Month: September 2014

Coxing Q&A Teammates & Coaches

Question of the Day

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So I’m the only coxswain on my school team because we’re a really small team (Varsity 4 and Novice 8) and last spring I would do all of the land workouts with them, including erging. This year, (my sophomore year) my coach has been having me cox them on the ergs and it’s really helping my coxing. However, some of my low varsity/head novice rowers (they’ve only done one season) seem to think that this is unfair and are convinced that I don’t do anything. How do I react to this? Also, one of my novice rowers has a really bad attitude about rowing, and I’ll try to push her on the ergs but she says that she doesn’t care about her split. She’ll just tell me to stop trying cause her split won’t go down. When we’re in the boat (5 seat) she’s constantly complaining so loud that I can hear her and it’s distracting the rowers. What do I do? Thank you so much, I literally wouldn’t survive without this blog!

So, here’s how I handle rowers/coxswains with attitudes like that. I have what tends to work out as a three-strike policy – I’ll help you, motivate you, guide you, whatever you need but if you have the same “I don’t care, it doesn’t matter” bad attitude after each time I try to work with you then you’ve just given me all the motivation I need to say “mmk bye” and stop trying entirely. Why should I (or anyone else) waste my time to help someone who isn’t even willing to help themselves? I don’t have the patience for that (and I have no problem admitting that either).

That’s something coxswains need to get comfortable saying too – if you have a teammate who is doing something similar, I think it’s important (and necessary, at times) for you to be able to say “you’re on your own” if it comes to that after consistently putting forth an effort to help/motivate them. It doesn’t make you a bad coxswain, friend, or teammate either. Sometimes “tough love”, if you want to put a label on it, is what’s needed because it’ll help the other person come to one of two conclusions: A) they need to get their shit together and adjust their attitudes because the one they have right now isn’t doing anything for themselves or the team or B) this isn’t the sport for them.

I would talk with her one-on-one and firmly say that you’re at the point where you don’t know what else to do because she’s not giving you anything to work with and on top of that, her negative attitude is starting to become an distraction to her teammates, which isn’t OK. Let her know that she has a decision to make and that if/when she decides to adjust her attitude and recommit to the team then you’ll be there to back her up and do what you can to help her but until then, she’s on her own.

As far as your rowers getting pissed at you for oh you know, doing your job …*eye roll*. That doesn’t even make sense. If you’re doing what your coach is asking you to do and feel like you’re benefiting from it then sorry rowers but your opinion is irrelevant. To be honest, I’d give them an ultimatum the next time they say something to you. Either you can do what your coach is telling you to do and continue improving as a coxswain (since that is, in case they forgot, your role on the team) or you can workout with them to make them feel better about … whatever … and not spend the allocated time you have during practice focused on the things that’ll make you a more effective coxswain. Their choice.

This is one of the reasons why I caution coxswains against working out with their rowers. I’m not 100% against it but situations like this can be inevitable with certain groups of people and it’s honestly just not worth it to deal with it. If it’s to the point where it’s actually bothering you though, talk with your coach and see if he/she can say something to them to get them to back off. I honestly wouldn’t worry about it though because like I said before, you’re doing what you’re being asked to do and you’re getting something out of it. At the end of the day, that’s a lot more important than indulging a few rowers who insist on whining and pulling the “that’s unfair” card.

Coxing Q&A Teammates & Coaches

Question of the Day

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My coach has started setting boats and she didn’t place me in one. I am a novice coxswain but am the second most experienced on the team due to other coxswains going to college. Another girl that joined about a month ago has been set to cox the guys varsity boat and girls JV 4+ of our club. She does weigh less than me, (she weighs 110 and I weigh 120), but I was originally set with the lightweight girls boat so I don’t think weight is a huge concern. My coach switched some lineups around and I have been left without a boat. I have talked to her and my team has talked to her about placing me in a boat but nothing has changed. It seems as if she is trying to avoid placing me in a boat. Any ideas why this may be or what else I can do to be placed with a boat?

