An aggregate resource for all those riding in the 9th seat
College Racing Video of the Week
49spm off the line for Harvard – wow. Washington ended up repeating as national champions with a time of 5:39.6, with Harvard in 2nd (5:42.2), Brown coming from way back to get 3rd (5:42.5), Northeastern in 4th (5:42.7) – notice how close 2nd through 4th place was? – Cal in 5th (5:45.0), and Princeton in 6th (5:49.5).
This kind of relates to the not being first off the start but my coxswain would always tell us not to walk, even if we could, until the sprint so that we would be sure we could hold it. She thought it made more sense and the majority of my boat agreed with her. I however think that if you can walk then you should walk, where ever you are in the race. We kind of saved it for the first thousand and then just went crazy in the second thousand and won our regional final but I think it would’ve been a much more clean and firm win had we walked in the first thousand like we could have. What do you think?
I disagree with her because I think if you don’t walk you’re potentially digging yourself into a hole that you might not be able to get out of by the time the last 250m rolls around. I assume by “hold it” she means to conserve your energy throughout the race so you can apply it all to the sprint. That reminds me of this scene from The Incredibles.
I’m the guy at 0:17.
I guess in the end the hardware is all that matters but I agree with you, it probably would have been a smoother race overall if you hadn’t held back at the beginning.
…coming off the starting line.
I was watching the NCAA Championships yesterday morning and was pleasantly surprised to see Ohio State dominate the V4+ and 2V races. (You can watch the full replay of yesterday’s races here. The V4+ race is at the 89:51 mark and the 2V race is at 109:11.) When I’m coxing, something that I like to do with my crews is get out ahead immediately. I would much rather defend a lead than work towards it – psychologically I just think there’s less hurdles to overcome when you start in the lead. Plus, it was just one of those things that all the coaches I’ve ever had have taught me. Both of Ohio State’s boats though, despite winning by 3 seconds and 2 seconds respectively, started behind. The V4+ started in fourth place and the 2V started in 3rd. As I was watching the races I noticed something: it seemed like both coxswains were content to not be in front off the line, like not being in first was OK … or something.
This got me thinking – both boats started behind but then dominated the field the rest of the way down the course. Maybe not being in first off the line is OK. By the time the 2V had reached the 500m mark, they were sitting in 3rd place, 0.65 seconds behind first. Right around the 1000m mark (2:45ish into the race), the coxswain made a call that resulted in the boat walking about a deck length in five(ish) strokes. From there, they were gone. Same with the V4+. They started back, worked their way up (effortlessly), and then refused to relinquish the top spot. I’m still a huge proponent of getting your bow in front right away and keeping it there but I also enjoy a good challenge. Being in front means you have a target on your back which only makes it easier for me to hunt you down, one by one by one.
The point is this: patience is everything. Be content to not necessarily be in front but don’t settle for that. When you’re coxing you want to give your crew small, achievable goals throughout the race with the ultimate one being to cross the line first. After the start (the full start, no sooner than 3ooish meters in), find out where you are in relation to the other crews and go from there. If you’re sitting in third, forget about the first place crew. Set your sights on second place and start taking the strokes you need to walk through them. Once you’ve absorbed them, put your focus on the first place crew. Once you’ve gotten through them, put your focus on pushing everyone else back and reeling the line in. Part of the reason why coxswains get frantic at the start when they’re behind is because they put all their energy into walking on the crew that’s way out ahead in first instead of the crew that’s only three seats ahead in second. If you maintain an aggressive composure, your boat will too.
Don’t panic if you don’t start quick off the line. Instead, focus on rowing smarter than the rest of the field and giving your crew all the information you have so they can put together the right combination of solid strokes to get their bow out front. And, like the announcer said during the V4+ race, it’s all about strategy. Some crews just aren’t good off the line but they’ve got a killer middle 1000. This is another spot where knowing your crew’s tendencies will be of huge benefit to you. If I had to throw out a guess, I think this was part of Ohio State’s strategy; come off the line solid but conserve the bulk of their power for the middle, which was where both crews started to break the rest of the field.
I’m a coxswain for my high school club’s men and women’s boats but since I’m closer to the men’s minimum weight I’ve been thinking of trying to get recruited as a coxswain for men. When I go on college sites to fill out recruitment questionnaires, since I’m a girl should I fill them out for the women’s team or the men’s team? So far I’ve just been filling out for women’s teams because it feels weird to do it for the “men’s crew”.
