Tomorrow is our last day on the water which seems crazy because I’m pretty sure it was just August and we were getting back on the water to start the season. Time really flies when you’re having fun.
Author: readyallrow
Words.
I don’t doubt that other sports are mental but you have no idea what a mental sport feels like until you are competing against yourself and you have to decide if you want to be better or worse than your best.
Question of the Day
Hi, this is a great resource, thanks for devoting so much time to it. I’m coxing a 5km head race in the UK in a couple of weeks. I’ve raced it before, and am feeling quite confident. One thing I’m unsure of is how best to call the end of a power twenty. Our race plan is to push for twenty at the end of each kilometre. I don’t want to call down pressure at the end of the push, to avoid a sharp drop off in boatspeed, but neither do I want not to call anything, and have my crew pushing for longer than the twenty I’ve asked for. Any help you could offer would be great – thanks!
My suggestion is to not aim to call a “power” 20 at the end of each kilometer, rather call it for something and don’t necessarily make everything 20 strokes. During HOCR this year, which is also about 5km, I only called one 20 and it was at the start of the last kilometer.
Related: Race skills: All about Power 10s
At this point it’s very rare that I actually call something for straight power but when I do I remind them to maintain this as soon as we finish the burst, usually in the form of “yea that’s it, now let’s maintain it, we’re sitting at 1:46 right now, stay on it with the legs and accelerate through the water…” and then I go right into calling a couple strokes for acceleration, giving them position updates, and coxing them like normal. It’s not like I’m calling the end of the burst and then completely falling off with my calls, tone, volume, etc. If you do that then yea, there will be a sharp drop off in speed but if you maintain your voice and immediately jump into like what I said up above then you’re more likely to, you know, actually maintain whatever you just did. If the crew is falling off with pressure immediately after then a) you’re not doing your job, b) their endurance is awful, and c) someone needs to clue them in on the concepts of pacing and flying-and-dying.
As far as having your crew pushing for longer than the twenty you asked for … the phrasing of that is bugging me. I really can’t put my finger on which exactly of the five reasons I’ve come up with for why it’s bugging me but there’s something about how you said that that’s just … off. I’m probably/definitely over-analyzing this but just keep in mind that they should be pushing themselves regardless of what you’re saying and you shouldn’t be calling them up or down. Whenever coxswains say stuff like that I imagine them coxing the race like they’re on a roller coaster, going up and down with the pressure and their voice and whatever else and it makes me wonder how they can possibly think that that’s effective.
If you continuously call for 20s to push (and I’m going with the standard definition of pushing in this context to mean “more pressure”) then you will be coxing a roller coaster race and it’s not effective because the crew will likely do what I said before, which is fly and die each time. If you give each burst a specific purpose, limit the number of 20s you use and instead incorporate in some 5s, 10s, etc., and remind them to maintain whatever feels good during those bursts then you’ll be able to have a much more efficient and evenly-paced race.
Question of the Day
Hi, I am a novice cox and was just wondering about what to do during the winter training. Thank you so much.
Check out any (or all) of these posts:
Winter training tips for coxswains…
Coxswains + winter training (Similar titles, different posts, I promise…)
How To Survive Winter Training, pt. 1b: Coxswains
How do you as a coxswain help your rowers when they are erging in the winter?
Question of the Day
So I’m the most experienced coxswain on my juniors team, and was asked to cox a master’s eight. It isn’t a racing boat or anything. Some of the masters just wanted to try sweep. The thing is both of my coaches and a few of the board members for the juniors team will be in the boat, as will my dad. I’m afraid that if I mess up, or if my coach isn’t a fan of my style, it could affect boat placement going into spring. Any advice?
It won’t. It would be really stupid of your coach to keep you out of certain boats just because he didn’t like your style of coxing. I was emailing with another coxswain about a very similar situation a couple weeks ago and a lot of what I told him applies to you too. In this situation, yea it might be awkward to have your dad, your coach, and some of the board members in the boat but when you’re on the water they’re none of those people – they’re just another group of rowers. Something that I’ve noticed with masters rowers over the last few years (both men and women) is that they tend to forget that on the water I (and the other coxswains) don’t look at them the way their employees, colleagues, etc. look at them – they’re not doctors, lawyers, university administrators, hedge fund managers, venture capitalists, small business owners, non-profit managers, contractors, advertising execs, etc. to me. They’re just rowers. If it comes off like you’re intimidated by them because of who they are off the water then you open the door for them to put on their manager/department head/executive hat and try to run the show because that’s what they’re used to doing every day. Don’t forget though, you’re used to managing people every day too, the only difference between the two groups being age.
