Month: August 2015

Coxing Q&A Teammates & Coaches

Question of the Day

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What are your thoughts on female coxswains for male boats? In your experience, does this result in drama or awkward social situations? How about the role of a coxswain in bringing a team together? Do you feel that the leadership position that a cox holds on the water translates to off the water and the social dynamic of the team?

Here’s the thing about drama and awkward situations. People who want to cause drama or make shit awkward are going to cause drama and make shit awkward. Plain and simple. I am all for women coxing men’s boats provided they’re not coxing them solely to flirt with them and/or because they want to hang out with a bunch of hot guys who spend the majority of their time with their shirts off. If that’s why you want to cox men just GTFO because you’re not going to be a good coxswain. Forget about being effective, you just don’t have the right attitude going into it and I guarantee nobody wants to deal with that. Same thing applies to women who think they have to be super bossy (and not the good kind of bossy but the annoying elementary school kind of bossy) to get the guys to listen to her. I think they think they’re coming off as super confident and in charge but they’re not – all they’re doing is undermining themselves. Most of the time people are just going to wonder why you show up to practice with a stick up your ass every day rather than thinking “wow, look how confident and in control of her crew she is!”.

Related: All the girls on my team are pretty good about the no crewcest thing, except this one girl, who keeps hooking up with many of the guys on the team and the team is slowly dying as a result. I’ve told her this would happen, but she doesn’t seem to care. The coach can’t really do anything, as its always after practice hours. Also, I feel for her, the team is more of a place to get guys than to actually improve her rowing and get faster. Any advice?

That aside, as has been asked before in the posts linked above and below, if you’re dating or hooking up with somebody in your boat and things end poorly then that’s naturally going to be awkward because that’s how most breakups are. If you’re both adults and can handle the situation maturely where no one else (meaning the other people in the boat, the rest of the team, etc.) is being affected by your personal issues then great. Unfortunately that tends to be the exception, not the norm, hence why crewcest is pretty looked down upon.

Related: What’s your opinion of rowing couples/coxswain-rower couples? Especially teammates?

As far as the coxswain’s leadership position translating off the water … it depends on the team. Most of the time it does and coaches will look to them and the captains to act as the glue that keeps things together (both on and off the water) but other times the coxswain will naturally take a backseat leadership position off the water in order to allow the team captains to manage things. You’re not considered any less of a leader it’s just that you’re not the front-and-center leader like you are when you’re on the water, if that makes sense. That’s kind of how I’ve always looked at it.

Related: Hey. I’m just beginning as a coxswain on the men’s team at a D3 college and had a question about the relationship between the captain and the coxswain. They’re both supposed to be leading the team, so where do their jobs differ? I understand that in the boat, of course, the coxswain is in charge but I was wondering more how you handle your relationship with the captain leadership-wise during practices, on land, for team affairs, other leadership functions aside from specifically coxing the boat, etc. How much captain control is too much? I’ve heard that coxswains are supposed to run practices when the coach isn’t around and during the offseason but my captain has been doing that. I realize I’m new so it makes sense, but if I weren’t, theoretically, is that atypical? Thanks for all of posting all of these things. It’s been really helpful.

When it comes to on the water stuff or things like trailer loading where the coxswain is kind of instrumental in getting things done, that’s my time to shine. The rest of the time I’ll leave organizing team meetings, handling interpersonal issues (unless it’s within my own boat), etc. to the captains and I’ll step up and help as needed. I don’t think there’s really a right or wrong way to approach this though, as long as what you’re doing works for everyone involved.

Q&A Rowing

Question of the Day

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Hi! Do you know where to buy spacers? Also, do you happen to know the size of the wing nuts that are used on foot stretchers? Thank you.

Check out the manufacturer’s website for whoever makes your boats. In their online stores (i.e. Vespoli, Resolute) you should be able to find spare washers for pretty cheap.

The wing nuts are all M5s as far as I know, at least with Resolutes. (What that equates to in imperial units (i.e. for Vespolis), I have no clue. It should be easily Google-able though.) Anyways, I wouldn’t buy those on your own, just ask your coach if he can find you a spare set or two so you can have them if you need them. There’s always some lying around the boathouse so it shouldn’t be too hard to find some. (Same goes for the spacers too, to be honest.) The priority though regarding parts you should carry with you lies with the riggers – spacers, washers, nuts, and bolts … and more spacers.

Q&A Rowing

Question of the Day

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Have you ever heard of rowers getting blisters on their butts? Any remedies?

Oddly enough, yes, I did have a friend in college who had this problem. He had a very bony butt too which didn’t help matters. I can’t remember what actually caused the problem in the first place (whether it was something with his technique or what…) but his solution was to just use a gel seat pad on a regular basis and I think that pretty much alleviated his issues.

