Hey! Was it like ‘bro day’ (my coaches words) on the Charles today because there were a bunch of stupid college freshmen guys in singles just basically rowing very badly. Some college must have sent out their novices in unmarked singles. What was happening was a whole bunch of guys in singles rowing steady state from about the Elliot Bridge to the Cambridge Street bridge when we spun and went back down the river. There were two singles who were especially annoying because they were going at the exact same pace as my coxed 4+ and THEY WERE PASSING ON THE INSIDE. I ended up steering us more towards the middle of the river, but still on the right side. I couldn’t get back to the right because one boat’s stern was close to my bow ball and at the other end of my boat it was the same except in reverse. They then proceeded to row AT EXACTLY THE SAME PACE AS US. The first time I saw them was during the hard right after Elliot bridge when the first guy was attempting to pass me on shore side. I had to yell to him because he was going to crash into me with his bow. (TBH it made me feel really good to yell to him…) I had brought us through the bridge badly so I had my 2 seat drop out (it was a starboard stroked boat) so yeah that was interesting. Also another time I was trying to go under some bridge and the guy on my tail wanted to go through at the exact same time. But I was like ‘hell no, I’m going for this’ and we both made it through with out crashing. I had to be a tad creative with my steering but you know whatever. The only good thing was that my coach praised me for handling the situation well and not freaking out. Oh and I got some great steering experience. This isn’t really a question I just wanted to rant. How would you have handled the situation? Or just tell me a story that’s kinda similar maybe? Or do you know if it was ‘bro day’ and WHOSE ‘bro day’ it was?

Ha. “Bro day.” I don’t want to throw any of the other men’s teams under the bus because I honestly don’t know who it could have been but your coach certainly could have asked them who they row for if it was THAT big of a deal and they wanted to mention it to that team’s coach.

I probably would have been annoyed too but I also would’ve handled it completely differently. First, there’s no point in getting competitive with them and trying to go through the bridge at the same time because you don’t know what could happen. That’s like, safety and common sense 101. Personally, I would have been pissed at you if I was your coach in this situation. If you don’t trust their steering why would you put yourself in a situation where you’re going under a bridge together? The smarter solution would have been to yell over and say “hey, do you mind waiting or throwing in a pause so we can get through the bridge and get some separation between us?”. If he was behind you and you couldn’t directly say something to him then you could have told your stroke to yell up at him to wait. You made it through without crashing this time. At the Sparks camp I was at this summer, Marcus (McElhenney) said something to one of the coxswains that applies perfectly here. The coxswain had screwed something up and said “…but it worked so whatever” and Marcus said “No, your bow seat saved your ass. It didn’t “work”.” I’ll say the same thing to you. What you did didn’t “work”, you just got lucky.

If you did say something to them about going through one at a time and they straight up ignored you (and you know that there was no way that they didn’t hear you or your stroke say something), then you can get pissed at them. You still have to maintain some sense of decorum though. My usual response to something like this is to look at the coxswain or rower if it’s a straight boat and say “Dude, really?” or I just look at them and raise my hands in such a way that you know I’m directing a really irritated “WTF” your way.

Second, they’re in singles, you’re in a four. If the singles being rowed by novices (assuming they actually were novices) are rowing at the same pace as a four of what I’m assuming are experienced rowers, that is WAY more your issue than it is theirs. YOU need to up your pressure, up your rate, row by all four, etc. to get ahead of them or stop, throw in some pause drills, etc. to let them get far enough ahead that their presence isn’t going to interfere with your practice. If your coach isn’t telling you to do one of those things then you have to make a judgement call and either just do it or ask your coach if you can modify whatever you’re currently doing. If you’re getting pissed because another crew is constantly near you and/or in your way, take the initiative and figure out how to create some separation. When you’re on the highway and get stuck near a slow moving car, do you continue to sit there and bitch because they’re not going the speed limit? No, you switch lanes, hit the gas, and move away from them. The same exact thing applies here. Coxswains get zero sympathy from me in situations like this because you’re the one with the power to tell your crew to get you away from them.

Third, if they were novices, what are the chances that they know the “don’t pass on the inside” rule? Even if it was something their coach told them, it probably wasn’t something they were thinking about while they were out there. That doesn’t excuse their behavior obviously but if they looked like they didn’t know what they were doing, what does yelling at them accomplish? I get how it can be kinda cathartic to yell at someone when you’re pissed at them but you missed an opportunity to just say “hey, not sure if you know this or not but on the Charles there’s a rule that when passing someone you always pass on the left”. I’ve said that to people before in a pretty visibly annoyed way (including to masters rowers from CBC who I know know the rules because they’ve been rowing for like forty years) but yelling at them wouldn’t have done anything except make me and my team look like assholes.

If I had to be near those guys though (i.e. we were doing drills or low rate/pressure stuff) I probably would have told them what I just said but let them stay on the inside (and moved out closer to the middle) just because I think it’s a lot more dangerous to have a bunch of errant singles out in the middle of the river, especially going downstream after Eliot, than it is to have them in between the shore and me. I’d rather risk the equipment getting dinged up than risk them or another crew getting seriously injured because they were out in the middle of the river and possibly/most likely going on the wrong side of the traffic pattern. Again though, to preface that whole situation I would have either asked them to wait for us to get ahead of them and then told my crew to pick up the rate/pressure for 10-20 strokes or had them go ahead and taken a 2-3 minute water break while we waited.

So … I guess my point is that while your coach said you handled it well, from an outsider’s perspective with only one side of the story I think there are definitely improvements you could make if you find yourself in a similar situation in the future. There’s a lot of new people on the river right now which means the rest of us have to exercise a good amount of patience when it comes to interacting with them, at least for the next few weeks. It also means that you need to COMMUNICATE WITH THEM just like you would another coxswain on your team. It honestly confuses the hell out of me when coxswains look at basic communication (especially with coxswains or scullers not on their team) as their fifth option or something instead of something they should be doing automatically all the time.