Author: readyallrow

Coxing Novice Q&A Racing

Question of the Day

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I’m a novice walk-on coxswain and I’m coxing a boat largely made up of walk-ons as well. We’re a pretty decent boat, but they have a tendency to just fall apart whenever they start hitting higher stroke rates. Races make them nervous and before we know it we’re rushing up those slides, our technique’s falling apart, and we’re hitting sprint rates at the 1000m mark. Being right next to other boats in particular freaks us out, especially when they’re making a move. Is there any way I can calm them down other than the obvious, “bodies calm, slow on the recovery,” calls? I’m having a hard time balancing the need to calm them down and keeping the intensity of a race piece. Thanks!

This is more of an issue you have to work on during practice over a period of time vs. being something you can fix with a few good calls on race day. They have to recognize that rowing at an unsustainable pace isn’t getting them anywhere and it’s not going to get them anywhere. I’ve said this before but rowing in a race is like driving. You’ve got to be aware of what the other cars are doing but in general not pay them any attention. I don’t know how they expect to have a good race if being by other boats freaks them out.

Why it freaks you out is the bigger question. Until you figure out the answer to that question, nothing else will do you much good. I know that sounds super shrink-like but whatever you do to fix the problem isn’t going to make much of a difference if you don’t know what the actual problem actually is. My first suggestion would be to sit down with them and figure that out. If their answer involves them saying “I don’t know” or anything about thinking they’re going to lose because people are beside them, feel free to smack them on the head and tell them to suck it up and get their shit together.

Call wise, telling them where they are in the race and what they need to do to maintain their position, make a move, or walk away is always helpful. Sometimes rowers get frantic like that because their coxswain isn’t telling them what’s happening so they assuming the race is going to hell and then they start freaking out and then the race really does go to hell. Keep them updated on their progress. Also tell them to FOCUS from the very beginning. As soon as you get locked on at the start, tell them to forget about everything else other than the other eight people in the boat and the oar in their hand. Deep breaths, focus on the goal of the race (whatever it is – winning alone is not a goal).

Talk to them about their technique – swinging together out of bow, moving eight as one, no weight on the legs on the recovery, smooth, controlled, and composed on the slides, rotating towards the riggers, getting that length, unweighting the hands, strong, sharp catches, jump on the first inch, drive the legs down, power through the water, layback, still maintaining the strong core and straight back, chin up, eyes forward, loose upper body, get the handle all the way in, clean finishes, tap down with the outside hand, aggressive with the feathering (you want to hear the oarlocks – one sound), smooth, quick hands away, sitting up tall at bodies over, patience on the slide, maintain the handle heights, building excitement to the catch, catching sharp, driving determined through the water.

The more you work on this during practice, the better you’ll be on race day. It can’t all happen during the race. Talk to them and figure out what’s up. From there, start working with your stroke on maintaining a good rate and not letting the bow 7 push him/her up the slide. Get the overall technique and slide control down, then start pushing them. When you know they’ve got it, demand more. Push them to push themselves. During the race, you’re not their friend, therapist, etc. – you’re their coxswain. The intensity has to be there 100% of the time, regardless of what is happening around you. If you’re confident, they will be too. Talk like you believe every single word that’s coming out of your mouth and they’ll believe you too.

Coxing Q&A Racing

Question of the Day

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What would you do if one of your rowers caught a crab during a sprint race?

If they caught a small-medium crab that was easily recoverable from, I wouldn’t do anything. Maybe a quick “get back into it, good recovery” but that’s it. If it was a large crab that caused the handle to go over their head and threw off my point, I’d stop, let them recover, then re-start as quickly as possible. I’d also remind the rower(s) to shake it off, refocus, and get us back in the race.

If it were an ejector crab, I’d do whatever we were told to do in the coxswain meeting. Sometimes you’re required to stop, other times you’re supposed to keep going and let the launches following the race pick up the rower. It depends but it’s something you should know.

Related: So I was watching ejector crab videos for a fun and I was wondering if someone falls out of the boat during a race should I stop or just keep going and leave them behind? I’m a novice coxswain. Thanks!

What I would not do, however, is freak out, lose my composure, and forget about the other seven people in the boat … or the fact that we’re racing. You’ve gotta be ready for anything because it’s your job to instruct the crew on what to do and how to recover. If you don’t have control over the situation and all the rowers are yelling and doing their own thing, it’s gonna make it that much tougher to get back into it.

