Author: readyallrow

Coxswain skills: Dusting off the cobwebs

By readyallrow March 11, 2014

We’ve been on the water for about a week now and although the majority of the days have been great, yesterday was … not so much. Personal responsibility by the coxswains was, to say the least, lacking. While we were in the launch the other coach and I were consistently making comments to each other about things the coxswains should have been doing but weren’t. Some of the stuff seems like really obvious “coxing 101 basics” that we shouldn’t have to say either, which was the really frustrating part.

We told the coxswains what they needed to be doing (it honestly felt like we were spoon-feeding them) but we eventually just stopped because it was one of those situations where it’s like if you’re not gonna bring the boats even or you’re not gonna communicate with each other then fine, you can start the piece a length and a half back and on the complete wrong side of the river. There should never be a practice where the coaches spend more time talking to the coxswains about finding their point, keeping the crews together while maintaining space between them, trying to get lined up, etc. It’s such a colossal waste of time, amongst many other things.

It got me thinking though while we were out there of the things I try to do when I get back on the water after an extended period of time. Most of this I “perfected” in my own way over time but I pretty much learned all of it my sophomore year of high school though since that was the first year of going on the water after winter training as an experienced coxswain.

One of the messages that the coaches tried to get across to us is that we need to be able to separate our coxing responsibilities from our individual responsibilities, which took awhile for me to understand. Coxing responsibilities refer to things that are part of your job as a coxswain, things you need to do to ensure practice runs accordingly. Personal responsibilities are different in this sense compared to how I used it at beginning because here it refers coxing-related skills that you need to work on. I’ve marked each of these as one or the other so you know the difference.

Steer more, talk less (PR)

When you first get back on the water, you shouldn’t be trying to call pieces and drills and warmups like you were in mid-May. If you go out there during the first week with the goal of fixing everyone’s technique problems during that practice or explaining complex things to novices who are out there for only the second time, you’re not accomplishing anything and you’re more than likely getting on your coach’s nerves (personal experience, yes, you are).

Most coxswains, myself included, have an aversion to being quiet while on the water but during the first week back out your focus needs to be more on steering a good course than on making calls. This time is when most coaches are going to start evaluating your skills to see where you fall in terms of lineups and the biggest way to separate yourself from the other coxswains is to steer well right off the bat.

Slow down and listen to instructions (CR)

On land, do this while being mindful of the fact that we only have a limited amount of time on the water. Slow down doesn’t mean move at a snail’s pace. Don’t run around trying to be the fastest one to get your boat out either because honestly, no one cares, and that’s when mistakes happen. You’re still gonna have to stop and wait for the other crews to catch up so you might as well take your time, talk to the coach to figure out what the warmup is if you don’t already know, and figure out exactly what he wants you to do (where you’re to go, where to stop, what to do while you’re waiting for the other crews), etc.

Keep the boats together (CR/PR)

For the love of coxing, this is not that hard. Really, it’s not. It is your responsibility to keep your boat next to the other crews at all times or at the very least, no more than a length ahead or behind when you’re doing drills and warmups (obviously pieces are different). If you do get behind, you need to get on the rowers and say “we’re falling a little behind the other boats, let’s add some pressure/add in 3 and 4 to go stern 6/go all eight until we get caught up” or “we’re getting a little too far ahead, let’s take it down to half-pressure/let’s drop out 3 and 4 to go to stern 4/add in a pause at bodies over for five”. The coaches should not have to tell you to do this, it should be an automatic reaction/judgement call by you.

Communicate with the other coxswains (CR)

It’s easy at the beginning of the season to get sucked into your boat’s bubble and forget that you’re not the only ones on the water. If you’re out with other crews you need to talk to the other coxswains and figure out which lanes you’re going to row in (and then actually row in them), whether that be lanes 3, 4, and 5 or inside, middle, and outside.

If someone’s encroaching on your lane then say something. Don’t just passive aggressively sit there and then smirk at them when the coaches say to keep some distance between the crews. Also don’t decide that you’re going to ignore the lane you said you were going to row in or the lane the coaches told you to take.

