Category: Coxing

Question of the Day

By readyallrow October 23, 2014

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.

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.

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

By readyallrow October 22, 2014

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 Coxing Novice Q&A Racing

Question of the Day

By readyallrow October 22, 2014

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

By readyallrow October 20, 2014

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.

Coxing Racing

HOCR: The course in meters

By readyallrow October 15, 2014

Previously: Getting to the starting line || Steering through the bridges || Landmarks along the course || Steering around the turns || Race plans || My general race plan || Yaz Farooq’s coxswain clinic || Race plan “hacks”

Over the last week I’ve gotten a few questions about whether anything exists that tells the distance that each of the landmarks are from the starting line or from one another and since I wasn’t aware of anything and those of you that asked weren’t able to find anything, I figured I’d just make something.

I used RowDistance, a site made by Andrew Campbell, so the numbers aren’t exact but they should be fairly close. You could also do this using Google Earth. I did this three different times and where I found the biggest discrepancy in meters is from the start of the Eliot turn all the way to the finish. My numbers were about 100m different from each other depending on how I laid out that part of the course, which just goes to show how much things can vary depending on what line you set yourself up for.

I also rounded everything up to the nearest -00 or -50 just for the sake of simplicity (although during the race I’d probably just round up to the next closest 100m because otherwise it becomes way too much effort). The first row is the only one that you should ideally know, the rest are just there because I figured “why not…”.

You can either click to enlarge the image above or check out this spreadsheet to see everything.

Image via // @dosdesignsltd

College Coxing Racing Recordings

Coxswain Recordings, pt. 25

By readyallrow October 14, 2014

University of Tennessee 2011 Head of the Charles Women’s Champ 8+

Overall, this was a very well-steered race. Her Weeks turn was practically perfect so I’d definitely recommend studying her course through the bridges and around the big turns. Coming around Eliot, see how close the buoys are to her riggers? That’s exactly what you want. As they’re coming under the bridge the video resets to the beginning but if you jump ahead to 30:00ish you can see the rest of the piece from Eliot to the finish.

I felt like the coxing throughout was OK (definitely plenty to talk about but nothing super noteworthy) but the key thing you should takeaway from this is how she handles the course. Pay close attention to where she’s lining herself up in the straightaways and on the upcoming bridges, where the shell is relative to the buoys, etc.

Vesta 2012 Head of the Charles Women’s Champ 8+

This is a good recording. Nothing really sticks out because she executes and steers pretty well throughout the entirety of the course. Overall it’s just a really good example of how to handle the race. One thing I’d definitely pay attention to though is the first 90 seconds. You get a really good idea of what the start of the race is like in terms of staging, what the officials are saying, how they bring you to the line, etc., which can be helpful if you haven’t raced the Charles before.

Other calls I liked:

“Extend into the front a little more, bring the handles to me…” Meaning to make sure you’re getting fully compressed and getting your full reach/extension.

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

Coxing Racing Recordings

Pete Cipollone’s 1997 HOCR Recording

By readyallrow October 12, 2014

So as some of you pointed out yesterday, the YouTube video that contained Pete’s recording from the 1997 Head of the Charles was removed due to copyright claim from row2k. Linked below is the fixed link on row2k that I highly recommend you bookmark since this is pretty much the only place online that you can find the full recording.

As a bonus, Seth Bauer’s audio was also fixed (neither of the audio links on there have worked in years, which to be honest is probably why it was uploaded to YouTube in the first place) so you can listen to his race as well, which is also from the 1997 HOCR. He coxed the 10 year reunion crew of the 8+ that won gold at the Copenhagen World Championships in 1987.

Image via // @davesarazen

Coxing How To Q&A

Question of the Day

By readyallrow October 7, 2014

How do you beach launch? It’s going to be my first regatta and I haven’t beach launched yet. My coach isn’t showing any signs of teaching me. Is it similar to regular launching off the dock? Thanks!

Beach launching, also known as wet launching, is when you walk the boat into the water (usually until the water between mid-thigh and knee deep) and roll the boat into the water like you would on a dock … except when you roll it to waist the water is right there instead of you having to bend down to put it in. The great thing for coxswains is that if you ask reeeeally nicely and your boat reeeeally likes you, they’ll carry you in and out of the boat so you don’t get wet.

