Good luck working off all that turkey and stuffing. Sorry to all the lightweights out there…
https://play.spotify.com/user/1241641027/playlist/2JPqzNTdNn1HL4ferHcD98Month: November 2013
College Coxing Racing Recordings
Coxswain Recordings, pt. 14
Three Rivers Rowing Association 2013 Head of the Ohio Women’s Varsity 8+
Something that I’ve talked about before and talk about a lot with the coxswains I’m coaching is knowing when to call things in three, in two, “on this one”, etc. At 1:47 where she wants to increase the pressure she calls for them to do it “in two”. Now granted, during a head race you’ve got plenty of room to execute your moves and you don’t have to worry quite so much about running out of space like you do during a 2k but some things, like calling for an increase in pressure, don’t need that “prep period” that those two strokes give you. Instead it should be an immediate thing where the coxswain says “let’s increase the power with the legs, on this one … leeeegs chaaa … leeeegs chaaa” … or something like that.
Also, make sure you’re giving your crews regular updates as to your position on other crews (especially if you’re making a lot of calls about pushing them back, walking away, etc.), how far into the race you are (either distance-wise, if you know and/or time-wise since you have a timer on your cox box that you should have started at the beginning of the piece), etc. We just did evaluations with our coxswains last week and this was one of the most commonly made “requests” by the rowers so just keep in mind that little things like this are important for them to hear throughout the race and it requires absolutely no effort on your part to give them that.
Ultimately I liked her intensity and general tone throughout the piece but she was way too wordy and said a lot without saying anything at all. There weren’t many calls of substance and she got repetitive with a lot of them as the piece went on, in addition to like I said before, not giving any updates with regards to their position on other crews or the course.
University of Texas 2013 Conference USA 1N8+ Grand Final
The race starts at 4:00. Overall this is a solid piece. She does a good job executing the race plan, telling the crew where they’re at on the rest of the field, and maintaining her focus and energy throughout the race. She’s a little aggressive with the rhythmic coxing (in the sense that I feel like she’s really overdoing it), which prevented her calls from having a good flow to them, which I tend to think is a lot more effective in helping to establish/maintain rhythm.
I liked how at 9:08 she said “we’re gonna win this if you do what I tell you”, which is a pretty ballsy call that I think would really only work if your crew had complete and total trust in you as their coxswain.
Other calls I liked:
“We’re at the thousand, new race, sit the fuck up, get your blades the fuck in, and we’re going now…“
You can find and listen to more recordings by checking out the “Coxswain Recordings” page.
Holiday gifts for rowers and coxswains
It’s that time of year again! The ideas I’ve posted below would be great for both rowers and coxswains.
If they haven’t read Boys in the Boat yet, I highly recommend checking it out. It’s a great book about the 1936 UW team that raced at the Olympics and for being written by a guy who’s never rowed before, it captures the spirit of the sport really well.
Related: Books on rowing, part 1 and part 2
Other ideas include the Naked Rowers calendar, a funny car decal, a sturdy duffel bag to travel with, or some cool rowing gear.
For more gift ideas, check out the “rowing gifts” tag.
Image via // @leander_club
Video of the Week: Rowing on Lake Union
Music to erg to, pt. 17
This week’s playlist starts off pretty mellow (perfect for a warmup) before getting into Paul McCartney’s song “Live and Let Die” which, seriously, if you don’t like just leave. The song itself is amazing but it’s the guitar that does it for me every time. Beyonce’s “Countdown” seems like a good addition because who wouldn’t want a power 10 from Beyonce?
https://play.spotify.com/user/1241641027/playlist/1JJUfzLCmkbYTAo4wMS1cACoxing High School Q&A Teammates & Coaches Training & Nutrition
Question of the Day
Hello, I am a male HS senior coxswain who is 5’11”, 132lbs., and currently getting looks from several top level college coaches. Problem is, my HS coach says I am too heavy and I have been getting vibes that I may not be allowed to cox this spring due to my size. Compared to the other coxswains in my boathouse, I by far put my boat in the best position to win even despite my weight. I need to have a sit down conversation with the coaching staff to get things straight. I have a general idea of how to make my case to cox but I would like some more input. How would you suggest I approach this conversation? My boat is going to have our fastest season yet and I would like to spend my last HS year finishing what I started three years ago. Coxing is something I want to continue to do on a competitive level in college, so that makes things even more complicated. Also, as a collegiate coach yourself, and I don’t know if you can speak for the rest of the Cornell coaching staff, what is your philosophy about heavy coxswains? Any feedback would be appreciated. Thank you.
