Category: Coxing

Question of the Day

By readyallrow August 27, 2015

So I just finished my novice year as a rower. I was the shortest on the team but had one of the best 2k’s and was bow seat of the medaling regionals boat. However, now that I am JV and am starting to think about the future I’ve been thinking that my future would be brighter as a coxswain. I’ve never coxed a race but I’ve coxed at practices when needed and I’m pretty decent at it. I am a 15 yr boy and about 5’5 and I really am not sure what I should do. I know that I could row lightweight but I feel like I have a much better chance in the future like varsity and college as a coxswain. I love rowing and coxing though. My question is how would you recommend making a decision about switching to coxing or to keep rowing?

I think it all comes down to what you want to get out of your rowing experience (“rowing” as in the general sense of the sport). If you decided to stick with being a rower but were limited, for whatever reason, to being in lower boats would you still be happy? Would you still enjoy coming to practice every day and helping to make your boat fast? Or, would you feel like you were missing out on something? Some people are perfectly happy rowing in the 2V or the 3rd 4+ and that’s awesome but there are others who aren’t and want more … and that’s cool too.

If you switched to coxing, you’d essentially be starting at the bottom of the totem pole – or at the very least, as close to the bottom as you can get without being a brand new, straight off the shelf novice coxswain. This usually isn’t too appealing to people but it sounds like you have the benefit of being a solid rower on your side so that could/would make the transition a little easier and maybe open up some opportunities early on to cox some of the upper boats, which is always great when you’re just starting out as a coxswain. If continuing the sport in college is a goal though it’d be ideal for you to make the switch now rather than in a year or two, at least in my opinion, because it gives you plenty of time to figure out how to do everything and do it well. If you try to make the switch at the same time as you’re starting to really get into the nitty gritty of looking at schools, taking the SAT/ACTs, going on visits, etc. you’ll just be miserable.

So … I guess what I’m saying is that my recommendation for making this decision ultimately comes down to what’s going to keep you excited about showing up to the boathouse everyday. Keep in mind too that if you’re only 15 then you likely still have a few years of growing ahead of you. It’s worth asking your doctor about the next time you stop in for a checkup or physical. If you’re 5’5″ now but are projected to top out around 5’11” then that might impact what you decide to do. I think it’d be worth having a conversation with your coach too before the fall season starts (assuming you aren’t back at school yet) since they’ve likely seen other rowers in your position before and can offer up some good advice based on what they’ve seen them do.

College Coxing High School Racing

Coxswain recordings, pt. 32

By readyallrow August 18, 2015

San Diego Rowing Club 2012 Head of the Charles Men’s Youth 8+

This is a good example of a coxswain who is talking a lot and not really saying anything. His intensity is good but it’s empty, if that makes sense. It’s like he’s being loud just to be loud. Something that really annoyed me was at 7:44 when he yelled “eyes in the boat, you keep those eyes in the boat and you focus!”. I didn’t like the way he said it because a) after listening to almost eight minutes of the recording, I understand why the rower(s) might have been looking out of the boat and b) it sounded like he was scolding a dog or something. Something else that bothers me is that there’s a lot of “you” and “your” happening, like “you need to do this for your team”, etc. When coxswains do that it makes me think they take their roles way too seriously, like they aren’t responsible for moving the boat too.

University of Massachusetts 2012 Head of the Charles Women’s Champ 8+ going through Weeks Bridge

The first half of this video is from the stern-cam and the second half is from the coxswain’s GoPro. She did a good job of staying calm and focused coming through Weeks, particularly since the crew in front of them was this close to their bow. Her line on Anderson was way too wide (I think that was because they got stuck on the outside of Weeks) but she definitely still could have made that turn through the bridge if she’d started it a stroke or two sooner and had the starboards power down while the port side brought it around. This reiterates though that you’ve always gotta be thinking one bridge ahead when you’re on the Charles because a messy turn through Weeks almost certainly means a messy turn through Anderson.

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

College Coxing Q&A Teammates & Coaches

Question of the Day

By readyallrow August 13, 2015

This was an email I got two weeks ago that I wanted to share because it’s a pretty good question and something I know I haven’t talked about on here. The school this coxswain attends as well as their coach’s name were mentioned in here so those have been [removed] for privacy.