Communicating with each other also applies to starting drills at the same time and making sure the boats are lined up evenly so the coaches can start everyone together. If you can see that you’re two seats behind someone at the start of a drill, put your hand up, have your stern pair row, and get even. Don’t wait for the coaches to tell you this stuff.

Ultimately all this goes back to you doing the absolute basics of your job. Keep that in mind as you get back on the water to start the season.

Image via // @ulbc

Coxing Video of the Week

Video of the Week: Pay attention, coxswains

By readyallrow March 10, 2014

If you’ve ever had to fill out concussion forms for crew and thought “why am I filling this out, how could I possibly get a concussion?”, this video should give you an idea of one of the (very) few ways that you can sustain one. Keep an eye on the guy in the green shirt.

Coxswains, if something like this happens it’s on you. There’s no excuse for something like this. It’s not like massive trees just hang out below the surface and then suddenly think “hmm, time for some fresh air” before popping up out of the water. For as close as they were to it combined with the fact that it was sitting upright about 5ft above the water it should have been visible to the coxswain and she should have steered around it. “But there are eight tall guys in front of her, do you know how hard it is to see around them? They’re practically trees themselves!” Why yes, yes I do. That’s why when I’m coxing, regardless of who it is, I’m always peaking my head out of the boat every 15-20 strokes to see what’s up ahead of me.

Oh, and nonchalantly saying “sorry I didn’t see that” is probably one of the fastest ways to get eight people really pissed at you really fast. One or more of your rowers could have been hurt, not to mention the damage done to your boat (snapped oar and a broken rigger in this case) so a little bit more emotion, for lack of a better word, would do you some good. I have no idea how she reacted once they stopped but I know my knee-jerk reaction and probably that of the coxswains I know wouldn’t be “ho hum oops sorry”, it would be something along the lines of “oh SHIT are you guys OK??” Someone (I think my college coach but I don’t remember) said to us once that our reaction to hitting something should be proportional to the size of the object we hit.

The days after it’s rained are the ones where you’ll most likely have to deal with excessive amounts of debris in the water. In Philly last summer we had a week of really bad thunderstorms that resulted in our coxswains having to deal with massive tree trunks and limbs (even house furniture, oddly enough) almost every day. It’s tough but manageable if you’re paying attention to your surroundings.

Another time you’ll have to deal with stuff like this is when the ice melts since it’ll most likely cause some flooding. If you’re really short like me (4’11”) and/or have trouble seeing around your rowers then it’s your responsibility to communicate with your bowman and have them turn around every so often to check if there’s something that could potentially impede your path. If there is then they need to YELL LOUDLY and you either need to immediately weigh enough and check it down or figure out where the object is so you can navigate around it.

Coxing Q&A Teammates & Coaches

Question of the Day

By readyallrow March 8, 2014

Hey! So I keep getting put in boats that I don’t think I belong in at races/practices, even though the boats that I should be on request me and I’m sure I’m better than the coxswain in those boats. When talking to my coach, he tells me that because we lost a race to a technically slower boat, it is literally all my fault and no one else’s fault even though my boat doesn’t blame me at all, so I shouldn’t be on the faster boats.

I’m so frustrated and just thinking of quitting but I need a reason to not quit because I will regret it if I do. I love this sport yet getting the blame being put entirely on me by my coach unfairly really bothers me. I’m just confused and don’t know what to do anymore. Another note on losing to the slower boat, we lost due to many reasons, most being technique issues in the boat and the other coxswain didn’t even have a cox box so it wasn’t that boat’s coxswain’s calls. Thank you so much. Sorry for the long question, I’m just really frustrated.

Have you tried talking to your coach about this? Blaming coxswains for every single thing that goes wrong in the boat is something that irritates me so much (and not just because I’m a coxswain either). My theory is that unless someone catches a massive crab that completely eliminates you from contention, losing a race is on everyone in the boat, not just one specific person or a couple specific people. There’s always things that everyone can do better and to put the blame solely on a coxswain not making the right calls or whatever is BS.

Coxswains can only do so much too … like, yes, you’re there to give instructions, make corrections, etc. and you could do that until you’re blue in the face but unless the rowers actually listen to you and make an effort to do something different, things aren’t going to change. You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make them drink is essentially what I’m getting at.

