Author: readyallrow

College Coxing Q&A

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This might be a tough one: I’m a coxswain on my college team. After years, I’m finally coxing our first varsity boat. That’s the good news. The bad news is I’m dealing with a lot right now – I’ve been suffering from anxiety and depression as well as dealing with losing a best friend to suicide roughly a year ago. My anxiety is generally much worse during spring season because races where I have to weigh in freak me out. I am about 110, 5’4″ but a lot of our coxswains barely come up to my shoulders and I worry my coach will replace me if they weigh less than I do!

I’ve been seriously considering taking this season off to get my head together, but every time I decide to do it, I become convinced my coach will question my competency or tell me not to come back. As a side detail – I really love crew I’ve been part of the sport since eighth grade, I rowed up until college. I really want to coach high school or juniors rowing after I graduate and I’d hate to do anything to undermine my position on the team and I’m afraid to let my teammates down! Any ideas? Thanks!

At the start of this school year my brother, who is a sophomore in college, also lost a good friend to suicide. It took him quite awhile to get over the initial pang of guilt, anger, and sadness that he felt and while I can’t presume to know what that feels like, from the outside looking in I know that it was a really rough situation for him, as I imagine it is for you. One of the things that helped him through it was talking to one of the counselors in the student health center as his school. Everybody deals with stuff like this in their own way but it’s something I’d recommend looking into, even if you’re a little weary about it at first. He wasn’t too keen on the idea when I initially brought it up but it ended up being a good thing for him to do. Even if you only go one time, you never know … it might help.

Same goes for dealing with anxiety, depression, etc. I think everyone, myself included, feels one of three things when it comes to stuff like that: a) if you ignore it eventually you won’t “feel” it anymore and you won’t have to worry about it, b) you have to hide it from other people to avoid being judged, pitied, mocked, ridiculed, diminished, or brushed off, or c) we’re old enough that we should be able to figure out how to deal with it on our own without outside help.

Regardless of which of those three categories you fall into, everyone can probably agree that no one ever comes out better on the other side as a result of following one of those paths. Most, if not all, colleges and universities have mental health services (or just student health services in general) already factored into your tuition, meaning that you’ve essentially already paid for X number of sessions with a counselor simply by being enrolled. I’d look into that and see what it’s like for your school. If that’s the case, take advantage of it.

As far as your weight goes … this is such an unbelievably infuriating topic. For starters, weighing in should never cause anyone any kind of anxiety. Sure, if you gorged on burgers and mozzarella sticks the night before you might wake up feeling a little nervous but that’s a lot different than experiencing an all out panic attack over it. You’re 110lbs, which is the minimum for coxswains. If you’re under that you have to carry weight in the boat with you anyways so that you meet the minimum, THUS your coach replacing you with someone lighter than you is completely redundant because they’re just gonna have to fill up a sandbag so the scale reads 110lbs when they get on it.

Height has nothing to do it with it. Yea, pocket-sized coxswains are the norm because you don’t normally see tall women rocking a 110lb frame and it’s hard/uncomfortable to contort your body to fit in a seat made for someone several inches shorter than you. Tall coxswains do exist though because the more important variable is your weight (i.e. your ability to be as close to racing weight as possible on race day), not your height. I know saying “don’t worry about it” doesn’t mean much but on your list of things that you should be concerning yourself with, this really shouldn’t even be on there. Besides, weight isn’t a measure of how skilled a coxswain is, which is where the real focus should lie.

Here’s the thing about coaches: they’re supposed to assume that you are competent and capable rather than assuming the opposite. They’re supposed to be there for you outside of practice to be someone to talk to or offer advice if you’re having problems. They’re not supposed to be some hard-nosed person that you can only see for 15-20 hours a week and are afraid to talk to because you think their immediate reaction is going to be scoffing at your question or telling you to leave and not come back. I hate that there are coaches out there that act like that but what I hate even more are the coaches that tell other coaches that’s how they should act. It sets a bad precedent and frankly, it’s bullshit. I refuse to coach like that.

