Month: November 2017

Coxing Novice Q&A

Question of the Day

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I have not begun rowing yet (I start in the spring) but I really want to become a coxswain. Is there anyway that when I go to the first practice I can make myself seem like a good candidate for a coxswain? I am 5 foot 3 and 107 lbs.

Definitely – just go up to the coach when you get there and say “hi, I’m [your name] and I’m interested in coxing”.

Related: Defining the role of the coxswain: The type of coxswain you don’t want to be

Seriously though, it’s that simple. You’ll probably get pegged for one anyways since you’re pretty petite but if you already know you’re leaning towards coxing instead of rowing, speak up and say so. The coaches will probably appreciate that too since it’ll be one less person whose arm they’ll have to twist to get them to cox if not enough people are interested or volunteer on their own.

Related: Defining the role of the coxswain: Leadership

Biggest piece of advice is to just have a presence. Introduce yourself, talk to people, be outgoing, don’t be a wallflower, etc. It’s not that you can’t be a shy, quiet person and still be good at coxing but it’s easier to be taken seriously if you exhibit typical coxing “qualities” right off the bat. Check out the “defining the role” tag when you’ve got some time and read some of the posts in there – there’s a ton of stuff that’ll lay out all the necessary/preferred qualities of coxswains that should help you prepare for the spring.

College Video of the Week

Video of the Week: A history of the Navy in 100 objects

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I still think it’s really cool that college teams used to represent the US at the Olympics. The most famous story is, of course, Washington at the 1936 Berlin games but did you know the college crews won trials in the eight and raced at the Olympics every quadrennial between 1920 and 1968? The only exception was 1964 when Vesper won and raced in Tokyo (where they won the last gold medal for the Americans until 2004).

Uncategorized

Flashback Friday: November 12th – 25th

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ONE YEAR AGO

QOTD: I really want to practice making small steering adjustments but my team has the great misfortune of rowing on a river that is in the midst of extreme drought. When I say extreme, I mean we can’t have two boats next to each other because anything but a very specific course in the very middle of the river can break off a fin. Because of the drought, there’s debris everywhere, and coupled with the bridges, I’m basically on the rudder at all times. How can I practice minimal steering in this situation?

What makes a good coxswain recording?

Training: Pushing hard and pain vs. soreness

Words.

TWO YEARS AGO

QOTD: Hi, do you have any tips on staying motivated through a long winter? This is my fifth year coxing at high school and as usual we are heading into a long winter and the girls are doing a ton of small boats stuff. This means I am rarely out on the water coxing (once since May last year, actually). I feel like I’m losing all my motivation, I don’t want to attend practice as I used to, and dread every session even though I love my team. I really don’t want to be training at the moment but I know if I quit now I will regret it in the summer, thinking about how amazing it was racing at nationals last year, and how much I want to do so again. The summer really is amazing but at the moment it is too far away to even comprehend!! Obviously watching them row in smaller boats from a launch can be beneficial but after so many hours it gets a bit tiresome. I know winter isn’t the most enjoyable for rowers either but at least they are developing and improving… I hope this makes sense! Have you ever felt like this?

QOTD: Any ideas for a holiday-themed practice?

VOTW: Pete Cipollone podcast

College recruiting: Interest from coaches + coming from a small program

Top 20 terms coxswains should know: Suspension

THREE YEARS AGO

VOTW: Snowflake Regatta Carnage

QOTD: So I’m the most experienced coxswain on my juniors team, and was asked to cox a master’s eight. It isn’t a racing boat or anything. Some of the masters just wanted to try sweep. The thing is both of my coaches and a few of the board members for the juniors team will be in the boat, as will my dad. I’m afraid that if I mess up, or if my coach isn’t a fan of my style, it could affect boat placement going into spring. Any advice?

Words.

QOTD: Hi! I’ve been rowing for four years and recently I’ve been getting some sort of tendonitis in my forearms: the forearm swells up a little and it feels very stiff and it is very painful to row with. This usually happens when I’m in a single or a double, but it has happened before in an eight and a quad. It has never happened to me so often, last year I got this twice throughout the season, but it went away the same day. I’ve talked to my coach and he said I might be gripping too much with my fingers, I’ve changed my grip since then and it was fine for a few weeks, however over the course of this week, it has come back and I’m not sure what I am doing wrong. I know it’s caused when I row long distances and when my forearms tense at the catch, but I don’t think that there is any other way to row (without tensing the forearms at the catch), when I relax my arms I end up pulling more with my fingers. As far as I’m aware, no one else in my crew has this although some say that they have had it before, but very rarely. I was just wondering if you had any tips for correcting my stroke if it is what is causing this? Thank you.