Sometimes when we were doing 4x1k pieces, our coach would tell a rower on land (unbeknownst to the rest of us) that he wanted them to catch a crab sometime during the 3rd piece. We never knew it was coming and it was good practice for us because it was different every time – sometimes it was an easy recovery, other times the rower would really commit to it and catch an overhead crab that would not only force us to stop but also give me the added challenged of correcting my point while trying to manage everything else. I can’t recall if anyone ever caught a crab during a race but if they had, I definitely think we would have been prepared for it.

Coxswain Recordings, pt. 7

College Coxing High School Racing Recordings

Coxswain Recordings, pt. 7

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Oxford vs. Cambridge 2011 Boat Race

https://soundcloud.com/kpcc/olympic-sounds-boat-race-coxes

This is a short clip of Sam Winter-Levy (Oxford) and Liz Box (Cambridge) from the 2011 Boat Race. The thing to listen to is their tone and how they’re communicating their calls to each of their crews. One spot in particular is right at the beginning when there’s a clash of blades – nothing changes with her tone, she doesn’t fall apart, she just communicates what’s happening and moves through it without any loss of focus.

Abingdon vs. Belmont Hill 2009 Henley Royal Regatta princess elizabeth cup Quarter-final

At the start, good job telling the crew what’s happening as far as when your hand is up, when it’s down, that your timer is ready, etc. I feel like this helps keep the crew focused and prevents any surprises (like, “oh shit, we’re starting now!”). Maybe – maybe – overdid it by telling them about Belmont’s coxswain but I don’t think it’s that big of a deal considering there’s only one other crew there. Personally I probably would have just focused on what I was doing and only said “both coxswains’ hands are down” when I saw that we were both ready but it’s really not that big of a deal. I don’t think any crew has ever complained about their coxswain giving them too much information.

Right when the marshal says “attention”, you can see Belmont bury their blades just a tad. Look at their blades at 0:43 compared to 0:45. This is a good habit to get into practicing with your crew just so you can be positive that the blades are fully buried at the start and you’re able to get as much water on the face of the blade as possible. It also drastically reduces the likelihood that you’ll wash out on the first stroke.

The intensity in his voice off the line is solid. Take note guys, this is how a good start is called. The intonation at 0:57 when he’s saying “one, send, two, send…” is spot on. The catches are called with a sharp bite to them while the recoveries are a bit drawn out, just enough to remind the rowers to keep the slides long. Similarly, notice at 1:13 that coinciding with the shift in pace is a shift in his tone of voice? The intensity is subtle but it’s there even though the volume isn’t as high as it was a few strokes ago. Don’t get so caught up in coxing that you forget to talk to your crew.

At 3:33 he makes a call for a “…concerted effort for one minute…” If you remember Pete Cipollone’s HOCR recording, this is exactly like what he says when he calls for that one minute commitment through the Powerhouse Stretch. I think this is a great call – you should never be afraid to ask for, or at times demand, a commitment like this from your teammates. This is a strategic call though and not something you should just randomly call out for because you think it makes you sound like you know what you’re doing (novices). You’re essentially asking them for a power 10 except over the course of 60 seconds – it’s not always an easy thing to do which is why this should be used sparingly and only when necessary. Later when he says “level, now walk“, that’s where you finish the job that you started with the one minute commitment. If that was where you started to break them, this is where you finish it. Once you’re level, you don’t give up a single inch to that other crew. Commit and go.

I love the call he makes at 4:04 – “they went too hard, fucking punish them…” I obviously respect the crews I’m racing against because when it comes down to it we’re all doing the same thing but you can bet when we’re racing that I’m sure as hell not going to feel bad for them. If they make a mistake and I see it, I’m gonna nail them on it and do my absolute best to make sure it haunts them long after the race has ended. Watching the other crew(s) in addition to your own can be tough but it gives you the advantage of seeing when someone else messes up, which then gives you the opportunity to say “punish them” and really mean it.

Another thing to pay attention to is when he’s telling his crew where the other crew is. Abingdon is down for the majority of the race but I doubt any of the rowers ever felt defeated by him saying where Belmont was on them. Several times he’d say “they’re up half a length” or whatever the margin was but I don’t recall him ever saying that his crew was down. Other times he’d just say “half a length” without saying “up” or “down” at all. There’s a subtle bit of psychology there that I think is important to think about. If you hear that someone else is up it’s like, “ok, time to do some work to close the gap” but if you hear that you’re down it’s like “ugh, dammit, how are we gonna get out of this”. Think about the words that you’re using (another reason why recording yourself and planning ahead is important) and see if there are any subtle changes you could make that might affect your crew differently.

