Day: May 5, 2014

Coxing High School Novice Q&A Teammates & Coaches

Question of the Day

By

Hello!! First I just wanted to say that I am a high school novice cox and your blog has helped me so much. But I have a problem. My varsity/head coaches are so supportive and nice, but my novice coach isn’t. She has missed practice almost everyday for 3 weeks, and she flipped when I missed practice one day for an appointment that I had scheduled months in advance. She’s a good athletic coach who knows a lot about rowing and sports injuries, but not about feelings. At our last regatta my dad was talking to her. Today at practice in front of my whole team she blamed for the team’s loss. Considering the fact that she hasn’t been a real part of the team and then just shows up out of the blue, I think that’s part of what messed up the team. She came in and changed our start sequence and everything that we’ve learned. She kept knocking me down in front of the team. It got the point that I came home and cried for two hours. Everyone on my team calls her “a hero” because of how much she knows. I agree that she knows a lot about rowing, but not about coxing. What should I do?

Whoa. Personally, I automatically lose a lot of respect for any coach that calls someone out like that in front of the team, especially in a sport that is as team-oriented as rowing is. That’s just not cool. I can’t really even understand her frustration with you missing practice due to an appointment that was scheduled months in advance. If you’re a novice how likely was it that you knew you’d be doing crew when the appointment was made anyways? Regardless, it’s pretty hypocritical for her to be upset that you missed one practice if she’s not even consistently there.

If you’re not comfortable talking directly to her, I’d say that if you’ve got a good relationship with your head coaches, talk with them since that’s obviously who she’d report to hierarchy-wise. You could also have your dad there if you wanted since he talked with her at your regatta and might have addressed some of the issues you’ve been having. Explain the issue(s) to your coaches though and say that while it’s obvious that she knows her stuff about rowing, it’s coming across like she doesn’t understand much about coxing and it’s becoming very frustrating for you because instead of being coached you’re being blamed for team losses, etc. Hopefully from there either they can talk with her or have a group meeting with you and her. I would say outside of just ignoring the negative things she says, talking with them and hoping they can address things with her is probably your best/only option.

High School Q&A Teammates & Coaches

Question of the Day

By

Hi OK on my team novices don’t go to regionals unless you’re in the fresh 8. So anyways for the rest of the year those who aren’t going have to row in pairs which is awesome but we have assigned pairs and the girl I’m with is bow and she is so horribly bossy and mean and she yells at me and blames me for everything that goes wrong. I’ve talked to the coach but she said we just need to work it out and I even took a starboard rigged boat just so I could be bow but she still acts like she’s the coxswain. How should I deal with this? I really like rowing pairs but she makes it so awful.

After you talked with your coach did you then try to talk to your pair partner off the water about all this? I would say that if you did and nothing changed (after say, three to five days) you should go back to your coach and say that you tried to talk/”work things out” but nothing came of it and is there any way that you could switch partners because the current setup isn’t working. Maybe it’s just me but it really irritates me when coaches say “work it out” and expect that to birth some magical solution that suddenly fixes whatever problems there are. Like, yes, I understand that people need to find solutions to their own problems and act like mature (young) adults but at the same time, you’re the coach. Being a mediator in situations like this is part of your responsibility. If someone says something isn’t working, I feel like the natural course of action would be to figure out why it’s not working (by talking to the people involved), make some observations, and make a call one way or the other. Telling teenagers to “work it out” and not getting any more involved than that sounds like a great way to escalate the drama. Like I said, maybe that’s just me that thinks that but whenever I hear a coach saying “work it out” it just sounds like they’re saying “I’m above dealing with this”.

The next time you go out for practice, let her be the bowman. I know that’s probably not the ideal solution for you but in terms of safety, if she’s going to talk over you when you’re in bow anyways, she might as well just be back there herself. As much as I’d love to fight (and win, obvs) every battle, sometimes you’ve gotta pick and choose which ones are worth are engaging in. This one’s not worth it because ultimately your safety is more important that whatever issue you two have with each other.

Talk to her before you go out and say that the last few practices haven’t been very productive for you because it feels like she’s being overly aggressive with … well, everything and that’s taking your focus away from actually rowing. If there’s a certain way that works best for you in terms of how constructive criticism, etc. is given, tell her that. For example, “If I’m doing something wrong or could make an adjustment, the best way to say that to me is to XYZ, rather than just yelling at me.” Maybe the two of you just need to spend some time figuring out the best way to communicate. Until you’ve tried that and found that that’s not the issue (or that the issue extends beyond that), don’t assume that simply talking it out won’t make a difference.

