Month: March 2013

Coxing Novice Q&A Racing

Question of the Day

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So I was watching ejector crab videos for a fun and I was wondering if someone falls out of the boat during a race should I stop or just keep going and leave them behind? I’m a novice coxswain. Thanks!

When I raced we were always told to continue racing and the launches that follow the boats would pick up the unfortunate crab catcher. Technically, I think the only person who MUST be in the boat as you cross the finish line is the coxswain. The rules though will probably vary depending on the regatta so if you’re not sure, ask at the coaches and coxswain’s meeting.

I remember hearing this story – and I tried Googling it but couldn’t find anything so who knows if it’s actually true – that said the reason why coxswains are the only member of the boat required to still be in the boat as you cross the finish line is because when coxswains first started being used, the rowers (in England, I believe) were pissed that they had to row with the dead weight so when the race started, they told the coxswain to jump out of the boat. They then rowed the  entire race without their coxswain.

What to wear: High visibility gear

Coxing Rowing

What to wear: High visibility gear

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Previously: What to wear: Coxswains (women) || What to wear: Coxswains (men) || What to wear: Rowers || Sunglasses

There was a day back in late October when my eight went out at 5:15am and it took our coach 20 minutes to find us because he couldn’t see us in the dark. I had a black coat and rain pants on, our boat is a black Resolute, and the batteries on the bow/stern lights were fading so the lights were pretty dim, which made us practically invisible to him.

Although ultimately it wasn’t a huge deal it’s still a safety risk to be on the water and not visible to other people. I have a high-vis running jacket that I started wearing over pullover or normal jacket and our bow-seat had a clip-on LED light that she’d put on the back of her hat, which was also high-vis. A lot of the scullers I see will also put LED lights on the back of their hats, along with wearing a runner’s vest or putting a strip of reflective tape on the back of their jackets.

#1 rule of coxing – better safe than sorry! Take precautions when you’re out on the water, even if it’s light when you go out or when you come in. If it’s going to be dark or the weather indicates that it’ll be foggy at any point during practice, make sure you have lights on your boat and are wearing something that will increase your visibility to other rowers, coxswains, and coaches who are out at the same time as you.

Image via // @sarahendershot

Coxing Novice Q&A Racing

Question of the Day

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Do you have any inspirational thoughts/advice for novice cox’s first spring race?

As far as inspirational thoughts go, check out the “motivation” tag, as well as the “quotes” tag. There’s bound to be something in there that strikes you.

Advice-wise…

Know the rules.

Have a plan (or two or three) and go over it with your boat.

Accept the fact that things rarely go as planned. Stay calm and be flexible.

Have a good attitude, regardless of the outcome.

Breathe at the starting line.

Don’t dwell on anything that goes wrong.

Record yourself.

Be a little nervous but never panicked.

Tell the other teams at the finish line “good race” even if you lose and especially if you win.

Steer straight.

Don’t tell your rowers to “pull harder”.

Embrace everything but when it’s time to race, put your game face and be prepared to go do work. As long as you’re doing your job, there won’t be any time to be nervous about what’s going on.

An Introduction to Rigging: The tools

Coxing Rowing

An Introduction to Rigging: The tools

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Previously: Intro to rigging, spread, and span || Oar length, inboard, and blade profile || Pitch || Rigger height and work through || Rigging and de-rigging a boat

The final post in this rigging series is going to go over a few of the tools you need to rig your boat. There aren’t many and in all likelihood, you’ve already got most or all of these hanging around your boathouse somewhere.

Pitch meter

Used to measure pitch, hence the name. The one I have posted here is a manual one from Empacher (Vespoli also sells them) but you can also use your phone if you don’t want to do it manually and haven’t got a digital one on hand. You can check out how to do that in this post from Row2k.

Tape measure

Used for measuring everything else; spread, span, height, etc. Easily found at Lowe’s, Home Depot, or the junk drawer in your kitchen.

7/16″ or 10mm wrench

Every coxswain should have one or more 7/16 or 10mm wrenches, depending on what brand of boat you have. You can also get a coxswain multi-tool which has a few different wrenches built into one. The one above is from JL but Vespoli also sells them. I have two of the Vespoli tools and like them but if given the option I’ll always go with the normal wrenches just because I find them easier to use, particularly when trying to loosen bolts that have been tightened too much. The smaller Vespoli wrenches don’t provide as much leverage so in those cases they can be a little difficult to handle.

