So, this happened at Henley last weekend.
Author: readyallrow
Coxing Q&A Teammates & Coaches
Question of the Day
I’m doing a rowing camp at Yale and my coach there told us coxes to count at the finish rather than at the catch. It’s hard to find time to make calls to bring intensity to the drive as such, and I feel like the rowers have weaker drives when I talk calmly to them during the recovery about slide control and “easy catches”. Do you have any suggestions concerning counting at the finish, or possibly any recordings?
I’d talk to the coach and say that you’re used to calling them a different way and you’re curious as to why they like for them to be called at the finish vs. the catch. Do not be that person that says “well, that’s now how we do it on my team” – I swear, that type of rower/coxswain is at the top of most coaches shit list and once you’re there it is hard to get off it. Tell them that it’s a little awkward for you because you’re not sure how to make certain calls and do they have any advice that might help you out. Also tell them what you’ve noticed about the weaker drives, etc.
If you can, talk to the rowers you’ve been with before you talk to your coach and ask them what they think. How are they used to having things called, in their experience do they think one works better than the other, have they noticed anything (either good or bad) from calls being made at the finish instead of the catch when you guys have been out, etc. Take all that info and talk about it with your coach. It’ll be good for them to know too because it’ll help them know what to focus on during practice.
These camps are meant to teach you something and this is a great learning opportunity that you should definitely take advantage of. Asking questions is part of your job and something you should be doing anyways if something comes up that you don’t understand. Don’t be nervous to talk to the coach about it either. They’ll most likely appreciate the initiative and willingness to understand and learn how to do something that you’re not used to doing.
It’s hard to know what recordings I have where the coxswain calls things at the finish. I don’t think it’s anything I’ve really paid attention to. If there’s video with the recording it’s always easy to see where they’re called but it’s obviously tougher with just the audio. Plus, calling things at the finish is rare, at least in my experience. Like I said in the question I linked to up above, I only do it when I really want the focus to be on something at the front end of the stroke.
My suggestion again is to talk to your coach and get some advice from him/her and then try to apply what you talked about with them in the boat. It’s definitely going to require going out of your comfort zone a bit but you should be in the habit of doing that regularly anyways. Talk to the rowers and say that it’s something you’re going to try so they know why things might be weird for a bit and then get some feedback from them after practice. Keep talking about it with your coach(es) and ask them on the water after you’ve called a power 10 or something what they thought, how was that, etc.
Coxing Q&A Teammates & Coaches
Question of the Day
In the past, I’ve had a lot of trouble with my coach thinking I’m talking back to her which ended up bumping me down a boat (I’m a coxswain). Last week she told me to have the rowers pause at arms and body and didn’t tell me how often so I just had them pause every 3 which is typically how often we pause and then she yelled at me that I wasn’t listening and that she told me to pause every 5 … what do I do? If I tell her she didn’t say it then she’ll think I’m talking back again.
I totally get what you’re saying. I’ve done my fair share of “talking back” too and I get why it came off as talking back but I just really, really hate when people don’t give me the information I need and I end up looking incompetent or whatever in the end because of it. Yea, I’m probably going to get pissed if you tell me to do something, leave out a crucial detail, and then jump on me for not doing it the way you wanted. I think anyone would.
In high school I had a coach just like this who I butted heads with a lot, over practically everything. It got to the point where my boat thought he was doing stuff on purpose just so he’d have a reason to yell at us, tell us we were talking back or being rude, and then speed away in his launch, waking us out every single time to the point where we’d have a few inches of water in our boat as a result. At one point I got so pissed about it that we got into an actual yelling argument with each other on the dock about how I thought he was a shitty coach and how he thought my/our boat’s attitude sucked.
Luckily my other coach came over and calmed things down enough to where we could have an actual conversation. I told him that he’s saying things on the water that I either can’t hear or don’t understand (because I can’t hear him) and then when he doesn’t give any clarification or response at all, I just go with what I’ve done before because I don’t want to waste any more time trying to figure out what he’s saying. It’s not me ignoring you, it’s not me undermining you, it’s just I. can’t. hear. what. you’re. saying. When I repeatedly tell you that and you instead interpret me saying “what?!” all the time as not listening or just plain sucking as a coxswain, you can rest assured that I’m going to develop a chip on my shoulder from that.