You are tall for a coxswain … is getting down to 120lbs even possible for you, let alone healthy? That should be what your coaches are asking you rather than giving you vibes like they’re not gonna let you race.
Truthfully, I don’t think you need to say anything other than what you just said. You and your crew are poised to have your fastest season yet (give reasons why you believe this, don’t just say “we’re gonna be fast!” – how do you know this, what are you basing it on, etc.), you want to finish what you started, you’re being looked at by multiple top collegiate programs, etc. and then list a couple reasons as to why YOU are the coxswain that puts this boat in the best position to win. Remember, it’s not about talking the other coxswains down, it’s about talking yourself up.
In addition to that, emphasize the fact that you’re being recruited by these collegiate programs and let them know how not coxing your last season in high school could hurt that. Obviously you’re going to know where you’re going to school before the season starts (presumably) but that’s beside the point. Getting that practice time, race experience, etc. are all huge factors here.
As frustrating as the whole situation is, try not to let your feelings towards it cloud your judgment when you talk to your coach(es). Listen to what they have to say, stay level-headed when presenting your case, and regardless of what the final decision is remember that you’re still a part of the team and it’s still your responsibility to contribute in whatever way you can. It might not be in the way that you’d hope but there is still a boat that you can help go fast or a coxswain you can mentor. Regardless of how things turn out, put it behind you, and move forward. You’re a senior which means everyone on the team is looking to you (whether you realize it or not) to set the example. Your actions and attitude following their final decision (in your favor or not) will play a huge part in communicating to your teammates what the “standard” is for people on your team. Do you hold yourself to a high enough standard that you can accept the decision and move on or are you going to be that person that bitches, complains, and badmouths the coaches weeks/months after the fact?
I definitely can’t speak for the other coaches but I don’t have a problem with “heavy” coxswains as long as they’re within a “common sense” range above the minimum. By “common sense” I mean just that – knowing that they are physically dead weight and therefore should be the lightest athlete in the boat, coxswains should use their common sense when looking at their weight in relation to their respective minimums if they aren’t naturally under them. 15lbs over it isn’t common sense but 5lbs is. For me, I ‘d say 7-8lbs over the minimum is the upper limit of that range. If you’re coxing lightweights I would say that range shrinks to 3-5lbs because … you’re coxing lightweights. The logic there should be obvious. If the coxswain was toeing the line, I’d casually mention it just to get an idea of what their plan is to get to weight (do they even have a plan?) and ensure that they’re being safe/responsible when it comes to nutrition, exercise, etc.
If a coxswain was over that I’d talk with them, explain my thought process, assess what weight they could reasonably be at relative to the racing minimum (because not everyone can easily be 110lbs or 125lbs), and then come up with a plan with them (and/or put them in contact with the strength coach/team nutritionist) to help them get there within a practical period of time.
Related: Defining the role of the coxswain: What coaches look for in a coxswain
When compared to more legitimate things like actual abilities, yes, it’s still a factor but their weight is at the very bottom of the list of things I look at when giving input on coxswains. If I can see that they’re taking it seriously, working out regularly, and putting the effort in it’s a complete non-issue for me. If they’re not putting the effort in or taking it seriously, then it becomes a bigger thing to consider, although still relatively minor in comparison to everything else.