The only one of these that you definitely need to own is a wrench – your coach will already have the pitch meter and tape measure in their toolboxes.

Image via // @buchancameron

Coxing Q&A Racing

Question of the Day

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In regards to steering during a sprint race, do you recommend using the tiller to steer or having the ports/starboards row with more pressure for a stroke or two in order to maintain a straight point?

If you have to steer, always use your rudder. The rowers will be too hyped on adrenaline at that point to be able to coherently give you the pressure adjustment you need and more importantly, it takes their focus off of what they should be doing.

Related: Hi! Since the spring races all start boats at the same time, do you have any tips on steering straight? I can tell when I’m veering off my lane, but for some reason, I can’t/don’t know how to fix it! I remember you saying it’s all about the small adjustments, then straightening out, but I can’t seem to get it. [Ex today: all 3 boats lined up, me on the outside, I end up too far out away from the other 2]. Tips? Thanks!

Plus it all goes back to steering being your responsibility so you have to get a good point before the race starts. Even when it’s really windy out, you’ve got to be on top of your steering to make sure you’re not drifting into another coxswain’s lane. I think my steering improved the most when I was forced to steer in bad conditions. Regardless though, unless you are in the process of getting a point before the start when you’re using bow pair, you shouldn’t be using the rowers at all to maintain your steering.

College Coxing Q&A Teammates & Coaches

Question of the Day

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Hi, I’m a novice coxswain for a men’s collegiate team. We have 3 8+’s and 4 coxswains so one person always has to sit out. During one of our races, the other novice coxswain got to cox 2 races while I had one. I don’t understand why the coaches picked her over me. She shows up to practice hungover, misses at least one practice a week, and has crashed the boat 5 times. The coaches keep commenting on how impressed they are with me but she always gets the better positions. Do I confront her? My coaches? Or should I shut my mouth and deal with it?

I wouldn’t confront her directly about it but I wouldn’t stay quiet about it either. If all those things have really happened your coaches have to at least have an idea about it – there’s no way they can’t tell when she’s showing up hungover or haven’t seen/heard about her crashing the boat.

Related: What’s your opinion on rowers smoking/drinking? Do you think there can ever be a balance or should athletes just avoid it?

This is a tricky situation because it’s hard to confront your coaches about a decision they made regarding a teammate without sounding petty. I would find time to sit down with them just to talk about your progress so far. What have they seen you doing well, what would they like you to keep working on, what have you been working on, what your goals are for the season, etc. Talk about your race and casually ask them what went into the decisions on who was boated where or why some coxswains got to race more than once. It’s vague enough that you aren’t saying “why was she in that boat?” but it’ll also give you the opportunity to hear their rationale for why which coxswains were in which lineups. You can also ask if the coxswains will rotate in the future between who does two races and who done one should a situation like this arise again.

If they ask you why you’re asking, you can bring up that when you look at yourself vs. the other coxswains and take into account what the coaches are telling you about your performance, you’re confused because the boats/races you’re being put in don’t seem to measure up to the feedback you’re getting. Hopefully this will initiate a conversation and give them a chance to tell you why you are where you are.

I have to imagine that they’d want to know about this other coxswain showing up hungover, crashing boats, etc. if they somehow don’t already because it’s a safety issue at the very least. The issue is finding the right time to bring it up, which there hardly ever is one until it’s too late and then it comes to “well, if you knew, why didn’t you say something?”.

Do the varsity coxswains know about these issues? One thing you could do is talk to them first and then they can talk to her from an upperclassmen/team leader/fellow-but-more-experienced coxswain standpoint. If they feel it’s necessary to go to the coach, you can go with them or you can have them come with you, whichever makes you comfortable. That way you can say that you weren’t sure how to handle it because you know it’s not your place to do so so you wanted to talk to someone with higher standing first but they thought it’d be best to go  directly to the you, the head coach. From there you can let them deal with it.

Q&A Rowing

Question of the Day

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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

Question of the Day

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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.