Day: December 3, 2013

College Coxing High School Q&A

Question of the Day

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Hello! So I am currently a senior in high school and a coxswain for the varsity girls at my school. I would like to walk onto a team in college but the problem is I’m a little big for a coxswain (5’7″, 120-125 lbs). I know weight matters but is it totally unrealistic for me to cox in college? (I stopped rowing because of serious hip problems that are relatively unfixable.)

I don’t think it’s unrealistic at all to walk on – you’re the perfect size to cox for the men’s team, if your school has one. Their max is 125lbs for coxswains, regardless of whether they’re male or female. Height really isn’t that big of a deal (I feel like most male coxswains I know are in the 5’7″ to 5’10” range) so I wouldn’t really consider that a factor. If it’s something you’re really serious about doing, email the coach sometime in the spring to introduce yourself and say that you’re interested in walking on to the team in the fall. Sometimes they’ll have you come to practices with the recruited athletes right at the start of the season since you’ve already got some experience vs. waiting to start rowing with the novice walk-ons.

Q&A Rowing Teammates & Coaches

Question of the Day

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I have some questions, but first … at my school rowing can be done for 4 years, 1st two years competing is in quads and the 3rd and 4th years are done in eights or fours. In my first year I rowed in the top boat for my age with three other girls, one in particular was stroke (call her Daisy) and I was three seat. In the second year, I rowed with two of the same girls again, this time I stroked and Daisy was in bow. We are half way into our third season, again Daisy and I are in the same boat, although this time in an eight, Daisy is now stroke, and I am switching between seats 7, 5 & 6. Lastly, Daisy and I are very similar, the only real difference is our weight in which I weigh more than her. So my questions are, What does this mean about Daisy and I? Why I am no longer stoke? How do you decide who should stroke? If I wanted to be the stroke of our boat, what should I do? Thank you!

To be honest, I don’t think it says much about either of you other than Daisy is good at setting a rhythm and you’re good at translating the rhythm and/or generating power. I highly doubt either of your weights has anything to do with it. You not being in stroke doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re a bad stroke seat – your coach probably just felt that you fit better in 5, 6, or 7 … or they have no reason at all and just felt like moving you guys around. If you really want to know why you’re in one seat instead of the other, talk to your coach. I really don’t think this is one of those things that needs to be treated like some super big secret so hopefully they can clue you in on their thought process as to why they like you in the seat you’re in now vs. where you were before.

Related: Hey, as a coach you might be able to tell me, in a quad how do you decide who goes where? And the same for an eight? Where you’re placed in the boat, should this tell you anything about where you “sit” compared to the rest of the crew?

I’ve previously talked about lineup positions in the post linked above so check that out. The fact that you’ve moved around a few times really isn’t a bad thing, although most people tend to perceive it that way. Over time I’ve come to conclude that in most cases, if your coach is doing it with purpose and not just randomly, it means that they think you’re an all around good rower who works in whatever seat they put them in. Some rowers, for whatever reason, only do well in certain seats, most often because they’re only able to row one side. If you can row both sides you can pretty much bet on being moved around a lot (at the very least within whatever four you’re a part of – stern, middle, or bow) because the coach knows you can function pretty much anywhere.

In terms of deciding who should stroke, I kinda discussed that in the post I linked to. The biggest factor for me is someone that has good technique and is able to set and maintain a rhythm immediately on the coxswain’s command. They’ve got to be a leader and have good communication skills because on the boat’s hierarchy totem pole, they’re right below the coxswain (in my opinion, at least), followed up by the bow man and then the middle six (sorry guys). As a coxswain I rely pretty heavily on my stroke to give me feedback on how they feel the boat’s moving, does it feel rushed, etc. so good communication between the two of us is key.

They’ve also got to be a leader because they literally have seven people following them at any given time. If their stroke isn’t good, bets are that a few other people’s won’t be either. If they’re slacking, other people probably will too. Knowing how important my relationship is with my strokes, I think it’s important to get the coxswain’s input too. If, for whatever reason, one coxswain and one stroke just do. not. get along in the boat, it’s going to take a lot to get me to put them together unless it’s completely unavoidable (like, if it’s our best coxswain and best stroke and they’re both 1V material). Bottom line, there are a lot of factors.

If you want to stroke the boat, again, talk to your coach and see why you’re in the seat you’re in and ask if that’s likely to be where you’ll stay throughout the season or is there a chance that you could try stroking again. My first question to you in this situation would be why do you think you should be the stroke? I’m looking for real, concrete answers here with some legit data to back it up. Saying you just want to be stroke because it’s the most recognizable position in the boat besides the coxswain ain’t gonna cut it. Saying you stroked the quad last year, won a decent amount of races, etc. also isn’t going to cut it. I want know whether or not you think you have a good working relationship with the coxswains (all of them, not just the one you’ve been with the most), how you feel your technique is, how comfortable you are with being able to go from one stroke to another within two strokes max, what kind of leadership you can bring to the boat, etc.