Coxing Q&A Teammates & Coaches Training & Nutrition
Question of the Day
OK regarding the coxswains working out, I’m a coxswain who typically does abs and stuff on my own at home to stay fit and this season I started doing the ab circuits with the team but I have very strong abs (I used to be a swimmer) so I tend to do all of the stuff correctly without slacking and some of the rowers started giving me dirty looks because it makes them look bad to the coach. What should I do? They feel insulted that I’m doing something better than them. Should I slack a little?
Oh come on. Like, just because the coxswain is the smallest athlete in the boat that automatically means that they should be sub-par at everything just so the “real” athletes can look fitter, stronger, etc? Absolutely not. I played softball for 10 years before I started coxing, in addition to a few other sports here and there. I was in pretty good shape in high school and was frequently able to do the exercises as well as the majority of the rowers and better than some. (By some I mean like, 5 or 6 at most out of 50.) Not once did anyone give me shit for it. Our coach would make good-natured remarks here and there like “guys, are you really going to let a 90lb coxswain do more pushups than you?” and that would end up motivating them to try to do more pushups than me or two of the other coxswains who were also multi-sport athletes. That’s exactly what would happen too – we would essentially challenge them to “get on our level” and they would do it. I can’t speak for the other coxswains but for me, I saw it as just another one of my responsibilities as their coxswain to challenge them just as hard off the water as I did on it. I’m a viciously competitive person but this was never about one-upping them or trying to make them look bad to our coach – all it was was me trying to push them to do better.
Does it make the rowers look bad in the eyes of the coach if someone whose physical fitness contributes nothing towards generating power in the boat is performing better than them at certain exercises? I can’t speak for every coach but for me, it doesn’t necessarily make you look bad but it does make me raise an eyebrow, especially if it’s obvious that you should be performing better than them. There’s no excuse when it comes to doing exercises correctly. I literally cannot comprehend, no matter how hard I try, how some people don’t understand how to properly do a pushup or a crunch or a plank or one of the many other ridiculously simple exercises that we do. If you’re performing them incorrectly after you’ve been show the right way to do them, yea, you can bet your ass I’m judging you for it. This has absolutely nothing with how well the coxswain or anyone else is doing it. If you can’t even do a pushup right, do you honestly think that makes me confident in your abilities to move an oar through the water? No, it doesn’t.
Circling back around to your question, no, you shouldn’t “slack a little” just to make your teammates feel better about themselves. Just writing that pisses me off. The looks they give you are the looks I’m giving them right now. Seriously, if they put half as much effort into doing the circuits correctly and pushing themselves a bit as they do getting pissed at you for doing just that they wouldn’t have to worry about whether or not the coach was comparing them to you because there would be no comparison.
The bottom line is they need to step up and so do you. If I was talking to you as a group I’d be pretty damn stern with the rowers and tell them to either grow the fuck up or leave. I have no patience for stuff like this. With you, I would say that as much as I (as a coach and fellow coxswain) appreciate seeing you workout with the team, in this case I would rather see you standing up at the front of the room leading the workouts and ensuring everyone is doing them correctly and not half-assing anything. That means calling people out when they’re doing something incorrectly or when they’re slacking and pushing them to be at the level your coach (and/or you) expects them to be at. Instead of brushing it off when they give you dirty looks, assert yourself. Be a leader and lead your team instead of blending in with the crowd and letting them settle for anything less than excellence.
Coxing Q&A Teammates & Coaches
Question of the Day
We have a coxswain who always covers his microphone with his hand which he thinks gives him this like gruff thing going on, but the problem is we can’t always understand him and quite frankly, it’s annoying. I don’t get why he needs it when we’re not going into the wind but what should we do? Would it be rude to ask if he could please stop or what?
I know several coxswains that do/did this and they were all guys so it’s funny that you say your coxswain does the same thing. If you can’t understand him (and even if you think it’s annoying) you should just ask him to stop. I can understand trying to hold the mic a little closer to your mouth if the wind is particularly strong but it’s really rare that this is actually necessary. If what he’s saying is muffled then that negates whatever effect he’s going for anyways. As long as you aren’t rude when you say something, asking him to stop messing with the mic wouldn’t be rude at all.