Author: readyallrow

College Coxing Q&A

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Hi. I’ve been rowing on my high school team for four years now and I’ve been considering continuing crew in college. However, my times aren’t good enough to be recruited and I’ve always wanted to cox. People have told me I would be good at coxing but my coach wants me to row for him. But my weight is an issue. I’m 5’3″ and weigh around 140. I don’t know if I can healthily get down to a weight to cox, so is it possible for me to cox men? Thanks!

Depends on where you go to school. If you go to a school with a club program you could probably row or cox because they’re typically more lax about the height/weight requirements since a lot of the people on the team are new to rowing or haven’t participated in sports before (thus they don’t have the typical rower’s build). I would agree with you that getting down to a healthy weight range to cox women is probably going to be tough so unless you’re at a club program where that’s not as big of an issue, I personally wouldn’t consider it an option.

As far as coxing men goes (at all IRA schools and probably 99% of the competitive clubs (men aren’t NCAA, remember)) , that’s also tough because like women’s teams, they typically want their coxswains to be as close to racing weight as possible for reasons I’ve discussed before (basically, no one wants to carry around more dead weight than they have to, which is understandable). If you’re 140lbs now, that’s 13-15lbs you’d have to lose. I can’t tell you if that’s healthy for you or not because I don’t know you but assuming you’re a senior now and start college in the fall … yea, you’ve got plenty of time if you wanted to go that route. It’s a lot of lifestyle changes though so make sure you take that into consideration.

(Quick edit because I forgot to include this before I posted this.) If you want to cox the guys this season, as in three months from now, I’d say it’s still possible but you’re giving yourself a bit more of a time limit, which can be some people’s downfall. If you want to cox in college you could always still row this season and then walk on to the team in the fall and say “I want to cox”. You don’t have to cox this season but the practice certainly wouldn’t hurt. If you’re not trying to be recruited though (that period is pretty much over now anyways, I think) then it doesn’t really matter what you choose to do. Just remember that if you try to cox the guys you’re giving yourself a very small window to get in the racing weight range.

As a general note to everyone reading, I want to throw out a clarification on coxswain weights and who you’re coxing for. I know I’ve said many times that if being or staying at 110lbs to cox for women is not feasible for you then coxing men is always an option because their minimum is 125lbs. I’m not backing down from that because I do think it’s a reasonable option. I don’t, however, want people to get the impression that you can just jump right into coxing men regardless of your weight because their minimum is higher than the women’s. Their minimum is higher because they’ve got to accommodate male coxswains who probably haven’t been 110lbs since 7th grade. That’s it.

However, if you’re thinking about coxing you have to understand that weight is an important and dare I say critical component of being a coxswain. It’s not the most important thing but it’s something that needs to be given the proper attention by everyone who’s considering coxing. There’s really no easy way to say this but please don’t just assume you can jump right into coxing guys if your normal body weight is 10, 15, 20+lbs over 125lbs. You’re going to be gently nudged or sometimes flat out told to lose weight depending on who you cox for. If you really want to cox that badly but are more than like, 130lbs, you need to start thinking about making some serious changes in order to get down to racing weight (in a healthy way) by the time the season rolls around.

Coxing Ergs Novice Q&A

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Hello! I just starting coxing in the winter season and I’ve been really quiet while coxing erg workouts because I never know what to say to encourage someone. What are your staple phrases to use to encourage someone during an erg test/workout or during a regatta?

The first thing you should do is always ask the people erging if they want to be coxed. Some people need it, other people hate it. In my experience most people are OK with subtle technique reminders but don’t care too much for the “yay, go you” motivational calls, mostly because they’re largely unnecessary unless someone is really struggling. This obviously varies by team though. If you want to say something encouraging, say it to the whole group – something like “looking strong, guys” or whatever. Don’t be cheesy though. I beg of you. If whatever you’re going to say sounds like it could be on a Hallmark card or part of a “deep” Tumblr text post, don’t say it.

Related: Advice for coxing a 5k on the erg? There are only so many times I can remind my boys to keep their back straight and drive with their legs.

When I’m coaching or coxing an erg workout I typically just walk around and watch people’s form. For the most part I’m fairly quiet too. I like to use the time to observe rather than talk because my theory is that when we’re on the water, that’s my time but when we’re on land and they’re on the ergs, that’s their time. When I’m walking around, I’ll lean down and say something if I see something stand out with their technique or if I see their splits climbing above where they should be but usually it’s just a quick reminder like “get the arms all the way out”, “chins up”, “watch your split, get it back to 1:49”, etc. If there’s something that requires some more detail, an explanation, etc. then I’ll just wait until they’re done erging before I say something to avoid distracting them.