The next day before we went out he apologized and said that he didn’t realize how difficult it was to hear what he was saying, he’d make more of an effort to use a megaphone or speak louder, he was sorry for interpreting my frustration as having an attitude, and that he’d like for us to make more of an effort to work together instead of against each other all the time. I apologized for voicing my frustration the way I did and for making it seem like I wasn’t listening to what he was saying. Our (meaning the boat’s) relationship with him was by no means friendly or anything after that but it was for the most part, civil and cordial, whereas before it definitely wasn’t. I don’t think that whole exchange would have happened though if my other coach hadn’t said something to him after practice. He had witnessed nearly every incident and knew that my boat and I weren’t just making things up to cause a problem. Before hearing a fellow coach’s perspective I think he just thought we were being pains in the ass for no reason.
My point with this story is this: talk to your coach after practice one day, preferably once everything’s been taken care of and people are leaving. Explain that you’re not talking back and you’re sorry if that’s how it comes off but _____ (fill in the blank with whatever issue it is you’re dealing with). Try to look at it from her perspective to see if you can understand how you might be coming off as talking back to her and say that you’ll make more of an effort to not do that in the future but at the same time could she please talk louder when giving instructions, be more clear, etc. Avoid getting frustrated, especially if/when your coach gets accusatory and says “you always do this”. It’s really easy to turn around and put it back on them by saying “I do that because you always do this” but ultimately that’s going to put you in a worse off position (been there, done that).
No matter how you do it, the conversation will be awkward and uncomfortable because no conversation where you have to tell someone in a superior position that something they’re doing isn’t working for you is easy. It’s a give and take situation though and your coach has to realize that too. You’ve got to go into it being willing to make some concessions on your end while staying firm on what you need from the other person (regardless of the position that person is in).
College Coxing Racing Recordings
Coxswain Recordings, pt. 10
George Washington University 2013 SIRAs Freshman 8+ Grand Final
Connor recently sent me a bunch of his recordings to listen to and they. are. all. so. good. I’ll be putting them all up in future posts so keep an eye out for them – there’s a ton to take away from each one, from execution to tone to calls and everything in between.
Something he does really well is using his tone to compliment the calls. A good example is at 0:47 when he says “get ready boys, shift in two, one, ready, two, SHIIIFT, BOOM…” and at 1:12 when he says “lengthen out half a beat … on this one, looong there…”. That transition between the high strokes and the shift to base was also flawlessly executed so if you’re trying to work out a good way to call that, that’s a great example of how it’s done cleanly and clearly.
At 1:30 he says “we’re gonna go off their move…”, which is cementing how invaluable you are to your crew if you can recognize when another coxswain is about to call a move and then capitalize off of it by making a counter-move that the other boat doesn’t know is coming.
Sometimes when coxswains say “this is our race” and it can sound really cheerleader-y and frankly, stupid, but his tone at 2:33 when he said “I’m on 3-seat, this is our race…” communicated a confidence that really made me believe that this was their race. Sometimes when coxswains say that they say it in that loud, aggressive voice that makes me question if they’re saying it because they believe it or because they think it’s what the crew wants to hear. If it’s really your race you should be calm and confident because you know you’re in full control and all you have to do from here is keep executing things right.
Between 3:18 and 3:36, everything. about this. is perfect. The build-up with his voice during the countdown followed by an appropriately-aggressive “slingshot, engage“…awesome. Same for 4:00 when he says “I got bowball!” – after saying “I’m on bow deck but I need more” at 3:46 this is a brilliant response to what the crew did when he asked for more.
I’m debatable about the “it’s gonna be an easy win” call at 4:51 but not because I don’t like them. On the contrary, I think they can be a confidence boost for the crew but the one time I said this to my boat, the crew that we’d just annihilated with a move at 750m to go (we’d gone from me sitting on their 5-seat to having a full seat of open water), our biggest competition in this particular race, made a huge move on us during the sprint and came within about four seats at the finish. After that I never said any race was going to be an easy win ever again, regardless of how much open water we had on the field. My advice is to be cautious with this call – it can definitely give you a false sense of security sometimes.
Last thing – at 5:42 he says “sprint for those shirts, sprint for the win, that’s it, take it…” This is an infinitely better way of saying “how bad do you want it, show me you want it, etc.”.
Other calls I liked:
“Pryyyyyy through…” The tone is great, as is the addition of “through” at the end since “pry” on its own is kinda awkward.