The majority of masters rowers are great and come out just to have a good time with friends so trust me when I say all you have to do is the exact same thing you do during practice with your normal crews. Obviously you should make sure you’re on top of your game (that means steering good lines, not hitting things, communicating clearly and concisely, etc.) but if you excel at all of the basic coxswain skills any other day of the week then you’re not going to have any issues with these guys.
Below is another part of the email I mentioned earlier that I hope will help you out. Remember, you wouldn’t have been asked to do this if someone (your coach, I’m assuming) didn’t think you were capable. Don’t take the situation too seriously and have fun with it!
“The biggest piece of advice I can give you is if you get nervous, keep it to yourself. Act like every single thing you say and do is a deliberate action, not something you debated doing before making a decision. Be confident and have a good time! Coxing masters, even competitive ones, can be a lot of fun. They’ll probably joke around with you which will hopefully lighten the atmosphere a bit so just approach it like you would any other practice. Communicate with the coach, ask questions if you don’t understand something, need it repeated, etc., be clear with your calls to the crew, and use this as an opportunity to learn. Every crew is different so you can probably apply something you’ve done with your high school team to these guys and you’ll probably be able to take something away from this and apply it to your high school practice next week.”
Video of the Week: Snowflake Regatta carnage
What the actual hell…
Question of the Day
Hi, this is quite important as I have a race tomorrow, sorry it’s short notice and I completely understand if you don’t have time to answer this. Anyways I have taken my CoxBox home to charge before the race (as usual). I plug it in and it says 46% battery, 5 mins later it’s at 100%, so I switched it on and off to double check and it goes back to 46% or lower. I need as much charge in as possible as it’s a long race, and we’ll be on the water for 2+ hours. I don’t know how to fix it! I have tried also leaving it on charge all day and night, but again the same thing happens, it goes to 100% then when taken off charge back down to 46% or less. It’s always roughly the same number it goes back down to. Sorry if it doesn’t make much sense… bit stressed!!! 🙂
That’s odd. Off the top of my head I’d say try resetting the battery but that requires more time than it sounds like you have. If you can’t borrow another cox box (which you should try to do) then you’ll just have to find a way to deal with this one. Make sure your coach and crew know ahead of time that you’re having issues with it and then plan to use it as little as possible tomorrow before the race actually starts. Once it’s in the boat just leave it off until maybe 5 minutes before your race starts. Yea, that means you’ll have to project a little more than usual but if people are quiet and paying attention it shouldn’t be much of an issue. Make sure you’re fully hydrated beforehand too since this will help keep you from losing your voice. If it stays at 46% then I’d guess you’ll get maybe an hour or so out of it, provided you don’t have the volume up super loud, so just make sure you plan accordingly.
Music to erg to, pt. 64
New coxswain recordings post up yesterday – both are junior men’s crews with one from a race and another from a race piece during practice.
Question of the Day
Hi! So I live in New Zealand and I’ve had an email from a coach in the US saying she’s coming to NZ next week and wants to come and see me row. Any tips for what to talk about? I don’t really know much about the whole process and I don’t want to come off too eager/not interested. How will I tell if she is interested in recruiting me? Thanks so much!!
That’s pretty awesome, congrats! Check out the list of questions to ask prospective coaches in the post linked below. There’s some good ones in there that pretty much cover all your bases as far as recruiting, academics, the program itself, etc. goes. Obviously you don’t have to ask them all of those questions but pick out maybe 5-7 or so and keep them on hand for whenever you’ve actually got some time to talk one-on-one. If you don’t have much time to talk with one another ask if it’s OK if you send an email within the next couple of days with some questions that you have and then just write out whatever they are in a brief, bullet-pointed email maybe a day or two later.
Related: What questions should you ask during the recruiting process?
Also check out the post linked below on how to respond to a coach that asks “what should I know about you”, “tell me about yourself”, etc. That’d be one of the first questions that I’d ask a recruit (and it’s something I’ve been asked on nearly every worthwhile job interview I’ve had) so it’s always good to have something prepared just in case.