Everybody goes through things in life that cause you to have to make certain choices … take time off, walk away from an opportunity, etc. In this context, your coach (and teammates) should be supportive of your decision, even if he’s not happy about it or it messes with his lineups, because presumably he wants the best for you. If he questioned how competent of a coxswain you are or told you not to bother coming back after you said everything you said in your original question, I don’t know why you’d want to row for someone like that.

If you think that taking time off would be the right decision for you then try approaching it with your assistant coach first (with an agreement ahead of time that whatever you discuss stays between the two of you). Give your coaches the benefit of the doubt that they will be supportive and will welcome you back in the fall. When I was in school I was surprised at how many student-athletes would take time off to study abroad, deal with personal issues, focus on school if they were taking particularly hard classes that semester, etc. It’s not a ton of people but it’s more than you think. If that is what you’re planning on doing though you’ve gotta let your coaches know ASAP. The only time I would truly justify a coach getting upset over something like this is if you told him/her at the last second, right before or after racing season started. I wouldn’t let that affect your decision but just know that they might be initially annoyed that you waited so long to say something.

With coaching after graduation, I’ve found that I get more shit from other coaches (not all of them, just a few) about having not coxed the entire way through college than I do from the people I’m coaching. No one I’ve coached has ever thought it was a big deal or detracted from my ability to teach them how to row or cox. As long as you make an effort to relate to them, treat them with respect, don’t act like you’re superior to them in every conceivable way, and are able to communicate what you know, they will most likely embrace you as their coach. I try really hard to learn about the stuff I’m not as familiar with and think I do a pretty good job of conveying what I do know.

I’ve had other coaches make really snarky comments towards me, treat me like I’m completely new to the sport, or blatantly parade the fact that they’re a “four year varsity athlete at such and such school” every time the topic comes up but honestly, I’ve gotten to the point where I’m starting to just not care. If you think you’re so much better than me or any other coach because you’ve got a few years of racing on us then so be it. I’ve also worked with coaches who couldn’t care less that I didn’t cox all four years. Someone I met last year started rowing when he was a junior in college and only had two years of experience in the sport before he started coaching. I can totally understand wanting to hire someone with X number of years of experience but I think as long as you can demonstrate that you know what you’re talking about, you’ll be fine.

Coxswain recordings, pt. 18

College Coxing Racing Recordings

Coxswain recordings, pt. 18

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Australia 2011 Rowing World Championships A-Final Lightweight M8+

This is a style of coxing that is so completely unlike what I’m used to that I don’t think I can give a good critique of it. The calls are a lot choppier than the “American” style and he’s so much more silent during the actual race, primarily during the first 500. There’s definitely a time and place to be quiet but I don’t think during a 2k is it. You can hear his tone and energy ramp up as the race goes on, although he does get a little shout-y as they come into the last 250m. You can justify that to an extent because they’re so tight with the Italians but that serves as a good reminder that even in the high-energy parts of the race, it’s important to maintain your composure.

Other calls I liked:

“Breathe in our rhythm…”

“Transition legs to bodies … this one, now…”

MIT Lightweight 8+ 1997 Eastern Sprints Heat

They start polling the crews around 3:00 into this recording. Instead of saying “Attention, go!” like we’re used to though they do the countdown start and follow it up with “Are you ready? Go!”, which I’ve never actually heard at the start before.

This is probably one of the most straightforward races I’ve ever listened to. It’s a good example of the whole “do everything right, no one will notice, do something wrong, everyone will notice” thing that is one the main tenets of coxing. Nothing really stands out because he just does his job and says/does everything he needs to do … which honestly, is exactly what you want. We always listen to these recordings and point out the great, the good, the meh, the bad, etc. and I’d say this definitely falls under “good” but in the most unobtrusive way, which is totally fine. Basically what I’m saying is that not every recording has to have some amazing call or move or thing that we point to and use as the defining feature of what makes that audio good. Sometimes they can just be “good” because the coxswain executed the race plan for the full 2000 meters with good energy, good tone, and good awareness of what was happening around him.

