Category: Coxing

Coxing Q&A

Question of the Day

By

I feel like I’ve been regressing. The coaches put me in good boats at the beginning of the season but I feel like they’re losing their faith in me and I’m slipping down to “worse” boats. Coxes who were on lower boats last year are now being boated higher. Every outing seems to be worse than the previous and I just feel no motivation at practice. I want to take a break but I’ll basically destroy my chances at getting a good boat even more if I take leave. Any advice?

Have you talked to your coaches about why you’re being boated in the lower boats? That would be my first piece of advice. They could be boating you down for a few reasons. A common reason is that they want an experienced coxswain to work with the lower boats so that there will be at least one person in the boat who knows what’s going on and the coaches don’t have to worry about dealing with inexperienced rowers and inexperienced coxswains, which can be frustrating for everyone. For coxswains that don’t know this this their intent, it can be pretty irritating because it comes off as them being moved down for no reason.

Another reason, on the opposite end of the spectrum, is that they’re hoping it’ll be a wake-up call to you, for whatever reason. Personally I’m not a fan of doing that (because I think it can send the wrong message to the rowers in that boat) but I see why coaches do it and see how it’s the right decision sometimes. It’s possible that they keep moving you down because they see you’re unmotivated and they’re hoping that continually being put in lower boats (that are below your skill level) will motivate you to do better so you can be back in the boats you belong in, although if that’s the case it sounds like it’s backfiring (which is why I’m not a fan of this method).

I’ve definitely had days, as a coxswain and a coach, where I show up to practice completely unmotivated to do anything. It’s so frustrating when you can feel how unmotivated you are but don’t know what to do differently to make things better. I would say that regardless of what boat you have and how good they are or aren’t, cox them in a way that allows you to come off the water saying to yourself that you helped them get better at XYZ today. Nothing is too small. Some days your practices are just going to be total shit and you’ve gotta accept that that’s going to happen but still be able to look at that practice and say “this didn’t go very well, this is what I’m going to do differently tomorrow” and then go out and actually do something different the next day. The more positive days you can rack up the more motivated you’ll find yourself becoming. Talk to your coaches though about why they’ve been putting you with those boats and what they’d like to see you do so you can get back with the boats you want to be with.

Coxing

Question of the Day

By

Hi! Totally random, but my team just officially gave me a cox box to keep for the rest of my high school coxing career. I really want to personalize it but I don’t know how! Do you have any ideas on how to decorate a cox box?

Nice! Since I assume you have to give it back when you graduate, I wouldn’t do anything too permanent, like writing on it or attacking it with glitter and a Bedazzler. Your coaches might not appreciate you doing anything to it either, especially since they’re $500 (literally). The first thing that came to mind was getting some cross-stitch thread in your team colors (or your favorite colors, whichever you choose) and macramé-ing the strap (like this).

Other that that, I’d definitely get a sticker label and write in permanent marker your name, team name, and city/state on it in case it ever gets lost. I’d put this either on the back or the bottom of the cox box. Put a piece of packing tape over it to make it “waterproof”.

Coxing Q&A Teammates & Coaches

Question of the Day

By

Hey! I’m a sophomore coxswain in high school and I’m in the 2V. We only have 2 varsity 8s because our team is a bit small. The 1V cox is a junior. (It’s a girls team). A lot of people have been saying that I am good enough to take her place, but I’m not sure if I am! She is a bit full of herself and thinks everyone likes her … but they don’t. She always gets confused but I am always alert and know what I’m doing. She is like my mentor and taught me a lot of the things I know. When I move into her spot (definitely by spring) how should I approach her since I will be the better coxswain? I’m just not sure if she will take it well, and I don’t want to make her angry or upset. This is difficult for me because I don’t want her to be sad that I took her place.

Here’s the thing. I don’t want to say that you shouldn’t care about the other coxswains because they’re your teammates and in most cases also your friends but when it comes to vying for boats … they’re the competition. I don’t give a damn about your feelings. I have a very “dog eat dog” philosophy when it comes to stuff like that. If having the 1V is important to you I expect you to have been working for it from day one just like I have been. If you haven’t been doing that and then end up losing your seat, well, sorry but you shouldn’t have assumed it was safe simply because of seniority or whatever. Keep personal feelings out of it.

