Month: September 2015

College recruiting: Intro

College High School Recruiting Teammates & Coaches

College recruiting: Intro

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Outside of questions directly related to coxing I get more questions and emails about recruiting than just about any other topic. I’ve wanted to do a regular series of posts on recruiting for awhile but got really motivated to finally put something together after I had the chance to listen to three really great talks from some of the top coaches in the country at the two camps I was at this summer.

So, on Tuesdays for the next seventeen weeks there will be a recruiting related post going up that covers nearly everything you need to know. Some of the things that’ll be discussed include the general timeline you should follow, what to do when contacting coaches (with tips on what coaches want to see from the coaches themselves), and what the recruiting process is like for coxswains (from the perspective of a current Ivy League coxswain).

Here are the coaches that participated in the talks at each camp:

Sparks (Middletown, CT):

Marcus McElhenney (9-time National Team coxswain)

Wendy Wilbur (University of Texas women, D1)

Kate Maloney (Williams College women, D3)

Nancy LaRocque (Wisco women, D1)

Kevin MacDermott (Trinity men, D3)

Chris Kerber (Cornell lightweight men, D1)

Michiel Bartman (Harvard lightweight men, D1)

Northeast Rowing Center (Raymond, ME):

John Lindberg (Boston University men, D1)

Ed Slater (Trinity College men, D3)

Graham Willoughby (Brown University men, D1)

Wendy Wilbur (University of Texas women, D1)

Kate Maloney (Williams College women, D3)

Andriel Doolittle (Bates College women, D3)

Holly Metcalf (MIT openweight women, D1)

Three current student-athletes (two rowers and a coxswain) from Brown, Princeton, and Yale

All the recruiting posts that I’ve posted on the blog will be linked at the top of each post but to follow this series specifically you can check out the “college recruiting 101” tag to stay up to date with the latest posts.

I wanted to start this off by sharing some of the initial comments made by a few of the coaches. Coach Lindberg kicked off the panel discussion at NRC by saying that the two most important attributes you can bring to the recruiting process are initiative and sincerity. You’ve gotta take the initiative to contact coaches (because as Marcus said, this isn’t football – the coaches aren’t gonna chase you, you have to chase them), develop those relationships, work hard in school, train hard during the season, etc. and be sincere not only with what you want in an academic program but also what you want out of your collegiate rowing experience.

This was reiterated many times by all the coaches that it is  very easy to differentiate between the kids who are genuinely interested in rowing in college and the ones who are only going through the process in the hopes that this is the golden ticket that gets them admitted somewhere. Holly followed up by saying that you have to define within yourself very clearly if you need to row (as in your college experience will be incomplete without crew) or if you want to row (you enjoyed it in high school and want to keep doing it in some capacity in college).

Recruiting in rowing is a lot more “civilized” than it is with other sports because compared to ones like football, basketball, soccer, and baseball it is very heavily based on academics whereas the other sports are more athletically based. (Not to knock my college team or anything but a good example of this is Cardale Jones’ infamous “we ain’t come here to play school” tweet.)

The academic interests of the recruits will always be first and foremost to the coaches you’re talking to so it’s important that you’re challenging yourself with the classes you’re currently taking and have spent time considering what you might be interested in pursuing in college since those two things will be discussed regularly. The admissions departments of most schools, especially those with outstanding rowing programs, expect the rowers to be good students which is why getting in on skill alone doesn’t fly here.

Image via // @beantownkmd

High School Rowing Video of the Week

Video of the Week: “The most important thing about rowing to take away from this documentary is that it’s not kayaking.”

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We’ve all done the junior rowing thing (or are doing it now) so none of this is new to us but for someone who might be new to the sport I think this is would definitely be one of the better videos to show them if you’re trying to explain what rowing is (and isn’t).