FOUR YEARS AGO

QOTD: Hey! How do you record yourself during a piece etc. if you can’t buy a GOPRO or a recorder? I don’t want to take my phone on board but I still want either race footage or just sound recordings. Thank you!

QOTD: Hey! So I’m a coxswain in high school and we (all the coxswains) want a coxswain evaluation/ranking from the rowers. Some coxswains feel like they should be in a different boat and we all want feedback from the rowers. How do we go about asking our coach about it?

QOTD: Hi! I just started coxing this fall, and towards the end of the season my rowers told me that the calls I was making during our race pieces were good but that I should work on being more controlled with my voice. I think it’s because I’m nervous about being silent for too long so I rush everything out but then I also run out of things to say. I also think I need to work on being less repetitive and have a little more intensity to my calls. However, we went off the water right after that. Is there any way I can work on this over the winter? I really want to work on these things and I’m bummed I won’t really have a good opportunity the whole winter. I cox the guys on the ergs but it’s very different than being in the boat. Right now I’m just listening to tapes when I have spare time and taking notes, but is there any way to actually practice this before spring?

QOTD: We have a coxswain who always covers his microphone with his hand which he thinks gives him this like gruff thing going on, but the problem is we can’t always understand him and quite frankly, it’s annoying. I don’t get why he needs it when we’re not going into the wind but what should we do? Would it be rude to ask if he could please stop or what?

FIVE YEARS AGO

How to survive winter training … as a coxswain

Holiday gifts for coaches

Holiday gifts for rowers

Holiday gifts for coxswains

VOTW: Lewis & Clark Men’s Rowing

Holiday Gift Guide 2017

Rowing

Holiday Gift Guide 2017

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It’s that time of year again and Black Friday/Cyber Monday is (somehow already) upon us. If you’ve got some holiday shopping to do or you’re still looking to add a few things to your own list, here’s a couple of ideas.

A year or so ago Amazon had an insane deal on Hot Hands and I got a 120 pack for $20 (normally it’s $75). Hand warmers on their own make great stocking stuffers but combined with the hat, gloves, and socks they make for an excellent gift that any coxswain who appreciates practicality and not freezing their ass off will enjoy.

Related: Rowing gifts

If you’re looking for some book ideas to go with that Audible subscription, check out the posts I’ve done on rowing books (here and here). If you’re looking for some non-rowing suggestions, Murder on the Orient Express, The Secret Lives of Codebreakers, and The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck are all on my 2018 reading list.

Image via // Potomac Boat Club

Erg Playlists

Music to erg to, pt. 159

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I am what can only be described as “catastrophically behind” when it comes to replying to emails but I’m going to try to catch up on them over Thanksgiving so if you’ve emailed me at any point since … late August … and haven’t gotten a reply yet, you should get one soon. Many, many apologies that those had to take a backseat to work and other stuff throughout the fall – I should have anticipated that but didn’t to the extent that they did.

On the flip side though, I’ve been having some really good conversations lately with coxswains over Skype and Google Hangouts so if you have anything you want to go over and would prefer to actually talk about it, check out the “work with me” tab and sign up for a one-on-one. Since the majority of us are in winter training now, this is the perfect time for this – especially if you can get permission from your coach to do this during practice, assuming you don’t have any other actual responsibilities to tend to. Getting on my calendar is a for sure way to guarantee that any questions you have will get answered ASAP (especially when we’re in-season) so if you’ve got stuff you want to go over or get feedback on from the fall season, hit me up!

Drills Rowing Technique Video of the Week

Video of the Week: Eyes-closed rowing

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I love eyes-closed rowing. It brings a different sense of calm and focus to the boat that you can’t really achieve when your eyes are open and there’s 20 different things all begging you to steal a quick glance at them. There were two years in particular where my crews did a lot of rowing like this … my freshman/novice year of high school and my freshman year of college. I think this was because we were either learning to row from scratch or adapting to a style that was different than what we’d all been rowing for the previous four years. Like they said in the video, it taught us – all of us – how to really feel the boat and not react to every little wobble.

On days when the set would be really off or we just weren’t having a good row, we would try to turn it around and salvage the latter half of practice by pushing pause on the workout and doing some eyes-closed steady state rowing for 3-5 minutes. This helped us re-concentrate our focus and reestablish that trust within the boat, which in turn led to an improved second half of the row. (Not always but most of the time, even if the gains were marginal.) If we knew we had a hard practice in store, we’d do our entire warmup with eyes closed to emphasize, again, trusting the guy in front and behind you, and to force us to make sure our technique was on point and we weren’t just muscling the blades through the water. It’s definitely a drill worth incorporating whenever the opportunity presents itself.