Author: readyallrow

Coxing How To Q&A

Question of the Day

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What’s the best way to steer through a wake?

Just do it. That sounds dismissive but it’s really that simple. I think wake affects the rowers a lot more than it does the coxswains which is why it’s important to tell them that it’s coming and to stay relaxed. It’s almost always coming at you slightly perpendicular to the boat so unless it’s so rough that you’re getting aggressively knocked off keel then you should just be able to row right through it with minimal adjustments to your steering.

If it’s really rough and you’re getting knocked around then just weigh enough until the water is calm and you can pick it back up. Outside of that, the only steering adjustments I make tend to be steering into the wake for a stroke if it’s particularly strong so that my bow stays pointed where I want it to be (since wake coming from your port side can push you towards shore if you follow a normal traffic pattern). Otherwise I just tell the rowers when it’s about to hit us and on what side (“on this next stroke there’ll be a little bit of wake off of port”) so they can adjust accordingly.

Video of the Week

Video of the Week: What makes the fastest crew?

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This is so true: “The only way to compete effectively is to make the boat go fast and the only way to make the boat go fast is to collaborate perfectly with the very same people they’re competing with. It almost requires a schizophrenic frame of mind.”

Related: Books on rowing, pt. 1

This guy, Mark de Rond, wrote the book “The Last Amateurs” which is about the 2007 Cambridge crew and the time he spent living with them while they trained and prepared for The Boat Race.

College Coxing Novice Q&A Racing

Question of the Day

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Hi. This is my first year being a coxswain ever and also my first year rowing for my college team. Our first race is this weekend on the Willamette. Any words of advice for someone who’s never done this before?

I’ll tell you the three things that I just told someone else:

Make sure you get plenty of sleep so that you’re well rested on race day. Fight the urge to lay in bed and scroll through social media on your phone or watch TV because before you know it it’ll be two hours later and your alarm is set to go off in two hours. This is a really bad habit of mine so whenever I know I need to get some sleep but am not feeling tired or would rather be catching up on Twitter/Instagram I’ll put an eye mask on so that it essentially forces me to close my eyes and try to fall asleep.

Pay attention during the coxswains meeting and if there’s something you don’t understand or want/need clarification on, speak up and say something. There’s a good chance that you’re not the only person with that question so you might as well ask it so the race officials can clarify it for everyone. One of the things that really encouraged me to speak up at these pre-race meetings was occasionally having the officials say “oh, that’s a great question” or “I’m glad you brought that up, I almost forgot to mention that” or something along those lines in response to something I’d asked. It might not seem like it’s that big of a deal but hearing that verbal confirmation that you had a good question can do a lot for a coxswain’s confidence (both at that moment and going forward).

Stay calm no matter what happens, both on land and on the water. Head races are always a little hectic, especially for coxswains (and even more especially for novice coxswains) but it’s a great way to test your ability to maintain your composure while executing your race plan and showing off your leadership skills to your coach(es) and teammates.

Since this is your first race as a coxswain it’s unlikely than anyone’s expectations are that high. That’s not to say that basic expectations aren’t there but no one expects you to go out and steer a perfect course or cox a perfect race your first time out. I always look at races like this as a learning experience first and a competition second. Make sure you have a rough plan going into the race and an idea of what things your coach wants you to focus on. Be aware of the traffic pattern (please) and try to focus on one thing at a time while still being aware of what’s going on around you as you make your way to the starting line and the starting chute.

Related: Navigating the starting chute at a head race

Above all else though, have a good time. Enjoy the experience and be able to move past anything that doesn’t go according to plan.

Coxing Ergs Q&A

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How do you as a coxswain help your rowers when they are erging in the winter?

You can help them in a couple different ways but the most important thing you should do first is talk with the rowers and find out if they want to be coxed when they’re doing pieces. Erging is a personal battle of sorts that most rowers use as a way to test, work on, and improve their mental toughness and it can be tough to get in that zone if you’ve got someone randomly (or constantly) talking in your ear. If someone says “don’t cox me” respect that and leave them alone. Some people do need that encouragement (or ass kicking) during pieces though so if someone asks you to cox them through a 5k or something, talk it out with them ahead of time so you know what and when they want/need you to say something. This also applies for when you’re doing drills/technique work – some rowers would rather you save any comments or feedback until the “off” strokes or when the piece is over, that way they can stay completely focused on whatever they’re doing.