If you want to row for the men you need to fill out the recruiting questionnaires for the men’s team. If you fill them out for the women they’re going to assume that is who you want to cox for and might be annoyed when they say “yea come cox for us” and then find out you really want to be with the guys.
This is just a short little snippet of what I assume was a practice row or something but I wanted to share it for two reasons. The first is how he calls the crew back down a beat at 0:14. Instead of saying “bring it down” or some other annoying phrase like that, he says “let’s relax together one beat…”. I like this because it just sounds more effective than “bring it down” but also because when you’re only trying to come down one beat, you don’t really need to change that much with the slides or speed through the water – all you’ve gotta do is relax a little.
The second reason is for how he calls the crew up two beats to a 32 (0:33) and 34 (0:54), especially the 34 one. I like how he calls “legs down boom” and “pump it” (or whatever he says … initially I thought he said “bop it” which made me think of that toy from the 90s) as they bring the rate up and then “sustain it” once they’ve hit it.
I can’t embed this video so you’ll have to click over to YouTube to watch it. It’s from one of Tennessee’s morning practices and has some good clips of warmups, steady state, pieces, etc. in it.
During the warmup/steady state at the beginning, one of the calls she makes is “distance per stroke by 6s”. This is usually what you’re going for when doing low-rate stuff and an easy way to see if you’re gaining or losing distance per stroke is by watching the puddles. Usually steady state pressure is when bow seat’s puddle is somewhere near the stern deck by the time you take the next stroke (it’s all relative based on the strength/experience of your crew) so it’s important to make sure you know the baseline for where your crew’s puddles usually end up after each stroke so you can gauge how the boat’s running.
For about 20 seconds between 2:20 and 2:40 she’s making some aggressive-ish calls related to the catch but a lot of the rowers are rowing it in and not matching up with what she’s asking for. This is largely on you – you’ve first gotta have a good understanding of the stroke and how what happens on the recovery (i.e. roll up timing) sets up the catch so you can make the necessary calls to ensure the catches are actually on point before you start making calls for how powerful they should be. Driving before the blade’s in the water is just wasted energy and speed.
At 4:55ish when she realizes there’s something on her skeg, she tells bow pair to drop out to stabilize the boat and then sticks her arm in the water to clear the skeg while stern six is still rowing. They’re not gonna be able to take good, clean, effective strokes when you’re throwing the set off by reaching under the boat so you might as well weigh enough for 10 seconds, clear the skeg, and then pick it back up. You should also not try to grab stuff out of the skeg while the boat’s moving anyways (you run the risk of hitting another piece of debris that smashes your fingers against it and slices them open – I’ve seen that happen and it is not pretty).
Overall I think this was some decent steady state. I think her tone was good but could have been a little more chill for the majority of the pieces; not every call needs to be so punch-y. I think as you’re coming into the end of a piece it’s OK to transition to a more race-y tone/style of coxing (even though you’re still doing steady state) but you should be building into that rather than this being your baseline tone throughout practice.
Other calls I liked:
“Every inch out of that finish…”
“Simple strokes, simple movements…”
You can find and listen to more recordings by checking out the “Coxswain Recordings” page.
So literally our best rower got booted off the team due to bad behavior (questionable substances, among other things). Not only are we DAYS away from our biggest regatta of the season but I am particularly devastated because I always looked up to and admired this person. When I was pushing myself during workouts, it was them I wanted to push myself for, it was them I wanted to be as good as. I’m dumbfounded that I completely missed that there was a problem.
Oh man … that’s the worst. For the time being and especially since you’ve got a huge regatta coming up, abstain from letting this become a distraction. Assuming this person was a good teammate (aside from putting the team in this position, obviously), they probably are feeling guilty over the fact that this is a distraction and it’s coming at the worst possible time. What you can do is focus on what’s important – your boat, your teammates, yourself, and getting some good rows in before this weekend. Try to avoid any communication with them until after your races are over. I know that sounds like a really rude thing to do but assuming you were friends with this person, they’ll probably try to text you or message you on FB to see how things are going, give you their side of the story, etc. Hold off on talking to them or anything like that until Sunday or Monday, that way you and your teammates can keep your heads clear and focused on what’s in front of you.
You should never assume that you could have prevented what happened. It sucks not knowing there was an issue ahead of time, especially if you were close with them, but don’t beat yourself up over it. If you’re comfortable enough talking to them about it and they’re willing to share, ask them what’s up. Were/are they going through something, was it just a series of stupid mistakes, etc. Don’t be pushy or prying or anything and respect their privacy if they don’t want to share. Offer to lend an ear if they do need someone to talk to in the future and leave it at that.