If you try that and find that nothing changes, like I said before, go back to your coach and see if she can pair you with someone else. Rowing in pairs is a great way to work on your technique because it really highlights and magnifies a lot of little things that would otherwise get covered up in the eight. You definitely want to make sure you’re taking full advantage of the time you have in them. If you feel like that’s not happening, you should make that clear to your coach and let her know that this really isn’t about you not wanting to row with your current partner because you don’t get along but rather because you want to be paired with someone who’s going to actually help you get something out of practice (and for whom you can do the same).

College Coxing Q&A

Question of the Day

By

Hi Kayleigh! I’m a sophomore rower and at the moment I’m 5’7″ and around 130 pounds. I know I’m on the tall side, but I think that I could get to 120/125 pounds and still be healthy. While I do love rowing, my real interest and passion is in coxing, so I was wondering if you think coxing men in college is a viable option for me, and if it is, what I can do to get there. Thanks!

Check out the post linked below. That person was also a sophomore and I think what I said to her would also apply to you – at 15/16 years old, you’ve gotta assume you’re not done growing yet so it’s tough to say whether you’ll be the same size or not by the time you get to college.

Related: Hi. I’ve been coxing for my high school rowing team for about a year now and unfortunately I’m 5’8″ and 134lb but I fit in the coxing area easily. I’m very scared though because I really love coxing and I want to continue to do it in college but I’m afraid I won’t be able to get very far with it due to my weight and height. I’m a sophomore in high school and I just want to know if there was a way I could still competitively cox in college or should I give up because my size stops me?

My gut feeling is to say stick with rowing and then when you get to college, reevaluate and go from there if doing crew is still something you’re interested in pursuing. The school you go to will also dictate the likelihood of you being able to cox – the schools that are super competitive tend to be very strict about their coxswains being as close to racing weight as possible and two years from now it may or may not be viable for you to lose 5-10lbs and still be healthy. Your height isn’t as big of a deal even though you might feel kinda cramped at times depending on what brand of boat you’re in. Every body is different though so that’s something you would have to judge on your own. Club programs and the like are usually less strict about people having the natural rower or coxswain build so I would say if you really wanted to cox, you’d probably have a better shot with a program like that.

Related: Hi. I’ve been rowing on my high school team for four years now and I’ve been considering continuing crew in college. However, my times aren’t good enough to be recruited and I’ve always wanted to cox. People have told me I would be good at coxing but my coach wants me to row for him. But my weight is an issue. I’m 5’3″ and weigh around 140. I don’t know if I can healthily get down to a weight to cox, so is it possible for me to cox men? Thanks!

If you do eventually decide that’s what you want to do, you’ve got two options – show up whenever they have walk on tryouts and say you want to be a coxswain or email the coach before you arrive on campus and say you’ve got X number of years of rowing experience but you’re interested in walking on as a coxswain, at [height]/[weight] what’s the likelihood that you would be a good fit (literally and figuratively) for their program?

Racing Video of the Week

Video of the Week: Why Losing Matters

By

“My favorite part about losing is that it gives us a focus on our passion.”

We’re coming into the toughest part of the season so I really recommend that you take a few minutes (seven, to be precise) and watch this video. It’s from Natalie Dell’s Ted Talk at Penn State a couple months ago. Losing, as much as it sucks, is an important part of competing and it’s also an important part of winning. It’s something you have to (and inevitably will) experience in order to appreciate the races where your bow is the first to cross the line.

There’s something to learn and takeaway from every loss so don’t waste that opportunity by solely focusing on the fact that you didn’t win. It might take a few days, weeks, or months before you can sit down and analyze what happened (and that’s OK) but in order to improve as an athlete, it’s something you’ve gotta do. And like she says in the video, you can win a race without coming in first. If it’s the first time your team has medaled in that event, a PR for your crew, etc., that’s a win. Some wins come with tangible rewards but the majority are mental, emotional, and psychological – sure, the tangible ones are easier to display but most of the time it’s the rewards you can’t see that keep you coming back for more.