I honestly couldn’t tell you. I don’t know why a coach would purposely avoid putting someone in a boat unless they felt that they had a legit reason to. The only thing I can really recommend is talking to your coach again and asking why you’ve consistently not been placed in a boat and if there’s something you need to be doing in order to get put in a lineup, could they at least tell you what it is because right now you’re kind of at a loss.

Related: I’m a HS varsity men’s coxswain, but our club spends a lot of time sculling in quads and rowing small boats. As a result, I spend a lot of time sitting on the launch. However, I don’t exactly know what the best way to make use of that time is. Usually I just watch the rowers quietly and mention the occasional technique mistake if I don’t think my coach sees it, but I’m not really sure what the protocol is. Should I tell the rowers directly if I’m seeing something off? Should I try to talk to my coach about what lineups I think are working and what aren’t (he very occasionally asks my opinion on who should get seat raced and stuff like that)? Or is it better to just watch and note what’s going on so I can use it when we do row coxed boats?

Other than that, I’d suggest trying to make the best of your time in the launch (assuming that’s where you are when you’re not in a boat) by picking your coach’s brain about what they’re doing, what they’re seeing, any technical corrections they’re making, etc.

Erg Playlists

Music to erg to, pt. 55

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I’ve gotten a lot of emails lately and seen tons of stuff online about how everyone’s first 5ks/6ks are coming up soon so this week’s playlist is a mostly-heavy rock inspired one to help keep you going while you’re prepping for those. Remember, have a plan, let your coxswain know if you want to be coxed, and focus on staying consistent throughout the whole piece. Flying and dying never worked for anyone!

Coxing Drills Q&A Rowing Technique

Question of the Day

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Heeey so at the moment we’re doing a lot of work on the finish and the release but I am struggling to come up with calls that really work. I have a few basic ones but not many so I find myself repeating them over and over and over and over. Do you have any calls for technique at the finish and release that I could borrow or modify to suit my crew?? TY x

Good question. First thing (or first two things, rather) I’d do is talk with your coach about what he/she is specifically trying to achieve with the work you’re doing on the finish/release. Usually they’ll have at least one or two things in mind that they’d like to see the rowers improve on so find out what those are and as you’re listening to your coach explain them, write down 2-3 of the key things he says about each one (these should be short phrases, 5-7ish words max). From there, you can either use exactly what he said as a call or come up with a call on your own based off of his explanation.

For example, let’s pretend I had this conversation with my coach: “What I really want to focus on with these finish and release drills is making sure the guys are setting themselves up to have a good recovery and follow that up with a sharp, clean catch. If their posture is poor as they come through the finish it’s going to be hard for them to maintain the pressure with the outside hand that’s needed to tap the handle down and extract the blade from the water. That’s one of the reasons why we’re doing those pause drills at the release, to get them to think about staying up tall throughout the entire stroke and not slumping down into their hips as they lay back and draw through the finish. The other thing I want to focus on with the finish is making sure they’re continuing to move the handle consistently through the back end of the stroke and not giving up any of the speed from the front end.”

There’s a lot of info packed in that paragraph but that’s a good thing because it gives you plenty of inspiration to draw from. Something I did when I was in college whenever I’d try to get my biochem professor to explain something to me was I’d take my recorder and record our conversation so I could go back and listen to it later and pause it at the spots I thought were particularly important. This gave me a chance to actually process what was being said and compare his explanation to the notes I had from class vs. trying to recall everything he said a few hours later and forgetting half of what I asked him. I’d recommend doing this if you know you’ve got a specific question that (hopefully) has a long-ish answer, that way you can go back and review it later.

So, from that paragraph this is what I’d take away and what call(s) I’d create from it.

Take away: ” …making sure the guys are setting themselves up to have a good recovery and follow that up with a sharp, clean catch…”

Call(s): This is where I’d appeal to the coach’s good side while also communicating what we’re doing to the rowers. By repeating what he said to you shows you were listening and actually absorbing the information he was giving you. Even though this isn’t a specific finish/release call it achieves the same thing. “OK guys, as we go through this next minute let’s make sure we’re always thinking ahead to the next stroke and setting ourselves up for a smooth recovery. How good our catches are will be determined by how committed we are to having strong finishes and clean releases…”

Take away:  “…poor posture through the finish = hard to maintain pressure with the outside hand…”

Call(s): This is where you have to do some work and think about what the finish should look like when they’re rowing with ideal posture. What does that “ideal” posture look like when they’re in the finish position? You should be able to come up with … I’d say five or six things easily that you can then use and direct to either the entire crew or to individual rowers if you know they have a specific issue with something posture-related at the finish. (I know I’m not giving you anything specific here but … that’s the point. I want you to do the work and come up with this stuff on your own!)

