Month: December 2013

College Coxing How To Novice Q&A Teammates & Coaches

Question of the Day

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Hi. I am a newly converted college coxswain. I have been researching like crazy about how best to motivate my rowers and I was wondering what you thoughts on this are. I have seen several videos and articles (probably some on here even) that say its on a boat-to-boat basis, but would you possibly have any bits of generic advice on how best to motivate my boats?

Interacting with the boats you cox is very similar to how you interact with your different social circles – you follow the same basic principles but you tweak it to fit the individuals you’re with. Once you start rowing with a boat on a regular basis and get to know the rowers better, you can start asking them what they want/need to hear during a piece. My default is to get one general thing from each person, something like a boat-wide or an individual technique issue (aka something easily addressed) and one personal, specific thing. Make sure you’ve got a notebook so you can write down and look back on what they tell you otherwise you’ll never remember.

My generic advice is less about the calls you make and more about you.

Be present, physically (obviously) and mentally. If you’re invested, they will be too. Even if you’re doing drills and are bored out of your mind (which you will be at some point), stay engaged and don’t let your tone convey anything else.

Be honest. If something isn’t going the way it should be, tell them. Don’t gloss over it in lieu of not hurting their feelings. They’re big kids, they’ll survive. If you see them doing something good, point it out. If it’s something that you’ve been working on for awhile and they finally got it, get hyped. Your enthusiasm will translate to them (just like your lack of enthusiasm will too). If something isn’t going right, point it out and tell them what they need to do to fix it while also throwing in a casual compliment on something that they’ve consistently been doing well. (You know the phrase “compliment sandwich”? Similar to that but less cliche.)

Don’t assume that you have to be the sole thing motivating eight individuals. You don’t. I tell every coxswain this but you cannot motivate someone who is not inherently motivated themselves. If they’re not already motivated by something internal to show up everyday and strive to succeed at the highest level, it’s going to be extremely difficult for you to help them out. If someone seems unmotivated to you, that should be your cue to take them aside and say “dude, what’s up” instead of doing the opposite and thinking “Well, if some motivation is good, cheerleader-level of motivation must be great! I’ll do that!”. The more you try to motivate them without finding out why they’re unmotivated in the first place, the more it’s going to backfire in your face. Each crew’s motivation is different so if you’re coxing multiple boats, make sure you’re not coxing your JV8+ the same way you’re coxing your V4+. One crew can find demoralizing what another finds encouraging so it’s important to recognize that motivation in general isn’t a one-size-fits-all thing.

Tone of voice is everything. I alluded to that in the first bullet point but it really is one of the most important aspects of coxing. How you say something is just as important as what you say. Know what tone is appropriate for what you’re doing at the moment and adjust as necessary. Do not be a monotone robot.

Always tell them what’s happening around them. Ideally they’re not looking around trying to figure out where they’re at, where the other crews are, how far they are from the line, etc., so in race or practice-piece situations, they’re relying on you for that information. It might not seem like it’s that motivating to hear their location and stuff but when done properly, it is. If you say “100m down, 1900m to go” you better hope your legs move fast once you get back on land because they will eat. you. alive. Something like “We’re crossing 750m now, this is where we dig in to make our move and take back that seat from FIT. I’ve got bowball on two seat, gimme their bow man…” would be more appropriate. Never underestimate the power of these kind of calls to motivate your crew. They are an essential part of your repertoire.

Other than that, the last generic tip I can offer is to not force anything and don’t try to do everything right away. Learning how to best motivate your crews, even in the general sense, takes a bit of time. Listen to some of the recordings I’ve posted and read what I’ve said about them (click the individual “parts” at the top to see this) too. I typically try to note what I think is motivating, what doesn’t, how it could be done better/differently, etc. so that should help you come up with some calls to try the next time you go out.

Coxing Q&A Rowing Technique

Question of the Day

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Now that we’re deep into our winter training schedule, we’ve started rowing longer sets of things. My coach doesn’t call them “pieces” or anything but we’ll be rowing and doing drills and then he sends us off and is like “take it all 8 to X-bridge”. I never know how to cox that, it’s ~3k so do I cox it as a long piece or just like technique-y practice type stuff? The other two coxswains I go out with call 10’s and I do sometimes but not as often as they do. Should I ask my coach what he wants?

I would definitely ask your coach for clarification just so you know if there’s something specific that he wants you to work on. By default though I would probably try to focus whatever technical calls I make on whatever we were just working on with the drills. If you want to just row then I’d do something in the 18-24 range, such as half a pyramid (4′ at 18, 3′ at 20, 2′ at 22, and 1′ at 24).

I’d stay away from just calling 10s and stuff because that’s not accomplishing anything. You’ve got 10-15 minutes to work with so use it to your advantage. Don’t waste it just rowing and calling power tens every few minutes to make it seem like you’re doing something.

Coxing How To Q&A

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Any tips on keeping a straight course in the dark when it’s hard to see things to point at?

I hadn’t coxed in actual pitch black darkness until I was in college. It was hard but as time went on what helped me the most was becoming very familiar with the water during the daylight hours. Doing this meant that I could stay on autopilot with my steering when it was dark out instead of forgetting about all my other responsibilities and constantly leaning out of the boat, looking around, etc. to see where I was (although I still did this on occasion if it was raining, snowing, or foggy). When I first started coxing at Syracuse, since I was pretty unfamiliar with the river, I’d pick out various markers along the shore, typically a light of some kind, a boat that was docked nearby, etc. and count the number of strokes it would take to get to a bend or turn. When we got to that point I’d know that in three strokes I’m gonna need to steer lightly to starboard. It was a pretty simple solution that didn’t require much effort or overthinking. In Boston I didn’t have to worry about this as much because there’s so much ambient light around that we were never really in the dark.

If you’re already comfortable with steering then you’re probably operating on autopilot the majority of the time you’re on the water anyways but you’ve got the benefit of being able to see your surroundings. When you lose that ability or it becomes harder to do you’ve got to use what you know of what the river looks like during the day to help you out. One of the big cons of autopilot is that you only focus on what’s directly in front of you instead of everything that’s surrounding you. The more you’re aware of your surroundings the easier it can be to steer, regardless of the time of day.

When you’re on a river, you might be tempted to get close to the shoreline (closer than you normally would) and follow it but I’d advise against that because you never know what’s under or hanging out into the water, how shallow it is, etc. and you risk damaging the boat or injuring a teammate. If anything, I’d say position yourself slightly closer to the middle of the river (provided there are no crews coming in the other direction) so that you’ve got more of a buffer against the things you can’t see.

If you’re on an open lake or body of water, the biggest tip I can offer is to just not steer. Hold the rudder straight and only make adjustments if your coach tells you to. Also talk to your rowers – let them know that it’s tough to see and you need them to work with you so that you can maintain the point you’ve got. This means rowing at the same pressure as everyone else and/or making immediate adjustments when you call for one side to come up or go down in pressure for a stroke or two. If you can see something far off in the distance, like a cell phone tower or something, use that as your point.

If you really can’t see anything though, you should say something to your coach. They can sometimes underestimate what our field of vision is like and how tough it can be to see as it gets darker.

College Coxing High School Q&A

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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…)