What is your opinion on weight-adjusted erg scores? I’m about 105lbs and 5’1″ so due to obvious height disadvantages, my erg scores are a bit higher than other lightweights on my team. There is an older girl on my team who is older and a “worse” erg score but she has the seat in the ltwt 8+. Would you suggest switching to coxing? I asked my coach about it at the end of the fall season since our team is going to be short on coxswains at the end of the year but she was trying to avoid the topic. Any suggestions?

I’ve never really done much stuff with weight-adjusted scores before this year so I’m largely unfamiliar with the “science” but from the limited knowledge/understanding that I do have, I think they can be useful but really only for determining who gets a shot to be in a boat, not who actually gets in the boat. I think most people agree that on-the-water performance is the more important variable though. I’ve also heard that the heavier/lighter you are the less accurate it is so if that’s true it’s probably not doing you many favors since you’re only 105.

Weight-adjusted scores aside, I’d probably at least suggest looking into coxing. You’re pretty small and it’s no secret that it’s tougher to be a successful rower the smaller you are. I really don’t ever understand why coaches make this so awkward and try to avoid the subject when it gets brought up but if it’s something you’re interested in and you know you’re going to need coxswains anyways, I’d probably bring it up again at some point (although not repeatedly…) and just be very point-blank about it. The more beating-around-the-bush you do the more opportunity you’re giving your coaches to avoid the conversation (I’ve been on both sides of that so … trust me on this).