Author: readyallrow
Coxing High School Q&A Teammates & Coaches
Question of the Day
Our team (high school varsity men) has two captains, me (the coxswain) and “Jim”, one of the fastest heavyweights. Our coach has a full-time job in addition to coaching us so a lot of the responsibility falls on the captains. I know that I was elected mostly based on my organizational abilities and so I expected to assume a lot of the work on that end, but Jim has barely done anything all year. I have to organize every captain’s practice and outside workout, even though I’m just a coxswain and honestly don’t know too much about weightlifting or whatever (Jim told me he would once but backed out at the last minute) and I’m always the one who has to manage everything at regattas, events, etc. The only exceptions are “fun” activities – gingerbread house, laser tag, team t-shirts are the only things he’s managed himself. His attendance is pretty mediocre too, which really undercuts the message our coach and I are trying to promote about good attendance and hard work at every practice.
I’m exhausted trying to juggle it all but I worry that if I don’t do everything myself it simply won’t get done. What could I say to him so that he’ll step up a little and take some of the pressure off? As far as I can tell he doesn’t think he’s doing anything wrong.
Have you talked to Jim one-on-one at all? If you haven’t, I would do that as soon as you can and just tell him straight up that you guys were both elected as captains but it feels like you’ve been doing a lot of the work that should have been split between the two of you. I wouldn’t outright accuse him of not doing anything though because that’d probably end poorly. Instead just say that if he’s got a lot of stuff going on outside of crew that’s preventing him from helping you organize stuff then that’s totally understandable but he needs to tell you that so that you’re aware that he’s not just blowing you off. See if you can work something out where you equally divide up the things that need to be done so that you both have your own specific responsibilities. Write it down so that there’s no question later on in the season who’s in charge of what. That always works best for me. Also make it a rule/common courtesy that if one of you have to pull out of your commitment that you try and give at least 24-48hrs notice to the other person.
It’s possible that the reason why he’s not doing anything (and why he doesn’t think he’s doing anything wrong) is because no one’s given him a specific responsibility and/or it’s not something the two of you have discussed. I’ve been in that position before and gotten screwed because I ended up looking lazy or disinterested when in reality I wasn’t aware that I needed to be doing anything. I don’t think people should always be expected to come ask/beg for some responsibilities so I wouldn’t necessarily hold this against him.
Plus, everyone has different strengths. He probably knows that you’re good with the organizational stuff and might think that everything that’s needed to be done so far falls under that category so naturally, you’ll handle it. I’ve done that before too – if there’s something that needs to be done that I don’t think fits with my specific skills set but looks like it might fit someone else’s, I just assume they’ll do it. Sometimes its plays out this way and they do it but other times it doesn’t get done at all because we never communicated about it. If you’re comfortable with the organizational stuff, you can be in charge of (for example) making sure everything is loaded on the trailers, dealing with team paperwork, and basic equipment upkeep. He can be in charge of talking with your coach about the workouts, setting up captain’s practices/outside workouts, and communicating the dates/times to the team, in addition to organizing team activities (which, since he’s been doing, might be something that he enjoys … or it’s easy to do but whatever, as long as it gets done).
It can be frustrating feeling like everything is falling on your shoulders but communication with the other involved parties is usually all it takes to balance the responsibility load. If you do that and still don’t see a change, try talking to your coach while avoiding completely throwing Jim under the bus. If he’s got mediocre attendance and your coach is aware of that, I’d bring that up. That isn’t throwing him under the bus, it’s more so just restating what your coach already knows. I’d even pose the question to Jim if he even wants to be team captain. Like, yea it’s cool to tell college coaches that you were team captain but if you didn’t actually do anything to back up the title, what’s the point? If things don’t seem to change after you talk to him, talk to your coach and say that, for whatever reason, it doesn’t seem like he’s embracing the role and that the things that you should both be doing you end up doing yourself and it’s getting on your nerves. Let your coach take it from there and deal with the situation.
I’d really encourage you to try to find a way to work with Jim though before you do this. Give it a month or so then proceed as necessary. If Jim does step up and start acting like a team captain, make sure you acknowledge it and say “hey man, thanks for all your help the last few weeks”. Little things like that can really motivate someone to continue helping you out. If he feels like he’s stepping up but not getting any recognition for it (whether it’s deserved or not), he might fall back into his previous routine of doing nothing.
I’ve touched on the “team captain” topic a couple times so you might read through some of those posts and see if they might give you some ideas on how to talk/work with Jim and be the best captain you can be for your team.
