Day: July 12, 2016

Coxing Q&A Technique

Question of the Day

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Could you explain lunging a bit more? Such as what it looks like on an erg, and how I would be able to tell that say, four seat, is lunging? I know that rushing the top quarter of the slide and skying blades is a sign of lunging, but how do I know for sure that they’re lunging and not just rushing/not controlling their hands?

This video should start at the right spot but if not, fast forward to 2:30

I rely a lot on what I know about the tendencies of the people in my boat and what I’m hearing the coach say to inform the calls I’m making when it comes to technical stuff like this. When I’m on the water I’m not usually trying to diagnose a problem with 100% certainty, rather I’m addressing what I’m seeing and then either discussing it with the rower/coach during water breaks or after practice, or I make a note to watch them on the erg to narrow down what it is they’re specifically doing wrong so that in the future I do know that they’re doing X instead of Y.

Related: Top 20 terms coxswains should know: Lunge

If I think they’re lunging based on what I’m seeing then I’ll make a few calls that address posture, getting the bodies set earlier in the recovery, maintaining level hands into the front end, etc. and see if that fixes it. If not I’ll make a quick call to that rower in particular and then when we stop or paddle I’ll elaborate a bit more and say “Graham, it looks like you’re lunging a bit right before you put the blade in. Keep the hands steady and make sure you’re getting the body set early and then hold that angle the rest of the way up, don’t try to go for more reach right before the catch. Right now it’s making you miss a little bit of water because you’re skying the blade and then getting it in on the recovery instead of just being direct to the water as the wheels change direction.”

This gives them a couple things to think about, not just in regards to their technique but also in how it’s affecting their rowing. (I think rowers tend to process corrections better/faster if they know exactly how their rowing is affected vs. being expected to just blindly do something different without really understanding why.) As they work on it throughout practice I’ll watch them and point out when I see them make a change or when I see that their stroke looks better. Sometimes I’ll be watching other stuff and I’ll just notice later on that they’re not doing X with their stroke anymore so I’ll say hey, that looks better, what’d you change and they’ll say that they focused more on their posture and pivoting from the hips rather than their low back or they tried to get their upper body set sooner so they wouldn’t have to get all their length at the last second.

Another thing that sometimes happens with our guys is they’ll come off the water and get right in the tanks so they can see for themselves what they’re doing. This also lets the coxswains see them from the side which can then obviously give them a bit more insight into what’s actually happening, which in turn will let them make more specific calls the next time we go out.

So tl;dr, you might not always know 100% for sure that XYZ is happening but there’s almost always a lot of “clues” you can use to help you pinpoint what’s going on. Obviously if your coach says “Stephen, you’re lunging…” you know he’s lunging but if you don’t have that immediate outside confirmation then you’ll have to rely on your ability to relate what you’re seeing with the bladework to what that means about the rower’s body position, mechanics, etc. in order to make the right set of calls. From there, it’s all about communication with the coach and/or rower to narrow it down further.

Coxing Q&A

Question of the Day

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Hi, I just wanted to know how you think the style of coxing differs between the US and the UK. I’ve been coxing in the UK for a couple of years and the calls made during races seem to be made in a more rhythmic and fluid style (if that makes sense, probably not), whereas in the videos I’ve watched of US crews there seems to be a lot of counting with stuff thrown in between each number, which I think is a bit cluttered. Of course this is only based on a couple of videos I’ve watched but I might be going to the US for university, so would I have to adapt my style to the one I’ve seen? Thanks.:)

This is a really good question. I don’t think you’d have to completely abandon whatever you’re used to but you will probably have to adapt a little bit. I wouldn’t say that’s uncommon though – my style changed a little when I went  to college but I’d probably classify it more as evolving rather than adapting to an entirely new way of coxing. I mean, there was some adapting but not a ton. There were definitely things I had to do that were different than how I’d done it for the previous four years but a lot of what I did differently was a result of just realizing there were new (not better or worse, just new) ways of doing things that I hadn’t been exposed to before. If I were you that’s the attitude I’d have going into this if you do come here for college … I think it makes the idea of potentially doing things differently a lot less daunting.

To make a really bad comparison/analogy, think of it like learning to drive on the other side of the road. You’re still doing all the basic driving “things” the same, you’ve just gotta get used to being on a new side (of both the car and road). It’s the same with coxing. The core of it is all the same, it’s just the nuances of it that might be different than what you’re used to.

As far as US vs. UK style, there’s absolutely no way I can give an unbiased opinion or breakdown on this since the US style is what I’m most familiar with. To me personally (and sorry if this is offensive), the UK style is the equivalent of nails on a chalkboard. There is no style of coxing that I dislike more than that super rhythmic, roller coaster-y style of speaking. If I close my eyes and listen to a recording I actually feel like I’m on a roller coaster that is just continuously going up and down and up and down and up and down and up and down. It’s so distracting! I’ve asked friends to listen to the audio to see if maybe it’s just me but we all tend to feel the same way and agree that the biggest difference between the two styles comes down to our speech patterns and how we say things. For the most part I think we’re communicating the same things but the US style is more to give a constant stream of information so that the rowers know exactly what’s going on at any given point in the race whereas the UK style tends to have periods of silence before interjecting occasional updates about whatever they’re seeing/feeling or their position relative to whatever else is going on. I wouldn’t say the UK style is fluid at all, if anything it’s as terse as you can possibly get … but that’s obviously based on the handful of UK recordings I’ve listened to and my preconceived notions about that style based off of what I’ve heard, know, and like (or dislike, rather).

Now that you’ve posed the question this is definitely something I want to explore more. I’m curious to know how much, if at all, international coxswains have adapted their style when they come to the US for college. If anyone knows a coxswain here in the US who “grew up” coxing a different way, have them email me. Feel free to comment too and let me know what you think.

Coxing Q&A

Question of the Day

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Hi. I’ve coxed girls for a year now and I’m changing to guys. I’m not sure how to cox guys as I’ve heard it’s quite different. Any tips? Also they want me to motivate them in the gym and I don’t know how to apply my coxing in the river to a gym session.

Per usual, the best advice here is to just ask them what they’d like you to say or what the best way to motivate them is. Normally when we’re doing circuits in the winter the coxswains aren’t doing a lot of motivating, either because we’re off in the lounge doing something or because the guys have the music turned up so loud that trying to yell over that would be a pointless effort. If I or one of them is keeping time then outside of calling when to switch stations, the only things we’re saying is one-on-one stuff as we walk around the room. Usually it’s something really basic like “that’s it Clay…” or “good job guys, keep it up…” or “yea Pat, get after it…”. There’s nothing (or very little) from their coxing on the water that they apply to stuff that isn’t erging and even if/when they’re coxing them on the ergs, there’s still a pretty large degree of difference between that and what they do in the boat.