The last thing is at 4:45 when he calls for the “magna shuffle”. You can hear him at 4:46 call for the bow pair to get in quick and for the middle four to “lift”. Calling for the bow pair to go in quick isn’t necessarily saying “go in before everyone else”, it’s more so about being so spot on with the timing while erring towards being just the tiniest bit early (less than a nanosecond-tiny) in order to get the bow out of the water right at the catch. Lifting the bow like this makes it easier to accelerate the boat, which is what he’s asking for when he calls for the middle four to “lift”.

Another thing that helps “lift” the boat is making sure everyone is sitting up tall and is light on the seats. Lightness is key. Generally when the boat looks or feels heavy it’s because the bow isn’t coming out of the water at the catch (for whatever reason), which results in the rowers feeling like the load is heavier. Think of the bow being lifted up like you walking on your tiptoes through molasses. The lighter you are and the less you’re touching the molasses the easier it’ll be for you to traverse it, whereas if you were walking normally with your feet completely flat on the ground it’d be very difficult for you to move because there’s more surface area for the molasses to attach itself to which in turn increases the load you’re working against in order to move. Watch this video of the USA men’s 8+ and pay attention to the bow of the boat. Look at the difference between when they’re paddling and when they’re on. See how at the catch there’s just a little bit of daylight under the bow of the boat? That’s what I’m getting at.

Other calls I liked:

“Swing the waists into the headwind…” Good job reading the wind here and telling the crew how to react to it.

“Loose, long in the wind…”

“Now we’ve broken them, go, go, go…”

“On bowman, finish the fight…”

“I’m coming for you Belmont!”

You can find and listen to more recordings by checking out the “Coxswain Recordings” page.

Coxing Q&A Racing

Question of the Day

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How do you stay calm during races? I freak out when our boat is down after the first 500 and my coxing goes downhill.

It’s hard to explain – it’s one of those things I just do. I know that my job is to think for the rowers when they’re too tired to think for themselves and I tend to focus so hard on the race and what we’re trying to accomplish that I don’t even have time to freak out once we’ve started. Plus, I can’t think for nine people if I let my nerves consume me. It’s just not possible. My time to “freak out” (internally) before we launch or at the latest, on the way to the starting line and while I’m getting locked on to the stake boat. As soon as the official starts the countdown, I’m focused on racing. When he says “go” all the nerves immediately convert to adrenaline which just makes my coxing that much more intense.

If you get down early that’s when you have to really have to maintain your composure and push your rowers to stay in it. If they sense that you’re falling apart, they will too. I don’t cox any differently when we’re down vs. when we’re up. I might push them harder if they’re down but my tone of voice, what I’m saying, etc. doesn’t change. The easiest solution would be to not get down after the first 500. The second easiest solution is to simply focus on you, your boat, and your race. You have to be aware of the other boats but at the same time you have to ignore them and focus on what you’re doing. It’s like driving…you aren’t actually paying attention to the other cars on the road but you’re aware of when they speed up or slow down.

Coxing Novice Q&A

Question of the Day

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Ok, so I’m a novice coxswain. I’m the only coxswain my team has, but we have 2 eights of girls, so the JV cox coxes the B Boat while I cox the A Boat. My coach told me that even though I have the A boat right now, I can be bumped down. I want to know if you have any advice for a novice competing with a more experienced coxswain? I’m really trying to just be confident, but is there anything else?

Commit to learning (about rowing, coxing, your rowers, yourself, etc.). Be coachable. Listen to everything your coach says and use what they say as calls on the water. I never realized how big a deal this was to my coaches until I became a coach. Hearing your coxswains repeat something that you said to the rowers is awesome because it shows that you were paying attention, you know why the coach said what they said, and you recognize why it’s important for the rowers to keep hearing it.

Exude confidence in everything you do. Do everything like you know it’s right unless someone tells you otherwise. Be a little cocky but never obnoxious. Respect your teammates. Be a hardass when it’s necessary but know when to turn it off. Don’t settle for anything less than the best. Push your rowers. Act like an experienced coxswain. Ask for constant feedback from your rowers and coach(es) and use it to help you improve. Be humble with the positive feedback and understanding with the constructive criticism. Make your rowers want to come to practice and always act like you want to be there. Have fun. You have the best spot in the boat but you also carry the most responsibility. Strive to be great.

