This isn’t so much an erg playlist this week as it is a travel playlist. Princeton Chase, Head of the Schuylkill, Head of the Fish, etc. are all this weekend so if you’re lucky enough to be stuck on a bus for a few hours, make sure you’ve got the appropriate soundtrack to drown out everything else that’s happening around you. If you’re at the Chase, I’ll see you there.
https://play.spotify.com/user/1241641027/playlist/0yB6VfW3XAnNuplWzcP2n6Author: readyallrow
Question of the Day
My coach talked to the coach of my top choice university and, even though they had coxswains go on official visits, they might not recruit one this year! He suggested I call them and try and convince them to take me. Any tips on how to go about this phone conversation without seeming pushy or pleading?
I wish more coaches would recruit coxswains, I really do, but I also understand why they don’t. If you’ve already got good coxswains on your team and have enough for all your boats, it does seem redundant to waste a valuable recruiting spot (and $$$) on someone who isn’t contributing any horsepower to the boat. I don’t 100% agree with it but I get it. Having an abundance of coxswains is pointless if you don’t have any rowers for them to cox. Knowing that inevitably you’ll have a walk-on or two that you can turn into a coxswain if you need to also plays a part in it. Them deciding that they might not recruit a coxswain probably says more about their current needs as a program than it does about the quality of people who are trying to be recruited, if that makes sense. Keep that in mind.
I don’t think you should try to convince them to take you because that alone will sound desperate. There’s a big difference between “convincing” and “making a case”. You want to make a case for yourself while keeping in mind that there are a lot of things that go into recruiting an athlete that the athlete is typically unaware of (because they have nothing to do with them). I think you should give the recruiting coordinator/assistant coach a call and say that you’d heard through your coach that they might not be recruiting coxswains this year so you just wanted to call and reiterate your interest in the school/program, give them one or two reasons why you think you’d be a positive contribution to the team, and finish it up by asking if they do decide to forgo recruiting a coxswain and you do end up going to this school, what are the options for walking on to the team.
I don’t know what other coaches/programs are like but I know that I would probably give a bit more consideration to an athlete who asks what the options are for joining the team if they aren’t one of the “chosen ones” because it gives me the impression that they are really in it for the rowing and the team, not just the financial aid or being able to say “I was recruited”. Someone who decides “oh I’m not going to go here now if you’re not going to recruit me” strikes me as someone who isn’t a team player and also as someone who probably wasn’t that interested in the school to begin with. I’m not trying to discount being a recruited athlete because it is pretty great but it’s also overrated.
Anyways, back to the phone call. Keep it short, no longer than 10 minutes or so if you can manage it. Be concise, make your point, reiterate your interest in the school, and thank them again for inviting you on an official visit (if you went on one).
How to strap a boat down
You really only need two things to strap boats down – boat straps and common sense. If you lack the latter I recommend leaving the boat strapping process to someone else.
These two videos do a good job of showing and explaining the process.
Some (common sense) advice:
Pay attention to the condition of your straps
If they’re frayed or ripped, set them aside, tell your coaches/boatmen, and don’t use them. It’s way cheaper to spend $100 on a new set of straps ($100 = 15 straps, which is enough for five eights) than $40,000 on a new boat.
Don’t be obnoxious about how tightly you pull the straps
Similarly to how rigger nuts and bolts only need to be finger tight, straps are the same way. They obviously need to be tight to keep the boat in place but over-tightening the straps can actually warp the hull so be aware of that when you’re tying the boats down.
Don’t throw the buckle end of the strap over the boat or let it sit on the hull while traveling
Letting metal clunk around on the fiberglass can dent or put small holes in it. Letting the buckle sit tightly against the hull can also put dents or holes in the shell from the pressure of being pulled tightly. If you can, try to have the buckle sitting as close to trailer rack as possible.
Learn how to strap the boats down if you don’t know how
If you’re a varsity coxswain and your coach or boatmen is preoccupied with something else, take the initiative to show the new coxswains/rowers how to do it.
Small boats = 2 straps, eights = 3 straps
If you’re going on a long road trip (like cross-country for IRAs or something), consider double-strapping the boats for extra security.
Don’t tie knots in the straps
It weakens them and it’s a pain in the ass trying to get them out.
This is what happens when your boats are tied down improperly.
Yes, it’s funny in a “dude, that sucks” kinda way but think about what could have happened in this situation if the trailer was in the left lane and beside another car or if there was a car traveling behind the trailer. It goes from being a really irritating situation to being a potentially fatal one. If for nothing else, at least take the time to strap your boats down properly so that everyone else on the road is safe when they’re driving near your trailer.
Image via //@lucerneregatta
Question of the Day
Do you think it’s possible that rowing isn’t “my” sport ? I started late summer but I have been erging for a few months with a friend who is a rower too. Anyway, I feel like everyone is getting better (even the fall novices are almost better than I am and they have been rowing not even 2 months. I feel like my technique/strength/endurance is on a plateau and I feel shitty. I won’t even talk about the 3 awful races I had in the last weeks. IDK, i feel hopeless. How do i know if I’m a bad rower?
It’s totally possible that rowing’s not your sport. It’s not for everyone and there truthfully isn’t anything wrong with that. To be honest though, just reading your question, it sounds like what’s hampering your progress is more of a mental thing than anything physical. In rowing it’s really, really easy to compare yourself to other people (and let’s face it, it’s a huge part of the sport) but you’ve really gotta stop doing that. Focus on yourself, your seat, your improvements, etc. and let the coaches worry about making comparisons. Not everyone learns or picks things up at the same speed, which is fine, but my sympathy as a coach/coxswain ends when you start throwing pity parties for yourself. When you become what’s holding you back, I feel like there’s not much I can say to you other than sit down, figure out why you’re here, if you even want to be here, and come find me when you’ve figured out what you want.
