Category: Coxing

Question of the Day

By readyallrow August 7, 2014

Hi! So I recently started rowing not to long ago, as I just did two weeks of long skinny boat camp. But as I was rowing I kept getting told not to over compress at the catch. Also to relax my shoulders. I am short, only 4’11 and I talked to the coach about coxing (my sister is a captain) in high school and he wants me to row first. Do you have any tips I can take from the rowing? Also how not to over compress at the catch? Thanks! I love your blog!

…long skinny boat camp.

I’m 4’11” too and while I never actually rowed, our coaches did take the coxswains out for a spin a few times to give us a chance to see what it was like. One of the things they told me before we even got started was since I was the shortest one it was going to be important that I not try to match the length of the other coxswains by lunging or over-compressing at the catch. That’s the first thing I’d recommend – don’t try to be as long as the other people in the boat because you’re not gonna be. Over-compressing means that instead of stopping with your shins in line with your ankles and your butt a couple inches away from your heels, you’re catching with your knees out over your toes and your butt as close to your heels as it can get.

Another way to think of it is instead of your hips/butt being behind your shoulders, they’re under them. One way to break the habit of over-compressing is to teach yourself what the proper catch position feels like. This tends to be a lot more effective when you’ve got another person to watch your form so grab your sister and have her watch you take a couple strokes on the erg. Sit in the proper catch position for a couple seconds and memorize what it feels like – where are your legs, arms, back, etc. Flip between that and an over-compressed position so you can feel the difference between the two, then take a couple strokes, making sure you’re staying super conscious of where your body’s at as you come up the slide. If you find you’re still having problems though, you can put a piece or two of tape on the tracks and then if you feel the seat run over them you’ll know that you’re coming too far up.

With relaxing your shoulders, you’ve just gotta remember that when you’re holding tension in your muscles like that everything is going to move slower and not be as fluid. Every so often, take a deep breath and just let your upper body relax. Make sure you keep your grip on the oar loose too. Use your common sense – you want to find a happy medium between a death grip and no grip at all. The tighter your grip, the tenser your shoulders are going to be.

As far as things to take away … don’t focus on trying to perfect your stroke, rather just work on getting the basics down as far as the proper motions and body positions go. From there, just listen to everything the coach is saying (to you and whoever else is in the boat) with regards to technical critiques (since those are things you’ll need to be able to once you start coxing) and make sure you understand why he’s saying that, what part of the stroke it applies to, and how the boat changes (aka how does it feel) after the correction is made.

I talked about the whole “coxswains rowing before they cox” debate in the post linked above so make sure to check it out as well. It might also give you some ideas for how you can apply your time rowing to coxing.

Coxing

Coxswain skills: Kill your darlings

By readyallrow August 5, 2014

One of the most frustrating things for me as a coxswain is coming up with a call that I think is really great and just what the boat needs to hear only to have it fall flat when I actually use it. Sometimes coming up with calls is a spur-of-the-moment thing but more often they’re the result of a lot of time spent reflecting on things outside of practice. I’ll think about what happened at practice that week, what drills we did, what pieces we did, how the rowers felt each day, what the boat felt like, what the coach was saying, what our goals are, what inspires us, what pisses us off, etc. and try to make a list of at least 5–10 things that I can use the next few times we go out.

This isn’t a daily ritual, rather it’s a weekly or bi-weekly habit that I got into around my sophomore year of high school and have more or less maintained since then whenever I’m regularly coxing. Half of what I come up with are short one or two word technical phrases (my personal definition of what a “call” is) and the other half are 3–5+ word phrases that I use to evoke some kind of emotion from the rowers, either individually or as a group. Out of this list there’s usually one or two calls that I think are my magnum opuses (for that week at least).

The key to creating a list like this is that you implement the calls as needed. You want to space them out and let yourself say them naturally, rather than trying to force yourself to use it, if that makes sense. Showing restraint when you’re convinced this is the greatest call you’re ever gonna make can be tough but if the timing, emotion, and delivery’s not there, it’s never gonna be successful anyways.

