Day: March 10, 2013

Q&A Rowing

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Hi! I’m the tallest girl on the team and have a lot of trouble carrying boats because I feel as if I’m being crushed. I’m 6 feet tall. I’d say my shoulders are about 2-4 inches higher than everyone else’s. Do you have any suggestions on how to make it not as heavy or more evenly spread or something? (Oh and by the way…. I love your blog!)

An easy solution is to line up by height so that you’ve got someone of similar or equal height on the other side of you but you might be stuck in an uncomfortable situation if you’re the tallest out of everyone.

Related: How to cox a boat in and out of the house

It might end up being that you just have to carry the boat off your shoulder and hold it beside you so it’s at the same level as everyone else. Get the next tallest rower in your boat though and pair up with them when you get the boat off the racks or out of the water. Even if they aren’t as tall as you, it might lessen the burden on your shoulder a little bit.

Q&A Rowing Technique

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For the first half of our last practice, the boat was wayyyy down to starboard; the coxswain kept telling ports to drop and starboards to raise oars, so as a starboard I was forcing my oar against the water all the way through the recovery. (Made for a nasty palm blister!) When that didn’t fix the set, I leaned to the port for the second half of practice. This worked but there must have been a better way to do it. My coach said her lineup was bad but was there anything I could’ve done?

In that instance, I’d say probably not since your coach admitted her lineup wasn’t very good. The set is a byproduct of a lot of different things happening at any given time but sometimes the biggest factor is the group of people in the boat. Leaning to one side, even though it fixes the problem in the short term, is never a good idea because it makes the other seven rowers think “Oh, whatever I’m doing right now fixed the set, so I’m going to keep doing that forever” and then they end up ingraining new bad habits because it’s likely that they didn’t change anything and only felt the change you made, which wasn’t really a change at all.

Q&A Rowing

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Um, so I have a really big problem – when I race, my hands sweat (IDK why) and eventually they get so slippery that I can’t feather at all because there’s too little traction between my hand and the oar. Also, my hands get splashed from the lake/river that we’re on which makes it worse. I end up getting crabs because of this. Do you have any suggestions?

Have you asked your doctor about it? It could be possible that you have a form of hyperhidrosis, which is just an increased amount of sweating above what is normal to regulate your body temperature. One of my (guy) friends has this problem and sweaty palms is a fairly common side effect for him. He doesn’t row but he’s a cyclist so he has similar grip issues as a result.

In the short term, have you tried putting deodorant or chalk powder on your hands? You know, the stuff gymnasts and weight lifters put on their hands and equipment to reduce friction and give them a better grip? That might be an option. I’m sure regular baby powder or Gold Bond would work as well. Runners sometimes put some form of antiperspirant on their feet before putting their socks on and going for a run because it helps stop them from sweating, obviously, and reduces the likelihood that they’ll develop blisters. That might be helpful to you because if you have a hard time getting a good grip, you might eventually start to over grip, which leads to a whole list of other issues, not including epic blisters.

As far as getting splashed, it’s gonna happen. If it’s really bad then ask your coxswain if they can make some calls about carrying the hands lower on the recovery to avoid having the blades dragging on the water so much. Everybody’s gotta make the changes and adjustments for it to be effective though.

Q&A

Question of the Day

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Hey! I am a novice rower and I hear the term “bow loader” a lot but I have no idea what it means, and I thought you would know. Also, I love your blog – it’s great! Thanks! 🙂

Bow loaders are a type of four where the coxswain is lying down in the bow of the boat (behind the bowman) instead of sitting in the stern in front of the stroke.

The reasoning behind them is that it lowers the drag factor of the boat because instead of having five bodies sitting straight up and creating wind resistance, you’ve now got one less person to worry about because they’re lying down. The only positive to them (in my opinion at least) is that it gives the coxswains an unobstructed view of what’s in front of them which should help them be able to steer a pretty straight course.

Coxing Q&A Recordings

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What would you want to hear in a coxswain recording? Is there something that really makes a good recording?

A short list of things include…

Know the difference between intensity, assertiveness, etc. and just being loud

Actively give feedback to the crew (this includes technical feedback during practices or if you’re racing, where you are on the course, what’s happening around you, etc.)

Execute the practice/race plan

There’s obviously a ton more things that make up a good recording but these are the three primary ones. I also don’t want this to become a checklist that coxswains try to “tick off” when they’re on the water so that’s why I’m just leaving it at three. I think that would just lead to them focusing too much on making sure they hit every point rather than actually doing their job.