I’m not sure if you remember me but my name is [removed] and I cox at [an Ivy League program]. I was fortunate enough to find a team to practice with this summer and a couple weeks ago, I went to a regatta with them. During my race, I made a recording that I want to send to my head coach to show that I have improved and that I really want to be on this team. That being said, the recording had some flaws that I felt were out of my control (cox box fell out of holder so I couldn’t get a rate last two minutes of the three minute race and we caught a crab and went into another team’s lane because only 3/4 were rowing so I was like “let me get out of their lane”).

In my email to [the head coach], I’m not sure how to approach this… I have a couple of different questions:

1- Should I send an email like, “Can you do me a favor and listen?” and see if he says yes first? Or should I just send the recording to him with my commentary?

2- Should I send my commentary at all? I know in one of your blog posts you said you like when people send commentary but part of me feels like some of the stuff I’m saying might come off as making excuses. For example, I said “One of the weak points was not calling out rate” but go on to explain why I didn’t do it. My intention in explaining these things is to make sure I get “new” feedback.

3- How long is too long for my own commentary? I have three paragraphs built into the email but I’m wondering if I should put it in a separate word document. Thoughts?

I know I’m probably overthinking it too much, and I’m wondering if, with all the problems, I should send the recording at all. I don’t think [the head coach] has ever seen/ heard me cox before so I feel like I need to give him some baseline to know where I’m at but at the same time I don’t want to make myself look bad.

If I were in a similar situation this is what I’d say:

“Hi [Coach]! I had the opportunity to race at [X regatta] a few weeks ago with [Y team] and was able to get a recording of myself coxing our [heat, semi, final, etc.]. I wanted to see if you could listen to it when you have some time available and possibly give me two or three pieces of feedback based on what you hear. I know I still have things to work on but I’d love to hear your thoughts so I can prioritize what I should focus on as we get closer to the start of the season. Thanks!”

That’s LIT.ER.ALLY all I’d say. I personally like when coxswains send their commentary simply because I find it interesting/insightful and because I judge them on it, mainly on whether or not they’re self-aware enough to know what they did well and what they need to work on before I or someone else points it out to them. Coaches though (who have never coxed and more importantly have a limited amount of time available) tend to get turned off by that because that’s just another long string of words that they have to read in addition to all the other shit they’ve gotta do. When emailing coaches always keep it short and sweet unless they specifically ask for something more. If he emails you back and says “here’s what I thought, what did YOU think…” then you can email him two or three of your critiques. Again though, keep it short and to the point. I wouldn’t say more than two sentences per critique – one saying what you did and the other saying how you’ll tweak that action to be more effective or what you’ll do instead.

As far as feeling like you’re making excuses, that’s something I struggle with ALL the time, not just within rowing but in general too. The things I say/do are almost always very deliberate so I have to tread lightly when explaining myself in order to not come off as defensive or like I’m making an excuse. I still haven’t figured out the perfect way to do this but my advice for this situation would be to just make note of all the things you feel you need to work on, why you did them the way you did, and what changes you could make in the future in order to have a better outcome. That isn’t something that needs to be shared necessarily either. If your coach does ask “why did you do this” though then you can say “my goal was to have X happen but looking back I don’t think I executed it properly so next time I’m going to try Y and see if that works better”. This shows self-awareness in your actions without being defensive of how things played out.

Coxing Drills Q&A Rowing

Question of the Day

By readyallrow August 13, 2015

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.

College Coxing Q&A Recruiting

Question of the Day

By readyallrow July 23, 2015

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.

College Coxing High School Racing

Coxswain recordings, pt. 31

By readyallrow July 21, 2015

7k row to the basin

A high school coxswain emailed me this recording a couple weeks ago so below is the email I sent her with some feedback. In her initial email she also included her own comments on what she thought of her coxing (PS I love when you guys do that because it helps me narrow in on what you think you need to work on), which included things like “my coxing started very calm but in the middle it was similar to how I would have coxed a sprint race”, “I never mentioned the time and pointed out only some of the landmarks I should have”, “I have lots and lots of calls about the legs”, “Some of the focus 10s were not for anything in particular and were just moves”, “10 in 2 would be more effective than 10 here in some (most) cases”, etc.