My“darlings” were nearly always calls that I wanted to use towards the end of a piece when I knew my crew was clawing for every last inch we were getting. There were many times when I’d use them and they’d get just the response I wanted — I could feel the boat pick up, I could see my stern pair grit their teeth and get after it, I could hear the catches sharpen up — but there were just as many times where either nothing happened or worse, things would just fall apart.

When I’d ask the rowers for feedback, sometimes they’d say “oh man, that call has to stay … it was perfect” and other times they’d say “eh…it wasn’t terrible but it didn’t really do much for me”. The positive visual and verbal feedback instantaneously reinforced that that was a call I should keep but the neutral or negative feedback never seemed to register as quickly. I always thought “OK it didn’t work/they didn’t like it this time but that’s just because [excuses] … I’ll hold on to it and try again later. This call’s just too good to not keep using.” So that’s what I’d do. I’d keep trying to work it into my vocabulary and keep trying to make it work, even though what I was seeing and hearing was telling me that it was having the opposite effect.

And that’s where the phrase “kill your darlings” comes in. It is a phrase most commonly attributed to William Faulkner as he is quoted as saying “In writing, you must kill all your darlings”. The best and easiest explanation of its meaning that I’ve found is this: “His advice admonishes against being so attached to a piece that it is sent to be published on impulse based on only the writer’s high opinion of how great it is. This impulse can be something that lasts for not mere seconds but actually over long periods of time. The idea is that there is an emotional connection making it dear for the author, but this does not translate for the readers by default.”

In layman’s terms, don’t try to put something out these just because you think it’s great because your opinion of it has likely caused you to develop an attachment to it that other people won’t have. The same applies to coxing. You spend time coming up with things to say to your rowers and because of that, you’re determined to use them and make them work. You’ve become attached to them because you’ve convinced yourself that they’re great simply because they’ve been repeated in your head over and over and over and over again.

This has happened to me so. many. times. There were times where I was so convinced that this call was the call that I’d keep trying to use it and someone in my boat would have to eventually go all Regina George and tell me to stop trying to make “fetch” happen because it was never going to happen. It was those moments, among others, where I had to just sit back and accept that I wasn’t getting the response I wanted or needed and it was more important to let go of this call and find something else to say than to keep beating the proverbial dead horse.

Another explanation of Faulker’s quote says “you have to get rid of your most precious and especially self-indulgent passages for the greater good of your literary work”. For the greater good of your crew, you can’t keep indulging yourself by saying things that clearly aren’t working, regardless of how great they sound in theory or what you hope the boat’s response will be. It’s not all about you, just like writing a novel isn’t all about the author. They’re writing for the masses and to an extent, you’re coxing for the masses (albeit a much smaller one) and that’s who you have to make your words work for.

So, here’s my challenge for you. Talk to your rowers, listen to your recordings, and think about the things you’re saying. You’ll likely be able to pick out at least two or three calls that just aren’t doing anything for anyone. Additionally, if you find yourself saying the same phrase to the point of excess (you’ll know it when you hear it) … get rid of it, as much as you might like it or have grown accustomed to using it. It does nothing for the crew to keep repeating things that aren’t generating the response you want, regardless of whether it’s mental or physical. Don’t think of it as scrapping your entire coxing lexicon either. Instead, look at it like writing a paper — practice is your time to proofread, edit, and revise so that you have your best, most polished piece of work on hand on race day.

Image via // @ryanjnicholsonphoto

Coxing High School Q&A

Question of the Day

By readyallrow August 2, 2014

Hi! I am moving onto my fourth year coxing and I am a bit worried if I am getting too tall and/or heavy to cox?? I know the club’s guidelines are quite strict but I was just wondering what you thought! I am 5 ft 4 inches and weigh 105lbs (48KG). For most of our races the minimum weight is roughly 99 lbs (45KG). I am the same height as most of the rowers but have fallen in love with coxing! Btw your blog is so useful and the recordings are really helpful! 🙂

Where do you live that the minimum is 99lbs? That can’t possibly be in the US, right?