Music to erg to, pt. 20
Bassnectar’s remix of Nina Simone’s “Feelin’ Good” was featured on an episode of Hard Knocks back in August when they were following the Bengals around training camp and … seriously, whoever chose that song did a good job. It was perfect. The song alone is incredible but the remix gives it just that tiny bit of edge that makes it good to workout to.
https://play.spotify.com/user/1241641027/playlist/27jjaGUDicnRtTFF97UVjf
College Coxing How To Novice Q&A Teammates & Coaches
Question of the Day
Hi. I am a newly converted college coxswain. I have been researching like crazy about how best to motivate my rowers and I was wondering what you thoughts on this are. I have seen several videos and articles (probably some on here even) that say its on a boat-to-boat basis, but would you possibly have any bits of generic advice on how best to motivate my boats?
Interacting with the boats you cox is very similar to how you interact with your different social circles – you follow the same basic principles but you tweak it to fit the individuals you’re with. Once you start rowing with a boat on a regular basis and get to know the rowers better, you can start asking them what they want/need to hear during a piece. My default is to get one general thing from each person, something like a boat-wide or an individual technique issue (aka something easily addressed) and one personal, specific thing. Make sure you’ve got a notebook so you can write down and look back on what they tell you otherwise you’ll never remember.
My generic advice is less about the calls you make and more about you.
Be present, physically (obviously) and mentally. If you’re invested, they will be too. Even if you’re doing drills and are bored out of your mind (which you will be at some point), stay engaged and don’t let your tone convey anything else.
Be honest. If something isn’t going the way it should be, tell them. Don’t gloss over it in lieu of not hurting their feelings. They’re big kids, they’ll survive. If you see them doing something good, point it out. If it’s something that you’ve been working on for awhile and they finally got it, get hyped. Your enthusiasm will translate to them (just like your lack of enthusiasm will too). If something isn’t going right, point it out and tell them what they need to do to fix it while also throwing in a casual compliment on something that they’ve consistently been doing well. (You know the phrase “compliment sandwich”? Similar to that but less cliche.)
Don’t assume that you have to be the sole thing motivating eight individuals. You don’t. I tell every coxswain this but you cannot motivate someone who is not inherently motivated themselves. If they’re not already motivated by something internal to show up everyday and strive to succeed at the highest level, it’s going to be extremely difficult for you to help them out. If someone seems unmotivated to you, that should be your cue to take them aside and say “dude, what’s up” instead of doing the opposite and thinking “Well, if some motivation is good, cheerleader-level of motivation must be great! I’ll do that!”. The more you try to motivate them without finding out why they’re unmotivated in the first place, the more it’s going to backfire in your face. Each crew’s motivation is different so if you’re coxing multiple boats, make sure you’re not coxing your JV8+ the same way you’re coxing your V4+. One crew can find demoralizing what another finds encouraging so it’s important to recognize that motivation in general isn’t a one-size-fits-all thing.
Tone of voice is everything. I alluded to that in the first bullet point but it really is one of the most important aspects of coxing. How you say something is just as important as what you say. Know what tone is appropriate for what you’re doing at the moment and adjust as necessary. Do not be a monotone robot.
Always tell them what’s happening around them. Ideally they’re not looking around trying to figure out where they’re at, where the other crews are, how far they are from the line, etc., so in race or practice-piece situations, they’re relying on you for that information. It might not seem like it’s that motivating to hear their location and stuff but when done properly, it is. If you say “100m down, 1900m to go” you better hope your legs move fast once you get back on land because they will eat. you. alive. Something like “We’re crossing 750m now, this is where we dig in to make our move and take back that seat from FIT. I’ve got bowball on two seat, gimme their bow man…” would be more appropriate. Never underestimate the power of these kind of calls to motivate your crew. They are an essential part of your repertoire.
Other than that, the last generic tip I can offer is to not force anything and don’t try to do everything right away. Learning how to best motivate your crews, even in the general sense, takes a bit of time. Listen to some of the recordings I’ve posted and read what I’ve said about them (click the individual “parts” at the top to see this) too. I typically try to note what I think is motivating, what doesn’t, how it could be done better/differently, etc. so that should help you come up with some calls to try the next time you go out.