Novice Q&A Rowing

Question of the Day

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I’m being forced to bow a quad in an upcoming practice. I’ve been sculling for a week and I feel a little intimidated. I don’t even know which oar I have to put pressure on to turn the boat in my desired direction. The only time I’ve had any experience was when I was in a double with a varsity member. I didn’t learn the basics, but from being in that position I learned how to sound confident. Do you have any tips?

Take your time. If you’re not sure what to do, ask. That is always preferable to guessing, even if it takes a few seconds out of practice. Try and figure out what you’re doing during practice before you get on the water so that you have a chance to go over the practice plan with your coach and can get an idea of what you need to say. Assuming your coach is going out with you, it might be better to just let him tell the crew what to do so you can focus on rowing and steering. That’s how it normally works with novice coxswains.

If you want to turn the boat to starboard (your left), you’ll need to row with your right oar. If you want to turn the boat to port (your right), you’ll need to row with your left oar. Basically whichever way you want to turn, row with the opposite oar.

Q&A Teammates & Coaches

Question of the Day

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So we recently got a new coach and she said that she is not going to group us based on experience anymore and that we pretty much have to try out for varsity again. As a two season varsity rower I think it’s unfair that I have to prove myself to this coach and that she’s bulldozed over all of my hard work and making me start from scratch. Would you ever do that? Also, is there any way to not get huge thighs from rowing?

Personally no, I wouldn’t do that. I would reserve the right to maybe reevaluate seats (over a lengthy period of time) in the varsity boats if I felt someone wasn’t deserving of their spot in the first eight or if someone in the third eight deserved to be in the second, but I wouldn’t make someone try out again. I think there has to be respect from the rower’s end that she’s the coach and is going to do things how she wants to do them (regardless of whether or not people agree) but there also has to be respect on the coach’s end for the work that everyone has put into getting where they are now. To disregard all of that seems selfish.

Rowers are blessed/cursed with the gift of thunder thighs. The quads and hamstrings are THE main muscles that we employ while rowing (I say “we” like I actually row or something), so naturally the more they get used, the stronger they become, and the larger the muscles get. Just like there’s no way to prevent people from saying “your arms must be so strong!”, there’s no way to prevent getting huge thighs. Embrace it!

Q&A Teammates & Coaches

Question of the Day

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What do you find the most difficult thing about coaching? Besides money issues/weird hours…

The most difficult thing about coaching for me, disregarding the money and hours, is working with people who are less dedicated than I am. When I commit to doing something, I commit 100%, not because I’m trying to be that person who is overly enthusiastic or a suck up or whatever but because to me, that just seems like the “normal” thing to do. I think it probably just comes off like that because most other people appear to be OK with settling whereas I’m not.

If you commit to participating in something, why wouldn’t you show up every single day? Isn’t it like, oh I don’t know, assumed that you need to be at every single practice? It pisses me off when people say “oh, well, it was cold so I didn’t think we had practice” or “it rained this morning (for ten minutes) so we didn’t bring clothes or tennis shoes because we didn’t think we’d be going out (eight hours after it stopped raining)”. In that same vein, I have zero patience for people who half-ass the workouts, especially the easy stuff like calisthenics. Complaining about every single exercise, making no effort to do it properly, and then complaining even more because you’re sore and/or hurt yourself … why are you even there? You’re wasting everyone’s time and making me question whether or not you actually want to be there. If you’re not putting any effort into practice, where is my motivation to put any effort into coaching you?

People act like saying things like that is taboo or whatever, like it’s not something coaches should ever think or say, but I disagree. If you’re going to make it apparent that you don’t want to be there or you’re less dedicated than your teammates and coaches, I’m not going to hide my lack of interest in coaching you. I’d rather focus my attention on the people who show up and do what needs to be done without acting like they’re having their teeth pulled.

Coxing How To Q&A

Question of the Day

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Is there a ‘right way’ to sit in the coxswain seat? My left foot always gets super numb during practice!

You should make sure your low back is pressed against the back of the seat and your feet are pressed into the footboard on either side of your cox box (if you have it in your boat – some boats, like Resolutes, don’t). This will help you feel the boat but it might not always be the most comfortable.

Sometimes my foot goes numb too or I’ll get an epic cramp in my hip but I attribute it mostly to sitting for a long period of time with my muscles tenser than they should be. I often have to remind myself to relax because I can feel when a cramp in my leg is coming on and those things hurt. Usually when we stop rowing I’ll stretch my legs out in front of me or stand up and stretch for a second to loosen everything back up.