Day: May 5, 2015

High School Q&A

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Hey! Our eight boat leaks really badly but there are no recognizable holes or scratches so the bottom of the boat fills up with about three inches of water at the end of every practice, making it really heavy and hard to get out of the water. Also it’s a really old boat so it is really heavy as it is. The group that rows in that boat is made up of entirely high school freshmen girls who are new to the sport of rowing either during the fall season or even as soon as three weeks ago. Our coach really wants us to learn how to carry the boat with only 8 people but it is nearly impossible, even for the varsity girls. Is it justified for us to ask for a couple more people to help lift and carry it? And is there any way to fix a boat where nothing seems to be wrong? Thanks!

I totally get why your coach wants you to be able to carry the boat with just eight people but I see your point too. When I was coaching my high school team last year (and when I was on the team) we would use this hilarious old wooden four  during practice that was so heavy and such a pain in the ass to lift, especially when the women using it were all 110lb novices. For the first few weeks we’d always have a couple extra people help them out with carrying it but eventually they were able to do it themselves.

Ultimately though it comes down to one really simple yes or no question – can you lift and carry the boat with eight people without risking the integrity of the equipment and/or the safety of the rowers? If not then you should either ask to use a different boat until you can figure out what’s wrong with this one or ask a few other people to help you carry it. By a few other people I mean like two at most, simply because you do have to get used to carrying it without the extra help and it’s harder to do that when you’ve got four or six additional people on there.

I don’t know nearly enough about boat building or repair to know what could be causing the leaking issues, let alone how to fix something like that. The only thing that comes to mind is the vent caps not being closed (or at the very least not being closed all the way) and water getting in through there but I feel like that’s a really simple/obvious issue that someone probably would have noticed by now. If anyone has any ideas or has dealt with something similar, please leave a comment! Your best bet though (and by “your” I mean your coach since that’s his/her responsibility) would probably be to contact whoever the manufacturer is and get their opinion/advice. It might come down to the boat’s age being the issue but if it’s something that can be fixed then the boat reps would definitely be able to tell you what needs to be done.

Coxing Q&A

Question of the Day

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I am in my second year of coxing and I am really looking to improve my tone. I am not sure how I should be speaking, I like to stay calm but I don’t think I’m being confident enough. Thanks!

This is hard to communicate over the internet since it’s tough to describe tones and sounds when you’re not actually talking in person but the best way I can describe it is to be very clear and deliberate with what you’re saying. Staying calm is obviously a good thing but what tends to happen, at least in my experience, is coxswains become too passive with their calls and they lack the “oomph” that makes them effective.

Related: I coxed a race last weekend and was told that while my coxing was good, it sounded more like a piece than an actual race. Can you give some tips on how to really up the intensity while coxing a race? I thought I was communicating a sense of urgency pretty well through my tone, but I’m not sure if it came across as well as I had hoped. Thanks! Your blog has been an absolute godsend since this is my first year coxing.

When I’m coxing during practice I keep what I’m saying pretty short and to the point but I talk in a mostly conversational tone, just like how I talk when I’m having a normal conversation, and then whenever I interject a call (like “catch send“, for example…) then I sharpen up the words and talk more from my core.

Related: My rowers told me after practice today that I should focus on the tone of my voice and not be so “intense” during our practices. I don’t really know how to fix that actually. Like I don’t think I am so “intense” but rather just firm and trying to be concise with the command I give out. They said that they really like how I cox during a race piece because my intensity level fits the circumstances. But they also said that if I cox in a similar tone to race pieces, they can’t take me seriously during the races. But my problem when I first started coxing was not being firm enough and getting complaints about how I should be more direct on my commands. Now when I am, my rowers say this. I don’t really know what is the happy medium. Like I listen to coxing recordings and I feel like I am doing fairly similar tones.

For examples on how you should sound when you’re coxing, check out all the recordings I’ve posted. If you read through some of the individual posts then you’ll see where I point out the ones that have good intensity, tone, etc. Also check out the recordings of our coxswains that are on my YouTube channel. The Princeton-Harvard race and the basin shots from last week are two good examples for racing and the pick drill/warmup video from Florida is a good example for practice. (That one isn’t a GoPro video but you can still mostly hear what our coxswain is saying and how he says it.)

Related: Is it ideal to sound like a “scary coxswain”?

As far as confidence goes, that’s definitely something that comes with time and experience but it’s also something you need to figure out sooner rather than later. The thing I always tell people (including our three varsity coxswains) is that if you’re not confident about something, fake it and act like you are.

Related: TED Talks, body language, and … coxing?

If you’re constantly questioning your decisions or what you’re saying though then that will definitely come across in your tone of voice and can set you back in terms of overall progress in that area. If there’s stuff you’re not sure of or things you don’t know how to do/call, ask someone to explain it to you. That tends to be where a lot of confidence issues arise, just from simply not knowing something. Once you’ve got it figured out and have worked through it a couple times (i.e. calling a drill, communicating technical feedback, etc.) then the confidence thing will usually work itself out (provided there aren’t underlying things contributing to you not feeling confident).