Question of the Day
Now that we’re deep into our winter training schedule, we’ve started rowing longer sets of things. My coach doesn’t call them “pieces” or anything but we’ll be rowing and doing drills and then he sends us off and is like “take it all 8 to X-bridge”. I never know how to cox that, it’s ~3k so do I cox it as a long piece or just like technique-y practice type stuff? The other two coxswains I go out with call 10’s and I do sometimes but not as often as they do. Should I ask my coach what he wants?
I would definitely ask your coach for clarification just so you know if there’s something specific that he wants you to work on. By default though I would probably try to focus whatever technical calls I make on whatever we were just working on with the drills. If you want to just row then I’d do something in the 18-24 range, such as half a pyramid (4′ at 18, 3′ at 20, 2′ at 22, and 1′ at 24).
I’d stay away from just calling 10s and stuff because that’s not accomplishing anything. You’ve got 10-15 minutes to work with so use it to your advantage. Don’t waste it just rowing and calling power tens every few minutes to make it seem like you’re doing something.
Question of the Day
Any tips on keeping a straight course in the dark when it’s hard to see things to point at?
I hadn’t coxed in actual pitch black darkness until I was in college. It was hard but as time went on what helped me the most was becoming very familiar with the water during the daylight hours. Doing this meant that I could stay on autopilot with my steering when it was dark out instead of forgetting about all my other responsibilities and constantly leaning out of the boat, looking around, etc. to see where I was (although I still did this on occasion if it was raining, snowing, or foggy). When I first started coxing at Syracuse, since I was pretty unfamiliar with the river, I’d pick out various markers along the shore, typically a light of some kind, a boat that was docked nearby, etc. and count the number of strokes it would take to get to a bend or turn. When we got to that point I’d know that in three strokes I’m gonna need to steer lightly to starboard. It was a pretty simple solution that didn’t require much effort or overthinking. In Boston I didn’t have to worry about this as much because there’s so much ambient light around that we were never really in the dark.
If you’re already comfortable with steering then you’re probably operating on autopilot the majority of the time you’re on the water anyways but you’ve got the benefit of being able to see your surroundings. When you lose that ability or it becomes harder to do you’ve got to use what you know of what the river looks like during the day to help you out. One of the big cons of autopilot is that you only focus on what’s directly in front of you instead of everything that’s surrounding you. The more you’re aware of your surroundings the easier it can be to steer, regardless of the time of day.
When you’re on a river, you might be tempted to get close to the shoreline (closer than you normally would) and follow it but I’d advise against that because you never know what’s under or hanging out into the water, how shallow it is, etc. and you risk damaging the boat or injuring a teammate. If anything, I’d say position yourself slightly closer to the middle of the river (provided there are no crews coming in the other direction) so that you’ve got more of a buffer against the things you can’t see.
If you’re on an open lake or body of water, the biggest tip I can offer is to just not steer. Hold the rudder straight and only make adjustments if your coach tells you to. Also talk to your rowers – let them know that it’s tough to see and you need them to work with you so that you can maintain the point you’ve got. This means rowing at the same pressure as everyone else and/or making immediate adjustments when you call for one side to come up or go down in pressure for a stroke or two. If you can see something far off in the distance, like a cell phone tower or something, use that as your point.
If you really can’t see anything though, you should say something to your coach. They can sometimes underestimate what our field of vision is like and how tough it can be to see as it gets darker.
Music to erg to, pt. 19
Enjoy the Cobra Starship remix of “I love it” and remember, the magic (aka PRs) happens outside your comfort zone. (If you’ve watched GIRLS lately, you’ll get both references.)
https://play.spotify.com/user/1241641027/playlist/0dG7QzQ8Re9jflMMVInrhM
College Coxing High School Q&A
Question of the Day
Hello! So I am currently a senior in high school and a coxswain for the varsity girls at my school. I would like to walk onto a team in college but the problem is I’m a little big for a coxswain (5’7″, 120-125 lbs). I know weight matters but is it totally unrealistic for me to cox in college? (I stopped rowing because of serious hip problems that are relatively unfixable.)
I don’t think it’s unrealistic at all to walk on – you’re the perfect size to cox for the men’s team, if your school has one. Their max is 125lbs for coxswains, regardless of whether they’re male or female. Height really isn’t that big of a deal (I feel like most male coxswains I know are in the 5’7″ to 5’10” range) so I wouldn’t really consider that a factor. If it’s something you’re really serious about doing, email the coach sometime in the spring to introduce yourself and say that you’re interested in walking on to the team in the fall. Sometimes they’ll have you come to practices with the recruited athletes right at the start of the season since you’ve already got some experience vs. waiting to start rowing with the novice walk-ons.