If she’s been mentoring you, in theory I would think that she’d be at least a little proud that you’ve taken her advice and make improvements to the point where your coaches consider you skilled enough to handle the 1V. But, since not everything is rainbows and puppies I would suggest this:

Do not assume that you are the “better” coxswain, regardless of whether you are or aren’t. That just sounds stuck up and pretentious. If you act like that you can/will for sure turn her off and lose her as a mentor, which you probably don’t want.

Continue asking her for advice if/when you need it. Again, don’t assume that you have nothing left to learn just because you’re in one of the top boats. When you feel as though have nothing left to learn, that’s when you should quit.

Don’t assume you’re going to get the 1V. Even if it seems like a sure thing at this point, remember the saying that “the only sure things in life are death and taxes”.

Like I said before, if she’s upset, angry, or whatever about losing her seat, assuming your coach makes that decision, then that’s her issue to deal with, not yours. If she treats you like crap afterwards then that should be confirmation enough for your coach to know that they made the right decision by taking her out of the boat. You’ve just got to accept that that’s how she’s acting and move on.

I would also suggest not letting the rowers talk shit about her (or anyone else) to or around you. Regardless of whether you all get along with her, I don’t think it’s OK to do that to someone you’re on a team with. I’m a little torn on whether or not this is a self-serving ulterior motive or not but you can also make yourself look good in situations like that by shutting that kind of behavior down immediately and telling them to stop if you hear them saying something about her. Obviously you shouldn’t tell them to stop JUST to make yourself look good because that is shitty – I mean it in more of a “kill two birds with one stone” kind of way. In the long run if you’re known as the coxswain/person on the team who doesn’t tolerate stuff like that, you’ll be seen as more of a leader (obviously good for someone who’s a coxswain) and as someone who upholds a high standard of behavior for the people on the team. THAT is the kind of person I want coxing all of my boats, but I would depend on the coxswain in the top boat to be the one setting the example for everyone else. I’m definitely the kind of person that will take stuff like that into consideration when I’m thinking about lineups. Whether or not other coaches do that, that’s up to them, but one thing you should assume is that they are watching you to see how you react to and handle situations like that.

Coxing Q&A

Question of the Day

By

How did you know when you were ready to go back to rowing? I am in a similar situation; I was burned out and took a few months off. During my time off I realized I wasn’t coxing for the right reasons and I think I’ve discovered what the right reasons are. Now I miss it like crazy but I’m worried about going back too soon.

After living in Boston for a year I was looking for jobs and decided to check row2k on a whim (for the first time in awhile). I saw that one of the local high schools was hiring and I figured why not try coaching. I don’t think I ever came to the conclusion that I was “ready” to get back into it (after a five year break), I just kind of … did.

I think the biggest thing that has helped me not get burned out on rowing again was that it wasn’t (and isn’t) my life 24/7. I go to practice and when I’m there, that’s what I’m focused on but when I’m not I try not to think about it (unless I’m doing blog stuff). That was part of the problem when I was at Syracuse – it consumed every aspect of my life and far too many hours in my day than it should have.

Related: How did you balance crew, classwork and a social life while you were in college?

The other thing is that I’ve really liked nearly everyone I’ve worked with. I’ve learned something from all of them and in one way or another, they helped me figure out what I want and don’t want in a team/coaching environment. Both of those things are things you should consider when you decide you want to get back into coxing. One, how much time is it going to take up and is that too much and two, who are the people you’ll be working with, are they people you want to be working with, and are they going to help you get better. If you figure out your responses to those and end up settling for something less, you might end up feeling burned out again.

In addition to that, like you said, knowing the reasons you’re doing it are also a pretty big part of it all. Once you’ve figured out what the right reasons are and are actually honest with yourself about why they’re right and the previous ones were wrong, you’re setting yourself up for a solid, productive return to the sport. Looking back, I don’t actually know if I was coxing at Syracuse for the right reasons. I knew I wanted to do it and that I wanted to go far with coxing but I was also partially doing it because it was what was expected of me. I think pretty early on in high school, maybe around the start of sophomore year, it started being assumed by my friends, family, coaches, and teammates that I was going to cox in college. My junior year it was pretty much expected of me since I’d had a successful career up to that point . By the time spring season had rolled around my senior year I’d already been accepted to Syracuse, so that combined with the insanely successful season I ended up having meant there was no backing out of it even if I wanted to. Part of the reason quitting was so hard for me was because I felt like I was letting down all these people that expected me to go do great and wonderful things, but those expectations, while good most of the time, contributed to why I stuck with it longer than I should have and why I was so miserable. When I started coaching and coxing again, I didn’t have to worry about anyone else because I was doing all of it for me.

