Day: May 12, 2014

Coxing High School Q&A Teammates & Coaches

Question of the Day

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I’ve been getting a lot of help from your blog lately, thank you! I’m in 8th grade and have been in coxing for 3 years. I recently went to states for the third time but I missed out on two days of practice right before the regatta. I don’t know the fine details but I wound up moving from the 4v to the 6v. This caused my normal rowers, the 4v girls, to start treating me differently. I’m not getting a lot of respect from the girls in my boat, it could be the age difference, but I’m hoping that I’m the most mature at practices than I am anywhere else. I have been moved back into the 4v but the girls still aren’t being as attentive and listening to my advice as I hoped they would be. This could just be some drama, but I feel that if there isn’t any “harmony” in the boat, we won’t compete as one boat. With SE Regionals coming up, I’m a little worried. Any ideas? Thanks.

I agree, I think it’s just silly drama. If you missed practice for a legit reason and your coach knew you were going to be gone, they have no reason to start acting differently towards you and not listening when you’re on the water. If you missed practice because you just bailed on them or whatever then yea, that would definitely explain why you got moved down and why they’re acting the way they are. If you want to know why you got moved down you should just talk to your coach and see what they say, although getting moved down for a couple days usually isn’t that big of an indicator of anything.

Maybe also bring up the issues you’re having with the boat and see if they have any insight into that whole issue since they see you at practice every day and would know what was going on during the two days you weren’t there that might have caused their attitudes to shift. You could also confront a couple of the people in the boat to find out what the problem is – who knows, maybe it is just the age difference and they think they can get away with everything more easily because you’re younger than them but you should really stick up for yourself and say that if they’ve got a problem with you then they need to address it directly instead of being passive-aggressive about it on the water and wasting valuable practice time.

Coxing How To Q&A Racing

Question of the Day

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I am coxing our V4 at regionals soon and realized that I have a lot of trouble coxing in bow loaders. I have trouble getting enough air in my lungs between words and feel like I can’t project my voice and can’t use my abs to cox. What would you recommend?

I’ve been waiting for someone to ask this – it seems like it would be a pretty standard problem with coxing bow loaders. Have you tried sitting up more? Obviously not so far up that you’re in your bow man’s way but just a little more than you have been? If you’re down so far that your chin is practically on your chest then that’ll definitely inhibit your ability to take in the amount of oxygen that you need, as well as decrease the range of motion you need to have in order to be able to contract your abs to help with projection.

Outside of strengthening your core (which will help a lot) I think experimenting with how you lay in the boat is going to be your best option. Talk with your bow man and let him/her know that that’s what you’re planning on doing over the next couple of practices and ask them to let you know if you’re sitting too far up and getting in their way (since doing so would affect their ability to lay back).