Got 2 very different questions:

1) How would you describe the difference between a good men’s coxswain and a good women’s coxswain?
2) I’m going to be head of coxswains this fall – we call the position the Cox-Coach – so I’ll be in charge of cox education, both for novices and varsity. I’m already asking for input from our current coxswains and rowers, but here’s my question for you: ideally, what would week one look like in the training of a novice college coxswain (before ever going out on the water), and what are specific ways to help continue coxswain education long term?

Thanks!!

I’ll use our coxswains as an example for your first question because we just went over their evals from spring break today and it’s fresh on my mind. We have two women and one guy that make up our team of coxswains – the guy is a senior, one of the women is a junior, and the other is a freshman. All three of them are very good but what separates the guy from the girls (and why our team tends to favor him for racing) is his style of motivation. When we’re doing hard pieces he’s very loud, aggressive, raw, and in your face (you’ll see this when I post the videos I took last week). One of the rowers commented on his eval that he’s very good at getting them focused on pulling hard and winning but on the flip side he tends to only focus on rowing hard instead of first getting the individuals and crew as a whole rowing well. Basically his forte is that testosterone-backed style of motivation that just comes a lot more naturally to men than it does to women.

Alternatively, both the women bring a very calm energy to the boat. They can get aggressive when they want/need to but it’s a more calm motivational style that you typically associate with women. The energy they bring to the boat as described by the rowers is a more practical energy that they use to get the crew rowing well and swinging together. Having primarily coxed women in school this is definitely how I’d describe several of my friends. Personality-wise they tended to be a little more quiet and reserved off the water than others of us and that was reflected in their coxing style on the water. One thing I think we (and most women’s coxswains I know) were all really, really good at though was getting inside our rowers heads in that sick way that only women can do to each other. (I know some of you will know exactly what I mean by that too.) In my experience both with the men’s crews I’ve coxed and with coaching these guys, they all definitely prefer the more raw, in your face style whereas women’s crews don’t respond nearly as well compared to the calmer, more tactical approach.

So, I guess to answer your question … even though the answer is completely subjective based on each individual crew … what I think it comes down to is their style of motivation. Women’s coxswain also have to be a little bit better at how they phrase things and their approach to motivating certain personalities since in general women are a little more sensitive on that front compared to guys. The guys on our team probably wouldn’t blink an eye if our coxswains told them to stop being little bitches but if you said that to a women’s crew it probably wouldn’t go over as seamlessly. If anybody has any thoughts on this definitely feel free to share down in the comments.

For your second question, I think the first week should be spent just getting them familiar with the program and how things are run. Off the top of my head that’d most likely entail giving them a complete tour of the boathouse so they know where they can find things, where things are stored, which boats/oars are used by which crews, what the procedures are for various things (for example, how to notify someone that something isn’t working or needs fixed – we have a system for this at our boathouse where the rowers/coxswains/coaches fill out a slip that details whatever the issue is and then we attach it to a clipboard outside the workshop), etc.

Also introduce them to any relevant people, such as other coaches (it’s so awkward not knowing the other coaches and then having to awkwardly introduce yourself like, a week later…) and your boatman, if you’re lucky enough to have one. Boatmen can be a coxswain’s best friend (they always have spare wrenches which is great when the rowers lose yours … or in the case of our coxswains, drop them in the water three times in one week) so it’s worth it to get acquainted with them early on.

I’d also spend a day going over how your coaches run practice (what’s the standard “formula” look like – i.e. our practices start out with one or two drills that double as the warmup followed by pieces of some kind (the bulk of the workout) and ending with paddling/light steady state back to the docks) and what drills you typically do and how to call them (don’t get too into detail, just give them a brief “drills 101” overview). And then obviously you should also spend a day going over the different parts of the boat, how to work the cox box, how the steering system works, how to get the boats from the racks to the water (and back), and anything they should know about the water you row on (traffic pattern, shallow spots, areas to avoid, landmarks, etc.). The last two days of the week I would bring them out on the launch so they can observe practice themselves and see the thins you described about the waterway (traffic pattern, landmarks, etc.).

If you really want to go the extra mile, write all this down and give it to them in handout form so they can read it and not have to try to memorize everything you’re saying. Bonus points if you include labelled maps and diagrams since visualizing things tends to be a lot simpler and easier to understand than reading through dense paragraphs of notes.

As far as continuing coxswain education long term, making yourself available is definitely one of the most important things you can do. I don’t want to take too much credit for the improvements our coxswains have made this year but I think part of it goes back to them knowing that whenever they have questions or want to go over something I’m always available (and if I’m not, I’m always willing to make time outside of practice to talk). The more available you make yourself the more likely they are to ask questions or for feedback and in turn the better they’ll get. This might mean having regular “office hours” where you hang out at the boathouse for an hour each week and if someone has something they want to talk about, that’s their time to do it, or it might just be you putting out a general reminder, such as “I’m always free before/after practice, hit me up if you wanna talk”. Do what works for you.

Related: Coxswain evaluations + my system for organizing them

Doing coxswain evaluations on a regular basis is also important because feedback from the rowers is critical in terms of know what’s working and what isn’t. Outside of that I don’t think there are any specific things you really need to do. I’ve done regularly scheduled meetings (usually on a weekly basis) in the past but it’s not always necessary so this year I’ve kind of adopted the whole “we’ll meet as a group if we need/want to and if we don’t, we won’t” mindset, which has worked fine for us. Like I said though, the biggest and best thing you can do is just making yourself available for when questions arise or they have something they want to discuss with you. It’s a really simple thing to do that can make a world of difference in the long run.