Navigating the starting chute at a head race

Coxing How To Racing

Navigating the starting chute at a head race

By

The start of a head race is different than the start of a sprint race because you’re rowing into it instead of starting from a dead stop. Most regattas will have the crews hanging out, sort of, in a waiting area a few hundred meters above the starting line before calling them down by bow numbers. As you row into the waiting area, you’ll want to find crews with the bow numbers immediately ahead of and behind yours and situate yourself between them. From here, you’ll want to use use your bow pair or bow four to slowly move you up the queue with the other crews.

Most larger regattas have what’s called a “chute” right before the starting line. (Smaller races might just do one single file line.) This is what everyone in the waiting area is funneled into before they cross the line one by one.

As you come into the chute, odd numbered bow numbers will line up on one side and even numbered ones on the other. Where you should go is marked by three buoys — a red one, a yellow one, and a green one. At HOCR, the odd numbered crews will line up between the red and yellow buoy (red = port) and the even numbered crews will line up between the yellow and green buoy (green = starboard).

By this point you should be rowing all eight, slightly above paddle pressure. You’ll row down towards the line in a staggered pattern and then cross at 10–15 second intervals. There will be officials on the water telling you to ease off or go to full pressure depending on how close you are to the crew in front of you. They’ll definitely tell you when to go to full pressure but if you start too early they’ll tell you to back off so you aren’t too close to the crew ahead of you when you start. By the time you cross the starting line you want to be at full pressure and at least 2–3 strokes into your starting 20 or whatever you do at the start of your race. At this point, you’ll hear an official say “on the course!”, which you should then communicate to your crew.

Coming across the line, you should already have your starting sequence figured out (and have practiced it many times) so that should be fairly self-explanatory. I called the five to build into full pressure when the officials on the water told us to bring it up and then we usually crossed the line somewhere around the second or third stroke into our high 20. From there it’s coxing as usual.

I think it’s important to not say a lot before the race because there’s going to be a lot going on and many things for you to be listening and paying attention to, which can be difficult to do if you’re trying to actively cox the crew or carry on a conversation. Same goes for the rowers. Things happen fast in the chute and it’s imperative for the rowers to be ready to go as soon as the officials/coxswain call for it.

Image via // Rowing Upriver
How to Pass Crews During a Head Race

Coxing How To Q&A Racing

How to Pass Crews During a Head Race

By

Previously: Steer an eight/four || Call a pick drill and reverse pick drill ||  Avoid getting sick || Make improvement as a novice || Protect your voice

I don’t know if I’ve ever talked about this at any great length but I figured it’d be a good topic to get out there since we’re starting to get into head race season. Passing another crew requires you to be a bit of a maverick, depending on the situation. It’s not something you should be figuring out how to do as you do it though because deciding what the best course of action is requires a lot of decision making in a very short period of time. When your mind is going a mile a minute you don’t want to be trying to figure out all this stuff in the middle of the race.

The first thing you’ve got to do before passing a crew is assess the situation and figure out how many crews are ahead of you and how close you are to bridges or any other kind of potential obstruction. If there is a lot of traffic up ahead or there’s a chance you won’t have completed your pass before you reach the bridge, it might be best to hold off until crews spread out or you’re through the bridge. It sounds counter-intuitive but from a safety perspective, holding back is always preferable to a collision. No coach who has their priorities straight will tell you otherwise.

From there, when you do go to make your pass, and sticking with the idea of what is safer in the long run, you’ve got to decide if taking a slightly wider course off the better line is preferable to taking the better line and potentially being involved in a collision that could cost you even more time. This is where having studied the course beforehand can work in your favor. If you’re on a river with a lot of curves – the Charles, for example – it’s less about how you come out of the turns and more about how you go in. Even if the faster line around a turn to port is to hug the buoys, if you’re passing someone and know that the next turn is to starboard, it would be advisable, if it’s safe, to pass the crew on the outside, that way you’ll be on the buoys around the next turn.