“Staple phrases” is tough because there sort of is no such thing – my staples are different than most other coxswains staples and their staples are different from other coxswains’ staples. As I’ve said many, many, many times before, the best way to figure out how to motivate someone is to just ask them. What do they want to hear, what do they need to hear, what reminders do they want/need, what are their goals, etc. From there, all you have to do is repeat that to them when you feel they need it (or they tell you they do). You could always go through the “calls” tag too if you wanted – there’s a lot of stuff in there so I wouldn’t recommend doing that unless you’ve got some free time on your hands.

Related: The worst coxswain calls

All that being said, you’re a novice – you really shouldn’t be saying that much because you don’t know anything yet. The only thing worse than not saying anything is saying stuff that you yourself don’t understand. Walk around with the experienced coxswains, ask them questions, learn about technique on the ergs, get to know the rowers, talk with the coaches about the goals of each practice and why you’re doing the workouts you’re doing, etc. Spend time educating yourself at and outside of practice and then as you start to get more comfortable with the terminology, technique, etc. then you can start coxing the rowers (if they want you to).

Coxing Q&A Racing Rowing

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So I have a question. My rowers are asking me to take power 10s basically every 20 ish strokes. It seems excessive to me but I feel like I should follow their request. What do you think? Thanks!

My first question is why are they asking you to take them every 20ish strokes? I’d figure the answer out to that first before deciding whether to acquiesce their request or not. I’ll agree that that does seem a bit excessive but if you’re doing it during practice, say during a steady state piece or something, then I think it’s fine. On occasion I’d do that with my eights when we were doing longer pieces to break up the monotony – they wouldn’t just be power 10s though, they’d be 10s for something, but hopefully that part’s obvious.

During a race, yea, that’s pretty pointless. When you do any kind of burst the output is typically expected to be just a bit above normal compared to the rest of the race. If you’re rowing at 96% as your “baseline” then the 10s or 20s you take, assuming you use them sparingly and strategically, should be able to be right around 98%. If your base is 96% and your consistently taking 10s/20s then right around 750m in you’re going to stop feeling any difference in power between your base and the bursts. Around 1250m you’ll start to feel everything falling off and nothing will be as powerful because they essentially wasted their energy and spun their wheels in the first half of the race.

Talk to them and figure out why they want you to call 10s so often and then decide from there. Just because they’re requesting something doesn’t mean you have to do it. Life’s full of little disappointments like that. If you don’t think it’s an effective use of your time though then tell them why (you can use what I said up above if you want, just don’t just say “no, that’s dumb, shut up and row”). It’s also possible that they’re asking you to call power 10s because they don’t think you’re talking to them enough or giving them enough feedback while you’re rowing and since power 10s are an easy “go to” thing to tell the coxswain to do, that’s what they’re doing. Regardless of what it is though, you need to communicate with them and figure out why they’re asking for this, why they think they need it/what they think they’re getting out of it, and then decide if it’s a worthwhile use of your time. Talk to your coach too if you’re unsure. They know your crew better than I do so they’d be able to say “yea, they need some practice taking some hard strokes when they’re tired (like they will be during a race)” or “no, that’s not what they need to be doing, rather you should have them do something like this instead: _____”.

Coxing Q&A

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I’ve noticed a lot of the coxswains in your recordings liking the “hook, send” call. What exactly is meant by this?

“Hook, send” is a two-part call that you make at the catch (hook) and the finish (send). Every coxswain kinda tweaks what the meaning of “hook” and “send” are for their crew so I’ll tell you my definitions of them. The hook part refers to that upward “J”-like movement you make to put the blade in the water. Since the goal at the catch is to go straight to the water, I’ll say “hook” to remind the rowers of that sharp, quick move they have to make to get a good latch on the water. The send part means exactly what you’d think it means – you’re sending the boat when the blades are out of the water. If you’ve heard the term “run”, it means basically the same thing. When I say “send” I want to feel a good, clean snap at the finish when the blades are released and feathered (watch the GIF in that link to see what I mean) and then I want to see and feel the boat run under us on the recovery. Getting a good amount of run can only happen if you have a good catch, solid drive, clean finish, cohesive swing, and a balanced boat. “Hook, send” focuses on the first three of those things.