“Go now, break away…”
“5-seat’s getting his blade in for UVA, you’ve gotta get yours in too…”
“5 to breathe and swing”, particularly the fact that he called it when they were 1500ish into the race
George Washington University 2013 Freshman 8+ vs. Georgetown
At the start he says “can’t lean to starboard otherwise we’ll turn…”, which I think is a really important thing for rowers to understand. If there is ever a time for you to not be moving around and constantly adjusting your weight, it’s at the starting line when your coxswain is trying to get a point. You have no idea how frustrating it is trying to get a point, especially in windy conditions, get it, and then have to go through the whole process again because someone off-set the boat and it turned. Please, do your coxswains a favor and sit still during and after the period of time where they’re getting a point. Coxswains, you can also help them out by giving them some “adjusting time” (dependent on how much time you have between getting locked on and the start of the race) before saying “OK, I’m getting a point now”.
At 4:06 he calls for “five for relaxation”, which I think can be beneficial after you’ve made a big move and gained something significant on an opposing crew. It helps to bring the focus back in between your gunnels, relax the bodies, breathe, and sharpen up the strokes while still maintaining the level of intensity that got you where you’re at in the first place. This is also especially good if you’re planning another big move soon after.
“You see them now, you don’t let them walk back one fucking inch…” is a great post-walk or post-move call when you’ve just gotten through the other crew. Remind them that they’re in the commanding position and it’s up to them to keep you there. Don’t give anything back. Same for 5:18 when he says “oh yea, now we’re moving away” and at 6:02 when he says “you gotta work for it”. Notice how he said they still had to work for it after telling them they’ve got 3/4 of a length of open? You can’t get complacent when you open up a lead like that because you never know what that other crew has left. It’s your responsibility to remind them of that. Do the work necessary to get you ahead and then keep doing the work to keep you ahead.
At 5:31 he says “this is where we died last race”, which I think can have one of two effects on a crew. For me, I use calls like this as a challenge. Last time this is what happened but the difference between then and now is we’re better, we’re stronger, and we’re smarter – it’s not going to happen again. The two outcomes are that they’ll either remember this is where they fell apart last time and their brains will give into that and they’ll die again or the brains will respond with a determined “fuck that” and will rise to overcome the challenge. In order for this call to be effective and come off the way you want it to, you have to understand the brains of the eight people in your boat. If there’s even a question of the mental vulnerability of any one of them, you can’t use this call.
Other calls I liked:
“Fuck yea, I’m on their 3-seat, get ready to break them and crush their fucking dreams…“
“Through and through…”
“Blackout 10 motherfuckers!”
You can find and listen to more recordings by checking out the “Coxswain Recordings” page.
Books on Rowing, pt. 2
Previously: Books on Rowing, pt. 1
There’s sort of a theme with these ones in that three of the books are written by the same author and two of the other books are written by rowers who competed together.
Seat With a View
A book with that title could only be written by a coxswain, right? This one was written by Steven Segaloff, the coxswain of the men’s 8+ between 1993 and 1996. The emotions in this book range from ecstatic with a win at the World Championships to the lowest of lows following a loss at the Atlanta games, both things I know we can all relate to. One of the things I’m really looking forward to reading in this book – and one of my favorite things about “real” stories – is the inside scoop. This would be a great book for coxswains because a) there aren’t many books out there written by coxswains and b) it’d be a great opportunity to get inside the head of someone who shared the same ambitions that most of us have.
Four Men in a Boat
As several other firsthand-accounts do, this book talks about the tension leading up to a big race (the 2000 Sydney games), the relationships between a rower, his teammates, and coaches, his struggle to make the team, and in this case, all the drama surrounding one night at a boat club party involving booze, broken glass, and a severed tendon that nearly cost this rower his spot in the boat. Something he’s quoted as saying is that it didn’t feel like everyone was in the same boat until they had a pre-race talk the night before their Olympic final. That’s pretty powerful. If you saw the Gold Fever documentary that BBC did, this is that same crew.
Related: Gold Fever
Assault on Lake Casitas
This is probably one of the most well known books about rowing. Written by former rower Brad Alan Lewis, this book chronicles what it was like trying to earn a spot on the 1984 national team. The 1980 team didn’t travel to Moscow and he knew competing in 1988 would be tough due to his age (he would have been 34), so 1984 was it. Twice he failed to make it before finally earning a spot on the team in the 2x with his partner, Paul Enquist. If you’ve trained hard for a spot in a boat and had it slip away by slim margins (like 0.9 seconds), you’ll most likely be able to relate to this book. Hard work and commitment do pay off and BAL’s story is proof of that.
