Month: November 2014

Coxing Masters Q&A

Question of the Day

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So I’m the most experienced coxswain on my juniors team, and was asked to cox a master’s eight. It isn’t a racing boat or anything. Some of the masters just wanted to try sweep. The thing is both of my coaches and a few of the board members for the juniors team will be in the boat, as will my dad. I’m afraid that if I mess up, or if my coach isn’t a fan of my style, it could affect boat placement going into spring. Any advice?

It won’t. It would be really stupid of your coach to keep you out of certain boats just because he didn’t like your style of coxing. I was emailing with another coxswain about a very similar situation a couple weeks ago and a lot of what I told him applies to you too. In this situation, yea it might be awkward to have your dad, your coach, and some of the board members in the boat but when you’re on the water they’re none of those people – they’re just another group of rowers. Something that I’ve noticed with masters rowers over the last few years (both men and women) is that they tend to forget that on the water I (and the other coxswains) don’t look at them the way their employees, colleagues, etc. look at them – they’re not doctors, lawyers, university administrators, hedge fund managers, venture capitalists, small business owners, non-profit managers, contractors, advertising execs, etc. to me. They’re just rowers. If it comes off like you’re intimidated by them because of who they are off the water then you open the door for them to put on their manager/department head/executive hat and try to run the show because that’s what they’re used to doing every day. Don’t forget though, you’re used to managing people every day too, the only difference between the two groups being age.

The majority of masters rowers are great and come out just to have a good time with friends so trust me when I say all you have to do is the exact same thing you do during practice with your normal crews. Obviously you should make sure you’re on top of your game (that means steering good lines, not hitting things, communicating clearly and concisely, etc.) but if you excel at all of the basic coxswain skills any other day of the week then you’re not going to have any issues with these guys.

Below is another part of the email I mentioned earlier that I hope will help you out. Remember, you wouldn’t have been asked to do this if someone (your coach, I’m assuming) didn’t think you were capable. Don’t take the situation too seriously and have fun with it!

“The biggest piece of advice I can give you is if you get nervous, keep it to yourself. Act like every single thing you say and do is a deliberate action, not something you debated doing before making a decision. Be confident and have a good time! Coxing masters, even competitive ones, can be a lot of fun. They’ll probably joke around with you which will hopefully lighten the atmosphere a bit so just approach it like you would any other practice. Communicate with the coach, ask questions if you don’t understand something, need it repeated, etc., be clear with your calls to the crew, and use this as an opportunity to learn. Every crew is different so you can probably apply something you’ve done with your high school team to these guys and you’ll probably be able to take something away from this and apply it to your high school practice next week.”

Coxing Q&A

Question of the Day

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Hi, this is quite important as I have a race tomorrow, sorry it’s short notice and I completely understand if you don’t have time to answer this. Anyways I have taken my CoxBox home to charge before the race (as usual). I plug it in and it says 46% battery, 5 mins later it’s at 100%, so I switched it on and off to double check and it goes back to 46% or lower. I need as much charge in as possible as it’s a long race, and we’ll be on the water for 2+ hours. I don’t know how to fix it! I have tried also leaving it on charge all day and night, but again the same thing happens, it goes to 100% then when taken off charge back down to 46% or less. It’s always roughly the same number it goes back down to. Sorry if it doesn’t make much sense… bit stressed!!! 🙂

That’s odd. Off the top of my head I’d say try resetting the battery but that requires more time than it sounds like you have. If you can’t borrow another cox box (which you should try to do) then you’ll just have to find a way to deal with this one. Make sure your coach and crew know ahead of time that you’re having issues with it and then plan to use it as little as possible tomorrow before the race actually starts. Once it’s in the boat just leave it off until maybe 5 minutes before your race starts. Yea, that means you’ll have to project a little more than usual but if people are quiet and paying attention it shouldn’t be much of an issue. Make sure you’re fully hydrated beforehand too since this will help keep you from losing your voice. If it stays at 46% then I’d guess you’ll get maybe an hour or so out of it, provided you don’t have the volume up super loud, so just make sure you plan accordingly.

College Q&A Recruiting

Question of the Day

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Hi! So I live in New Zealand and I’ve had an email from a coach in the US saying she’s coming to NZ next week and wants to come and see me row. Any tips for what to talk about? I don’t really know much about the whole process and I don’t want to come off too eager/not interested. How will I tell if she is interested in recruiting me? Thanks so much!!

That’s pretty awesome, congrats! Check out the list of questions to ask prospective coaches in the post linked below. There’s some good ones in there that pretty much cover all your bases as far as recruiting, academics, the program itself, etc. goes. Obviously you don’t have to ask them all of those questions but pick out maybe 5-7 or so and keep them on hand for whenever you’ve actually got some time to talk one-on-one. If you don’t have much time to talk with one another ask if it’s OK if you send an email within the next couple of days with some questions that you have and then just write out whatever they are in a brief, bullet-pointed email maybe a day or two later.

Related: What questions should you ask during the recruiting process?