I mean, personally, I don’t think you’re too big/too heavy. You’re pretty much the same size as most female high school coxswains that I know (and coxed with). Plus, it’s not like being a whole six pounds over is going to make that much of a difference, especially at the junior level. I honestly don’t think it’s a big deal but if somebody says something to you about it, maybe remind them that you’re a teenager and telling a 105lb girl that she’s too heavy for something pretty much makes them the mayor of Asshole-town. Strict club guidelines or not, a 99lb minimum seems … unhealthy … for the vast majority of girls/coxswains out there. Also, don’t use being close in height with the rowers as a gauge for whether or not you’re growing (or have grown) out of being the right size for coxing. Height, to an extent, has never mattered that much when it comes to coxing – it’s just more common (physically and logically) to have a coxswain who’s relatively thin and short because it’s just not that easy for most people to maintain 110lbs or 120lbs on a taller frame (that being like, 5’7″ – 5’9″+).

Like I said, I wouldn’t worry about it. You’ve been doing this long enough now to have a good grasp on what you’re doing so just keep focusing your energy on honing your skills and you’ll be fine.

Coxing Q&A

Question of the Day

By readyallrow July 31, 2014

I’m kind of confused looking over the USRowing Rules. Can you please give a summary of what I should know? Thank you, I really appreciate it. PS Your blog is an amazing resource I wish I found out about earlier than I did. Thanks for all you do.

Anything specific or is it just all the legalese that’s not making sense? To be honest, in twelve years I’ve never once actually read the rule book in its entirety. My coaches gave us specific things to review (mostly the rules of racing) but pretty much everything you need to know is clearly stated at the coaches and coxswains meetings. Try to stay up to date with the rule changes though – they’re always one of the first PDFs posted on this page on USRowing’s site.

Follow up: The protesting “process” and when to do it is kind of confusing. Thank you!

Check out the post linked below (scroll to the very bottom of the post).

The only major difference between the rule book and what I wrote is that in the rule book it says it’s $50 to file a protest. I think that might differ at regular regattas (aka not the big ones like regionals, nationals, etc.) because I’ve seen it range from costing nothing to up to $30, so just pay attention to what they say at the meeting (or ask if they don’t mention it).

Coxing

Coxswain skills: Cutting corners

By readyallrow July 29, 2014

If you’re steering and coming up a turn, you’ve probably heard your coach say something along the lines of “don’t cut the corner”, which means that you’re taking it (or setting yourself up to take it) too sharply. This tends to happen most often on rivers where there are big sweeping turns, for example, like the one between the BU bridge and Riverside on the Charles. I am so guilty of cutting that one nearly every time I’m going downstream.

In this picture you can see two lines, a dashed red one and a solid black one. The dashed one represents a course that would be considered “cutting the corner”. What tends to cause this to happen is we look out of the boat and see a turn coming and instead of waiting until we actually hit the point in the river where the turn starts, we instead start turning the shell immediately. As a result, because we’ve started steering early this will cause us to end up on the wrong side of the river once we’ve completed the turn (as indicated in the picture). This can be very dangerous depending on how heavy the traffic is on your body of water (that includes power boats too, not just other rowers) so it’s important to take your time and make sure you’re taking it at the proper angle. If you’re not sure if this is something you’re doing, a good indicator is to judge how far you are from shore when you’ve completed the turn vs. when you started it. A few feet is negligible but if you were five feet off the bank at the start and you’re finishing in the middle of the river, that means you cut it a bit.

