Author: readyallrow

College Q&A Training & Nutrition

Question of the Day

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Hey so this is kind of a follow up to a question I asked earlier about not training over the summer due to plica. So a lot of girls came back out of shape and our coach hasn’t been happy with our scores. My captain/roommate told me that he’s thinking he’s going to withdraw one of our HOCR entries because he’s so upset about it. My coach did know about my injury but I’m really scared to approach him. He’s a great coach, but I’m just a nervous person/easily intimidated. Any advice?

Ah yea, I can understand being nervous after hearing something like that but you shouldn’t consider it to be a fact until you hear your coach say it himself. It’s possible he just said what he said out of frustration and not because pulling one of the entries is something he’s actually considering doing. He could be totally serious too but don’t get caught up in the rumor mill, even if it’s coming from someone you trust. I still think it’d be in your best interest to talk with him though and let him know where you’re at with your recovery. Acknowledge that you know he’s been less than impressed with where everyone’s at fitness-wise and you don’t want to make excuses for your scores or anything like that but this is what the doctors recommended you do over the summer, this is where you’re at now, and this is your plan going forward.

One of the things you have to consider too – and I know this is probably the last thing you want to hear – is whether you’ll be 100% by the time HOCR lineups are finalized. Basically what I’m saying is I wouldn’t try to rush your training over the next 2-3 weeks to achieve some stellar results just to make it into one of those boats because you could ultimately end up injuring yourself again (and even worse this time). This is another reason why I’d recommend talking with your coach. Ultimately the fall season doesn’t count towards anything and it really doesn’t matter that much in the long run. You’ll likely be much more valuable to your team in the spring so you’ve got to weigh the options and determine whether it’s worth it to go all out to make an HOCR lineup or take the fall slow and get back to where you were so that by the time your winter training trip rolls around you’re back on form and ready to go. You would definitely want your coach’s advice and opinion on that so again, set up a time to meet with him and go from there.

Coxing Q&A

Question of the Day

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I’m a first-year varsity rower in high school and am going into the fall racing season. I am the smallest rower on my team (5’3″ and 122lbs) and I know I want to become a coxswain later in my rowing career, such as in college or later in high school. Would it be better to make the transition to a coxswain as soon as possible or wait for a year or two?

Personally I think that if coxing is something you want to do in college then it’d be beneficial to have as much experience as possible going into it before you graduate, mainly because you don’t want to have to learn all the ins an outs of it while trying to get adjusted to what is essentially an entirely new lifestyle. There are obviously plenty of successful walk-on coxswains but if you’ve got the opportunity to start doing it now, why not do it? If you’re currently a sophomore then you could finish out the fall season and switch to coxing in the spring or just row for the full year and switch as a junior. It’s up to you. I would talk with your coach though and let them know that becoming a coxswain is what you eventually plan on doing but at this point you’re just trying to determine when would be the best time to make the transition.

Q&A Teammates & Coaches

Question of the Day

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Our assistant coach is not here this season and won’t be back until winter training so our head coach introduced a new assistant coach earlier this week. Every time she tries to correct someone’s form she says it in a way that sounds really mean and negative. After our last piece today our head coach gave us some feedback and told us what he thought was good and what could be improved. After he went to the other 8 she came over and told us we were “ridiculous and mediocre”. The other coxswains and the rowers on my team feel like she’s being way too negative and it’s making everyone feel awful. Sorry that was really long, I just want to know how to handle that kind of coach.

This is a situation where the team captains need to have a one-on-one meeting with the head coach. (If you don’t have team captains work something out so you have one or two varsity coxswains and rowers (each) that can meet with them.) The biggest thing that I’d have an issue with is her saying that you’re “ridiculous and mediocre” after the coach had already made his comments, which sound fairly positive from how you described it. That’s just not cool. I get how two coaches can see things in different ways but this is far from being the best way to address that and she should know that.

From the perspective of the rowers and coxswains, there is no “handling” of it on your end. Leave that to your head coach to deal with once you’ve spoken with him. I know it’s easier said than done for some people but don’t let her attitude get the best of you. I’ve had coaches like that too and usually my stroke and I would just look at each other, roll our eyes, and get on with whatever we were doing. Your head coach already gave you constructive feedback and that’s what you have to internalize and go with. Stupid comments like the one she made are the ones you brush off and ignore because they don’t mean anything. I’m not saying that you should always ignore the assistant’s comments in favor of what the head coach says, rather you should prioritize the comments that offer genuine feedback rather than the ones that just say “you suck”.

As far as everyone feeling awful because of it, this is where the coxswains have to step up and maintain the focus by reiterating the positives and rewording the overly-harsh negatives into something that the rowers can actually use. Negative feedback isn’t necessarily a bad thing but it’s gotta be delivered the right way for it to be effective. Plus, you have to know your audience too. If the coxswains can take what the coach is saying and give it to the rowers in a more constructive format then that’ll do a lot for how everyone feels. Granted, I can’t imagine the morale is going to be THAT great after dealing with this for awhile but that’s why I said the captains, seniors, whoever need to talk with the coach one-on-one and let them in on what’s been going on and how everyone is feeling.