When you’re going out, you want to walk the boat in deep enough that the fin isn’t going to hit the bottom and then have four people grab oars and four people get the seats/oarlocks like you would on land. To avoid people having to walk all the way around the boat to get their pair partner’s oarlocks undone (which can be a pain since you’re walking through water and that’s not usually a quick process…), we usually work it out so, for example, 2-seat and 3-seat get oars for bow four and bow get’s their and 3-seat’s oarlocks (since they’re on the same side) and 4-seat gets their and 2-seat’s oarlocks (since they are on the same side). Same goes for stern four. Not only does that keep people on the boat to prevent it from moving around (due to wind, wake, etc.) but it’s just always been the faster way to do it in my experience.

During this whole “getting the oars and putting them in” process the coxswain should still be standing on shore. When you’re ready to get in the boat someone will (hopefully) carry you out and put you in your seat. It’s hilarious and adorable – embrace it, particularly now since it’s not exactly warm out in many places outside of Southern California. During the late spring and summer it’s not as big of a deal to walk in on your own. From there, all the rowers should be standing on one side of the boat. The best way to have them get in is by pairs, starting with bow pair and working your way forward. I personally like starting with bow pair because it’s adds some stability to the back of the boat since I’m already in it up front and keeps the boat from getting pointed into shore as people get into the stern and inevitably swing that end out. When it’s time for the stern pair to get in they’ll usually walk the boat out another step or two before getting in (sort of like a push and shove kind of thing) and then once they’re in I’ll have bow four start rowing us out. Another benefit of starting with bow pair is that the stern rowers can hold the boat relatively straight so that the stern doesn’t get pushed into shore and the fin get bent or broken. I’ve also done it where we go bow pair, stern pair, 3+4, and finish with 5+6. (It’s really up to you how you do it so don’t feel like there’s a right or wrong way to go about it.) When the rowers get in, all they’ve gotta do is lift their leg up over the side of the boat and hoist themselves in (it’s not hard to do at all).

One quick thing, before you walk the boat into the water you’ll want to stop and have everyone take off their sandals and give them to whoever is carrying them back to your tent/trailer for you. Make sure they’re wearing something that’s easy to get off (no tennis shoes or anything like that) and that they’re careful when they walk in the water so they don’t cut themselves or anything else.

When you’re coming in to dock, you’ll want to take note of the wind, current, wake, etc. to determine how far out you need to position yourself. You should never come in with more than one pair rowing though (stern or bow pair is usually fine). Do what you’ve gotta do to get yourself parallel to the shoreline and then have your bow man hop out and pull you in closer, if necessary. Don’t stop so far out though that when they get out they’re up to their shoulders (or more) in the water. I’ve seen that happen so many times where some poor rower will get their legs over the gunnel and then slide out only to end up with water two or three inches over their head. They never expect it either, which is the worst. Anyways, if they need to pull you in closer to shore then can walk the bow in and then as everyone else gets out they can pull the boat in more as needed. Before they start taking the oars out make sure you get out too – you don’t want to be in the boat with no oars to stabilize it otherwise you’ll roll right over. Once you’re on land and they’re getting the oars out you can either have everyone get their own oar+oarlock or do it the way you did when they put them in and have four people do one thing and four people do another. Usually if we’re pressed for time I’ll do that, otherwise everyone will just take care of their own stuff.

When you’re ready to roll it up it may be a little trickier (particularly for novices) since the boat is already at waist level and it can be tough to roll it up over heads with just your arms but most of the time it’s not that difficult. I usually skip the “up to waists” call and go straight to “roll it up and over heads, ready up“. From there it’s “split to shoulders and walk it up” as usual. Once everyone is out of the water, stop for a sec and let them slip their shoes on before walking it up, particularly if you’ve got to walk a ways to get to wherever your boats are. Bonus points if you’ve got a towel that they can quickly wipe their feet dry with too. Walking all that distance without shoes is just asking for someone to step on something and cut themselves so I wouldn’t recommend doing it unless your boats are literally directly across from where you’re launching.