What you should actually do in these cases is simply wait to start your turn. You always want to go straight just a little longer than you think you should before tapping the rudder. For me, when I’m going downstream on the Charles, the few times that I’ve actually nailed that turn are when I’ve stayed straight just long enough to make me question whether I’ve stayed straight for too long. There’s this momentary uncomfortable feeling you get and you’ll think you’ve made a mistake but that’s actually the best indicator, at least in my experience, to let you know when to start going. (That applies to a lot of things in coxing, not just how to take turns…)

(In that illustration I actually made the black line a bit farther out than I wanted so if it looks like the “correct” course is going a little wide … it is.)

Another common example for cutting corners is when you’re rowing two or three across and the crew on the middle and/or outside squeezes the crew on the inside as they come around a turn. In cases like this, if you’re the inside crew you have a couple options. 1) Stop rowing until it’s safe to pick it up again, 2) drop down to fours or pairs so you’re still moving but can avoid the other boats until they fix their course, or 3) keep rowing and force the other coxswain to fix something so they don’t hit you. There are a few others but these are the main ones. Option three tends to come off as super passive aggressive but … why should I stop rowing just because you can’t steer? Personally, I think this is the best option all around because it forces the middle/outside coxswain to fix the problem as it’s happening (instead of trying to think about what to do differently after the fact) and it puts the coxswain on the inside in an uncomfortable position that they have to learn to manage and deal with without freaking out.

From a coach’s perspective, it also forces communication between the coxswains because there’s really no fixing this situation without one telling the other what they need them to do. That means that you can’t get super pissed at the other coxswain and suddenly decide you’re just not going to say anything to them. (This is waaay more common with female coxswains but I’ve seen guys do it too.) If you’re getting pushed over it does nothing for anyone if the only person you say something to is your stroke seat. You have to actually look over to the other coxswain and say “Hey Emily, can you stay wide coming around the turn here, you guys are starting to push me over…”. To the coxswain(s) being asked to maintain the spacing, just listen and adjust. Don’t back talk to the other coxswain, don’t get snarky, and most especially, don’t blatantly ignore them. Put your hand up to acknowledge you heard them and then move over a little. If you’re in the middle and fairly close to coxswain on the outside, you’ll need to look over and say “Hey Alex, I’m coming over to starboard” so you don’t end up merging into their lane while they’re still in it.

An example of when situations like this become dangerous is after it’s rained and there’s a lot of debris along the shoreline. We ran into this problem a lot this year because of all the rain we had. If there weren’t full-size tree trunks floating down in the middle of the river, they were stuck just under the waterline along shore. Additionally, if the water level is high then the branches of trees that are right on the bank tend to be lower, which means you can’t just row under them like you normally do. Both of these present problems where equipment and/or people could be damaged if you steer or get pushed into them, which is why coxswains in the middle and outside need to be equally as cognizant of what’s in the inside lane so they’re not putting their teammates in a bad situation.

If you’re one of the crews on the outside, coming around a turn like this means you have to take it wider than you normally would. It’s going to take a little longer (I donno, 10ish strokes at most maybe?) but it’s not a race so it’s really not that big of a deal. I think it’s good to spend an equal amount of time in all the lanes though (inside, middle, and outside) because it’s good practice for head race season. You might not always get your desired lane on the course and it’s important to know how to handle both tight and wide turns so you can get through them cleanly, safely, and without a penalty. Don’t just go through the motions when you’re at practice, really think and compare what you have to do differently depending on which lane you’re in. What’s the difference in the number of strokes it takes to get around the bend between the inside lane and the outside one? For your crew, is it more effective to have one side increase the pressure or can you comfortably make it around solely on the rudder? Those are the kinds of things you should be paying attention to (in addition to everything else).

Image via // @oh.genevieve

Coxing Q&A Teammates & Coaches

Question of the Day

By readyallrow July 27, 2014

Hey! I’m a High School Cox and I attended a College Crew Camp this week. One of the rowers that was assigned to my boat would deem my coxing as ‘terrible’ and would yell out in the middle of pieces – and not just stuff like “C’mon!” as some girls do, no she tried to call her own power 10s, right after I would call a power 10. Do you know how to interact with rowers like that? I wanna try to be polite and not someone totally rude and mean. I wanted to say something like “If you’re able to talk on the boat you’re not pulling full pressure!”. In case this ever happens again, any tips for dealing with over-bearing rowers who think they should cox?