Coxing Racing Video of the Week

Video of the Week: “The Turn”

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I’ll probably do an actual post on this a little later in the season but just putting it out there now that it might be worthwhile to talk with your coaches now or soon-ish about the regattas you’ll be attending this fall and which, if any, courses have hairpin turns like this, that way you can hopefully practice doing them before you’ve actually gotta do it during a race.

College Q&A Teammates & Coaches Training & Nutrition

Question of the Day

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Hey! At the end of the spring season I was one of the best rowers on my team. I had some of the strongest erg scores and was stroking the 1V8+. However I was rowing through an injury, it was a plica so there was no structural damage, and after receiving a cortisone shot, the pain went down a lot, so I was cleared to row though they said to go see another dr. over the summer for potential surgery. The Dr. I saw over the summer took an MRI and decided to try PT and an anti-inflammatory. She also said to limit my exercise to non-impact workouts, which pretty much meant no erging/rowing, running, or biking. I did do some swimming this summer and focused on building core strength. Now I’m back at school in pre-season, it definitely helped, and my knee is better. However my erg scores (obviously) haven’t been where they were and it’s been discouraging. I’ve been going to every practice to gain an advantage, before mandatory practice starts, but it’s so hard motivating myself to go when I know I’ll be in the middle of the pack, even though I know the only way to get better is by going. What’s worse is that my coach ignores me. This sucks because I’ve picked up that that’s what he does to the girls who maybe aren’t the top rowers on the team. Do you have any advice on how I can boost my moral?

Ah yes, I’m familiar with plica syndrome. I’m pretty sure the chondromalacia that the doctors say I have in the knee I dislocated is actually this. It’s definitely not a pleasant thing to deal with – I can’t believe you rowed through it! I wouldn’t keep doing that though if it starts acting up again just because you will, without question, end up exacerbating the problem and ultimately end up with an injury that is way more severe than this one and will keep you off the water for an even longer period of time.

Even though your erg scores aren’t where you want them to be right now, I think you can at least take comfort in knowing that they’re where they are for a legitimate reason and not because you were lazy and sat around on your ass all summer. There’s nothing wrong with being in the middle of the pack either. I know people look at it as some colossal failure if they were previously at the head of the pack but it’s really not that big of a deal. If you’re relatively in shape then you shouldn’t have any issue getting back to where you were in a reasonable amount of time.

Instead of focusing on getting your scores back to where they were just focus on improving where you’re at right now. If you’re currently pulling (for example) a 1:55 split for a 2k but your PR is a 1:46 then yea, no wonder you’re discouraged. That’s a lot of time to try and make up. Stop focusing on the 1:46 though and instead work on making small improvements on the 1:55. Eventually you’ll get back to where you were but it’ll be a lot easier if you set more reasonable goals for yourself (i.e. like maintaining a 1:53 on your next test…). Being able to knock off small goals on your way to a larger one is much more motivating and better for morale.

If you think your coach is ignoring you, set up a one-on-one meeting with him sometime this week so you can update him on what your doctors told you, what you did this summer in terms of working out, and what your plan is to get your times back to where they were. If he doesn’t have any idea as to what’s going on and it just looks like you came back to campus out of shape then I can understand why he’d be annoyed. I don’t necessarily condone ignoring you for it but I can at least where he might be coming from. Clue him in and go from there. I would also touch base with the sports med staff that works with your team and work something out with them too, that way you can tell your coach that you met/will be meeting with them so that he sees that you’re serious about taking care of yourself and you’re not being flippant about this whole situation.

Racing Rowing

Question of the Day

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Why do coaches put out mixed crews for races? Don’t they want us to win? Your blog is AMAZING!! You have helped so much, thanks! 🙂

To be honest, I never really understood mixed lineups during races either but all in all I think it’s a pretty harmless thing to do. Mixed lineups during practice, especially at the beginning of the season, is great but I probably wouldn’t race those lineups at any point past the first race or two. I really don’t think it has anything at all to do with winning or losing though. If your coach races mixed lineups and you’re curious why, just ask him/her what their rationale is behind that. Once they explain it it might make more sense to you and seem less random/dumb.

In my experience it’s largely been a chance for the less experienced rowers to be in a boat that’s (hopefully) more stable which in turn lets them focus a bit more on their stroke and technique without having to worry about all the other distractions that would otherwise be present in a boat made up of entirely less experienced people. For the varsity rowers who might be/probably are pissed that they’re rowing that lineup, all I can say is … chill. You were in that position once too and there were probably varsity rowers that at the time felt the same way about you. Part of being able to call yourself a varsity athlete is knowing that there’s some responsibility on you to help the less-experienced rowers get up to speed. Just go with it and use that time to set a good example by having a good attitude and focusing on rowing well as an individual. The boat’s probably not going to feel perfect but again, you should look at that as an opportunity to figure out what adjustments you can make to your rowing so that when the boat feels similarly once you’re rowing in your regular lineups you’ll already know what changes to make before your coach or coxswain says something.