If you feel like you’re plateauing, talk to your coach about your workouts and see what you can do to kickstart things again. Figure out specifically what needs working on and commit to working on it. Forget about how well everyone else is doing because I promise you they aren’t thinking about you or anyone else at all – they’re thinking about what they need to do in order to get the seat they want in the boat they want to be in.
Bottom line, don’t be discouraged by everyone getting better (or appearing to get better). Be motivated to work harder so you can make the coach’s job as hard as possible when it comes time to decide who’s going to be in the top boats. Until you’ve tried as hard as you can and failed, you haven’t failed yet. It’s been what, 2-3 months since you started rowing? That’s not even enough time to get started, let alone get started and fail. Figure out what you need to do differently (mentally and physically) and then do it. You might find that you start seeing physical improvements once your mental outlook changes.
College Rowing Video of the Week
Video of the Week: Into the Cut
How quickly do you think going three boats across down the cut would teach a coxswain to steer straight as an arrow?
HOCR: Race plan “hacks”
Previously: Getting to the starting line || Steering through the bridges || Landmarks along the course || Steering around the turns || Race plans || My general race plan || Yaz Farooq’s coxswain clinic
Since this was my first time racing HOCR and my crew had some very specific things they wanted to hear during the race, I figured it’d be better safe than sorry to just write it down so I could glance at it if necessary. In hindsight I definitely psyched myself out and wrote down way too much stuff but it didn’t take me any effort to glance at it during the race so it wasn’t something that concerned me. If you’re not an experienced coxswain (and even if you are…) I don’t recommend writing down this much – a quarter of this would suffice – because I can easily see people becoming reliant on it and getting distracted.
So, what’s on there? The one to the left of my cox box had miscellaneous calls that related to specific things we’d been working on during practice, the one below my cox box had crew-specific calls, and the one to the left had my actual “plan” that detailed where I wanted to take power bursts along the course and what each one was for.
During the race I think I only glanced down at it maybe … four or five times max, and that was usually as we were entering or exiting a congested area. I had a way better grip on the race plan and calls than I gave myself credit for as I was making this, which is probably what led to me overcompensating a bit, but I still think it’s a worthwhile thing to do if you’re not confident in remembering the race plan or there’s a couple calls that you really want to make sure you incorporate. Just don’t go overboard and plaster your entire seat with Post-its … one will get the job done.
Image via // Boston Magazine
Question of the Day
Hi, I’m going to HOCR this weekend and unlike everyone, I am not excited, only extremely nervous. Basically, I don’t deserve to be in my boat. The other 3 girls are way better and have years of experience and I started only this spring and I didn’t row during the summer. I’m only in the boat because our club is so small that we are only 5 girls and one has been injured since August. My technique isn’t good either. Any advice to how to row with people better than you? I’m so scared I will mess everything up…
Attitude is everything. If you think you’re gonna have a good time, you’re gonna have a good time. If you think you’re gonna have a shitty time, you’re gonna have a shitty time. This is a situation where “control the controllables” couldn’t be more applicable. You can’t control the size of your team, you can’t control the fact that one of your teammates is injured, and you can’t control the fact that you’ve rowed for less time than everyone else but you can control your attitude and how well you row those 3.2 miles. You only started rowing what, six months ago? Your technique isn’t going to be perfect but if you put the effort in and focus on taking one good stroke at a time, you’ll do fine.
Related: Words
If you’re that person in the boat that spends the next three days focusing on all the “bad” things though, your teammates are gonna get pretty pissed at you really fast. Don’t do that. When you go out for practice, try to do something a little bit better than you did the day before and build up some confidence in your stroke (and yourself). When you race, row the best race you can and come off the water knowing you couldn’t have done any better.
Question of the Day
Do you have any advice for a novice coxswain who just crashed for the first time? It really shook me up and I know I won’t be able to get back in the boat for a few days (due to our walk-on coxswain rotation) but I want to get over it.
How did it happen? Was it serious or minor? Was another crew involved? Were there any injuries? Was any equipment damaged? Did it happen because you didn’t know how to get yourself out of a situation or because you weren’t paying attention to your surroundings? On a scale of 1-10 (this being 1, this being 5, and this being 10), how pissed was your coach?
Shit happens. Obviously shit happening is more likely to be forgiven when you’re a novice vs. when you’ve got some experience under your belt but most coaches will let it go if you a) take responsibility, even if it wasn’t your fault because regardless, it was still your fault, b) if you talk to them once you’re off the water instead of avoiding them/the issue, and c) if you understand how you got yourself in that situation, what you did wrong, and what you could/should do differently next time to avoid crashing again (hint: there should never be a “next time”). If there was any kind of damage to the boat, ask your coach if you can help fix it or at the very least, watch while he/she fixes it. I think this is good for two reason. One, you learn how to repair boats, which is a pretty valuable skill. Two, you learn the value of the equipment you’re responsible for and how much time, money, and effort goes into repairing them when something happens.
Whatever you do though, please, please, please do not react to crashing the boat (or any other adverse situation) with a Kanye shrug because I can promise you, that will piss your coach (and crew) off more than anything else. Not taking the situation seriously or recognizing the fact that you potentially just caused serious damage to the shell and/or endangered yourself and your crew is not a laughing matter. It really irritates me when I see novice coxswains try to laugh situations like this off. No. Don’t do that. Your cute baby face and witty charm will not get you out of your coach’s line of fire and will probably keep you out of the boat longer than if you’d just taken the situation seriously from the beginning.