going to approach the indoor season. What are you going to do to make sure you make the most of the time you’re on land? How are you going to help the rowers? What are you going to do to help the coaches out? What are you going to do to help the novice coxswains get prepared for the spring season? What are you going to do to prepare yourself for the upcoming races?

One thing I always tried to do at some point during the winter season was sit down and look at my race notes from previous seasons. Pull up the course map on your laptop at practice one day and go over it with everyone, including the other varsity coxswains. Discuss where good spots to make a move are, what the various landmarks along the course are, etc. Start to formulate very basic and general race plans for the regattas your team plans on attending. Clue the novices in on the course, what it’s like, etc. Discuss race strategy with them, why it’s important, and how to form race plans.

The best recorders for coxswains

Coxing

The best recorders for coxswains

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Besides a 7/16 wrench, one of the most important tools you can arm yourself with is a recorder. The benefits are numerous and can really help take your coxing to the next level. Plus, if you’re considering coxing in college you’ll need a recorder so you can capture your audio and submit it to the coaches of the teams you’re interested in.

There are many models available and each has their own specific features that make them great. Finding the one that works for you is key – you don’t want to get one that has a million different buttons or features you won’t use. There’s nothing more frustrating than pressing the wrong button and realizing after that you didn’t record yourself during your race or that you accidentally deleted a recording while you were trying to move it to a different folder.

The most common one I’ve seen coxswains use are the Sony PX333. I’ve used both Sony and Olympus models and like them equally, though I tend to lean towards the Olympus brand simply because that’s the primary one I’ve used for the last 10+ years (and it still works great). Regardless of which one you choose, it should be a pretty affordable investment since all the ones above are between $32 and $60 (as of writing this).

Additional accessories you might consider (though they’re not 100% necessary) are something to store/carry your recorder in and an external mic. I have both but the external mic came with my recorder when I bought it and the “carrying case” I use is actually an old toothbrush traveling case that I just happened to have lying around (similar to this). A soft or hard shell case like the ones linked above would be great options though to keep it protected as you travel to/from races or practice.

An external mic can be useful because it’ll allow you to pick up sound better since most people keep their recorders in their pockets when they’re on the water. My recorder has a clip on the side so I usually just clip the whole thing to my shirt but if it the wind is bad, it’s raining, etc. I’ll put the recorder in the inside pocket of my jacket and then clip the mic near the top part of the zipper on my jacket. This helps block most of the outside noise while also keeping everything dry. Like I said, it’s not 100% necessary but it is nice to have sometimes.

Image via // @ryanjnicholsonphoto