Take away: “…pressure with the outside hand that’s needed to tap the handle down and extract the blade from the water…”

Calls: Remind them that just the outside hand should be used to extract the blade (younger rowers in particular tend to try and use both) and make a few calls about having a relaxed, flat outside wrist with the elbow up and out (find a happy medium between T-Rex arms and chicken wings…). Keeping the elbow up will help them maintain a flat wrist position which in turn will help them exert the right amount of pressure on the handle to get the blade out. Don’t be afraid to tell them to look out over their outside shoulder to see if their elbows are up or to have them glance down at their wrist, particularly during a finish pause, to see what if they’re flat or a little hunched. Obviously that’s not something you can see with anyone other than your stroke (and even then it can be tough sometimes) so telling them specifically what to look for and what to change (if necessary) is what you have to do in situations like this.

Take away: “…purpose of the pause drill = to get them to think about staying up tall throughout the entire stroke and not slumping down into their hips as they lay back and draw through the finish…”

Calls: I would say exactly this since sometimes it isn’t communicated well or isn’t clear to everyone why you’re doing certain drills. In cases like this I would also talk specifically to that one person in your boat who consistently has shitty posture (there’s always at least one) and say “Dan, we’re doing these pause drills for you. Through these next five strokes I want you to think about staying tall all the way through the drive and not losing any height as you finish the stroke.” This puts some personal responsibility on Dan and gives everyone else something to think about too. Another thing I like to do when I’m doing pause drills at the release is let them take 2-3 normal strokes and then on the third pause say “OK now everyone sit up…”. You will magically see everyone get an inch or two taller. Once I say “go” I’ll tell them to stay tall into the catch (said on the recovery), drive with the cores (said at the catch), and support it here (said as they come through to the finish). Basic reminders like this are a good way to get them to think about what they have to do at each point during the stroke in order to have a supported finish.

Take away: “…making sure they’re continuing to move the handle consistently through the back end of the stroke…”

Calls: For simple things like this I like to keep it basic and say “squeeze” (my most common finish call), “draw through“, “pull in high, snap at the finish…”, etc. Sometimes I’ll also say “keep the handle moving through the back end” on the drive and then say “snap” or “here” right at the finish as the arms draw through.

Take away: “…not giving up any of the speed from the front end…”

Calls: I was just talking about this with the walk-ons the other day. One of the most important things to remember at the finish is that in order to maintain your speed and give the end of the stroke a little extra “oomph”, there has to be a flawless transition from the momentum that’s been created by the leg drive to the draw through with the arms. The arm draw is responsible for taking advantage of the momentum created at the front end and carrying it through to the back end, so in order to do that there has to be consistent pressure exerted on the face of the blade as you come through the finish. I like to appeal to the musculature here and make calls like “squeeze the lats”, “elbows and triceps up”, “press back with the shoulders”, etc. Other times I’ll just say what I said at the beginning – we can’t give up any of the speed we got with the legs so keep the transition between the legs and body smooth and sharp. Another thing I’ve said is “don’t cheat the speed”, meaning don’t get lazy at the finish and expect the boat to do all the work for you.

The other thing I would do is talk to the rowers and find out what they want/need to hear. Some have individual things they’re working on, others are looking for more general reminders … find out what all those things are and make note of them. A lot of times they’ll say “if you could say something like X if you see me/us doing Y…” which is usually a good starting point for you to go off of and build your calls from there.

College Q&A Training & Nutrition

Question of the Day

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Hey so this is kind of a follow up to a question I asked earlier about not training over the summer due to plica. So a lot of girls came back out of shape and our coach hasn’t been happy with our scores. My captain/roommate told me that he’s thinking he’s going to withdraw one of our HOCR entries because he’s so upset about it. My coach did know about my injury but I’m really scared to approach him. He’s a great coach, but I’m just a nervous person/easily intimidated. Any advice?