As far as coming off too eager or not interested … just be cool. She’s a coach, not a foreign dignitary. Just be polite and act like you always do (aka a normal person). I imagine that if she’s interested in you then she’ll let you know at some point in the future but if it’s really bugging you to know then I don’t see why it’d be a big deal to ask where you stand next to the other rowers she’s looked at. I would probably save that for your follow-up email though just to give her some time to actually process what she saw in practice.
There are a lot of really great questions in the recruiting tag that cover pretty much everything you’d wanna know and some things you didn’t know you wanted to know so if/when you’ve got time, definitely try to spend some time reading through them.
Coxing High School Racing Recordings
Coxswain Recordings, pt. 26
Brookline Boys V4+ vs. Duxbury and Arlington-Belmont
This coxswain recently emailed me their recording so below is part of my reply to them. If you’re coxing bow loaders, take note of the first paragraph. Like I said, it’s a one-in-a-million chance but keep in mind that for the work you’re doing, your body isn’t necessarily in the most efficient position and forcing it to do even more unnatural stuff (such as making your voice way deeper than it needs to be) can lead to less-than-pleasant outcomes for you.
“I like the way you called your start and the intensity that you had. The only thing I’d recommend here is to be a little more natural with it and try not to force your voice to be super deep, particularly if you’re in a bow loader. I was talking to a friend a few weeks ago who said that while he was coxing his four over the summer he actually developed a stress fracture from tensing up his torso too much and trying to force out a voice that wasn’t natural for him. It was so bizarre but I can see how it’s possible – you’re laying down and essentially doing a crunch every time you force the air out to make your voice deep like that, which puts a lot of strain on the muscles around your rib cage. Something like that happening is probably one in a million but it’s definitely something to be aware of. Doing that also wastes a ton of oxygen and energy which just ends up causing you to become tired and out of breath early on in the race.
At 2:05 when you say “bow pair, what are you doing for our boat right now…”, I would caution against calls like that because it comes off like you’re saying you don’t think they’re doing anything or that they’re not pulling as hard as the stern pair. Even if that’s true, you don’t want to make it seem like you’ve lost confidence in literally half your crew. Instead, I would eliminate that part entirely and just say something like “bow pair, let’s channel your power into the next five finishes … squeeze it through and send the boat … ready, on this one“. That way you’re getting them to think about harnessing their power, you’re giving them a specific part of the stroke to target, and you’re putting a bit of responsibility on them for the next few strokes to really make the boat move. Ideally you’d follow that up with some positive calls during the five (“yea bow pair…”, “that’s it…”, etc.) to maintain the momentum and motivation too.
You’re doing a great job of telling the crew where they are on the other crews. This is where a lot of coxswains fall short and you’re nailing it. Great job.
At 2:39 when you tell Kyle to get his seat ahead of another crew “before this bridge”, in the future I’d just throw in how many strokes there are until you reach the bridge since that’s obviously something you can see but they can’t. I’d say something like “Alright Kyle, we’re 15 strokes out of the bridge, I want you sitting on their bow ball when we come out the other side – you’re leading this 10, ready, GO…”. Again, it gives that person a bit of personal responsibility while letting them know exactly what you want and how many strokes they have to do it in.
If you find that the splits are starting to creep up towards the end, instead of saying “get them back down” or something equally as vague, relax your voice and just talk to the crew. Take all the tension out of the air and get them to relax. They’re tired, they’re in pain, they can’t breathe, and they just want this to be over but you’ve still got 400m left … what are you gonna do? Take 5 to breathe, 5 to relax the shoulders, 5 to refocus, and 5 to recommit and reestablish the ratio. Focus your calls specifically on only those things when you’re calling for them. When you’re calling that last five, remind them to lengthen the recovery, power through on the drive, swing together, and feel the rhythm. From here you should be able to go right into the build for your sprint.
Last thing, when you’re calling for them to get the rate up, remind them to get it with power on the drive, that way everyone is going after that higher rate the same way at the same time.”
Winter Park High School 2014 Bertossa Cup
This style of coxing is perfect for pieces (5x5min, for example) during practice. There’s a good balance with the calls and the tone is just aggressive enough. During a race I would probably want her to be a little sharper and more concise with the calls (vs. dragging them out a bit here) but for practice pieces this is totally fine. Definitely give it a listen though because it’s just another example of good coxing and you really can’t ever have too many of those.
You can find and listen to more recordings by checking out the “Coxswain Recordings” page.