Erg Playlists

Music to erg to, pt. 103

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If you didn’t see yesterday’s post on novice coxswains, check it out here. Even though it’s about novices it’s geared towards those of you who are varsity/experienced coxswains so I really encourage you to read it when you’ve got time. To reiterate what I said on Tumblr, make it a point to help the novices out because you were in their position once and there’s a pretty good chance that you were wishing someone would clue you in on what being a coxswain meant, what you were supposed to do, etc. Remember that feeling and then help the new kids to NOT feel like that.

Managing novice coxswains

College Coxing High School Novice Teammates & Coaches

Managing novice coxswains

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It’s September, a new season is upon us, and with that comes a new batch of novices in all their naively enthusiastic glory. Let’s just assume, based on the majority of our own personal experiences, that your coaches won’t teach them a damn thing beyond “just don’t hit anything” and the onus will be on you, the experienced coxswains, to get them up to speed. Yes, it’s just as daunting of a task as it sounds like. Now you know what it feels like to write this blog.

There’s obviously a lot of things they’ve got to learn but you’re all good enough coxswains to know what to prioritize and what bridges can be crossed when you come to them. That’s not what today’s post is about. Today’s post was inspired by an article I read on Inc.com about how to manage interns. There were a lot of similarities between what they said and working with novice coxswains so I figured it’d be a good thing to put out there now before we get too far into the season.

Explain everything.

Everything that is super – and I mean super – obvious to you, tell/show them because none of it is obvious to them. The second you think “Should I tell them that? Nah…it’s obvious, they’ll know what it means/they’ll figure it out/etc.” … STOP. Do not pass go, do not collect $200. Stop whatever you’re doing and explain to them whatever it is that you just thought was super obvious and self-explanatory. Trust me on this. It is worth you spending the extra two minutes going over it now than running the risk of something catastrophic and/or embarrassing happening later because they never figured out what this super obvious thing was or meant. Thing includes anything related to team protocol, where things are located within the boathouse, that sandbar about a mile and a half upstream, etc.

Give them constant feedback.

Positive or negative, feedback is an essential part of any learning process. Tell them when they’re on the right track, what they need to work on, etc. Obviously you’re not going to be in the boat with them but if you’re near each other on the water and you hear them calling a drill, let them know once you’re back on land that they sounded really engaged when they were going through “cut the cake”, which is great since it’s like the most boring drill ever … or give them some pointers on how to call it more effectively if they looked lost and were just saying “go…row” over and over. You don’t have to (and shouldn’t) watch them like a hawk because obviously you’ve got your own stuff to worry about but if you can give them a quick glance whenever you’re nearby and then a tiny nugget of feedback later, you are doing so much for them when it comes to teaching them and building their confidence/self-awareness.

Don’t expect perfection.

It’s not going to be perfect. It just isn’t. You weren’t perfect when you first started and neither was I. Everybody picks things up at different speeds and the first few times they do something it’s probably going to be a little rough. Getting pissed or visibly annoyed at them isn’t going to work in the “negative reinforcement” way that most people like to think it does. All that does is make them timid, less likely to ask for help when they actually need it, and then by default … useless. (Harsh but true.) They’re just learning how to function as coxswains which means you have to be patient with them. Keep them accountable but don’t expect anything to look or sound pretty for awhile.

Give them real responsibilities.

Giving someone who is new to the job meaningful stuff to do is going to build their confidence and get them up to speed a lot faster than giving them nothing to do in the interest of someone else doing it because they already know how and can do it faster. I know that’s a wordy sentence so read it again. The new coxswains, if they’re any good at all, want to learn how to do stuff and if they’re being relegated to doing things they already know how to do or they’re sitting off to the side not doing anything, they’re  not learning. The most obvious example I have for this is trailer loading. There are numerous responsibilities that go along with getting ready to travel so don’t just relegate the novice coxswains to unraveling straps or packing up cox boxes. Show them where the oars, riggers, slings go and how they should be positioned in the trailer,  walk them through getting a boat on the top and middle racks and then walk with them as they do it, etc.

The bottom line is this: put some effort into educating them. It’s not your responsibility to be the only person cluing them into what being a coxswain entails but you should play a pretty big part in it.

Image via // @row_360