Also check out the post linked below on how to respond to a coach that asks “what should I know about you”, “tell me about yourself”, etc. That’d be one of the first questions that I’d ask a recruit (and it’s something I’ve been asked on nearly every worthwhile job interview I’ve had) so it’s always good to have something prepared just in case.

Related: When a coach asks “What should I know about you?” or “Tell me what me about yourself.”, what should you say? I was asked this question and completely froze because I had no idea how to respond. Please help! I want to be prepared next time.

As far as coming off too eager or not interested … just be cool. She’s a coach, not a foreign dignitary. Just be polite and act like you always do (aka a normal person). I imagine that if she’s interested in you then she’ll let you know at some point in the future but if it’s really bugging you to know then I don’t see why it’d be a big deal to ask where you stand next to the other rowers she’s looked at. I would probably save that for your follow-up email though just to give her some time to actually process what she saw in practice.

Related: I went on an official visit about two weeks ago. I am very interested in this school but I am still looking at some other schools (that don’t have rowing). I want to keep up a relationship with this school but I’m not sure what to say in an email to them. Thanks!

There are a lot of really great questions in the recruiting tag that cover pretty much everything you’d wanna know and some things you didn’t know you wanted to know so if/when you’ve got time, definitely try to spend some time reading through them.

Coxswain Recordings, pt. 26

Coxing High School Racing Recordings

Coxswain Recordings, pt. 26

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Brookline Boys V4+ vs. Duxbury and Arlington-Belmont

This coxswain recently emailed me their recording so below is part of my reply to them. If you’re coxing bow loaders, take note of the first paragraph. Like I said, it’s a one-in-a-million chance but keep in mind that for the work you’re doing, your body isn’t necessarily in the most efficient position and forcing it to do even more unnatural stuff (such as making your voice way deeper than it needs to be) can lead to less-than-pleasant outcomes for you.

“I like the way you called your start and the intensity that you had. The only thing I’d recommend here is to be a little more natural with it and try not to force your voice to be super deep, particularly if you’re in a bow loader. I was talking to a friend a few weeks ago who said that while he was coxing his four over the summer he actually developed a stress fracture from tensing up his torso too much and trying to force out a voice that wasn’t natural for him. It was so bizarre but I can see how it’s possible – you’re laying down and essentially doing a crunch every time you force the air out to make your voice deep like that, which puts a lot of strain on the muscles around your rib cage. Something like that happening is probably one in a million but it’s definitely something to be aware of. Doing that also wastes a ton of oxygen and energy which just ends up causing you to become tired and out of breath early on in the race.

At 2:05 when you say “bow pair, what are you doing for our boat right now…”, I would caution against calls like that because it comes off like you’re saying you don’t think they’re doing anything or that they’re not pulling as hard as the stern pair. Even if that’s true, you don’t want to make it seem like you’ve lost confidence in literally half your crew. Instead, I would eliminate that part entirely and just say something like “bow pair, let’s channel your power into the next five finishes … squeeze it through and send the boat … ready, on this one“. That way you’re getting them to think about harnessing their power, you’re giving them a specific part of the stroke to target, and you’re putting a bit of responsibility on them for the next few strokes to really make the boat move. Ideally you’d follow that up with some positive calls during the five (“yea bow pair…”, “that’s it…”, etc.) to maintain the momentum and motivation too.

You’re doing a great job of telling the crew where they are on the other crews. This is where a lot of coxswains fall short and you’re nailing it. Great job.

At 2:39 when you tell Kyle to get his seat ahead of another crew “before this bridge”, in the future I’d just throw in how many strokes there are until you reach the bridge since that’s obviously something you can see but they can’t. I’d say something like “Alright Kyle, we’re 15 strokes out of the bridge, I want you sitting on their bow ball when we come out the other side – you’re leading this 10, ready, GO…”. Again, it gives that person a bit of personal responsibility while letting them know exactly what you want and how many strokes they have to do it in.

If you find that the splits are starting to creep up towards the end, instead of saying “get them back down” or something equally as vague, relax your voice and just talk to the crew. Take all the tension out of the air and get them to relax. They’re tired, they’re in pain, they can’t breathe, and they just want this to be over but you’ve still got 400m left … what are you gonna do? Take 5 to breathe, 5 to relax the shoulders, 5 to refocus, and 5 to recommit and reestablish the ratio. Focus your calls specifically on only those things when you’re calling for them. When you’re calling that last five, remind them to lengthen the recovery, power through on the drive, swing together, and feel the rhythm. From here you should be able to go right into the build for your sprint.

Last thing, when you’re calling for them to get the rate up, remind them to get it with power on the drive, that way everyone is going after that higher rate the same way at the same time.”

Winter Park High School 2014 Bertossa Cup

This style of coxing is perfect for pieces (5x5min, for example) during practice. There’s a good balance with the calls and the tone is just aggressive enough. During a race I would probably want her to be a little sharper and more concise with the calls (vs. dragging them out a bit here) but for practice pieces this is totally fine. Definitely give it a listen though because it’s just another example of good coxing and you really can’t ever have too many of those.

You can find and listen to more recordings by checking out the “Coxswain Recordings” page.