Honestly? Here’s what I would really love to see a coxswain do in a situation like this, especially if it’s something that’s been a continual issue. Regardless of whatever you’re doing – I don’t care if you’re in the middle of a 1500m piece or doing cut the cake drills – stop. Just weigh enough and check the boat down. If the rower in question isn’t in stroke seat, stand up and get their attention. Look them dead in the eyes and tell them they have two options: one, shut up and focus on the one job they have or two, get up and switch places with you since they seem to think they can call the piece/drill better than you can. Take your mic off and hold it out to them too. I guarantee you, they won’t take you up on it. Give them one last chance and when they don’t take you up on it again, tell them fine, they’ve made their choice. If they have something to say then they can say to you/the boat after practice but until then, the only person making the calls in the boat is you. Then sit back down, let it go, and get on with practice.

Standing up for yourself (as a coxswain, as a person, whatever…) doesn’t mean you puff your chest out and try to act tough by saying something like “if you can talk you’re not pulling hard enough” because that literally has no effect on the offending person. (It’s also the most played out, unoriginal retort in coxing.) Too many (young, female) coxswains think that they have to be this universally nice person otherwise no one will respect them and that’s not how it works. Yes, you should be a kind, respectful person but that doesn’t mean you should be a doormat. Using this situation as an example, if you let this rower get away with yelling things out during pieces and being disrespectful towards you then that’s only going to make the other rowers think it’s OK to do the same thing (or at the very least, that they could get away with it if they did do it because the most you’ll do is say “if you’re talking you’re not rowing hard enough”). Obviously what I suggested at the beginning isn’t something you should be doing on a weekly basis (it’s really only a one-time thing because if delivered properly, one time is all it takes) and obviously you should never resort to personal attacks (do I really even need to say that?) but at some point you’ve got to draw the line and get over the fear that “they might not like me if I say something”.

Nine out of ten rowers (or maybe it should be seven out of eight…) that you cox won’t do stuff like this. In one-off cases where it’s been a frustrating practice or someone showed up to practice wearing their “I’m gonna be an asshole today” hat (for whatever reason), the best way to handle it is to still be firm with them and say “Hey, I get that you’re having a tough day/we’re having a tough practice but don’t take that frustration out on me/the rest of the boat by yelling things out like that. It’s not productive and only distracts people. If you have something to say or want to make a suggestion for how I could call it differently, either wait ’til we stop for a water break or wait ’til practice is over.” Most of the time when this happens, it’s just that person spouting off because they’re pissed about something and you’re an easy target. Just let it go. Well, let them know they need to back off first and then let it go.

What I think a lot of rowers don’t understand is just how frustrating this is for coxswains. The equivalent, to give an example, would be something like this: Imagine you’re on an erg and then all of a sudden your coxswain jumps in out of nowhere and yells “NO! What is this? That’s not how you do it! You’re supposed to do it like this!” and then grabs onto the handle and tries to wrestle it away from you while you’re still erging. You try to keep going but there’s this annoying person preventing you from doing that because for some reason they think they know how to do it better than you do, even though you spend about 10x the amount of time on the erg that they do since that’s your job as a rower. The same goes for coaches that try to yell over the coxswain during pieces – imagine someone sitting in the launch with you and constantly fighting you for custody of the megaphone, right in the middle of you saying something really important to the boat you’re working with. You have to think about it from their point of view and how you’d feel if someone were to do that to do you.

I could go on and on about this topic because it’s one of the ones that makes me go from zero to rage in about ten seconds but I think you get my point.

College Coxing Q&A

Question of the Day

By readyallrow July 26, 2014

I am going into my senior year as a rower and am looking at colleges. One college that I’m really interested in only has a club team. Do you think they would let me be a coxswain even though I have only ever been a rower? I am 5’4 and around 125 lbs.