Ah yea, I can understand being nervous after hearing something like that but you shouldn’t consider it to be a fact until you hear your coach say it himself. It’s possible he just said what he said out of frustration and not because pulling one of the entries is something he’s actually considering doing. He could be totally serious too but don’t get caught up in the rumor mill, even if it’s coming from someone you trust. I still think it’d be in your best interest to talk with him though and let him know where you’re at with your recovery. Acknowledge that you know he’s been less than impressed with where everyone’s at fitness-wise and you don’t want to make excuses for your scores or anything like that but this is what the doctors recommended you do over the summer, this is where you’re at now, and this is your plan going forward.

One of the things you have to consider too – and I know this is probably the last thing you want to hear – is whether you’ll be 100% by the time HOCR lineups are finalized. Basically what I’m saying is I wouldn’t try to rush your training over the next 2-3 weeks to achieve some stellar results just to make it into one of those boats because you could ultimately end up injuring yourself again (and even worse this time). This is another reason why I’d recommend talking with your coach. Ultimately the fall season doesn’t count towards anything and it really doesn’t matter that much in the long run. You’ll likely be much more valuable to your team in the spring so you’ve got to weigh the options and determine whether it’s worth it to go all out to make an HOCR lineup or take the fall slow and get back to where you were so that by the time your winter training trip rolls around you’re back on form and ready to go. You would definitely want your coach’s advice and opinion on that so again, set up a time to meet with him and go from there.

Coxing Q&A

Question of the Day

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I’m a first-year varsity rower in high school and am going into the fall racing season. I am the smallest rower on my team (5’3″ and 122lbs) and I know I want to become a coxswain later in my rowing career, such as in college or later in high school. Would it be better to make the transition to a coxswain as soon as possible or wait for a year or two?

Personally I think that if coxing is something you want to do in college then it’d be beneficial to have as much experience as possible going into it before you graduate, mainly because you don’t want to have to learn all the ins an outs of it while trying to get adjusted to what is essentially an entirely new lifestyle. There are obviously plenty of successful walk-on coxswains but if you’ve got the opportunity to start doing it now, why not do it? If you’re currently a sophomore then you could finish out the fall season and switch to coxing in the spring or just row for the full year and switch as a junior. It’s up to you. I would talk with your coach though and let them know that becoming a coxswain is what you eventually plan on doing but at this point you’re just trying to determine when would be the best time to make the transition.

Q&A Teammates & Coaches

Question of the Day

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Our assistant coach is not here this season and won’t be back until winter training so our head coach introduced a new assistant coach earlier this week. Every time she tries to correct someone’s form she says it in a way that sounds really mean and negative. After our last piece today our head coach gave us some feedback and told us what he thought was good and what could be improved. After he went to the other 8 she came over and told us we were “ridiculous and mediocre”. The other coxswains and the rowers on my team feel like she’s being way too negative and it’s making everyone feel awful. Sorry that was really long, I just want to know how to handle that kind of coach.

This is a situation where the team captains need to have a one-on-one meeting with the head coach. (If you don’t have team captains work something out so you have one or two varsity coxswains and rowers (each) that can meet with them.) The biggest thing that I’d have an issue with is her saying that you’re “ridiculous and mediocre” after the coach had already made his comments, which sound fairly positive from how you described it. That’s just not cool. I get how two coaches can see things in different ways but this is far from being the best way to address that and she should know that.

From the perspective of the rowers and coxswains, there is no “handling” of it on your end. Leave that to your head coach to deal with once you’ve spoken with him. I know it’s easier said than done for some people but don’t let her attitude get the best of you. I’ve had coaches like that too and usually my stroke and I would just look at each other, roll our eyes, and get on with whatever we were doing. Your head coach already gave you constructive feedback and that’s what you have to internalize and go with. Stupid comments like the one she made are the ones you brush off and ignore because they don’t mean anything. I’m not saying that you should always ignore the assistant’s comments in favor of what the head coach says, rather you should prioritize the comments that offer genuine feedback rather than the ones that just say “you suck”.