I’d approach him about this and say that as a crew you all agree that the reason you lost was because of technique issues that everyone was having and now that you, as the coxswain, are more aware of what those issues are and what calls to make for them, you feel like you deserve an opportunity to work with them for at least a couple practices to show your coach not only your improved communications skills but also the positive effect that you have on the boat when you’re in there with them. Think about what you contribute to the boat, how you being in there makes them faster, and tell him that. If he doesn’t respond to that or keeps putting you in the other boats … I mean, that’s kind of unfair in my opinion, but you’ve essentially got to accept that that’s the decision he’s made (regardless of whether it’s right, fair, etc.) and commit to working with your new boat to help them go fast.

Going back to what I said about being more aware of the technique issues, make sure you actually are aware of what specifically was causing problems, what the stroke should look like compared to how it looked that day, what you need to tell the rowers to do differently, what calls you would make, and how you would make those calls. Be cognizant of all of that with whatever boat you’re put in and make an effort to be really on top of watching their technique so you can immediately point out something when you see it. Not only will that make you a better coxswain in the long run but it’ll also give your coach an opportunity to watch you with a completely different crew and see that you’re making an effort yourself to do something differently/better than you were before.

Whenever I’m in a boat that’s consistently having technique problems one of the things I always do is re-evaluate how I’m communicating with them and if I’m saying the right things. Even if what I’m saying sounds good to me or good in my head, it might not be resonating with the rowers, which means I’ve gotta either stop using it or reword it so everyone understands what I’m saying. One of the biggest mistakes you can make as a coxswain is continuing to use an ineffective call or saying the same thing over and over with no results. If your coach sees you making an effort to improve that area of your coxing then he might be willing to give you another shot with your original boat.

Ergs Q&A Training & Nutrition

Question of the Day

By readyallrow March 7, 2014

What are some good erg workouts that you find particularly helpful to lower 2k times?

Steady state! Longer pieces (45-70min total) help to increase your aerobic capacity which in turn allows you to go harder for longer. The key is to do them at a consistent, manageable pace so that your heart rate is consistently in the 140-170bpm range, give or take a little depending on your individual fitness. If you’re going out and doing long pieces but at a high percentage of your max heart rate, you’re most likely going above your anaerobic threshold which is counter-intuitive.

You also want to keep the stroke rates fairly low – somewhere in the 18-22ish range is usually good. If you know your 2k split you want your steady state split to be 16-18ish seconds above that. If you’re going off your 6k split it should be about 10-12 seconds above that.

Some examples of workouts include 7×10′ (2′ off between pieces), 10k at 18-20spm, 3 x 20′, etc. There’s tons of good examples on the /r/rowing sub on Reddit – just search “steady state” and you’ll easily be able to see what other people are doing.

Don’t forget to include interval stuff as well – 8x500m, 4x1k, 1:40 on/0:20 off, etc. In order to row well you’ve got to have a good balance of aerobic and anaerobic fitness so that you can go hard and fast when you need to and then be able to settle into a solid pace for an extended period of time.

Erg Playlists

Music to erg to, pt. 29

By readyallrow March 7, 2014

In case this week’s playlist isn’t enough, check out this remixed version of UC Davis’s Men’s JV8+ coxswain from the 2010 ACRAs. Guaranteed to drop splits if you put this on while your team is erging.

https://play.spotify.com/user/1241641027/playlist/5hC9C4mOr5GXwzUzRDV0fO

Novice Q&A Rowing Technique

Question of the Day

By readyallrow March 5, 2014

Hi Kayleigh! I have an issue. One thing that coxes and coaches mention quite a bit during pieces, either on the erg or the water, is breathing. I know a lot of people like that, however whenever breathing is mentioned I start thinking about it and my breathing pattern gets screwed up and I have trouble breathing for a few strokes, which in turn screws up my rowing. I don’t want to keep having this problem however I don’t want to say something and be *that* person, especially since I’m new to my team.

Keep it simple – inhale on the recovery, exhale on the drive.