Here’s what I said:

“I agree that your intensity level did rise throughout the piece but I think that’s fairly natural. I do the same thing when I’m coxing long pieces like this, as do other coxswains that I know. I think as long as you’re not super obnoxious about the changes in your tone or volume it’s not a big deal. I thought this was fine though.

I like the “reel ’em in” call too. It’s a good way to say “get after these guys” without actually saying that. Regarding the “10 in 2 vs. 10 here”, I agree that it’s more effective, especially in long pieces like this where it’s easier for them to zone out, to give them a bit of a warning and either say “on this one”, “in two”, or whatever so that at the very least they’ve got one stroke or so to get ready to execute whatever you’re calling for.

If you notice the intensity starting to fall off, at the very least make sure they’re still rowing well. Focus purely on their technique for 20-30 strokes if you have to but make sure that even if the pressure is falling a bit that they’re still rowing at a high level. Sometimes I notice that when I back off the typical power calls and just focus on technique, the power gradually starts to come up a bit on its own … not necessarily to where it was before but enough that I notice it and can then say “Yea, there we go! You see how we’re starting to push those puddles away again? That’s just from adjusting our posture and making sure our body prep is set early. Let’s take five now to really emphasize the swing and get the shoulders set. Ready … go!”

I like doing 5s for each pair or 5s for each four during longer pieces like this. It’s something different and gives you a chance to focus on the individuals a little more than you otherwise would. Plus it gives them a little bit of personal responsibility for those five strokes. You executed this very though so good job. I liked your tone, the calls you made, etc. I’d do it exactly like that during a race if you decide to incorporate that as a move of some kind.

I also noticed that you made a lot of leg calls but I think as long as you’re diversifying them and not making the same leg call over and over then it’s OK. One thing I would practice the next time you’re out though is making calls for other parts of the stroke. To kinda force yourself into doing this, I would try something like this: for one entire practice, anytime you want to make a call for the legs, pause for a second and come up with a call for something else. The calls could be for puddles, sharp catches, smooth finishes, posture, body prep, long recoveries, bending the oars, blade height, getting max reach, etc. The goal is to not make ANY calls for the legs and instead make calls for everything else. The legs are a really easy thing to make calls for and are what a lot of coxswains default to (myself included) so every so often you’ve gotta take yourself out of that comfort zone and force yourself to do something different so that on race day you’ve got a wealth of calls built up that you can pull from. You actually already do a great job of calling for a variety of things so just consider this as a new challenge to continue building your skills in that area…

When you call for focus 10s, I would instead call for focus 5s. 10 strokes is too long to “focus”, especially during hard pieces like this, and 5 usually ends up being more effective anyways.

You do a great job of consistently giving the rowers information (and you already know what you need to give them more of – i.e. time, landmarks, etc.) and your overall tone is fantastic. Like I said earlier, don’t worry too much if there’s a gradual shift in intensity as the piece progresses. Something else that I really appreciate as a fellow coxswain is your self-awareness. I like that you listed out your own comments on your audio because that shows that you’re actually invested in what you’re doing and are keeping yourself accountable. Another thing I liked was how you clearly and concisely yelled at the other coxswains to tell them where you were as you got close to them. That’ll come in verrrrrrry handy if you’re racing at HOCR.”

University of Delaware 2015 Dad Vail Men’s Varsity 8+ Petite Finals

Jake, the coxswain of Delaware’s heavyweight 8+, sent me this recording after Dad Vails and it really blew me away. Easily one of the best recordings I heard all season – actually, I think this is the best I heard all season. Here’s what I said in my email to him with a few additional bullet points below that.