Erg Playlists

Music to erg to, pt. 54

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So, just an update to what I’m doing back in Boston since I haven’t mentioned it yet but I’m coaching with MIT’s men’s heavyweight team. Practices started earlier this week and everything’s been great so far. It’s been nice actually having something to do and, as we’ve said before when it comes to coxswains, not feeling like part of the furniture. We’re a fairly small team so for the time being I plan on riding in the launch with the other coaches and doing a lot of observing while also helping out with the coxswains when I can. Should be fun!

Defining the role of the coxswain: The type of coxswain you DON’T want to be

College Coxing High School

Defining the role of the coxswain: The type of coxswain you DON’T want to be

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We always hear about the types of coxswains you should aspire to be like but rarely, if ever, does anyone ever tell you about the coxswains you don’t want to be like. Part of the problem with no one pointing them out ahead of time is that by the time someone thinks to say something about it, you’ve already got two or three of those coxswains on your team.

I know people are always like “oh we can’t say anything negative otherwise no one will want to join crew” and I get that but at the same time, why wouldn’t you want to just get everything out in the open and say “here’s what we’re looking for, here’s what we’re not looking for, if the former applies to you then you might be a good fit and if the latter applies you might not be a good fit”? It would probably save the team a lot of headaches down the line if that’s the way things were done, at least in my opinion. At the very least it’d save a lot of you the time spent writing me emails asking how to deal with your coxswains who fall into one or more of the categories below.

The incompetent one

This one literally has no idea what they’re doing. One of two things tends to prevent them from asking for help (either their ego or their shyness) and as a result, things are done incorrectly, inefficiently, or not at all.

If you’re that person: Suck it up and ask for help. Do your own research and educate yourself on the things you’re unsure of and/or don’t know how to do. Don’t assume that you’re the only one that can see that you have no idea what’s going on because, trust me, it’s way more obvious than you think.

The wallflower

This one is shy, quiet, and unauthoritative. The only time they say anything is when they absolutely have to and even then it’s hard to take them seriously because they don’t take themselves seriously. It’s unknown why they joined the team but the reason they got stuck coxing probably has everything to do with their physical stature and nothing to do with their actual personality or potential.

If you’re that person: Not everyone is outgoing and in-your-face and that’s fine … but if you’re gonna be a coxswain you’re going to have to adjust a little when you’re at the boathouse. Being authoritative and sometimes loud (OK, most of the time…) are requirements of the job. If those aren’t things you’re used to being that’s fine when you first start out but you need to step outside of your comfort zone and be a little more bold.

The basket case

These ones are the ones that freak out about everything, constantly say “I don’t know what to do, what do I do, I can’t do this, OMG I can’t do this…” and in general just get on everyone’s nerves due to their sheer inability to just get. a. grip.

If you’re that person: Assess the situation and why you’re freaking out. If it’s because you aren’t sure what to do, ask yourself how freaking out is going to make things any easier for you and the eight other people you’re on the water with. If you know that you’re a relatively high-strung person in general, figure out the best way for you to become calm and maintain a more level head when you’re at practice.

The indecisive one

This one is non-committal about pretty much everything, regardless of whether it’s what warm-up to do with the crew, who they want to row, how many strokes they need to take, or how much distance they have left to cover. Usually this coxswain is a combination of the incompetent one and the basket case – they don’t know what they’re doing so they panic and then can’t process or decide what the next course of action should be.

If you’re that person: The first thing you need to do is figure out is what you should be doing and how it should be done. Ask someone if you don’t know. If you start to feel overwhelmed or unsure of what to do next, take a deep breath and make a decision. Don’t debate with yourself. Either it’s going to be the right one, an acceptable one that works for the time being but could be done better next time, or the wrong one. Just pick one though and at least pretend that that’s what you were planning on doing all along.

The dictator

These are the ones that let the power go to their head, take themselves way too seriously, have an “I’m better than you” attitude, and/or think that their sole purpose is to run practice like boot camp. What they were either not told or selectively chose not to hear was that being given a certain amount of responsibility and power doesn’t mean that you’re exempt from being coached or given feedback.

If you’re that person: Contemplate the definitions of “boss” and “leader” for awhile and consider how your style of “leadership” is coming across to your teammates.

To be clear, none of these have anything to do with any amount of coaching they may or may not received. I know I talk a lot about where coaching falls short when it comes to coxswains but a lack of instruction can only be blamed for so much – at some point it’s going to come back to the person behind the mic and that is what this post is getting at.

Additionally, this post is mainly geared towards coxswains who are new to the sport or have only been doing it for a year or so, mainly as a way to say “don’t be that person and if you are that person, recognize it and do something different otherwise you’re wasting your time, your coach’s time, and your teammates time”.

Image via // @mlcsrs_17