Wanted: Rowing Coach
This book is another by Brad Alan Lewis and is a dated, journaled account of the year he decided to coach at UC Santa Barbara with their men’s club team. I think the best description that I read of his experience was “Stuff happens. Some good stuff, some not so good, pretty much all of it interesting.” That alone makes me want to read this book because I think every coaching experience I’ve had so far can be summed up by that same sentence. If you’ve ever wondered what’s going through the minds of your coach(es) at any given point in time, this is definitely a book you should check out.
A Lifetime in a Race
Matthew Pinsent is one of the legends of rowing in the UK. Four Olympics, four Olympic golds, 10 World Championship golds, two Boat Race wins … he’s done, seen, and experienced a lot. If you watched Gold Fever you kind of got a sense of how obsessive these guys were with their training and how downright brutal it all was, which is why I think this would be a good read for high school-aged rowers. There’s a big difference between what you perceive as being “obsessed” when you’re 16 and how you perceive it when you’re 30. He also talks about rowing with Steve Redgrave (the ultimate British rowing legend), the buildup to Athens, and what it takes to be a champion. Coming from someone as successful as him, his words are worth their weight in gold.
Lido for Time: 14:39
The last book on the list is another written by BAL and another that I can’t wait to read. The book consists solely of excerpts from his training diary between October 1983 and the Olympic games in August 1984. As he says, it includes “plenty of elaborations, insights, explanations are included, plus an exceptional waffle recipe.” One of the best quotes I’ve seen from this book (and trust me, there are so many) is this one: “If you want to be your best, spend a lot of time exploring what is more than enough. Push yourself until the bar is lying immobile across your chest. Push yourself right off the edge of your capacity.” A rumor I’ve also heard is that if you buy the book and then email Brad (his address is at the end) he’ll send you DVDs of his training footage and the heat, semi-final, and final of his Olympic race. (Edit: Confirmed. Bought the book, got the DVDs.)
Image via // @petereed
Video of the Week: 7 Minute Clinic with Dave O’Neil
In this video Dave O’Neill goes over how to create team culture – worth watching if you’re one of the leaders on your team (either as a coxswain, captain, etc.).
Question of the Day
Hey there, I have a question about coxing. I’ve been coxing for a couple years now and just realized that I call my calls on different times. I mean, for power 10’s I’ll call the numbers when they are half way through the drive to the finish. But for starts, I will call the numbers at the catch such as (1/2, 1/2, 3/4, full, full) as well as 10 highs at the catch. I don’t know if I’m doing this right, but I’ve always done it this way and my crew goes with it. How do you personally do it?
Everybody does this a little differently. If something’s been working for you and your crew, don’t feel pressured to change it. I was taught to call everything right at the catch so regardless of whether I’m calling starts, power 10s, etc. I always call everything as the blade enters the water. The only exception is if I’m trying to get the the rowers to focus on their catches or something else that happens up at the front end, I’ll say sharp one, sharp two, sharp three…” or something to that effect instead of saying the number first. Saying “sharp” kind of loses its power if you’re saying it halfway through the drive, which I noticed was happening when I’d call the strokes right at the catch.
The reason I don’t call things in the middle of the stroke is because I found it always caused people to rush into the next stroke … and it’s just sloppy. When I was a novice (and probably the first time I ever called a power 10) I did this and my coach corrected me on it immediately. From the launch he could see the rowers rushing up the slide to match their catches to when I was saying the stroke number so after that he explained why calling things right at the catch was more appropriate/effective and that’s the way I’ve done it ever since.
I try to be really consistent about when I call things and when I made the adjustment to calling the numbers at the finish in these instances my eight definitely noticed. I explained why I was doing it though and they thought it made sense. The key is to just keep them in-the-know about what you’re doing if you decide to change something. Like I said though, if you’ve been doing something that’s been working for your boat, even if it’s slightly unconventional, don’t feel pressured to change it. If you want to try doing it a different way, tell them that ahead of time and then let them know if you decide to revert back to what you were doing previously or if you decide to stick with the new way.
Question of the Day
What can I do during an official visit that will help my chances of being a recruit? I am one out of 35, and they choose about 10. Also, do you have any links for previous posts on this subject? Thanks!
Congrats! The most relevant thing I’ve written up to this point that I think might help you is the post linked below where I listed a ton of things that you could/should ask your prospective coaches during the recruiting process.