Definitely. Most club teams are pretty lax when it comes to the rowing norms since a larger majority of the team is comprised of people who have never rowed (or in some cases, have never participated in sports) before. You could probably even keep rowing if you wanted to.

Coxing Q&A Teammates & Coaches

Question of the Day

By readyallrow July 21, 2014

Hi, I have a problem with my coach. Whenever I cox she asks me to do things (which I proceed to do) before changing her mind without being very clear or even telling me. I find it very annoying as I am doing my best to follow her muddled instructions and she makes me look incompetent. Also during short pieces she shouts at me and says I shouldn’t be saying certain things, even though I asked the rowers what would be most beneficial to them and am focusing on using those things.

Talk to her. That’s the only way this situation is going to be resolved.

I’m one of those people that gets really frustrated when instructions aren’t straightforward and clear from the beginning, mainly because it’s a huge waste of my time (and probably other people’s as well) to think this is what you want me to do but not be 100% sure. It’s particularly frustrating on the water because there is no time to waste and when it is wasted the coxswains are the ones that get blamed (even when the rowers are equally as confused). I don’t blame you for being annoyed because I, and I’m sure many other coxswains, would be too.

Here’s the thing about coaches telling coxswains what they should and shouldn’t say. If a rower asks their coxswain to make a certain call, that is off limits for you to comment on (unless they asked for a “power 10 for cupcakes” because that is stupid; use your common sense here). You cannot tell the coxswain they shouldn’t be saying that and at the same time preach about how important it is to gain the trust of the rowers, get feedback from them, etc. This goes double, maybe even triple, if you were never a coxswain in the first place. If what they’re saying maybe isn’t phrased in the best way then by all means, suggest an alternative way to call it – I’m all for that – but don’t flat out say they shouldn’t say it. In situations like this, loyalty to the rowers (particularly if it’s a close-knit crew) is almost always going to trump the coach telling you to stop doing something. Yelling “stop saying that” during a piece, I mean really, what are you trying to accomplish by doing that? (Related, see today’s VOTW post.)

The best and only way to get this situation taken care of is by (firmly) pointing out to her how difficult it is to do your job when her instructions are unclear and that the reason you’re saying those things is because you were specifically asked by the rowers to say them (for whatever reason). One thing that usually helps when it’s tough to understand what the coach wants you to do is to go over it each day before you go out on the water – like, as soon as you get to the boathouse. That was one of the things I really liked in high school and college was that our coaches would go over the workouts, goals, etc. for the day with us and answer any questions we had while the rowers were changing, getting oars down, etc. It’s important to work something out though because it’s really hard to be an effective coxswain when there’s poor communication between you and your coach and you feel incompetent whenever you do something because it ends up not being what they wanted.

There’s nothing wrong with wanting/needing all the details when you’re being asked to do something (and it’s really annoying when people act like it is – that’s just pure laziness on their part) so if having all of that up front is what you need to be an effective coxswain for your boat, then you should say that. Everybody functions a little bit differently (as we as coxswains know firsthand…) and part of being a good coach is recognizing that and making little adjustments to your style to accommodate that.

College Coxing Racing Recordings

Coxswain Recordings, pt. 22

By readyallrow July 17, 2014

George Washington University 2014 IRA Men’s Varsity 8+ C-Final

If you wanna watch the race footage with the audio over it you can check that out here. If you just wanna listen to the race, the Soundcloud link above is probably better since you’ve got the announcer’s voice competing with the coxswain in the video.

At 3:28 when he says “get ready to take our move…”, that’s the kind of aggression you need when you’re in the thick of it and have to do something to separate yourself from the pack. A few strokes later he says “We’re movin’, half a length up OSU, half a length up FIT…”, which is not only a good example of how to call your position on other crews but it also demonstrates exactly what you want to do after you call for a move – let them know if they’re walking and if so, by how much.