“This is really good – your intensity, tone, calls, etc. are on point. I feel like I’m nitpicking just trying to find stuff to critique. The one piece of advice I have is when you make a call like “walk away, walk away”, “it’s time to go”, “time to break off UNC” (great call btw), etc., immediately follow that up with a 5 or 10-stroke push just to carry over the momentum from your call. When I make a call like that I want the rowers to immediately think “yea, let’s go!” and since I know they tend to get a burst of energy from that I want to capitalize on it by immediately following up with a 5 or 10-stroke move to do whatever I just said to do, be that to walk away from the field, put away another crew, etc. If you say “it’s time to go” and then there’s crickets after that then it’s like “OK … I’m ready to go … tell me what to do …” and you kinda lose the opportunity to make something happen. You also run the risk of another coxswain hearing you say “walk away!” and them thinking you’re calling a 10 so they call their own 10 to counter the move they think you’re making. That can backfire on you if they end up getting a seat or two out of it. (The only reason why I say that is because I’ve done this to other coxswains before and if you’re down a seat or two and do it at just the right point in the race you can pretty much kill their momentum and take the race from them.)”

In addition to everything I said up above, I really like the simple “assault” calls he makes throughout the race. This is something I think a lot of younger coxswains have to learn/remember – every call you make doesn’t need to be a full sentence long and every call doesn’t have to be “a call”. More often times than not you can easily get away with saying something simple like “assault” and that will convey the same exact message as “OK guys, this is where we get after it and start taking back some seats”.

Another thing I really liked was the build up into the sprint starting with the “10 at base” at 4:55. I like how he calls the first five of that ten, says “assault”, then starts the next five with “next five, bow ball”. THAT is what I mean when I say to simplify your calls and cut out all the excess. You know exactly what he wants and how many strokes you have to do it and it only took four words to communicate that. Now, what I really liked about the sprint was how he transitioned into it. At 5:12 he says “shifting up to a 38 over two … shift one, shift two …” and then they hit it. I like the simplicity. If you’re trying to figure out how to get your crew to shift up at the end without doing a big build or anything (or alternatively, you’re only going up two beats and don’t need five to build into it) then I’d definitely suggest trying the shift over two and seeing how that works. (PS If you haven’t read this post on “in” vs. “over” vs. “on” check it out so you understand the difference between all three and make sure you explain it to your crew too. In, on, and over do not mean the same things!!)

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

College Coxing Q&A Rowing

Question of the Day

By readyallrow July 14, 2015

Okay I’m a lightweight rower and I’m also a coxswain and I love doing both. But I know that lightweight in college is super slim and it doesn’t help that I’m 5’2 and naturally under 132. So what should I do about college, should I become a full time cox or a lightweight rower? Also do you know any good lightweight colleges? I have as much experience rowing and coxing since I row and cox during the same season.

Schools with good lightweight women’s programs – Radcliffe, Stanford, BU, Princeton, and Wisco are probably the top five (not necessarily in that order) in any given year. If you’re thinking of rowing then I’d start off by looking at those schools if you’ve got the academics and erg scores (or email the coaches and say you’re interested in walking on…).

As far as coxing, if you wanted to do that then I’d look into pretty much any men’s program (since your weight is closer to men’s racing weight than women’s). Like you said, there aren’t a ton of schools with lightweight teams so if you coxed full-time you might have more/better opportunities to contend for a good boat.

Coxing How To Q&A Racing Technique

Question of the Day

By readyallrow July 14, 2015

Hi! Love your blog! I was just wondering if you have any tips as far as steering a buoyed course and what to do during the first strokes of the race if for some reason the rowers’ powers are uneven and the boat gets lodged towards one direction. Thank you!

Short answer: For steering buoyed courses, check out the post linked below, particularly the part on vanishing points. If one side pulls you over at the start then you don’t really have any option but to fix it so make whatever small adjustments you need to make to get you back on course and tell each side to keep it even. During a sprint race you obviously don’t want to tell anyone to back off so you should avoid resorting to that unless the pressure difference is so egregious that that’s your only option to keep the boat pointed straight.

Long answer: You know those “if this then that” flowcharts? That’s pretty much what the rest of this post is. Hopefully it’s not too difficult to follow but let me know if it is and I’ll try to draw it out to make it easier to visualize/understand. (I almost had to do that anyways just so I could keep track of my thought process.) Something to take away from the “big picture” of this post is that when something’s not right, it’s usually the result of something else not being right and to figure out what that is you have to work backwards through what you know and are feeling and seeing in order to put all the pieces together. This requires a lot of thought but if you can work through all that and figure out what the problem is, it’s pretty satisfying.