As far as everyone feeling awful because of it, this is where the coxswains have to step up and maintain the focus by reiterating the positives and rewording the overly-harsh negatives into something that the rowers can actually use. Negative feedback isn’t necessarily a bad thing but it’s gotta be delivered the right way for it to be effective. Plus, you have to know your audience too. If the coxswains can take what the coach is saying and give it to the rowers in a more constructive format then that’ll do a lot for how everyone feels. Granted, I can’t imagine the morale is going to be THAT great after dealing with this for awhile but that’s why I said the captains, seniors, whoever need to talk with the coach one-on-one and let them in on what’s been going on and how everyone is feeling.

Coxing Racing Video of the Week

Video of the Week: “The Turn”

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I’ll probably do an actual post on this a little later in the season but just putting it out there now that it might be worthwhile to talk with your coaches now or soon-ish about the regattas you’ll be attending this fall and which, if any, courses have hairpin turns like this, that way you can hopefully practice doing them before you’ve actually gotta do it during a race.

College Q&A Teammates & Coaches Training & Nutrition

Question of the Day

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Hey! At the end of the spring season I was one of the best rowers on my team. I had some of the strongest erg scores and was stroking the 1V8+. However I was rowing through an injury, it was a plica so there was no structural damage, and after receiving a cortisone shot, the pain went down a lot, so I was cleared to row though they said to go see another dr. over the summer for potential surgery. The Dr. I saw over the summer took an MRI and decided to try PT and an anti-inflammatory. She also said to limit my exercise to non-impact workouts, which pretty much meant no erging/rowing, running, or biking. I did do some swimming this summer and focused on building core strength. Now I’m back at school in pre-season, it definitely helped, and my knee is better. However my erg scores (obviously) haven’t been where they were and it’s been discouraging. I’ve been going to every practice to gain an advantage, before mandatory practice starts, but it’s so hard motivating myself to go when I know I’ll be in the middle of the pack, even though I know the only way to get better is by going. What’s worse is that my coach ignores me. This sucks because I’ve picked up that that’s what he does to the girls who maybe aren’t the top rowers on the team. Do you have any advice on how I can boost my moral?

Ah yes, I’m familiar with plica syndrome. I’m pretty sure the chondromalacia that the doctors say I have in the knee I dislocated is actually this. It’s definitely not a pleasant thing to deal with – I can’t believe you rowed through it! I wouldn’t keep doing that though if it starts acting up again just because you will, without question, end up exacerbating the problem and ultimately end up with an injury that is way more severe than this one and will keep you off the water for an even longer period of time.

Even though your erg scores aren’t where you want them to be right now, I think you can at least take comfort in knowing that they’re where they are for a legitimate reason and not because you were lazy and sat around on your ass all summer. There’s nothing wrong with being in the middle of the pack either. I know people look at it as some colossal failure if they were previously at the head of the pack but it’s really not that big of a deal. If you’re relatively in shape then you shouldn’t have any issue getting back to where you were in a reasonable amount of time.

Instead of focusing on getting your scores back to where they were just focus on improving where you’re at right now. If you’re currently pulling (for example) a 1:55 split for a 2k but your PR is a 1:46 then yea, no wonder you’re discouraged. That’s a lot of time to try and make up. Stop focusing on the 1:46 though and instead work on making small improvements on the 1:55. Eventually you’ll get back to where you were but it’ll be a lot easier if you set more reasonable goals for yourself (i.e. like maintaining a 1:53 on your next test…). Being able to knock off small goals on your way to a larger one is much more motivating and better for morale.

If you think your coach is ignoring you, set up a one-on-one meeting with him sometime this week so you can update him on what your doctors told you, what you did this summer in terms of working out, and what your plan is to get your times back to where they were. If he doesn’t have any idea as to what’s going on and it just looks like you came back to campus out of shape then I can understand why he’d be annoyed. I don’t necessarily condone ignoring you for it but I can at least where he might be coming from. Clue him in and go from there. I would also touch base with the sports med staff that works with your team and work something out with them too, that way you can tell your coach that you met/will be meeting with them so that he sees that you’re serious about taking care of yourself and you’re not being flippant about this whole situation.