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

Coxing Drills Masters Q&A Rowing Technique

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I recently had an anxiety attack in the boat (they didn’t notice and it was still safe). Part of the reason may have been because I’m not sure what to say. I’m good at short calls but as a junior coxing adult men (average age 45) I lack the confidence to make long calls and exercises that weren’t given to me. Do you have any suggestions of calls I could start with? We have been focusing on control on the slide and finishes. 🙂 Thank you!

Regardless of whether anyone noticed or not, coxswains having an anxiety attack in the boat isn’t safe, no matter how minor it is. It’s just not. I have anxiety (and panic attacks) too so I know it’s not something you have a lot of control over but that’s part of the problem – you don’t really have any control over what’s happening, which is also what tends to exacerbate some people’s anxiety in those situations, and it can leave you feeling distracted, dizzy, etc. (neither things that you want your coxswain to be feeling ever).

I’ve heard several stories from coaches about people having panic attacks in the boat and it can go from relatively minor and “I’m OK *deep breath* I’m OK…” to pretty serious and “We’ve gotta get him/her outta the boat now” (which they’ve gotta try to do while the person is sitting there having a combined panic/asthma attack). It’s just not something that you want to risk have happening, for the sake of that person especially, but also for the rest of the crew. You also don’t want to have  your entire practice derailed either because of it but most people tend to not want to say that out of fear of being seen as “insensitive” to the issue (even though that’s a legitimate concern).

Not to minimize your situation but if you’re having an anxiety attack in part because you’re not sure what calls to make, as a coach, that would make me question your ability to handle being a coxswain in general or at the very least, your ability to cox a masters crew. Before you do anything else though I would really advise you to talk with the coach of that crew (if you haven’t already) and let him/her know that coxing them is intimidating to you and either figure out a plan for the two of you to communicate more on the workouts or to find another coxswain who can handle working with them. Jumping from coxing high school crews to masters can be tough at first and not everyone is cut out for it. It doesn’t mean you’re a bad coxswain or anything if you’re not but if it’s becoming too overwhelming to the point where you’re having a panic attack (or multiple attacks) while you’re on the water over something as simple as making calls, you really owe it to them to relinquish the seat to someone who is better equipped to cox them.

As a junior, assuming you’ve been coxing for three years now, you should have a solid arsenal of calls and drills in your back pocket that you can pull out if/when you need them. The coach should obviously let you know what he wants to do that day but he shouldn’t need to spoon-feed his coxswain every workout he wants done, drill he wants called, or call he wants made. If that’s what he has to do he might as well take out coxless small boats.

I’m not sure if by exercises you meant the actual workout or drills so I’ll try to hit both of those. Workouts are completely dependent on your crew’s training plan for the week (assuming you have one). When in doubt if you aren’t given a workout to do with them or you’re sent off on your own and told to put them through something, just do a long steady state piece, particularly if you’ve been focusing a lot on technique lately. 2×20, 3×15, at 18-22spm etc. are good ones to do.

As far as drills go, double pause drills are great for slide control (I like to pause at hands away and 1/2 slide) as are exaggerated slides, assuming your crew is skilled enough to row with good technique at borderline-obnoxiously low stroke rates (think 12-14spm). Catch-placement drills are another fun drill to do that help work on slide control. The main focus is on catch-timing (hence the name) but moving the slides together on the recovery is obviously a pretty big part of that.

When I make calls for the recovery/slide control, I like to draw out whatever I’m saying and get them to match their recovery length to the length of whatever I’m saying. I’ll say “relax”, “control”, “smooth”, “long”, “patience”, etc. for about three strokes, which gives the stroke a chance to match up his slide speed with my voice and for everyone else to fall in line with him. From there I’ll call it like that as I need to. The biggest thing I try to remind them of is that in order to have any forward momentum, they’ve got to have good ratio. You can’t have good ratio unless you’re patient on the recovery.

Another thing to remind them is that on the recovery they shouldn’t be pulling themselves into the catch or really doing that much work at all; all you’ve gotta do is let the boat run under you. If you looked out of the boat at the shoreline while on the recovery it should almost look/feel like you’re not even moving because you’re letting the boat do all the work.