Related: Advice for coxing a 5k on the erg? There are only so many times I can remind my boys to keep their back straight and drive with their legs.

 In that vein, if you’re doing technical workouts then you can also be another set of eyes for the coach (making calls as necessary for technique issues) and help keep the rowers focused on whatever the goal(s) is/are for that day. One thing I’d recommend though regarding pointing out technique things to the rowers is that you should talk it through with an experienced coxswain (if you aren’t one already) and/or the coach before you say anything, that way they can be sure that you understand it yourself and can communicate it to the rowers in a way that they’ll understand it.

Related: Coxswains + winter training and Winter training tips for coxswains

Those are the two main things you can do to help the rowers in the winter but for the most part, the coxswain’s role is largely an ambiguous one (which I’ve talked about in the two posts linked above) because there’s not really much for you to do unless the coach gives you specific tasks, such as running workouts or something. There are plenty of things you can do for yourself during the winter (see the previous two links) so don’t feel like you have to be all up in the rowers faces when they’re erging just to make yourself feel like you’re being productive. That will, to be honest, just irritate them and won’t help you get better as a coxswain.

Coxing Q&A

Question of the Day

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Hi, this is my third year rowing and I am currently a freshman. I started rowing in 7th grade and loved it in middle school, but now as I enter the high school team (it is a club team) I am realizing that I am a lot smaller than other girls. I am currently 5’2 and about 105 in weight. I have mentioned to my coach that I want to cox and she shuts me down every time I ask. (My team is really low on coxswains too.) My question is what should I do? Should I finish fall as a rower then start coxing in the spring? Thanks!

I would finish out the fall season as a rower and then revisit things with your coach maybe mid-winter(ish), well in advance of when your team plans to get back on the water (but not immediately as soon as you start winter training because if you’ve already been consistently asking your coach this will just annoy her even further, which won’t help your case).

You’re the perfect size to be a coxswain so hopefully the only reason she’s saying no is because she doesn’t want to make the switch mid-season, which I can understand (although if that is the case I don’t know why she wouldn’t just say that). If your team is already low on coxswains you’d think that they’d jump at the chance to have someone make that transition but they might have a reason for wanting to keep you as a rower so if you haven’t yet, maybe ask your coach why she wants you to keep rowing instead of switching to coxing and see what she says.

After hearing what she says, if you still feel like you want to try coxing I would, like I said, wait awhile before bringing it up again and then talk with her one-on-one about why you want to switch to coxing and why you think it might be a better fit for you than rowing.

College Q&A Recruiting

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Hi! I’m a high school junior and I’m fairly certain I want to row DIII in college. When does it make sense to fill out recruitment forms? I’m going to visit a college I’m potentially interested in in about a month and I was thinking of filling out their form and maybe sending the coach an email but I’m not sure if I’m serious about the school yet and I don’t want to waste their time. Thank you!

Now would definitely be a great time to fill out the recruiting forms, especially since you’re going to visit some schools soon. I would also send an email to the coaches at the schools you’re looking at, just indicating your interest and that you’ll be on campus, would it be possible to connect while you’re in town, etc. That way you can get some information on the program while looking at the school and save yourself some time down the road (when you’ll likely be busier with school, SATs/ACTs, etc.) if you decide that you actually are interested in applying here. I only applied to a small handful of schools (like, three I think…) but I emailed several coaches beforehand just to get info on their programs so that I could look at all of the athletics and academics at the same time. I did this while I was still considering a larger range of schools and like I said, ultimately it just saved me a lot of time in the end.

Related: I’m a junior starting to look into the recruiting process. What would a good first email to a coach be formatted as? What should I include? How long should it be?

It’s not really a waste of anyone’s time unless you’re leading them on by saying you’re interested when you’re really not (that goes for coaches when talking to prospective athletes too). You’re not at that point yet though so there’s nothing wrong with reaching out and introducing yourself, especially since you’re just at the beginning of the wonderful process that is applying to college. If you decide the school’s not for you, that’s cool –  as coaches I think we’d all rather you come to that conclusion sooner rather than later anyways (more for your benefit than ours too, to be honest).

College Coxing Novice Q&A Racing

Question of the Day

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Hi! I’m a freshman coxswain on my college’s club crew team and I coxed for four years in high school. My team is going to our first race this weekend and it’s a head race. We only have about 1000 meters of water to use when we practice, so we haven’t actually rowed a 5k at practice and my boat has only really had one practice together. How do I go about coxing a head race when my boat hasn’t been together very long and some of the boys in my boat have never even rowed 5000 meters continuously?