College Q&A Recruiting

Question of the Day

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I chose not to go through the recruiting process but I am interested in walking on to a team next fall. I am still deciding between a couple schools and I was wondering if it would it be worth it to email the coaches about walking on? Thanks for everything you do!

It’s always worth it to email the coaches ahead of time but don’t feel like you have to if you’ve got a lot going on right now and don’t have time. The teams almost always have a table at the student activities fair at the beginning of the year where they sign people up who are interested in walking on so if you just want to wait until you get to campus, that’s an option too.

College Q&A Teammates & Coaches

Question of the Day

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Hey, thanks for answering everyone’s questions on your blog! It is a really nice thing to do for the younger generation of rowers. Anyway, I’m a varsity coxswain on a student-run college club team and I’m getting to be fairly concerned about my 7-seat, who is the Team President. He handles almost all the administrative work for both the men’s and women’s side and in addition, he has to liaison with the university’s Rec Sports department, organize all the outside workouts, make the regatta travel plans, et cetera, et cetera. He spends hours and hours on the team every day, and this is on top of a really tough biology major too.

Although he puts on a brave face in public I feel like he’s starting to crack under the pressure. He’s a really nice person but his patience is just becoming shorter, he seems exhausted, and apparently his classes aren’t going well – he’s already to the point where he’s sure he’s failed one and is going to have to retake it next semester. I’m just a freshman, new to the team, and he’s a senior so I don’t want to step out of line. At the same time, however, I don’t want to watch a teammate become overwhelmed as a result of rowing and not do anything. If I talk to the coaches or directly confront him about delegating some of the workload I feel like it might be embarrassing or come off like I’m questioning his leadership. I don’t want to start any drama this early in my college rowing career but I don’t really see any other options to help the situation. What should I do?

I’d probably talk with him one-on-one and say that you really want to start taking a more vested interest in the behind the scenes stuff that goes along with running the team and wanted to know what little things you could take off his plate. In theory it should be the other board members that should be helping him out with this stuff so I wouldn’t try to take on any of the major responsibilities but little things that are email, paperwork, etc. related could be helpful.

I don’t think offering to help is out of line or anything but if he’s already stressed then I can definitely see how it might come off like you think he’s failing at his responsibilities or something. If he says no thanks or is weird about it then just say “OK no problem but if you do need help with stuff in the future, just let me know and I’m happy to do whatever”. Sometimes just making it known that you’re there if they need something can be beneficial, particularly for people that don’t like asking for help in the first place. I’m like that and I would much rather people just say they’re there if I need something, feel free to reach out, etc. rather than butting in and offering help when I haven’t asked for it or trying to solve the problem for me.

Q&A Teammates & Coaches

Question of the Day

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This can be super quick, but there’s a girl on my team who is starting to try to bully other girls off the team. I’m one of the captains, and there’s a girl who’s a sophomore who is very dedicated to the team and the sport but recently has had a lot of other obligations. She still makes it to practice when she can and works her butt off when she does. This second girl thinks that since the sophomore isn’t coming to practice as often as she is, that she “doesn’t deserve to be on the team and might as well never come back because I don’t want to see you at practice again.” This is obviously not OK. I’m worried to approach the girl because I’m sure she’ll twist my words and go back to the coach. I’m worried to approach the coach, because I think she’ll probably tell me that it’s my responsibility to make sure the sophomore is at practice. Am I making way too big of a deal over this? I haven’t been captain for very long, and I’m obviously new to this whole “team responsibility” thing.

Take one of the other captains with you and approach this girl together. This protects whichever one of you does the talking because the other one can corroborate what’s being said in case the rower does go back to the coach and try to twist things (just make sure you don’t gang up on her or anything like that). Make it clear to her that she needs to chill and recognize the fact that she’s negating whatever work she’s doing at practice by having such a shitty attitude. Unless she knows something that no one else does about why the other girl is missing practice (i.e. something that puts her or someone else in danger, reflects poorly on the team, etc.) then why she isn’t there is really none of her business and it’s not her place to be making the comments she’s made.

If your coach’s kneejerk reaction is to tell you to get on someone about their attendance instead of addressing the bullying issue then his/her priorities are way off base. Obviously you want attendance to be high all year round but it’s not like it’s any major secret that if you absolutely have to miss practice for other commitments then winter is the time to do it. Half the people I rowed with in high school swam or played basketball and typically missed that entire “season” or people would take some time off to study for the SAT/ACT if they registered for the Dec/Jan/Feb tests. It’s not the end of the world if someone has other obligations from November to March.

At the very least I would say something to give them a heads up that you’re planning on talking to that girl just in case she comes to them afterwards and says something. If you’re worried you might inadvertently throw the sophomore under the bus if you say the real reason for all this then just say that you’ve been approached about [whatshername] making some bullying-like comments towards some of the other rowers and you and [the other captain] are planning to talk with her about it but you wanted to let them know what was going on beforehand in case something gets back to them later. If they ask what the “bullying-like comments” are just say you don’t know the specifics but are planning to find out before you talk to her.