Day: March 21, 2013

Coxing Novice Q&A Rowing Teammates & Coaches

Question of the Day

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Do you ever do the “tchaa” thing that you hear Olympic coxes do a lot? Also if you’re an experienced rower in a boat with a new coxswain who just doesn’t know how to make calls or have a good boat voice (she shouts over the cox box), what do you suggest we do? I don’t want to be rude to her or anything, I just want to help.

I do! I started doing it when I was a junior in high school. For a while I resisted because I thought I sounded stupid when I said it but it eventually became one of my regular calls, usually during steady state pieces when we’re just going for long, powerful strokes.

As experienced rowers, I don’t want to go so far as to say it’s your responsibility to help her out, but in a way it is because you’re the older rowers on the team. Novices look up to you for insight and leadership. I would maybe grab one or two of the experienced coxswains and ask them to work with her and teach her what they know but there’s nothing wrong with you telling her she doesn’t need to yell into the mic (huge pet peeve of mine when novices do this), this is how calls should sound, etc. Let the other coxswains do the majority of the teaching but if the opportunity arises on the water to say something, do it. I don’t really recommend doing this though unless you’re the stroke or 7 seat. Even 7 seat is a little iffy. The reason I say that is because then it becomes either a game of telephone going down the boat or you have to yell to make her hear you and your yelling to be heard can be misconstrued by her as you actually yelling at her. Even if you’re constructively criticizing someone, yelling it so the whole river can hear it makes the other person incredibly uncomfortable.

Don’t forget, she’s still a novice. At least for the time being give her the benefit of the doubt. Before your next practice, remind her to talk normally into the mic (show her the speakers to make your point if you have to) because when she yells, it dilutes what she’s saying and irritates the rowers. Try not to get too annoyed with her though (way easier said than done, I know) – instead, be friendly and helpful when you can. Offering to help isn’t rude, it’s just the delivery of the help that can be interpreted as such.

Novice Q&A Racing Rowing

Question of the Day

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I’m a novice coxswain and I have my first race on Saturday. I have a question. What questions should I ask my rowers during our boat meeting? I know I can ask them what they like to hear most, but what else?

What they want to hear is probably the only question you need to specifically ask them. You can get their input on where to make specific moves (such as when to start the sprint, if you want to take 20s at each 500m mark, etc.)  but during the race it might end up being a judgement call on where to do it based on what you see unfolding during the race.

I’d just ask them what they want to hear, both as a boat and individually. Individually, what’s one technique call and one motivational call they want directed towards them? As a boat, what have you been working on? What is your boat’s biggest strength that you can use to motivate them during the race? What is their biggest weakness that you can make a call to remind them to be aware of?

Coxing Q&A Teammates & Coaches

Question of the Day

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We don’t seat race coxswains on my team so our boating is based mostly off of what the coaches think, which normally is fair and just, but recently rowers have started voicing their opinions and a coxswain who just moved up to varsity this spring season has the V8 because the stroke seat said she liked the coxswain after one day. Is there anything I (a third year coxswain) can do about this? Or should I just focus on myself?

I definitely think you have a valid reason to talk with your coach but as I’ve said to everyone else that has had a similar issue, the goal here is to not prove why the other coxswain is unworthy, it’s to prove why you are worthy of the V8+. Talk yourself up instead of talking her down.

Ask your coach what they consider specifically when deciding who gets which boat. Ask them what they feel your strengths and weaknesses are and where they’d like to see improvements. If and when they ask you why you’re asking you can tell them that you’re a third year coxswain, obviously the V8+ is a goal (I’m assuming…?), and seeing a first year coxswain get it is motivating you to work harder. Simple as that. Keep the pissed off bitterness to yourself and let it come out in your coxing – I swear this is the whole reason why they let us yell and give us a microphone to do it into.

Also talk to the V8+ and ask them what they like about that coxswain. What does she do that resonates well with them? Talk to her as well. Just because she got the upper boat doesn’t mean she’s a crappy person or someone you can’t learn from and/or be friends (or at the very least, friendly) with. Even if/when you’re friends with each other, coxing is very much all about “keeping your friends close and your enemies closer”. There’s nothing wrong with that either, as long as you don’t get bitchy or catty about it.

