Author: readyallrow

Coxing Drills Q&A Rowing

Question of the Day

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Hi, I’ve heard people talking about builder 15s but I’m not quite sure what they are. Do you think you could clarify upon what those are? Thanks.

Builders are short little bursts of 10-15 strokes that increase in rate each time you start a new burst. They can be half-slide or full-slide and are usually done at rates 28+. Sometimes they’re included in race warm-ups but I’ve primarily seen them done as a “drill” at the end of practice. I can’t remember specifically what our builders in the spring looked like but I think it was something like 15 half-slide builders at 32, 34, 36, 38, and 40 with 10 full-slide firm-paddle strokes in between each set. The purpose as I’ve heard it explained is to simply get the crew used to rowing at higher rates. With the half-slide builders (or occasionally, quarter-slide…), you’re a little more perpendicular with your body than you otherwise would be which means your catches have to be that much sharper and you’ve gotta be more aware of the boat’s speed so that you’re matching it instead of just moving on the slide with total reckless abandon. Ideally all that would transition to your full-slide strokes too once you lengthen back out.

In my experience, every coach I’ve had/worked with has explained and executed builders in their own slightly different way so it’d definitely be worth your while to ask your coach how they approach them and what their goals are for doing them. From there, assuming you’re a younger coxswain, you can talk  with the older coxswains on your team to get an idea of how to call them and what to watch/feel for.

Erg Playlists

Music to erg to, pt. 101

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So I’ve been spending most of the summer going through pretty much every rowing-related bookmark, PDF, etc. that I have on my laptop so I can crank out some posts and get them queued to go up throughout the year. Several of you guys emailed me with some really awesome ideas that I plan on including so be on the lookout sometime over the next week for a follow-up email from me about that. If anyone else has ideas, suggestions, etc. for stuff to post about, definitely send me an email. My list of ideas can never be too long.

Erg Playlists

Music to erg to, pt. 100

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Starting next week, I’m going to be alternating when I post the FBF posts and these playlist posts. Both can be time-consuming to put together so hopefully spacing them out will make things a little simpler. The FBF posts will now have two weeks worth of old posts in them instead of one so they’ll be a little longer but since that seems to be a popular series I’m hoping no one minds the increase in length. Feel free to let me know what you think though.

College Coxing Q&A Recruiting

Question of the Day

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Do US universities (Ivy League in particular) offer scholarships/ part-scholarships for coxes (similar to the rowing scholarships), if that makes any sense? Would selection for national team representation make a scholarship more realistic or likely? I’m from the UK and would LOVE to come study at a US university if I was able to get a scholarship of some sort. Also, have you heard of any universities that have previously offered scholarships to coxes?

The Ivy League as a conference doesn’t offer any scholarships to athletes, male or female, regardless of sport. Here’s the exact wording as seen on the Ivy League’s website:

Ivy League schools provide financial aid to students, including athletes, only on the basis of financial need as determined by each institution’s Financial Aid Office. There are no academic or athletic scholarships in theIvy League. A coach may assist a prospective student-athlete to obtain an estimated financial aid award, however only the Financial Aid Office has the authority to determine financial aid awards and to notify students officially of their actual or estimated awards.

Coxing for your country’s junior national team might make you a more competitive candidate but how it impacts your chances of being offered a scholarship (at the schools that offer them) I can’t really speak to. Coxswains getting scholarships as freshmen isn’t really a thing because most coaches want to use that money to bring in rowers but it is possible to earn one later on in your career. It’s something worth asking the coaches you’re talking to about because everyone distributes the scholarships they have available a little differently. Some will take the 20 full scholarships you’re allotted (at Division 1 and Division 2 schools) and break them down into 40 partial scholarships, some will put all their seniors or everyone in the 1V on full scholarship and everyone else on partial scholarship … it really depends on the program. Those are just two examples that I’ve heard some coaches do.

I don’t know the specifics of who offers scholarships to coxswains and who doesn’t because stuff like that is usually kept pretty guarded – not because it needs to be kept a secret or anything, I think it’s just because since it’s related to financials and what not it’s just not appropriate to put out there. I do think it would be beneficial to know just in a general sense what programs have scholarship opportunities available to coxswains but at this point a lot of that info is just based on rumors.