In addition to all of that, be the bigger person amongst your teammates as well. No doubt some of them are probably really pissed at this person (rightfully so…) but don’t let it get to the point where they’re badmouthing them or being flat out rude to them. Chances are no one knows the full story so, like I said earlier, ignore it for now and don’t let it become an unnecessary distraction.
Coxing How To Novice Teammates & Coaches
Previously: Steer an eight/four || Call a pick drill and reverse pick drill || Avoid getting sick || Make improvement as a novice || Protect your voice || Pass crews during a head race || Be useful during winter training || Train when you’re sick (as a rower) || Train when you’re sick (as a coxswain) || Sit in the boat || Lose vs. how to win || Cox (and coach) novices
About two weeks ago I wrote a lengthy post in response to a question I got that basically asked what rowers do that piss off their coxswains and how they can avoid doing such things in the future. After putting that post together I wanted to give rowers the same opportunity to tell coxswains what they do that pisses them off.
Over the last week I’ve gotten even more feedback than I did for the first post (read into that however you want) and even though a lot of it is really obvious stuff, I think it all bears repeating, especially for novices who might not know to not do these things. The fact that it is so obvious though means that it should be an easy fix.
Meaning you’ve been saying “stop rushing” for about 10 minutes and everyone is still rushing. You need to be able to recognize the problem, say how they should fix it (which means you’ve got to have a solid understanding of technique), and what specific changes they need to make to get back on track. Repeating the same thing over and over is lazy, not to mention whatever you’re saying loses its meaning and leads to you getting tuned out.
Obviously no one’s saying that you shouldn’t eat or that you should hide all traces of food when the lightweights are around. What they’re saying is that it’s a real asshole move to stuff your face with food in a “haha I get to eat and you don’t, suckers” kind of way.
In that same vein, another thing that came up, regardless of whether you’re coxing lightweights or heavyweights, is not being aware of your own weight (or straight up not caring). I’ve talked about the issue of coxswains and weight before and the fact of the matter is, we are expected to be as light as possible because we are literally dead weight in the boat. It’s part of the job and a responsibility your teammates will expect you to take seriously (especially if you’re coxing lightweights).
I talk pretty frequently about how you need to talk to your stroke seat and communicate with them throughout practice – obviously you should keep doing that. What this rower was getting at is that everyone else in the boat gets really irritated when you tell them to stop talking but then you immediately turn around and start talking with your stroke about stuff completely unrelated to practice.
While you’re on the water, try to keep everything focused on whatever you’re doing that day and not on anything that isn’t related to rowing. Along this same line, when you are talking to your stroke (or stern pair, really), don’t talk into the mic, regardless of whether you’re talking about rowing related stuff or not. It’s distracting to everyone else and can sometimes generate a lot of opinions on something that don’t really require everyone’s input. If you’re talking about something that effects the entire crew, talk about it with your stroke first (with the the volume off), determine what needs to happen, and then give the rest of the boat the pertinent information.
The rowers feed on your energy and if you’re not engaged in what’s going on, how do you expect them to be? Don’t worry about sounding silly or stupid or whatever. If that’s how you feel about getting louder during pieces you’re probably in the wrong sport.
You are the eyes and ears for eight other people – you can’t be ogling whatever is happening on shore or pointing out things that have nothing to do with practice. Stay focused and present in your boat.
Starboard is right, port is left. It’s OK if you accidentally skip a number – as in one – when you’re really into a piece and doing a power ten but that’s about all the leeway you get. I occasionally do it and I know it immediately but the rowers don’t tend to notice it because they’re focused on whatever I’m telling them to do. If you go from 4 to 7 though, that’s an issue.
An even bigger issue with messing up the count that someone brought up is calling “x” number of strokes to the line multiple times. Don’t. Just don’t. Start practicing judging distances while you’re at practice so that when you’re racing you can gauge how far you are from the line and call the final 20 appropriately.
Related: Judging distance
This is the fastest way to lose the respect of your boat. Respect is a two way street and if you’re not willing to give it, you sure as hell can’t expect to receive it. You’re not perfect and as much as we’d like to think we don’t, we make mistakes too.
Being a coxswain requires a lot of self-control too because it’s easy to get an ego when you’re 14 or 15 years old and you’re given the responsibility and power that comes with being a coxswain. We all have shitty practices but it’s never any one person’s fault. It’s not your right or place to act like the quality of practice or a race rests solely on the shoulders of the rowers.