Sometimes you’ll hear “kick, send” too, where “kick” refers to the pushing-off movement you make against the stretchers once you’ve got the blade in the water.

Coxing Q&A Teammates & Coaches

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There’s a coxswain who is excessively competitive. She’s very cocky and hard to practice with. We had a day of skill & drill and she cut me off while launching/docking, ignored my requests to start drills together, coxed 1/2 to 3/4 pressure like race pieces, and didn’t really try to keep our boats together. She doesn’t help set up workouts on land until I ask, and clearly looks down on rowers/coxswains on lower boats. Is there a way to talk to her or the coaches without heightening the tension?

This is something I’d let the coaches handle. It’s likely they’ve already noticed her behavior (and if they haven’t, well, that’s another issue) so bringing it up to them shouldn’t come as a surprise. Raising issues like this with a coach always carries the risk that they’ll blow you off or think you’re just being petty but if I was in your position I’d say something. It’s really irritating, not just for you but for the rowers as well, when there’s such a blatant lack of communication between the coxswains, most especially when it’s one-sided. As I’ve said in the past, when you talk to your coach(es) keep it simple and to the point. Try to keep your personal feelings out of it and just give them the facts (basically everything you said up above). Let them know that you’ve tried talking to her previously about keeping the boats together, doing drills together, helping with land workouts, etc. but nothing really seems to get through to her. Once you’ve said that, let that be the end of it from your end and let them handle the rest. Ideally they’ll take her aside privately before or after practice one day and talk to her.

If you try talking to her and just end up repeating what you’ve said before, not only will she likely ignore you but she’ll also probably get pissed because you’re trying to tell her what to do, you’re being bossy, etc. (even though that’s obviously not really what’s happening). If she wants to do her own thing on the water, let her and then let the coaches deal with it if they think it’s an issue (which they probably will, especially if they’ve given her specific instructions to do the workouts with another coxswain and to keep the boats together). Don’t bother trying to keep up with her or adjusting your practice plan to fit what she’s doing because you’ll just end up playing catch-up the whole time which will result in a wasted practice for the rowers. As far as docking goes, just give her space and let her go. It’s not worth risking a $30k+ boat just to be able to be the first one to dock. Her attitude towards the other coxswains and rowers is most likely not going unnoticed by them so it’s really only a matter of time before someone else raises the issue of her attitude with your coaches. Do your best, along with the other coxswains, to try and maintain a positive atmosphere when you’re at practice. If your coaches don’t say something to her first, she’ll start to realize on her own that her attitude is making her the odd man out.

Teachable moments

College Coxing High School Novice Rowing Teammates & Coaches

Teachable moments

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Yesterday someone posted a thread on Reddit titled “Things I Wish Novices Knew” and when I read it I ended up having a much different reaction than I thought I would. Maybe it’s because I’ve been around the sport for awhile, maybe it’s because I talk to so many novices on here, I don’t know. I cringe at the thought that maybe it’s just because I’m getting older but I’m starting to lean more towards finding the teachable moments in situations like this rather than just reading what’s written, closing the tab, and quietly moving on.

I posted a really long response to the original post (unintentionally, to be honest…) and got a couple emails from people asking me to post it on here because they thought it was “good advice that I wish my teammates would listen to” and “I know several people on my D1 team that need a reminder of how to treat/work with novices if they want them to stick around”. Another person asked “Can you please post this on your blog? I don’t think many of my teammates are on Reddit but I know many of them, including a couple of our coaches, read your blog and this is something I think they should all read. None of them would take it seriously if I brought it up (I’m a junior in high school) but I know they will if they see if on your blog.”.

Here’s the original post:

And here’s my reply:

“OK, I’m going to play devil’s advocate here and say that instead of just posting all this stuff on Reddit and snarking on the noobs because they’re all complacent about, well, everything, maybe actually spend some time discussing all this stuff with them. Like [username removed] said, regardless of whether or not this was what he/she actually meant, they just started and they’re still learning. The upperclassmen when we were novices probably/definitely felt the same way about us as we do about the novices right now. There’s no excuse though to not spend the time teaching them all this stuff. And maybe you are, who knows, but if you’re doing it through various offhand, easy-to-ignore conversations or pissed off diatribes before or after practice, your message isn’t getting across.