I like how he goes down the boat at 4:18 and calls out certain individuals then calls out the seniors. That’s a great way to get just a little more out of the rowers when you already know they’re giving you all they’ve got. It’s that sense-of-personal-responsibility thing.

Other calls I liked:

“Five to open the angles…”

“Move away from FIT, fucking put ’em in their place…”

Temple University 2014 Dad Vail Women’s Varsity 4+ Semi-final

The audio’s a little choppy on this one but otherwise this is a solid recording from Temple’s coxswain. She emailed this recording to me so below is part of what I said in my reply.

“This recording is great – my favorite ones to listen to are the ones where I don’t have to pause it every five seconds to make a note of something. You do a really fantastic job of being right in the moment and communicating to your crew what they need to know about what’s happening inside the boat as well as outside the boat. Far too often a lot of coxswains will get too focused on just spitting out the race plan and end up not making calls for anything else. I really liked your buildup into your 20 when you a couple of the girls if they were ready to go – that’s a great way to keep the boat engaged in what you’re doing and keep them focused. I love the 10 that your bowman calls – that is a really creative and SMART strategic move.

One suggestion – maybe don’t count as much at the start throughout the high strokes and the settle. It can get monotonous after awhile so don’t be afraid to change it up and replace the numbers with catch or finish-related calls. You called it really well though – tone, intonation, intensity were all perfect. Don’t change any of that.”

Other calls I liked:

“Break ’em through the bridge…”

“Here we go, we got each other’s backs…”

Drexel University 2014 Knecht Cup Women’s Freshman 8+ Grand Final

There’s not much I would change here except for all the counting. I talked about this a bit in the power ten post from last week. Over the course of 2000m it’s probably unnecessary to be calling more than five or six power bursts. It’s important to remember too that just because you’re calling a 5, 10, 15, or 20 doesn’t mean that you have to count out every. single. stroke. Calls like jump, swing, attack, legs, sit up, breathe, together, send, long, stride, press, power, etc. are just as effective when you intersperse them between or in place of 1, 2, 3, etc.

Related: All about Power 10s

I’ve talked about this with regards to tone in the past but make sure that you’re making an effort to match it with the calls the you’re making. If you want calls like that one to relax at 3:10 to be effective, maybe try not to sound possessed as you say it.

At 5:30 she says “It’s gonna be intense, it’s gonna be a fight, get ready…”, which sounds like something that would have/probably was said at the start of a Muhammad Ali – George Foreman bout. Good call coming into the last 500m.

Other calls I liked:

“2, be an animal, 3, be an animal…”

“Bow four, I need your speed…”

“This will be a dogfight, get dirty, get proud, now walk…”

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

Coxing Drills Q&A Technique

Question of the Day

By readyallrow July 15, 2014

Hey! I cox a HS women’s bow loader 4+ and after looking over some footage from our past regattas, my coach noticed that many rowers are “missing water” and not getting the oars enough behind them enough at the catch to produce a maximum length and power stroke every time. She asked me to try to make calls and to focus on things that will help get the length behind them, and also to have them think about rotating out towards their rigger at the catch. Would you be able to clear what she means up for me, and possibly demonstrate the way something like this would be called? Thanks!

Normally whenever I get questions I’ll read through it and automatically think “Oh OK, all you’ve gotta do is X, Y, and Z”. First thing I thought when I read this was “your coach only realized after watching race footage of multiple regattas that the rowers weren’t getting a long enough stroke?” … l donno, I guess that just seems like a pretty obvious thing that you’d be working on during practice vs. only recognizing it after the fact.

Anyways, to break down what she’s saying, “missing water” as we know means that they’re not getting the blades locked on to the water before they start the leg drive. This is also sometimes referred to as “rowing it in” although you’re not always necessarily rowing it in when you’re missing water. In this case it sounds like the biggest issue contributing to the missed water is not getting enough length, which is actually a pretty simple thing to fix. Being in a bow loader makes it really hard/nearly impossible for you to see this though because unless you’re sitting up and actually turning around to look at the blades (and offsetting the boat in the process), you’ve really only got the bow man’s blade (seen mostly from your peripheral vision) to go off of in terms of seeing whether or not they’re making the necessary changes. You can make all the calls you want but it’s really up to your coach(es) to address the root issue and work on it during practice. I’ve found while coxing that a lot of coaches don’t get that for some reason and I’m really not sure why… (and, to be honest, it really contributes to how much of a bitch it is to cox bow loaders).

