Day: December 28, 2012

Q&A Teammates & Coaches

Question of the Day

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It’s summer holidays where I am, I have this problem and I was wondering if you could give me some advice. So my coaches for my squad are all ex-rowing students of my school and they are between 19-20 year old, who can be a bit intimidating. So my problem is about completing exercises/not stopping for a break etc. which one of coaches have helped me with earlier on in the season. As a coach would you think It would be better to ask her via email or Facebook before it gets worse or becomes a habit OR should I not bother her on holidays and just ask someone (like you) and explain in as much detail as possible even if they don’t know me personally. Secondly as a coach would you be willing to help someone via email during your holiday? Would I be better off asking the head coach even if they can be very very scary at times?

19-20 year olds are never as intimidating as they seem, trust me. They’re goofballs that technically fall under the label of “adult”. That’s about it. If your coach has a fairly open-door communication policy or you have a good relationship with her, I don’t see why it’d be a big deal to send her a short email. I think it only becomes annoying and a problem if you’re messaging her on an overly-regular basis for no reason. If you just have a simple question, especially about something that she already knows about, I don’t think she’ll mind.

As a coach, I wouldn’t mind emailing with a kid over break if it was just a one-off thing, otherwise I’d say wait until we were back and can talk in person. If you know your coach is traveling or out of the country, that’d probably be the only time when they’re actually unwillingly to help. If you don’t hear from your coach after you email her, you can try emailing your head coach. Or, to save time, you can CC your head coach on the email to your other coach, that way they get it too. Don’t be intimidated by your coaches – they’re there to help you out, not to make you feel scared to talk to them. A coach whose athletes are afraid to interact with him/her is not a very good coach.

College Coxing Q&A

Question of the Day

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Are there any summer programs you’d recommend for collegiate coxswains?

Check out places like Vesper, Penn AC, Riverside, etc. They all have summer U23/high performance programs that race at the big summer regattas. I’d also talk with your coach and see if they know of anything. Sometimes they have the inside track on that kind of stuff and it can come in pretty handy when they can make a call on your behalf. If all else fails, start coaching. I can’t tell you how much more heightened my coxing senses have become since I started coaching. Email high school coaches or clubs in the area you’ll be in over the summer and ask if they could use a hand.