The first thing to do would be to make sure everyone’s rowing the same pressure at the start. Obviously this isn’t something you can really do on race day though (other than give them a reminder before the race) so it’s important to pay attention to that when you do starts at home during practice. If you notice one side out-pulling the other, even if it’s only the tiniest amount, speak up and say “hey ports, starboards had a little more power off the start on that one so on this one let’s try to match them so we aren’t getting pulled off course”. I have no qualms whatsoever with telling them to not interfere with my ability to steer because if they expect me to give them a fast course then I expect them to not make that tougher than it already is/can be. Few things irritate me more than someone else being responsible for me steering a bad course. If it’s just me steering poorly that’s easy to fix because all it requires is me telling myself to do something different but if I know I’m not oversteering and the reason we’re off course is because four or eight people can’t all row full-pressure at the same time, that’s frustrating because it’ll still end up being my fault and now I have to play puppeteer to get everyone to do what I need. Most of you will probably know what I mean by that and for those that do you know that is NOT fun and NOT easy.

If the amount one side is out-pulling the other is small then I’ll just tell the other side (ports, in that example) to increase their pressure but if they were out-pulled by a lot then I’ll tell the stronger side (in this case, starboards) to back off on the next one. This serves two purposes. One, it lets me steer straight and two, it helps me figure out why we went off-course in the first place. Was it just adrenaline from the starboards, is the lineup stacked on that side, or were the ports being lazy on the last one? To figure out which one it was I’ll ask them how it felt (I’ll usually ask my stroke as soon as we finish and then the boat once we stop rowing or my stroke and I finish talking). If they say “good”, “fine”, “better”, etc. then I’ll leave it at that and talk about it with my coach later. (If we do more starts after that one then I’ll just remind them to remember how the last one felt and try to replicate that.) If the starboards say they felt like they were rowing at three-quarter pressure but the ports say they were at full then that usually means there’s some kind of imbalance, in which case, again, I’ll bring it up to the coach (although instead of doing it after practice I’ll do it on the water so he can address it immediately).

This usually necessitates doing another start so on this one I’ll watch the puddles of both sides, particularly those of my bow pair since they tend to have a bigger impact on where the boat goes – hence why we use them to get our points and not our stern pair. (For those keeping count, watching the puddles would be the fourth thing you’re doing simultaneously at the start … any ideas on what the other three are?). If the starboard puddles are deep and dark then I know they’re probably at or close to full pressure. If the port puddles look shallow or the strokes look short then I know they likely aren’t taking effective, and by extension, full pressure strokes (which begs another question – is it because they’re washing out, rowing it in, not burying their blade deep enough, etc.), even though the rowers might think they are because of how hard they’re getting their legs down. If that’s the case then I just tell the ports to get their blades in, keep the blades buried, etc. (This is usually when someone on that side says “I am/we are”, in which case I get to lean out and say “really, because I’m literally watching your blade every single stroke and you’re not doing either of those things”, which then leads to them getting pissed off for one reason or another that I most likely don’t care about. That’s another thing I’m pretty adamant about – if I’m specifically watching the bladework and I tell you you’re doing something (or not doing it, in this case), don’t argue with me because there is a pretty solid chance you will lose that battle. It has nothing to do with me (or your coxswain) being cocky or thinking we’re better than you or whatever other ridiculous excuse you can come up with – it’s LITERALLY OUR JOBS to know/understand this stuff and point it out to you. It can be a very “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” situation but at least by saying something no one can say you didn’t try to fix the problem. )

Anyways, if you determine that one side’s taking more effective strokes than the other, that’s a relatively easy fix because all you have to do is figure out what technical thing they need to fix and then … do it. If by watching the puddles you only notice one or two outliers (i.e one really strong one or one really weak one) then again, that’s also an easy fix … just tell them to either ramp it up a notch or stop being that person that pulls me off point every. single. time. by thinking that “go hard off the line” means that you abandon all common sense and forget that “go hard off the line” doesn’t work if seven people are rowing at 100% and you’re rowing at 150%. There’s a good chance that most of the coxswains reading this (particularly if you cox guys) are thinking of someone specific right now because we’ve all had that person in our boats at one point or another . (And rowers, if you are that person … please stop. Seriously. Stop.) In the majority of cases you’ll find that this is what solves the problem though. It’s very rarely ever an entire side out-pulling or getting out-pulled by the other – sometimes it is but that usually happens when you’re trying out new lineups, which is why it’s important to communicate with your coach and let them know that one side seems to be stronger than other based on XYZ that you noticed during practice.