Coxing Q&A Teammates & Coaches

Question of the Day

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Hi, can I get a coach’s perspective? Every time our two 8+s do race pieces together and my boat’s a little behind, our head coach is always shouting through her loudspeaker for me, as the cox, to do/say something to get us even and pass. It doesn’t help that I’m in the “faster” boat. It gets me frustrated because it’s not like I’m not trying. What do I do? I’m definitely putting in 110% effort into my coxing but I’m just not sure anymore … what would you do in this situation? Thanks!

First, I would talk to your coach. If she’s constantly yelling at you to do something (which get’s irritating – been there, experienced that), there’s clearly something she wants to see and she thinks that eventually you’ll figure out what that is and do it. Talk to her and tell her what you’re doing, what you’re saying, etc. and then ask her for her thoughts. What does she think you should be saying that you’re not? Is she seeing something with the technique from the launch that is putting your crew at a disadvantage that you can make a call for? If she can’t give you answers to those questions, she’s just yelling to yell for no reason. I hesitate to say “ignore her when she does that” but if she can’t at least give you a reason for why she’s on your ass all the time, I’m not sure what else to suggest. If you’ve recorded yourself, give the clip to your coach and have her listen/critique it.

Related: My girls really like when I cox off of other boats, even if we’re just doing steady state. I’m in the 2V boat so they all want to beat the 1V at ALL times. I find it easy to cox when we’re next to another boat/in front of it. However, I never quite know what to say without being negative and annoying when we’re CLEARLY behind another boat. Yesterday afternoon we were practically three lengths behind the v1, and we STILL didn’t catch up even when they added a pause. What do I say at times like these? I always end up getting rather quiet since the overall attitude of my boat is pretty down. I feel like whenever I call a 10 or get into the piece at this point it does absolutely nothing, since my rowers have practically given up.

Secondly, talk to your rowers. When they get down like that, what are they thinking? What do they want to hear? What can you do to help them? Write everything down and then make an effort the next time you do pieces to incorporate some of what they said. Record yourself so you can hear what calls worked and what didn’t. Keep the ones that work and tweak or discard the others.

Don’t let your coach throw you off. I know it can be frustrating and distracting, but you’ve just got to find some way to tune her out and focus on your boat. There’s nothing wrong either with telling her that it throws you off when she’s yelling at you to do something to make the boat move. Coaches, especially ones that are/were rowers, tend to forget that there is no magic call or switch that we flip to make the boat go faster. We aren’t generating any power so if she wants to see the boat even up and pass the other crew, maybe she should focus her efforts on telling the rowers what to improve on instead of thinking that all of the changes have to come from the one person without an oar in their hand.

Q&A Rowing

Question of the Day

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I get incredible lows from rowing. I’ll have a bad day at practice and suddenly freak out about losing my spot in the boat and I over analyze everything so much. It mentally kills me and it bugs my teammates as well. I get some of the best erg scores on the team and still always stress and they feel like I’m being selfish, etc. What should I do? I feel like rowing is my sport but that I mentally can’t compete, despite having good times.

Every sport is considered the ultimate team sport by the athletes who participate in them but rowing … rowing is the ultimate team sport. If you think about football, everyone has to work together to score a touchdown but each person has an individual responsibility. The responsibilities of a quarterback, running back, and lineman are all completely different but it’s still possible to get the touchdown if someone misses a block or runs a poor route. With rowing, everyone has the same job and if someone or multiple people don’t execute it right, the boat isn’t going to move. No one is out there for just themselves. You’re out there for eight other people or four other people or your pair/doubles partner. If you’re out there constantly thinking about yourself, you’re doing two things: hurting yourself and hurting the boat. I mean thinking about yourself in a negative “My rowing sucks, they hate me, I’m being replaced” way too, not in a “I’m concentrating really hard on making sure I’m not washing out at the finish” way. You have to get in the boat everyday 100% confident in your abilities You have to execute everything like you know what you’re doing is right until someone tells you otherwise.

Related: How do you fight off the stress of rowing? I can’t just stop because it helps me ease school stuff but at the same time it makes everything pile up and I can’t hold everything in anymore.

Before you go to your next practice, take a few deep breaths and clear your head of every single negative thought you’ve had about yourself and your rowing up to that point. Wipe the slate clean and tell yourself you’re going to have  good practice … then go have one. Repeat each day until you don’t need to repeat it anymore.