Overall, wet launching is an easy process. It only becomes tricky if it’s really windy and even then it’s really not that bad. Below are a couple videos that should give you an idea of what it looks like … although don’t do what this first coxswain did and get in the boat before the oars are in. Trust me, one clumsy knock of the boat and you’re gonna roll over.

College Coxing Racing Video of the Week

Video of the Week: UW’s Last 250m

By readyallrow October 6, 2014

This is a pretty neat split screen video that shows the University of Washington’s MV8+ during the IRA finals last spring, with the view of the finish line tower on the right and the coxswain’s view in the boat on the left. His audio is included too and it’s pretty much exactly what you’d expect the last 250m of a national championship race to sound like.

Coxing Q&A Rowing Technique

Question of the Day

By readyallrow October 2, 2014

Calls to control rush? There’s only so many ways to say “control the recovery” and “slow the slides.” Thanks!! 🙂

I’m a big fan of “patience”, “looong“, “relax”, “feel the recovery”, etc. When we’re paddling I’ll usually say something like “Guys, there’s not a lot of slide control right now and it’s causing us to [do X and Y]. We need to focus a bit more on [doing A and B] and [staying patient] on the recovery as we come into the catch.” Usually whatever call I plan on using (usually one of the ones I said at the beginning) I’ll say where it says [staying patient], that way they hear me saying it and understand what I’m referencing vs. me just randomly saying “patience!” during a piece with zero context whatsoever.

From there I’ll combine that call with whatever “A” and “B” was and get a more combined call that addresses all the issues instead of just part of the problem, if that makes sense. So, if the lack of slide control was causing a few people to row it in because they weren’t giving themselves enough time to get the bodies set, I’d say something about body prep, control coming up, and locking on for probably two or three strokes to help them get the rhythm and ratio back. Starting at the release and as the hands come away, “pivot”, as they start the roll, “patience”, as they lift the hands into the catch, “lock”, and then finish it out with a powerful “send” before repeating that again for another stroke or two. “Pivot, paaatience, lock, send…“.

Obviously this is a little easier to do at steady state rates (18-22ish, maaaybe up to 24) and less so at the higher rates but if you can work calls like this into your warmups, steady state pieces, etc. (both when there is and isn’t a rush problem, just to reinforce the message) then if you experience rush at the higher rates you can simplify the call to something that won’t take as much time to say, like “patience, send” or whatever. As long as you’re consistent with the terminology you use, breaking it down into a shorter call like this can/will still get the message across because they’ll be able to reference the longer call you made before. Sometimes at higher rates when I do this (during practices, not so much races…) I’ll say “Starting to feel a little rushed, let’s get that rhythm back we had the other day. Pivot here … pivot here. Now relaaax into the catch, loose in the legs, LOCK and send … LOCK send…“. It’s spread out over the course of 3-4ish strokes (I try not go more than five, max) and that one long call is broken down into two shorter ones.

Does that make sense? Basically what I’m getting at is that it’s easier to maintain a rhythm with how you should be saying the first call at lower rates than it is at higher rates. If you try to say “pivot, patience, lock, send” right now it’s going to sound more controlled when you say it slowly, which is what you want if you’re trying to get the rowers to exert more control on the slides. Trying to say all of that in the space of however much time a stroke at 30spm takes (…I guess that’d be about two seconds, wouldn’t it…) is a little harder because you won’t have as much control and rhythm in your voice because you’re trying to get out a lot of words in a really short period of time, which in turn is going to negate, in a sense, what you’re trying to communicate to the rowers about being more patient and relaxed. So, at the end of the second paragraph, even though I’m saying more words than I was before, the actual calls that I’m making are shorter so that I can still say them with the proper inflection and rhythm.

Hopefully that wasn’t too convoluted and you can kinda see what I’m getting at. It’d probably make a lot more sense to hear me say it than to read it so whenever I’m out next I’ll try to record myself so you can hear what I mean. Also, check out the posts in the “rush” tag, you might some ideas for what to say in there too.