Related: Words
You have to relay to the crew what is happening during the race, specifically and most importantly where they are, how far in they are, and how many meters are left. They don’t want to feel like they’re rowing an endless race because eventually their minds are going to give out. You have to keep their brains in the game (or race, rather) and tell them what’s happening. Withholding info because you think it’ll bring them down doesn’t help either. If they’re down, tell them. They don’t want to know that they’re not in first, obviously, but at the same time, they do.
“Big mistake. Big. HUGE.” If you make a mistake, who cares? Admit it, learn from it, don’t do it again. There’s never an excuse to blame something you did wrong on someone in your boat.
There’s a simple way to avoid this: write. everything. down. Try to hold these meetings ahead of time (at least a day or two before the race) so you can start incorporating the calls when you do practice pieces, that way it becomes ingrained into your “muscle memory”. If you can’t do that, write it on a post-it note and tape it beside your cox box. If you ask your rowers to tell you what they want and then you ignore it, that’s going to cause a rift. Saying “oh I forgot” isn’t an excuse either because, like I said, you can easily write it all down and bring it into the boat with you.
Commit to something. Don’t debate and go back and forth because each time you do it, the confidence your boat has in you goes down exponentially. They want to know that you have control over the situations you’re in and if you’re constantly questioning yourself or what you should be doing, that makes it hard for them to focus on what they should be doing. It’s better to commit to running into a bridge than to debate back and forth and then hit it because you couldn’t decide which side to pass the pier on.
Pretty self-explanatory, I think. You’re expected to act like and be a leader, which means being assertive and, like I said in the post about respect, not inviting contradiction.
Related: RESPECT
Whoever sent this, bless you. Seriously though, who taught you this?! If you do this, stop. You have cables attached to a rudder for a reason. Use them to steer and get a point while you’re moving, not the rowers.
Related: Checking it down vs. backing it
The Napoleon-God complex thing is just a joke, guys. Don’t take it literally.
In addition to these things, I would encourage talking with your individual boats and asking them if there’s something you do that they’d prefer you didn’t. Don’t take what they say personally – remember, it’s coming from a helpful place. If your rowers aren’t comfortable saying stuff to your face, talk to your coach about doing regular coxswain evaluations so the rowers can anonymously provide you with some (presumably more honest) feedback.
Coxing Novice Q&A Teammates & Coaches
Hi! So sometimes my coach will send out my four (bow loaded) with two 20 minute pieces where for 10 minutes there is a certain rate and then the other 10 minutes another rate. My coach normally won’t come out with us or will focus on other boats. I get really annoyed because I’m a novice and all the rowers are varsity so obviously they want feedback on their rowing but I can’t see them nor do I know what they’re doing wrong. I feel bad because during these pieces I won’t talk I’ll just say the rate and time and I can tell they’re getting annoyed and they feel like they’re not getting any better. Do you have any suggestions on what to say and how to keep talking the entire time?
Before going out, talk to your coach about what they want you to focus on that day. Get specifics. Ask them what they want the rowers to be working on, what the changes are they need to make, etc. Write all of that down and then when you’re on the water, make calls based off of that. Even though you can’t see the rowers you can still remind them of what they should be working on. It puts the bug in their ear.
Talk to the rowers. What do they want/need to hear? What specifically about their rowing do they know they need to work on and how can you help them/what can you say that would remind them to do or not do X, Y, and/or Z?
Also work on feeling the boat. Being in a bow loader puts you in a much better position to feel what’s going on compared to when you’re in an eight. When they do something right, what does that feel like? When they’re doing something wrong and you call for a change, what does that feel like? If you know what it feels like when someone is rushing, you can call for a ratio shift or whatever without guessing if that’s what you need to do.
Related: Boat feel
Don’t just say the rate either. Rowers hate – hate – when the only thing their coxswain says is “24. *five minutes later* 24 1/2.” Remind them to stay long, relax the recoveries, push and send, lift the hands into the catch, lighten up the seats, accelerate through the finish, breathe, jump on the first inch, no hesitation around the corner, keep the chins, eyes, shoulders, and chests up, engage the legs, etc. Throw in a 5 or 10 every minute for whatever – maximizing the run, cleaning up the releases, sharper catches, etc.
I would also talk to your coach and ask them if they’d mind spending some more time with you guys because as a novice there’s only so much you can do, especially with no instruction, and the boat feels as if they’re hitting a plateau because they aren’t getting any coaching. At the very least, ask them to give you specific things to focus on while you’re out instead of just saying “go do 2×20 minutes, have fun!”.
College Racing Rowing Video of the Week