Related: What questions should you ask coaches during the recruiting process?
Outside of that, the top three things I can think of are as follows:
The best thing you can do is be yourself (obviously) and indicate a real interest in the school. The program, yes, but more so the school. Be able to talk about why you’re choosing that university, what attracted you to the major you’re interested in, where you hope it’ll take you in the future, etc. and then go on to discuss how rowing will be a part of all of that. I think that coaches want to see that the team will be a priority for you but they also want to see that rowing isn’t the only thing you’ve got going on. Your education is first and foremost – after all, that’s the entire reason you’re going to college.
Be honest with the coaches as to where they rank out of the schools you’re looking at. It’s OK if they’re not your number one school but don’t make it out like they are when they’re not. If they ask why they’re ranked here instead of there, have genuine reasons that you can provide. You don’t have to give all your reasons but it doesn’t hurt to give one or two.
Be personable and genuine in your interactions with the people you’ll be meeting with. Firm handshakes, look them in the eye, stand up tall, speak clearly, etc. Present yourself as someone that they’d be lucky to have on the team without being pompous or egotistical about it.
Check out the “recruiting” tag too, as well as “official visit” tag – you might find more tips in there that’ll help you out. Good luck!
Coxing Q&A Teammates & Coaches
Question of the Day
Hello! How do you get adjusted to a new team and location? I’m wondering because I am transferring schools and I’m really nervous about getting adjusted. I know that each team might have a different way of docking or calling different things. I’m coxing and I worried that if I don’t know those specific things because they are different that I won’t seem as authoritative.
The best – BEST – thing you can do, not only for yourself but your new teammates as well, is to talk to them. Talk to the other coxswains and ask them to give you a tour of the boathouse, show you where the cox boxes are, etc. and ask them to go over the calls they use because, like you said, everyone does things a little differently. Different doesn’t necessarily mean wrong but it is good to have a consistent language when telling people what to do or how to do things. I’ve never been “the new kid” anywhere so I can’t speak from personal experience but I’d suggest just going into it with an open mind, a friendly and confident attitude, and a flexible mindset. Things will inevitably be different so it’s important to not be 100% set or stuck in your old team’s ways. Adaptability at the beginning is going to be what the coaches look for in terms of how coachable you are. If you’re open to adjusting to the ways of your new team and not constantly saying “well, my old team did this” or “that’s not what my old team does”, things will work out a lot better for you, both in terms of making new friends and vying for the spot in the top boat.
Talk to your coaches too and figure out how they like to run their practices. We had an issue…well, not even an issue really, more so just lots of miscommunication…last week with a coxswain who was used to running practices on her own with the bare-minimum of input from her coach, whereas our coach likes to call the switches during warm-ups or tell her when to start/stop specific drills himself (as opposed to doing it for a certain number of strokes). At first, as a coxswain, this kind of bothered me but once I found out why he liked to do things like that it made a lot more sense (as a coach; as a coxswain, it still annoys me). The downside to this whole thing though was that it turned what should have been a good day on the water for this coxswain (on her first day back from Henley) into a stressful one that didn’t really leave the greatest of impressions on the other coach and I. Looking back on it, someone should have said “this is how I/we like to run practices, etc.” that way everyone would have been on the same page. His preference for how he liked to run things wasn’t something I knew either until the middle of practice when I asked but going forward I’ll know that that kind of stuff is something I need to go over with coxswains before going out.
I can’t encourage you enough though to talk to them though and ask them how they do things. Do they like to do all or most of the talking during practice, do they prefer you to call everything on the warm-ups, how much input from you do they want on the water, etc. Ideally you and your coach would have a collaborative and openly communicative relationship but far too often that’s not the case. It’s always best to find that out before you get on the water though and not in the middle of practice.
As far as not sounding authoritative, that goes along with being confident. Talk to the coxswains, figure out their language, and then run that shit like you’ve been there since Day 1. If you sound unsure of yourself the first time you go out with them, the first impression you’re giving is that you’re that coxswain who doesn’t trust herself or her teammates. Don’t be that person! If you make a mistake, who cares. Brush it off and move on. You’ll get a bit of leeway during the first week (hopefully) but after that everyone will expect you to have everything down. Use the first couple of practices to get acquainted with everyone and everything but do that with an air of confidence. Just because you’re going to a new team doesn’t mean that you’re completely resetting the “coxswain” part of your brain. 1% of everything you know might change. Do what you already know how to do and adjust if/when necessary.