Q&A Rowing Technique

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Are you only supposed to get blisters on your inside hand? I have one on my outside hand on my fingers which has never happened before. I also have a tendency to over grip and feather with my outside hand. Would that have anything to do with it?

I think it’s common to get them equally on both hands although because of feathering they could potentially be worse on your inside one. If you’re over gripping with that outside hand that’s probably going to play a bigger part in it than feathering would. With feathering you’d have blisters on your palms or where your fingers meet your palm whereas what you’ve got sounds more indicative of just holding on to the handle too tight. When you’re out, try to remind yourself to keep your grip loose – you should be able to wiggle your fingers on the recovery and on the drive, you want to feel the weight in your fingers but you don’t want to be holding on to the handle for dear life.

Related: Do you know any secret remedies for blisters? It’s the first week of winter conditioning and after only two practices I have killer blisters on my hands and ankles that I never got last year until later, and not as bad. I’m wondering if I’m doing something wrong with my form or something, although I’m not quite sure that could be the problem.

Over gripping your hands usually means you’ve got a lot of tension in your shoulders/upper body too. If you remember, ask your coxswain at your next practice if she can periodically say something to remind you to loosen your grip, relax the arms and shoulders, etc. Also make sure you take proper care of your blisters. Soap, water, and band-aids. It hurts like hell but it’s better for it to sting for a bit than develop an infection later.

Coxing Q&A

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Is it ideal to sound like a “scary coxswain”?

That depends on your definition of “scary”. Some coxswains are considered scary because of their intensity and the fact that they’re intimidating as hell. Others are scary because they sound like they’re going through an exorcism. I don’t like when coxswains are told they need to sound angry or scary because it gives them the wrong impression, which is a problem I often find with novices because they’re told they have to yell and be angry so they do, and then they end up sounding ridiculous, they aren’t effective, and/or they lose their voice. You can tell them to get angry, but they should never sound angry in the sense that they’re screaming and yelling at the top of their lungs for no reason.

Related: I know a coxswain’s number one job is to steer straight but one of my fellow rowers decided that sounding aggressive and making good calls is what MAKES a cox. There’s a girl who she says “just sounds like a cox” but hasn’t perfected steering/navigating yet. The view is that you can teach a cox to go straight/proper channels with time but you can’t teach them to sound passionate, aggressive, motivating, etc. What do you think?

It all goes back to language and tone of voice for me. Like I said, I don’t like when coxswains are told to sound angry, scary, etc. – instead, they should be told to put some intensity and purpose behind their calls and then the definition of “intense” should be discussed. What does it mean to you and what does it mean to your crew? If you go through the recordings I’ve posted so far you’ll see where I’ve written about coxswains with good (and great) levels of intensity in their voices (and others with not so much). You’ll notice that most of the time they aren’t yelling or forcing anything either. It’s all very natural and conversational but still in your face, focused, and demanding at the same time.

So, I guess my answer to your question is both yes and no but it all depends on what you define as “scary”.

How to protect your voice

Coxing How To Novice

How to protect your voice

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Previously: Steer an eight/four || Call a pick drill and reverse pick drill ||  Avoid getting sick || Make improvement as a novice

We’re getting closer and closer to racing season so you want to make sure you’re taking the necessary steps now to ensure your voice is in working order on race day. Similar to other athletes, you can do everything right and still injure yourself – in the case of a coxswain, you can still lose your voice regardless of the preventative measures you take. I’ve learned that many times. Most people don’t realize that it’s about prevention first and not just dealing with the after effects. It’s different for everyone so no guarantees but here are some of my tried and true ways to protect your voice when you’re out on the water.

Stay hydrated

Drink lots of water throughout practice (and before and after too). I’m guilty of not doing this and there are definitely times when I regret it, most often when it’s cold outside. I end up feeling like I’m swallowing needles, which is not pleasant. You know when you go to sleep in the winter and you wake up with your nose and/or mouth really dry because there’s no humidity in the air? Take that feeling, get in a boat, and talk at a loud volume for two hours … you can imagine the damage you’re doing to your throat. Your vocal cords essentially become two pieces of sandpaper rubbing together. Water acts as a lubrication to keep things sliding off each other the way they’re supposed to, so when you remind the rowers to get a drink make sure you do too.