For the finish, it depends on what you’re working on – clean releases, getting a good send at the end of the drive, etc. For clean releases, simple square-blade rowing is probably the most basic drill you can do because all you’ve gotta do is apply weight with the outside hand to extract the blade. You could also do this with the outside hand only if you wanted. Posture is critical when working on finishes too so make sure that’s something you’re making calls for.

Another drill is rowing with feet out since you’ve gotta have a solid finish with the arms to help you maintain your connection to the stretchers on the last part of the stroke. It’s not strictly a “finishes” drill but my coaches have always used it to help enforce good finish posture in my boats when we’ve been working on that part of the stroke. If you’re working on building power throughout the drive and finishing the stroke off with the max amount of send, you could do half-pressure catches building into full-pressure finishes. Not only does that work on quick catches but it also helps them feel the acceleration on the drive, all culminating in a full-pressure finish.

Coxing Novice Q&A Teammates & Coaches

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The cox on our boat (novice 8) is annoyingly unfocused a lot of the time – she doesn’t listen to our coach about our drills, she complains a lot which wastes our water time, she always has the wrong cox box or attachment, and she always chats to stroke seat instead of leading us. The boys’ team said they had similar problems when she coxed them last term. Should I speak to her or our coach and what should I say?

This is one of those situations where you have to tread lightly because you never know how the other person is going to take it – they can either accept the feedback and do something different, ignore it, or run to your coach and say you’re ganging up on or bullying them. If you have team captains I would first bring it up with them, say what you said up above, and ask if they would mind saying something to her and letting her know that the rowers are getting frustrated so she needs to start being more attentive and focused. Since they have slightly more experience than you do it might be easier/better for them to address it first than for someone of equal standing (aka you) to bring it up. Plus, you’re each others peers and no matter how harsh you’ve gotta be, its always better to hear stuff like this from your teammates than from your coach(es).

If you don’t have team captains I would ask maybe one or two other rowers from the boat to come with you when you talk to her. Try to pull her aside after practice one day and let her know that her behavior is distracting to everyone else in the boat and it’s becoming more and more apparent that she’s not as focused as she needs to be. Having the wrong equipment, not listening to the coach, calling drills wrong, talking to the stroke when she shouldn’t be, etc. is frustrating to you guys because its not possible for you to do what you need to do if the person who’s supposed to be leading you is giving off an “I don’t care” attitude. You shouldn’t be afraid to be frank about that either – you have every right to be upset if your coxswain’s not doing what he/she needs to do. I would avoid bringing up anything about knowing how she was with the guys because that’ll make it seem like you’re all talking about her behind her back, which will just make the situation worse.

If after talking to her nothing changes (I’d give it at least a week), then I would go to your coach with the same two or three people you originally brought with you and tell them what’s going on. Let them know that you’ve talked with her or asked the team captains to say something to her and nothing changed. It’s likely that they’re frustrated as well with her not listening to them, having the wrong cox box, etc. so hopefully none of this would be news to them.

Novice Q&A

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I joined my university rowing club with the intention of rowing for them, however, as the club is very small and I coxed a little in autumn, I find myself being asked to cox, both for my squad (novice women) and the two senior squads. I’m 5ft10 and 125lbs, so really quite big for a cox. I really don’t want to lose my place in the main novice eight if I’m never going to be a decent cox, but equally, I’m not the strongest in the boat (probably around 4th based on technique and ergs) so coxing might be a good way to go. I don’t know whether to dedicate myself to coxing, and accept I’ll be on the large side, or stick to rowing. Could you shed any light on the frequency and success of coxes who aren’t pocket sized? Thank you.

I personally don’t know too many non-pocket sized coxswains but the ones that come to mind were all lightweight rowers that switched to coxing due to an injury. They didn’t do too bad with it, the only problem they had was fitting in the seat since they were several inches taller than the average coxswain. Even though coxswains usually are pretty tiny, it’s the weight that matters more than anything else. A good number of men that cox are in the 5’8″ to 5’10” range (Zach Vlahos, the senior men’s coxswain, is 5’9″…) so it’s definitely feasible if you wanted to keep doing it.