There’s a first time for everything, right? Obviously things aren’t going to be perfect because as you said, you haven’t rowed together for very long and where you train doesn’t allow you to actually practice the distance you’ll be racing so one of the things that you could/should do is try to keep the focus on maybe two or three basic things (i.e. the set, the sequencing, and the timing). You know how you cox hard steady state pieces during practice where you’re not racing but there’s still that intensity about the piece and the focus is mainly on the technical aspects of the stroke, having enough power and ratio to get some good run on the recovery, etc.? That’s what I’m talking about. I’d approach it like that while including some hard 10s and 20s as you see fit.

Related: All about Power 10s

Having your expectations adjusted accordingly lets you (and your crew) shift your focus to things that can actually help you get better in the long run. Rowing 5,000 meters for the first time, both individually and as a crew, might not be easy but if you go into saying “here are our goals, this is what we’re going to focus on” then you can come off the water hopefully being able to say that you worked on them and felt them get better over the course of the race, in which case you could say that you had a successful race … vs. going into it with the sole goal of getting from Point A to Point B as fast as possible and only making calls about walking on other crews, “power 10!”, etc.,  all while knowing that none of those things are realistic for your crew to be trying to do right now. Hopefully that makes sense too.

The pressure of being in a race situation is obviously something they need to experience and learn to manage but your biggest responsibility will be to keep them focused on whatever goals you or your coach gives them (set, sequencing, timing, etc.) and not let everything fall apart once they start realizing how difficult it is to row full pressure at 30+ SPM over the course of 5,000 meters. Pacing will be important, especially at the beginning when they’re like “huh, this isn’t that bad… *tries to row full pressure at 38spm with no semblance of timing, set, or technique*”. As an experienced coxswain this is definitely something that you’re capable of doing so those would be my suggestions for how to cox them. Make sure you talk with the rowers and coach sometime in the next couple of days to figure out what they feel the current strengths and weaknesses are so you can start planning your calls accordingly. Good luck!

College Coxing Novice Racing Video of the Week

Video of the Week: “Ignatius, stop rowing”, pt. 3

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Really? Really?

That novice boat should have been disqualified and given a serious talking to by the regatta officials with their coaches present. (Supposedly they only received a 20 second penalty.) This goes way past your standard novice screw-up. The blades of the two boats were overlapping which means they were probably less than 10 feet apart. This was almost a head-on collision between a varsity four at full race pace/pressure and an eight that appeared to be rowing at least by bow 4. It doesn’t matter that they’re novices, “oh they weren’t going that fast”, “they probably just didn’t know where to go”, etc. … NO. Not buying ANY of those excuses.

Coxswains, I implore you to use your common sense and pay attention to the traffic patterns so you know where the travel lanes are and where the actual race course is. I don’t care if you’re a novice or varsity – pay attention. Varsity coxswains (and coaches, because … it’s your job …), you should be asking the novices multiple times if they understand the course, the traffic pattern(s), etc. so that there is no question that they’re prepared when they go out on the water and aren’t going to be at risk of putting themselves or another crew in danger. Novices, you need to suck. it. up. and get over being intimidated by asking questions and ask someone if you don’t know where you need to go. There are plenty of people on land that you can ask, in addition to regatta officials and other crews on the water. You should also have your head on a swivel at all times so that situations like this don’t happen.

There’s really no question with regards to how the coxswain from Marietta College handled this. Given the nature of the situation, I think he did well. I mean, what else can you do other than make a split second decision to either try to get the other crew’s attention and/or drastically alter your course? He was loud, made a good effort to get the coxswain’s attention, got his crew right back into it afterwards, and didn’t appear to have to make any steering adjustments. Saying “way off course, coxswain” is pretty much the tamest thing he could have said in that moment so props to him for not losing it on the other crew. Trust me, as much as you’d probably want to in that situation … don’t. Find the regatta officials afterwards and talk to them or go find the crew’s tent/trailer if you know what team they’re from and let their coach know what happened. It’s not about throwing them under the bus or trying to get them in trouble so don’t use that a reason to not say something later. The only way situations like this are going to be prevented in the future is if people speak up and give the coaches/officials a chance to address with the coxswains where they need to be on the water, either again or simple more effectively this time.