Day: July 2, 2014

Coxing Q&A

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So… I’m 5’6 and I weigh 132. I really like coxing and I suppose I could lose weight, but right now I only feel comfortable going down to about 125 (because of my shape and where my weight is distributed). I don’t really like rowing, but that may be because I can’t keep up with some of the girls on my team that I get paired with, I don’t like sweeping (but I LOVE sculling), I’m embarrassed by my painfully, horribly slow 2k, etc. etc. Basically what I’m saying is I’m in a huge rut because I’m too big to cox but too small to row well, but I’ve fallen in love with everything about the sport. What do you think I should do?

I’ve known people in similar situations, be it between rowing and coxing or rowing lightweight and heavyweight, and I’d guess that roughly half of them made it work and the other half took it as a sign that they’d gone as far as they could with their rowing career. I’d say you have two options. Option one, try coxing men. Their weight minimum is 125lbs so that tends to work in the favor of girls who aren’t comfortable going down to 110lbs or just have a natural body weight closer to that than to the women’s minimum.

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’ve got experience coxing (actual experience is always preferable to “I coxed learn-to-row twice a year and a half ago!”) then I’d consider looking into this. Option two is to hang up your rowing hat and enjoy the magical concept known as “free time” which you will find that you suddenly have an abundance of. Regardless of whether you’re a rower or a coxswain though, height and weight are important components of being competitive in this sport (no matter how much people would like to pretend they’re not) so it’s up to you to decide whether or not losing a few pounds is something you’re willing to do and/or would be comfortable doing.

College Q&A Recruiting

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I am very shy and talking to college coaches is super intimidating to me. I really want the chance to row in college and I don’t want my shyness to get in the way.

I don’t think it will. Not everybody is super outgoing or comfortable making conversation – there’s nothing wrong with that. As long as you’re not completely aloof when you meet/talk with them, there’s pretty much no way that being shy can work against you. I answered a similar question a couple weeks ago (linked below) about talking on the phone with coaches and I think a lot of what I said in that post would also apply to your situation, particularly the part about acting confident even if you don’t feel like it.

Related: Hey! This isn’t exactly about rowing but I was hoping you could help. So I have been emailing with a college coach a little bit and I am supposed to call him this week. The only thing is I get really nervous when I talk on the phone so I am really nervous about calling him. Do you have any advice about talking to college coaches on the phone? Thanks!

You already know that part of rowing in college entails meeting with coaches so there’s really no getting out of doing that. You essentially have to just take a deep breath, say “suck it up, this is part of the process”, and go in there ready to tell confidently tell them why you’d make a great addition to the team. Most coaches are pretty chill people too and very, very few of them are actually intimidating people.