If you have allergies or a sore throat and are taking any kind of medicine, make sure you’re drinking lots of water to counteract the decongestants. I had to take a lot of allergy meds in high school because I was allergic to the pollen, mold, etc. that was down by the boathouse and my doctor, who knew I was a coxswain, told me to drink a lot because when the tissues in your throat dry out it reverts back to the whole sandpaper feeling.

Stay relaxed

The more tense I was, both mentally and physically (with my upper body), the scratchier my throat got when I was doing intense pieces. Make sure you’re breathing correctly when you’re calling races and talking a lot. You should be breathing from your core, not your shoulders. Breathing from your shoulders creates tension which eventually leads to your vocal cords cramping up. If this happens too often you can get nodules which will really suck because they’re essentially blisters on your vocal cords. These are our version of the blisters rowers get on their hands. If they’re bad enough they might require surgery to fix.

Take it easy

If you have a cold or sore throat, switch with another coxswain for the day and ride in the launch or ask your coach if you can stick to drills and stuff that don’t involve the usual loudness during practice.Your coach and boat can survive without you for a day if it means you’ll be 100% on race day. A sore throat alone is not a reason to skip practice though. If you have a cold, the flu, etc. duh, stay home but if you just have a sore throat but are otherwise fine, ride in the launch and take video of your crew or something.

The type of injuries coxswains suffer are different than rowers which tends to lead everyone to think they aren’t “real” or as serious because they see rowers with shoulder injuries, back injuries, etc. Our overuse injuries are internal where they can’t be see so it’s up to you to be your own advocate and speak up when there’s an issue. Personally, I think that if you’ve got a sore throat and you continually go to practice and don’t do anything about the issue, your coach and boat have every reason to be pissed at you when you can’t cox on race day. Just like with the rowers, it’s irresponsible to not take time off when it’s needed because in addition to yourself, there are now four or eight other people affected by your choices.

Minimize how much you’re coughing

This sounds hard to do but when your throat is dry and you’ve got that scratchy tickle in there, but get something to drink instead of trying to hack up a lung. Dry coughs are the worst because not only can they hurt like hell and give you a killer headache (been there, done that more times than I can count), but they can also damage your vocal cords. Coughing regularly isn’t so much a problem, it’s when it becomes a repetitive habit that you can start to get the overuse damage to your throat. Before inducing a coughing fit to get the tickle out of your throat, try to drink something to lubricate the tissues.

Limit the amount of pop you drink

Before you go out and after you come in, try not to have a lot of caffeinated drinks. The caffeine in pop dehydrates you in general but it can also irritate your throat, especially if it’s already sore. When I was in high school I played the clarinet and we were always told to not drink any pop before playing because the caffeine swells your tongue (it’s not usually visibly noticeable) and makes it harder to enunciate the music, especially at a fast tempo. I did it anyways but … do as I say, not as I do. If you’re drinking a lot of pop and getting that swelling in your tongue, it actually can have an effect on your speech and your ability to rattle things off during a race. If you’re thirsty, try to always drink water.

To follow up on that last point, while I’m on the vein of what not to drink, if you’re one of those hot water-honey-and-lemon people, eliminate the lemon. The acidity from the citric acid combined with already dry, potentially damaged tissues can just irritate them more. Lemon is really only beneficial for sore throats when you have a lot of mucous and stuff because the acidity cuts through it and helps eliminate any lingering bacteria.

A good alternative to water or water and honey is chocolate milk. It’s a little denser than regular milk so it coats and soothes your throat. I have a constant tickle in my throat so I am always clearing it and I know up front that I wouldn’t be able to tolerate something coating it because it’d just make me cough more. If you’re like that, stick to the regular remedies but if you can stand it definitely try the chocolate milk.

Related: I’ve only been coxing for three years but I feel like it has changed my voice…do you feel like that? Like, I feel like I cant hit as many high notes when I sing in the car (haha) or is there something I’m doing wrong?? I lose my voice easily in races now, especially during the spring when we have like 3 races in a day. What can I do about this? Should I change the way I cox?

The best, most foolproof way to prevent losing your voice is to just be smart. Coxswains are typically talkative and social people so it can be hard to “rest” your voice when you’re always around other people but it’s a small sacrifice to make. Resting doesn’t necessarily mean taking a vow of silence either. Resting by just lowering your usual talking volume can be a good thing. For naturally loud people this can be tough but I promise you, it’s an effort worth making.

Image via // @fergybill