If you’re fourth on the ergs you’re in the upper part of the the middle of the pack which leads me to assume that if you trained hard enough you could probably be one of the top people in there. Only time can tell whether or not you’re a good coxswain unless you do something so egregious right off the line that your coach decides that it would take more time and effort than it’s worth to teach you to cox than it would to just coach you towards being a stronger rower. I would talk with your coaches and see what they say but if you’ve got the option I’d probably stick with rowing. I would tell your coaches too that you don’t want to lose your spot in the novice 8+ and let them know that your preference is rowing so that they know and can either find someone else to cox or make sure that you’re at least getting an adequate amount of training time with your own boat.

Coxing How To Q&A Rowing

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Since were still waiting for the river to be ice-free, I’ve been thinking about what I need to work on when we get back on the water. I’ve decided that coxing steady state pieces are harder for me to cox. I think it’s because I don’t want to talk to much but I’m also scared of not saying enough or being too repetitive. Do you have advice for coxing steady state workouts?

The first thing you’ve gotta do is talk to your coach and figure out what he wants to do that day. If you go out with the intent of coxing a 4x2k like I’ve outlined it down below but then find out that that’s not what he wants to do or he doesn’t know that’s what you’ve got planned then both of you are gong to be thrown off, especially you. Always communicate ahead of time and say “I saw we were doing X today and I wanted to know if you wanted me to run the workout in a specific way or if it’s OK if I do my own thing with them” … and then give them an idea of how you’ve planned it out. Get their input and be flexible. More often than not over the years if I’ve asked to run it on my own I’ve been allowed and the coaches will only chime in if/when they’re seeing something that I’m not or can’t. It’s a good way to establish yourself in the boat and with the coaches so I encourage you guys to try that the next time you go out for a steady state row.

Steady state pieces, despite occasionally being boring, tend to be some of my favorite on-the-water workouts because there’s a lot of flexibility when it comes to how to cox the rowers. I think you also have to not be afraid to just be quiet. That’s one of the hard parts about coxing is learning when it’s appropriate/necessary for you to talk and when it’s appropriate/necessary for you to not talk.

If we’re doing a particularly long piece, like 30-45 minutes of low-rate rowing, there are periods where I won’t talk for 2-3 minutes, sometimes up to 5 minutes, at a time. This gives the rowers an opportunity to focus on themselves, their own technique, finding and maintaining a rhythm within the boat, etc. without me chirping in their ear. It also gives me a chance to focus on my steering (which I’m always working on, regardless of what the workout is) and the blades. I usually try to watch for basic technique stuff unless there’s something specific I’ve been told to watch for, but I also like to challenge myself a bit and look for things that are naturally tougher to see from the front vs. from the side (such as rowing it in, washing out, etc.). I also like to guess what the hands/bodies are doing based on what the blades look like.

Whenever we stop for a water break or to spin I’ll go through everything I saw and ask the rower or the coach if they noticed that they were dipping their hands, lunging, rowing it in, etc. and see if I was right with what I deduced in my head. It’s a weird game I play with myself but it’s helped me so much over the years. I practically taught myself everything I know about technique by doing this. I’ll also talk to the coach and say something like “I saw X happening with [rower’s] blade so do you think saying something like [call] would help or is there a better way to address that?” I like doing this on the water if I can vs. off the water and away from the rowers because it lets the rower I’m talking about hear directly from the coach what I could/should say in that situation so that when they hear it again, they’ll know what I’m referring to. I also think it makes me look good because it shows that I’m not just along for the ride and even though I’m not saying anything, my brain is laser focused on what’s happening in the boat. Making myself look good is low on my list of priorities but it’s still a priority.

Related: Today during practice we just did 20 minute pieces of steady state rowing. My crew gets bored very quickly and their stroke rating goes down, so I decided to add in various 13 stroke cycles throughout the piece, but I regret doing it because it wasn’t steady state. I’m just confused as to how to get them engaged throughout without sounding like a cheerleader but at the same time keeping up the drive and stroke.