The best analogy I’ve heard when it comes to explaining rotating out towards the rigger came from Holly Metcalf, who’s the head women’s coach at MIT. (She coxed my masters 8+ for a bit when I first started coxing them and, more impressively, was 2-seat in the first women’s 8+ to win gold at the Olympics at the ’84 games in Los Angeles.) The way to think about it is to think of what your upper body is doing when you’re throwing a frisbee. The way to get the flattest and longest throw is to keep your arm flat and rotate ever so slightly from the core. The same applies to rowing. To get the longest stroke possible you don’t want to dip your hands or raise them up because that’s going to mess with the trajectory, so to speak, of the blade, which is going to result in a shorter and less powerful stroke. It’s definitely something that’s much easier to understand if you can demonstrate it vs. just saying it but if you do understand what I’m saying then by all means, show ’em how it’s done.

If I were in your position I’d do three main things:

Start adding pause drills to your daily warm-up.

The goal is to emphasize getting the body prep early so you want the pause to be at bodies over. You also want to reiterate that by the time they get to this point, they should have their bodies as far forward as they’re gonna go in order to get as long of a stroke as possible. I usually like to remind them that they should be feeling a bit of a stretch in the hamstrings, in addition to telling them to keep in mind that they shouldn’t be lunging, rather they should be pivoting from the hips while keeping the back flat and the core tight. If you can, I’d recommend going over this on the erg with them before you go on the water so you can show them the difference between how they look vs. how you/your coach wants them to look. Do this for 10-15 strokes per pair (stern pair, bow pair, middle pair, outside pair) and then if your crew can handle it (you be the judge) for 10-15 strokes by all four. Remind them that it should feel different than what they’re used to doing and make sure that your coach is watching you so she can give them feedback on what it all looks like. That’s kind of crucial…

Make a list of all the “length” related calls you can think of and carry it in the boat with you.

I can’t remember what I did this for but I did something similar in college for whatever technical thing we’d been working on that week and it was great because not only did it give me 20-some different ways of saying the same exact thing but also because I had it right in front of me for an entire week of practice so I didn’t have to wrack my brain for things to say. (It also gave me an excuse to not write whatever paper I was supposed to be writing for my philosophy class.)

Get the footage from your coach and go over it.

Take notes on what you’re seeing – what looks right that you can use for positive reinforcement and what doesn’t (individually, as pairs, as a crew, etc.). With the stuff that looks right, why does it look right – what are they doing well here? Even though you know they’re not getting their full length, how do their catches look? What about their posture? Are they finishing clean? Stuff like that. Same goes for what doesn’t look right. You already know length is an issue but why? Can you see specifically where they’re doing something that would contribute to that? Go through the stroke, look at each part of it, and take notes on what you see. You really can’t be too specific here but try to avoid writing something down just for the sake of saying something. If possible, try to do this with your coach so you know exactly what she’s looking at with respect to the length issue and so you can take her exact words in the boat with you and use them. (If you can get the video on your laptop but can’t go over it with your coach, feel free to email to me and I’ll take a look at it.)

As far as how I’d call something like this, I’d mainly try to focus on incorporating basic “reminder” calls into your regular coxing (“remember to get the bodies set before the knees come up”, “45 degree angles between the blades and the boat”, etc.) and then whenever you’re doing short pieces, if you’re not given something specific to do, make the majority of your calls about finding that length. When I do this I like to focus on the technique that leads to the rowers getting long so that I’m not harping on one thing over and over but the general idea of what we’re going for is still obvious.