If they aren’t used to participating in a sport, let alone one that says “fuck the elements” like crew does, they ARE going to assume that on certain days you won’t have practice because of the weather. That’s what NORMAL people do. They see that it’s foggy and think “I can barely see across the street, there’s no way we’ll be on the water today” or “It’s basically hurricane-ing outside, we can’t row in this”. That’s a NORMAL reaction for someone who hasn’t done crew before. You can say “don’t assume we won’t have practice” but part of them always will, at least for the first year.

Instead of having issues with people missing practice, why not have someone send a text to the novices (or everyone) in the morning if the weather looks iffy and say “practice is on, see you in an hour at the boathouse” or “fog’s pretty thick this morning, we’ll be in the erg room on campus at 7:30am”. I know it might seem like you’re holding their hand and making them less responsible but in situations like this, communication is key. Assuming that someone is going to assume something and then getting pissed when they assume the opposite of what you want them to assume is pretty messed up on your end.

If you want them to respect the boat, have them help you fix it when something happens to it so they can see how much time and effort goes into repairing the damage they caused or contributed to. If you’re a club, ask them contribute to the repair costs if they snapped off a fin or lost all the nuts and bolts to one of the riggers. Just saying it’s worth more than your tuition literally means nothing. It’s a fun fact you can tell people at the beginning of the year but after that, no one cares. I can pretty much guarantee you that the only time you start thinking about how much your tuition actually is is six months after graduation when you get your first student loan payment in the mail.

Saying the boat has won more championships than you is a real asshole thing to say, plain and simple. I bet the boat you row in has won more championships than you too but again, that doesn’t really mean anything. All it does is make them feel less a part of the team and lower on the totem pole than they already do/are. Don’t say shit like that to people who are new to the sport if you want them to stick around.

If you want them to go to bed on time, talk to them about time management. How do you manage your schedule? Give them actual examples instead of just repeating the same shit they hear from their parents, teachers, and advisers. Don’t just say “you’ve gotta be awake for practice”. Yea well, no shit. There’s a difference between being awake and being awake and they’re most likely going with the definition of awake that says “my eyes are open” instead of the one that says “my eyes are open and I’m firing on all cylinders”. Explain to them how just having your eyes open doesn’t count as being awake and why it’s important for everyone to be fully coherent at practice because at the very least, it’s a safety issue if they’re not.

If they say they’re having trouble getting all their homework done because they’re having difficulty understanding the material they’re learning in one of their engineering classes, say “oh, Andrew took that class when he was a freshman too and did pretty well in it … you should ask him for help and see if you guys can get together sometime”. If they’re working on a really big paper, offer to proofread or help them edit it. If they’re terrible at math and struggling with their calculus class, hook them up with the person on your team who just happens to have been a TA for that class last semester.

Even if you did everything all by yourself your entire way through college not everyone is like that and sometimes people need help but have a hard time asking for it. If you want to earn their respect as a teammate, be there for them OUTSIDE of practice, not just when you’re at the boathouse. Offer to help them when you can see they need it. Stuff like this will not only help them understand the close-knit feeling that being on a crew team has but it’ll also help them get their work done, stay on top of their classes, and go to bed (hopefully) at a slightly more reasonable hour.

Tuning out, goofing off, etc. is to be expected until you help/make them understand that they are ONE boat, not five or nine individuals. In order for the boat to run smoothly, everyone’s gotta be on the same page. If you’re that one person who is on page 3 while everyone else is on page 5, the boat will be effected. If you can see that they’re tuned out, figure out why. Don’t just brush them off. Engage them, ask them how the boat feels to them, what’s something they’re having trouble with, how does what we worked on yesterday feel today, DUDE your catch timing looks so much better than it did last week, oh, your back’s hurting and that’s why you aren’t focused? well, your posture’s not great right now so let’s fix that and see if it helps. Stuff like that.

Make sure each member of the crew (including the coxswain) gets an equal amount of attention, regardless of how big someone’s issues are compared to someone else. Don’t give them the chance to goof off or tune you out because if they see it, they’ll take it if they’re that kind of person. You, the coach, and the other rowers might know that they’re fucking around but until one of you steps up and addresses it or finds out the root cause, it’s going to keep happening.

To an extent, I don’t disagree with you on having a healthy fear of the sport. I do disagree with what you said about how it will help you avoid things. People new to the sport (or any sport, really) don’t understand that healthy fear the way we do. All they hear is the word “fear” and think “this is something I should be afraid of” and then they become scared of those things. What happens when you’re scared of things? You become meek, timid, and do everything you can to avoid being out-pulled, running into things, catching crabs, etc.