Most of the time coaches and coxswains talk about breathing because it’s an easy thing for rowers to forget to do. Plus, if everyone is inhaling and exhaling at the same time it can help to establish a rhythm in the boat. And, on top of that (but less importantly), it sounds really cool. Not getting caught off guard by them saying something about it really comes down to just being focused on what you’re doing and training yourself to not be so easily distracted. How you go about doing that is up to you. I don’t think it’s an uncommon problem though … I think I’ve known at least 2-3 people at each place I’ve coached that have had the same or a similar problem. If you ask your coach they can probably give you some advice too – that is their job, after all. If you don’t ask, they can’t help you. As a novice you get a pass for not knowing certain things because you’re new so how/why would you know them. You’re only that person if your question is out-of-this-world stupid or the answer is really, really obvious, neither of which apply here.

What determines your success is ... what pain do you want to sustain?

Coxing Q&A Technique

Question of the Day

By readyallrow March 4, 2014

Hi Kayleigh. First of all I’d like to say how much I love love love your blog! It has been such a valuable resource, thank you for devoting so much time to it. My question is: I’ve been coxing for about 18 months now and I’m feeling comfortable with steering and basic calls. My coach has asked me to start judging each rower’s technique from what his blade is doing and I’m finding this really hard. Other than looking for timing issues and comparing length against other blades, I’m at a bit of a loss. Do you have any tips? Thanks!

Hi! Technique is the hardest thing to talk about when I haven’t got a visual of some kind right in front of me so apologies if this is kinda vague. The easiest and best way to point out how things should look vs. why something doesn’t look right is to just find a video online – almost any video (within reason) of people rowing will work – and email it to me. Then I can sit down, analyze it, and share what I see. I wish there were gifs like that one I posted in the Bend & Snap post but I haven’t been able to find anything. I got lucky with that one because I just happened to scroll past it on Tumblr while I was procrastinating on writing that post.

I’ll try to write a longer post on this soon but for now, other than what you’ve already said here are five things to watch for with the rower’s blades…

Pausing at any point during the stroke, particularly at the finish (usually leads to rush and check in the boat)

Rowing it in (the legs start before the blade is in the water, resulting in a stroke that’s half or 3/4 as long as it should be)

Excessive amounts of water being thrown up at the finish (this means they’re feathering before their blade is out of the water). It’ll probably look something like this (seriously).

Where the blades are in relation to the water on the recovery (this will tell you what their hands are doing)

Blades “bobbing” while they’re in the water (which means they’re not applying the force evenly and smoothly throughout the drive with the push of their feet and the pull with their hands)

Coxing Q&A Teammates & Coaches

Question of the Day

By readyallrow March 4, 2014

I had been rowing for a club for a few years and am now coxing due to a chronic illness. Right now, in winter, that means that I am still erging all workouts but I just can’t go at a rate higher than a 24. Even with this, I am still the third fastest girl on my team. My coach is in her first year and pretty much came in to overhaul our program and make it really good in 4 years (She has told us that she much prefers to work with novice freshmen).

When I was first diagnosed, she got really pissed at me, which was fine I guess, but now she refuses to help me learn how to cox or to even acknowledge me. I have come to every day of non-mandatory winter practice, I work my ass off and I am simultaneously trying to teach myself to cox whereas the rest of our coxswains are in 8th grade and either don’t show up or don’t try. She has now started putting me in a workout group with all of our eighth graders (whom she refers to as the slow ones), even though I still hold a top split for our team, even if I have to slightly modify workouts to, you know, stay alive.

I now have the option to tryout for another club, but they are 1 1/2 hours away (nearest club) and are our rival club. I really want to get better and they would definitely give me more opportunities, but I feel like I have put in so much energy to this team (which I loved before this coach and my diagnoses) that I would feel like I was betraying my team. What do you suggest? Should I stay with my club, quit, or switch clubs? And if I switch clubs, how can I prepare for a coxswain tryout since I haven’t ever really had anyone care to teach me? Thanks.

“When I was first diagnosed, she got really pissed at me, which was fine I guess…” Uh, what world do you live in where it’s OK for an adult to get pissed at a teenager for a medical condition that’s completely out of their control? Does it maybe mess with their plans a little bit, yea, but that’s no excuse to actively project their annoyance at them, let alone disregard them completely.