One of the best ways to break up a long steady state session is to do something like what I detailed in the post up above, that way it’s organized and you’re not just making random calls and going through the motions with no objectives or goals. I usually only do this if we’re doing 2x30min, 3x20min, etc. but you could do it with distance pieces if you wanted. If we’re doing something like 3x6k, 4x2k, etc. then I’ll cox them a bit more like we’re doing an actual piece, if that makes sense, while still focusing on just a few specific things. I like to break each individual piece into smaller chunks (i.e. 1000m) and focus on one or two things before combining everything we worked on in all of the previous pieces in the final piece.

On the “coxing intensity scale” where 1 is talking normally to your crew between pieces and 10 is a race, I’m usually around a 6 (relaxed but focused tone) for the majority of whatever we’re doing. I’ll bring it up to a 7.5 when emphasizing a particular technical point during a drill or calling 5s, 10s, and 20s during steady state so that the rowers stay engaged and alert (and I don’t get bored). During steady state, when it comes down to the last thousand meters or two minutes or whatever I’ll try to cox it a little more intensely (somewhere between an 8.5 and a 9) to help them push through to the end.

What helps with avoiding repetition in your calls is knowing your crew, the things they do well/need to work on, and the individual tendencies of your rowers. This requires you to be actively paying attention to what they look like on the ergs, what their blades look like on the water, what your coach is saying to them, etc.  Sit down with the coaches before practice too and pick their brains about the rowers and what they’re seeing from the launch. If you’re coxing experienced rowers that were with a different coxswain last year, talk to that coxswain and get any info from them that you can about their tendencies, the calls they made for them, etc. A pretty solid understanding of all aspects of technique is crucial too. You should also get input from the rowers about what they want to focus on that day. Don’t confuse that with giving them options though because that’s not what you’re doing. They should know based on the last few practices what they need to work on individually and/or as a crew. (It should go without saying but all of this should be written down in your notebook too.)

Coxing How To Q&A

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Hey. So I took a boat on the water for the second time ever yesterday, and we hit a nasty cross-course wind that kept blowing me off my point. Every time I’d try to fix it, I’d end up on the other extreme of that point. Any advice for dealing with these kinds of winds?

Crosswinds are a huge pain. When you’re getting hit on the side like that while trying to establish your point, the key is to know exactly what you need to do and who you need to do it so that you can move quickly. The quicker you get your point and start rowing, the less time the wind has to throw you off.

When getting your point in a crosswind you do want to over-correct just a little bit so that when you start rowing the crosswind blows you straight. Once you’re actually rowing, assuming you’re rowing by 6s at the least and with an adequate amount of pressure, it should be fairly easy to maintain your point. When starting out, assuming I’m in a port-stroked boat and am trying to turn towards starboard (the side I’m getting hit on with the wind), I like to have 2-seat row and 7-seat back. It takes some of the pressure off of 2-seat so he doesn’t have to turn the boat himself and adds a bit of power via 7-seat to expedite the process. Having all eight rowers row and back at the same time is too much of a hassle and is going to contribute more pressure than you actually need. More is not better or faster in this situation.

Related: One of my coaches was a coxswain and I got switched out the last third of practice to be in the launch with her. OMG BEST TIME EVER. Every time I had a question she’d answer it so well! More coxes should become coaches! One thing she was talking about was watching the wind patterns – like the dark patches in the water to let the crew know. I understand the concept, but I’m not really understanding why. Like, I tell them that a wind/wake is coming to prepare them?

To get perfectly straight would normally take about two strokes but since we’re getting hit on starboard, we want to over correct a bit so I’d probably take three. In certain circumstances I might take a fourth stroke, although I’ll usually tell them to make the last one an arms only or arms and bodies stroke since I don’t want to over–correct too much. Since I’m trying to over-correct a little bit though I want to shoot for one stroke past straight, meaning if I’m two strokes to starboard I want to correct so I’m one stroke to port. (Hopefully that’s not too confusing.) This will give me enough leeway so that when we start rowing I can either adjust with the rudder or just let the wind push me into being straight.

From here it’s all about using the rudder to stay straight. You can use the rowers to help you adjust if you need to by telling one side or the other to “gimme one hard stroke on this one” but you should do that sparingly since that can really mess up any drills or pieces you’re doing.