If you can give me good, well-thought, genuine answers to all of those questions, I’d probably consider trying you out in the stroke seat for at least a week to see how you did. After that, I’d get feedback from the coxswain, crew, and you, of course, and then decide whether or not a seat race were in order. Whether or not that’s the process every coach would follow, I don’t know, but I’d have answers on hand to those questions just in case.

Coxing Q&A Rowing Teammates & Coaches

Question of the Day

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The other day in our eight we were doing some pieces in which the coach didn’t think everyone was trying. She thought only two out of the whole eight was actually trying hard. She didn’t name, names but you could tell some people she believed weren’t doing anything. In the defense of the crew, the cox wasn’t saying anything, no motivation or anything. After the session I was talking to one of the ‘spare’ coxes who was in the speed boat with the coach. We discussed how she judged who was pulling and her main answer was that the coach was looking at peoples faces and at the puddles but mainly the faces. Personally, maybe I wasn’t trying my hardest (I know, but its hard when the whole boat seemed to be powered by only yourself) but I do not believe looking at faces would be the most accurate way of measuring who is trying as I can easily make faces, and I know some people whose face doesn’t change no mater how hard they are pulling. How do you tell?

Every coach has their own “way” but for me, the best way to tell is by looking for the bend in the oar throughout the drive. Assuming you’re getting connected at the catch, the amount of pressure you’re applying will translate into how much bend the oar gets. A good example is this photo of GB’s men’s four from the Olympics. If I’m not able to be directly beside the crew to look for this, I’ll look at other things like the puddles, the bodies, etc. (As a coxswain I’d go by feel and the puddles.) I hardly never look at the faces though, mostly because that never struck me as something that would accurately portray how much effort someone is putting in. Some people that I’m coaching right now can pull unbelievable splits on the erg but, like you said, don’t look like they’re exerting themselves at all. On the flip side, I’ve coached high schoolers who are barely pulling anything worthwhile but look like this guy every stroke. Can your facial expressions reveal how hard you’re working? Sure, but it’s not the most reliable way.

On a side note (and maybe a little off topic), I completely get what you’re saying about how hard it can be to row hard during a piece when it feels like you’re the only one doing something and/or the coxswain appears to just be along for the ride. This is why I find it so frustrating when I listen to recordings and the coxswain is either saying nothing or what they are saying is completely … stupid. As much as you might not want to pull hard in those instances, as a coach, I really encourage you to anyways. Not because that’s your job and what you’re there to do (even though it is) but because it shows me that you are stronger than the situations you’re put in. If you can tough it out through a piece like that it would make me think that you’re going to give 100% regardless who you’re rowing with and what boat you’re in. Having a not-very-good coxswain isn’t a 100% ironclad excuse to not pull hard because even though they should be talking to and motivating the crew, you, the rower, have to have some kind of inherent motivation that keeps you going if/when the coxswain stops talking. If for some reason you can’t think of something, use the standby of “my coach is watching me, this could be the piece that moves me up to (whatever boat you want to be in)”. When you’re seat racing, coxswains typically aren’t allowed to say anything other than time and the stroke rate which means that it will be silent except for the voice in your head telling you to keep going. If you don’t have that voice going when the coxswain is talking you most likely won’t have it going when they aren’t, which is when you need it the most.

I don’t know how supportive most coaches would be in this situation but I also wouldn’t be afraid to tell the people in your boat to start doing something once you’ve finished a piece. Typically I would discourage rowers from saying stuff like this because it’s more of the coxswain’s responsibility but if the coxswain’s not doing anything either, I think that opens it up for someone else to say something. (Please don’t all go and mutiny on your coxswain now…) I wouldn’t point out individual people and say “Yo Annie, PULL HARDER” but rather make a general statement like “come on guys, we were moving the boat really well earlier/the other day/whatever and now it feels like we’re dead in the water…”. Something that gets your point across without putting the blame on any one person. Even if you feel like you’re the only one pulling, avoid saying something like “I’m the only one doing anything” because that’s not going to help you out at all because it’s likely that the other seven people feel like they are the only ones pulling.

If your coxswain isn’t doing something that you need him/her to do, say so. Tell them that the boat as a whole feels unmotivated or whatever and that you need them to really get into it on the next piece. If there’s specific stuff you need to hear, tell them. (It might be best to do this before or after practice though.) Typically when coxswains aren’t talking it’s because they don’t know what to look for or say. If there’s something you’ve been working on over the last few practices tell them to focus on that and maybe two or three other things. For example, say you’ve been working on going into the water together – tell her to watch the boat’s timing at the catch and also make sure everyone is coming out together (finishes). In addition to that, have him/her watch your stroke rate (especially if it’s a capped piece) and communicate that every minute or two while also saying the usual motivational stuff, like where you’re at on other crews, what looks good, etc. (Reading all that might make it seem like I’m saying do their job for them but I’m really not. Hopefully everyone knows that by now…)