In the boat, you know what that translates to? Pulling harder than you’re capable of right now which leads to you getting injured. As a coxswain, you become over-zealous with the steering leading you to zig zag across the water or you firmly plant yourself smack in the middle of the river so that you’re far, far away from anything that might impede your path, traffic patterns be damned.

With catching crabs, you try to avoid catching them by fighting the handle which either a) gives you a really sore ribcage for a few days or b) throws you out of the boat, which then causes copious amounts of embarrassment that makes you question whether or not you want to keep doing crew. As a novice, is being out-pulled that high on the priority list? No. Learning the stroke and developing good technique should be WAY above anything involving power. If you want to worry about being out-pulled when you’re just starting out, go join CrossFit. The douchebro attitude you’ll develop and the injuries you’ll sustain will be the exact same. You’re most likely all gonna be in the freshman/novice boats anyways so it’s not like there’s going to be THAT much individual competition.

If you want them to worry about not hitting things, have an experienced coxswain walk them out of the boathouse and down to the water with the novice coxswain beside them so that they can see the path of least resistance that they should take when going out/coming in. Remind them that the equipment is precious and they should treat it as such. That’s all you have to say. Have your experienced coxswains explain how to steer the boat, what to do if they get in various less-than-ideal situations, etc. and then put them in a boat of experienced rowers so that if something DOES happen they’ll at least have knowledgeable people on hand to help them out. If they hit something because they don’t know how to use the equipment because YOU as the coach/experienced teammate didn’t THOROUGHLY teach them how to use it, that’s on you WAY more than it is on them and you HAVE to understand that.

Telling them to be afraid of something is going to do the exact opposite of what you want. Instead of saying “have a healthy fear so you can avoid all these things” explain to them that these are things you should always be conscious of so that you can always be striving to improve. Let the thought of catching a crab MOTIVATE you to really work on your technique so that crabs don’t happen. This will lead to all of those issues becoming less-than-likely to occur because you’ve developed the necessary skills that allow you to avoid them with no effort.

Raising the hands, lowering the blades, etc. is just something that you’ll have to keep explaining to them until it sinks in. I’ve worked with enough novices to know that they think the handle is everything, so if you say “lower the blade” they’ll put their hands down instead of the blade. Come up with some drills or something that will help them distinguish the two. You could do something like a basic catch drill at the finish and have them say “blade” when the blade goes in/hands go up and “hands” when the blade comes out/hands go down. I donno. Do the thing where all the starboards put their hands on the gunnels and all the ports lift their hands up to their faces, then switch, then have them figure out how to balance it on their own. Once they’ve got it, ASK THEM what they did to fix it and how did they know that’s what they needed to do. The more you engage them instead of just talking at them the better they’ll understand and the more focused they’ll be come.

Novices drive me insane so it’s not like I don’t understand how you feel. I’ve been in your position as a coxswain and a coach many times. I’d pick an experienced crew over them any day but working with them has taught me a lot of things that we tend to forget the more experienced we become. 10+ years of coxing more and more experienced crews made me complacent about a lot of the basic stuff. It wasn’t until I started coaching novices that I had to really go back and think about each individual step so that I could break everything down into individual parts so that they’d understand what I was trying to communicate. You really do have to spell out everything for them in the beginning. Is it time consuming and kinda annoying? Obviously, but it pays off in the end.

I’m one of the most impatient people on the planet and I get frustrated very easily when things that seem like common sense to me appear not to be to other people. With novices, everything we think is common sense isn’t to them. You have to be patient and work with them but I promise you that when it clicks and they finally get it, you experience a really rewarding sense of accomplishment, not only for them but for yourself too.

As much as I enjoy snarking on novices for the silly things they say and do (and man, do they say and do some seriously snark-worthy things…), ultimately that doesn’t do anything to help them get better. If they’re (hopefully) working hard to get better we should be working just as hard to help get them develop their skills and become competitive athletes. You most likely had someone like that when you were a novice so now it’s your responsibility to go be that person for someone else.”

I won’t elaborate any more on this since I think I covered everything pretty well already but what I hope you guys will take away from this is what I said in the last paragraph. That doesn’t mean you have to stop getting amusement out of the things novices do – I know I never will – but at least guide them towards the right way of doing things instead of just posting about it on the internet.

Image via // @lucerneregatta