So … the bottom line is that if you’re veering off course during your first few strokes you can’t freak out about it as it’s happening, just make an adjustment and fix it. Before and after the race though when you’re practicing at home you should pay attention when you do starts so you can address the issue if/when it comes up and figure out what’s causing it, that way in the future you can avoid losing valuable seconds during your starting 5 + high strokes by having to consistently readjust your point.

Coxing Q&A Teammates & Coaches

Question of the Day

By readyallrow July 9, 2015

Hi I am a coxswain, my coach is not afraid to show his disdain for coxswains but the girls in my boat for the most part do make some backhanded comment or when needed, stand up to the coach. That being said I feel like coaches and novices should have some sort of coxswain sensitivity training. Like a portion on being a decent human being in the cheesy safety video. But seriously coaches need to remember that often these PEOPLE are young impressionable girls who will take what you say to heart.

Not just girls – guys too. Granted, I do get more emails about the stuff I talked about today from young women but I do get a handful throughout the year from guys (mostly college ones) too.

Here’s the thing. I don’t think coxswains are a bunch of super special snowflakes that have to be praised every second or are incapable of taking/handling criticism (and if they are, GTFO because this isn’t the role or sport for you). I don’t think they deserve any more or less respect than anyone else on the team either just because they’re a coxswain. What I do think they deserve is an equal amount of respect and it’s pretty clear that that’s not a common practice.

It’s ridiculous that you even have to make the suggestion of “coxswain sensitivity training” because it’s not something that should be necessary in the first place. The whole “being a decent human being” thing should come pretty standard, regardless of whether you’re dealing with a coxswain or another rower. Who it is shouldn’t matter. I know some people will read this and think “OMG suck it up, it’s not that bad” and I get that – there are times when I think coxswains take things way too seriously or personally (note, this isn’t one of those times) and I say the same thing in my head but like the other person who messaged me said, the overall attitude that coxswains don’t do shit and are responsible for everything that goes wrong is way too prevalent. It seems to be more of a thing at the junior level than anywhere else (although it’s not exclusive to them), which makes sense because you’re a teenager and teenagers aren’t the most socially graceful people on the planet but again, that’s why having coaches, captains, and other team leaders not let it get that far in the first place is important.

Coxing Q&A Teammates & Coaches

Question of the Day

By readyallrow July 9, 2015

I swear to god, with all the shit coxswains have to put up with, ya’ll deserve a whole month of appreciation, not just 1 week. I see the way my coach treats coxswains and basically says he hates coxies in front of them. It sucks because that attitude is too prevalent in the community.

Yea, I agree that that attitude is too prevalent. It’s frustrating but in theory it’s also an attitude/culture that can be changed … it really only takes the leaders on the team saying something and shutting down that behavior as soon as they see or hear about it happening (and obviously not partaking in it themselves). Granted, that can be hard to do when your coach is also involved in it but nobody ever said calling people on their shit was an easy thing to do.

That was something else that the coxswain from today’s post (linked below)said in her emails, that it became clear that the rowers saw the way the coach treated her (in addition to making the weight comments) and got the idea in their heads that it’s OK for them to treat her like that too. It’s not and it shouldn’t take the athletes to point out that everything starts from the top down. The team itself was a relatively new one and the majority of the rowers were total novices, which makes it even more frustrating that the coach would be the one spurring all this on because novices are like babies – they’re sponges. They soak up everything to get a sense for how shit works and if they see you doing something, they’re going to assume they can do it too.

Related: Do you really need that?

I’m all for calling coxswains out when they need to be called out (I think I’ve been pretty vocal about too) but it’s also basic common sense to know when you’re crossing that line and your “feedback/criticism” is crossing over into personal attacks, either blatant ones (telling them you hate them or blaming them for everything that’s going wrong) or subtle ones (making snide remarks about their weight).