Have you talked to your coach directly about this? In most other situations I’d say that if a coach did this it’s probably not intentional, they’re just trying to keep their focus on the “healthy” athletes while you do whatever you’ve gotta do as far as modified workouts, rehab, etc. goes but to completely ignore you, that’s questionable to me. I’d try talking to her privately and say that you understand that having to switch to coxing isn’t ideal but since that happened you feel like there’s been a lack of communication between the two of you and you wanted to have a conversation so that you could figure out where you stand on the team, how she’s thinking of using you once you get on the water, etc.

Hear what she has to say and then maybe discuss the situation with your parents. A 90 minute drive to and from practice every day is a lot of time to spend in the car. Take that three hours on top of a two hour practice and, assuming you have practice at 4pm, it’d be 7:30pm at the earliest that you’d get home every night. When you consider the amount of time you need to spend doing homework, eating, showering, and sleeping, driving that far for practice doesn’t seem worth it to me, no matter how good the opportunity might be. That’s your call though.

As far as learning how to cox, if you’ve been rowing for a few years already then it’s likely that you already know the basic drills and calls. If she doesn’t seem willing or able to help you with the other stuff that goes into coxing, go to the experienced coxswains and ask them for some help with the things you don’t know/understand yet. Coaching you is part of her job though and if she doesn’t make an effort to do that like she does with the other people on the team then I’d maybe consider if being a part of the team is the best use of your time (and money, since I’m assuming you/your parents are paying a couple hundred dollars in fees each season).

If you do decide to switch teams then presumably you wouldn’t need to try out, unless the definition of a tryout has changed in recent years. I consider a tryout to be where you show off your skills to the coaches before the season starts and they either say “yay you made the team” or “sorry kid, maybe next year”. It seems like something that’d be pretty hard to do with a novice coxswain but if I had to guess I’d say they’d probably just put you in a boat (don’t read anything into what boat they put you into to start with, it literally means nothing), see how you do during practice with steering, giving commands, etc., and then give you some feedback afterwards.

What determines the boat you end up with is how well you respond to the feedback and make an effort to improve on the areas they said you were a little weak in. It doesn’t hurt to let them know beforehand that you haven’t had much experience with coxing, although I would avoid throwing your coach under the bus and saying that she refused to teach you because that doesn’t make you look very good.

Coxing Q&A

Question of the Day

By readyallrow March 4, 2014

My friend who does choir tries to avoid dairy before big concerts. Do you know why that is and if this would apply to coxswains too? I use my abs a lot when I’m coxing but I still feel like my voice is not very strong.

I do, actually! If only all the useless random facts I know counted as something I could throw under the skills section of my resume…

The whole “don’t drink or eat dairy” thing before you sing is partially a myth. Singers tend to think that if they eat anything with dairy it’ll produce a lot of phlegm in their throats and make it harder for them to hit their notes. This isn’t actually how it works though unless you’re one of the few people that are allergic to milk proteins. What actually happens is the mucous that’s already in your airway gets thicker due to the high amounts of fat in the dairy you eat. The lower the fat content of the dairy products, the less of an issue this is since it won’t thicken the already-present mucous as much.

I suppose that could also apply to coxswains. Trying to talk or project your voice when you’ve go a ton of crap in your throat can be tough because you spend more time coughing to try and clear it which just leads to your voice getting all scratchy and hoarse. I’m always clearing my throat (not because I eat a lot of dairy though) so that sometimes happens to me. That or I end up with a really bad migraine which is just about the worst thing to happen to a coxswain short of completely losing their voice.

Some people just don’t naturally have strong voices, which is fine. To strengthen your voice, go on YouTube or Google “voice strengthening exercises” or something similar and try out some of the exercises that come up. Or, since you’ve got a friend in choir, ask her to teach you some of their vocal warmups. Obviously you won’t notice a difference overnight but if you do them consistently then you’ll probably start to feel like your voice is a little stronger after a couple weeks. Remember too that there’s a difference between having a deep voice and a strong voice. How deep a person’s voice is is something that you don’t really have much control over whereas how strong it is has to deal with the strength of your vocal muscles and how confident and/or authoritative you feel.

In addition to all that, try doing some core workouts a couple days a week. As I’ve said before (in the post linked above), the stronger your core the easier it’ll be for you to project your voice.