One thing I’d recommend is to make sure you’re wearing spandex, not something like regular shorts since the friction of the fabric rubbing on your skin (combined with your sweat) could become uncomfortable over time. This tends to be more of an issue with guys than girls, at least in my experience, but wearing proper rowing trou is a good place to start. I’m pretty positive that JL makes spandex with padding in the butt (think cycling shorts…) so you could try a pair of those and see if it helps too.

Anybody else ever experience anything like that? What were your solutions/remedies?

Coxing High School Q&A

Question of the Day

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So I just finished my novice year as a rower. I was the shortest on the team but had one of the best 2k’s and was bow seat of the medaling regionals boat. However, now that I am JV and am starting to think about the future I’ve been thinking that my future would be brighter as a coxswain. I’ve never coxed a race but I’ve coxed at practices when needed and I’m pretty decent at it. I am a 15 yr boy and about 5’5 and I really am not sure what I should do. I know that I could row lightweight but I feel like I have a much better chance in the future like varsity and college as a coxswain. I love rowing and coxing though. My question is how would you recommend making a decision about switching to coxing or to keep rowing?

I think it all comes down to what you want to get out of your rowing experience (“rowing” as in the general sense of the sport). If you decided to stick with being a rower but were limited, for whatever reason, to being in lower boats would you still be happy? Would you still enjoy coming to practice every day and helping to make your boat fast? Or, would you feel like you were missing out on something? Some people are perfectly happy rowing in the 2V or the 3rd 4+ and that’s awesome but there are others who aren’t and want more … and that’s cool too.

If you switched to coxing, you’d essentially be starting at the bottom of the totem pole – or at the very least, as close to the bottom as you can get without being a brand new, straight off the shelf novice coxswain. This usually isn’t too appealing to people but it sounds like you have the benefit of being a solid rower on your side so that could/would make the transition a little easier and maybe open up some opportunities early on to cox some of the upper boats, which is always great when you’re just starting out as a coxswain. If continuing the sport in college is a goal though it’d be ideal for you to make the switch now rather than in a year or two, at least in my opinion, because it gives you plenty of time to figure out how to do everything and do it well. If you try to make the switch at the same time as you’re starting to really get into the nitty gritty of looking at schools, taking the SAT/ACTs, going on visits, etc.  you’ll just be miserable.

So … I guess what I’m saying is that my recommendation for making this decision ultimately comes down to what’s going to keep you excited about showing up to the boathouse everyday. Keep in mind too that if you’re only 15 then you likely still have a few years of growing ahead of you. It’s worth asking your doctor about the next time you stop in for a checkup or physical. If you’re 5’5″ now but are projected to top out around 5’11” then that might impact what you decide to do. I think it’d be worth having a conversation with your coach too before the fall season starts (assuming you aren’t back at school yet) since they’ve likely seen other rowers in your position before and can offer up some good advice based on what they’ve seen them do.

It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs, who comes short again and again because there is no effort without error and shortcoming, but who does actually strive to do the deeds, who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.

Theodore Roosevelt
Coxswain recordings, pt. 32

College Coxing High School Racing

Coxswain recordings, pt. 32

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San Diego Rowing Club 2012 Head of the Charles Men’s Youth 8+

This is a good example of a coxswain who is talking a lot and not really saying anything. His intensity is good but it’s empty, if that makes sense. It’s like he’s being loud just to be loud. Something that really annoyed me was at 7:44 when he yelled “eyes in the boat, you keep those eyes in the boat and you focus!”. I didn’t like the way he said it because a) after listening to almost eight minutes of the recording, I understand why the rower(s) might have been looking out of the boat and b) it sounded like he was scolding a dog or something. Something else that bothers me is that there’s a lot of “you” and “your” happening, like “you need to do this for your team”, etc. When coxswains do that it makes me think they take their roles way too seriously, like they aren’t responsible for moving the boat too.

University of Massachusetts 2012 Head of the Charles Women’s Champ 8+ going through Weeks Bridge

The first half of this video is from the stern-cam and the second half is from the coxswain’s GoPro. She did a good job of staying calm and focused coming through Weeks, particularly since the crew in front of them was this close to their bow. Her line on Anderson was way too wide (I think that was because they got stuck on the outside of Weeks) but she definitely still could have made that turn through the bridge if she’d started it a stroke or two sooner and had the starboards power down while the port side brought it around. This reiterates though that you’ve always gotta be thinking one bridge ahead when you’re on the Charles because a messy turn through Weeks almost certainly means a messy turn through Anderson.

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