Related: HOCR: Steering around the turns

One thing to remember if you decide to pass on the inside is that if the next turn is fairly sharp and in close proximity to the last one, you’ll either have to be really good at steering or you’ll have to have the crew adjust their power to bring you around, which has the potential to add seconds to your time. 60ft long boats don’t turn on a dime, which is something a lot of novices don’t realize, so knowing the best way to move your shell around a tight turn is something you should have figured out before you race. That way if such a situation arises where you’re going around a tight turn, either because you chose it or were forced into it, you’ll know how to do it smoothly and with as little added time as possible.

Related: Yaz Farooq’s HOCR coxswain clinic

The last thing you’ve got to consider is whether you want to increase the stroke rate to get by the other crew or if you want to keep it the same. You can take it up a beat or so if you want but it’s not usually necessary and if you’re constantly changing your speed you run the risk of running out of gas and not having enough energy to maintain your pace through the end of the race. If you’re passing someone, your strokes are  already more powerful and your boat is generating more speed so all you need to do is find an open lane to glide into.

If there’s a crew behind you that’s threatening to pass, increasing the stroke rate might be a good idea if you think your crew can sustain it. If there are crews that are packed together in front of the one you’re trying to pass, you might want to pass them at your base pace and then settle in where you can, either with or behind the pack in front. If you think you can pass another crew, that’s a calculated risk you’ll have to make a decision on as it’s happening based on the information you have on hand. You should also be watching the crew you’re passing to see if and how they counter your move. They might take the stroke rate up to hold you off, which might mean that instead of cruising by them, you might need to take the rate up for a couple strokes too.

Another thing you’ve got to factor in is whether or not the crew in front of you is a rival. A normal crew will do their best to hold you off but a rival will make it their mission to make sure that your bowball doesn’t get past theirs. Be prepared for this and know how to counter it.

General passing rules – these should be announced by the regatta official(s) at the coaches and coxswains meeting so don’t skip that. Different regattas have different rules, especially at head races. Some might allow you to pass under a bridge, others might penalize you for doing it. You won’t know unless you go. I’d also recommend not assuming you know the rules just because you’ve been there before. You never know when they might change them.

When passing, your bow must be pointed towards the side you intend to pass on by the time you are within at least one length of open water on the crew you’re passing. The crew that’s being passed should be fully out of the way by the time the passing crew is within half a length of open.

When you are passing, you should yell out “coxswain, move to starboard/port” to the crew in front of you. Most coxswains will acknowledge you (do this by raising your hand, like normal) and immediately move over but some will be less accommodating. This can be attributed to two things: a) they can’t hear you, which is sometimes understandable or b) they’re purposely doing that because they think it’ll make you give up on trying to pass them. All you have to do in situations like this is yell again to move over. Your bow (wo)men can help you out here by yelling at them to move too. People in bow, don’t wait for your coxswain to tell you to do this. If you can hear them repeatedly telling someone to move, just look over and repeat what they’re saying. If you have to tell at them again to move, threaten them with a penalty. They will get penalized for not moving out of the way because it’s considered unsportsmanlike conduct. At HOCR it’s a 60 second penalty the first time, 2 minutes the second time, and an automatic DQ for the third time.

If you are being passed, move. Communicate with your stroke before the race (or bow if you’re in a 4+) and tell them that if there’s a crew coming up on you, they must tell you. It doesn’t need to be some big long conversation between the two of you either. That’s part of the reason why I think a lot of the rowers don’t tell their coxswain what’s going on behind the because they think they need to say “hey, there’s a boat passing us on starboard” and they don’t want to waste that much energy or oxygen, but in reality all they need to do is say “starboard” or “port”. I know your lungs are on fire but I think you can manage to squeak out a one or two syllable word. Help your coxswain out. If your crew gets penalized for not yielding, it’s just as much your fault as it is the coxswain’s.

Try to avoid passing under bridges when you can. Know the rules as to what bridges you’re allowed to pass under and which ones you aren’t if there are multiple ones along the course. Don’t be that coxswain that thinks it’s a good idea to go three wide under Weeks (shout out to the coxswain who messed up my turn last year by being that person…ya jerk).

I’ll try to find more videos of this if I can but I came across this one while writing this and thought it was a good example of a coxswain telling a crew to move repeatedly (Michigan) and the crew being passed not moving (Dartmouth), leading to a collision before Eliot. Michigan was able to recover quickly but you can see it really stalled Dartmouth. If you’ve got time, definitely check out the whole video but the part I’m referring to starts around 20:00 and the collision around 21:45.

One other quick thing to note, you can hear somebody say “you had room!”, someone else say “fuck you”, and someone else say “fucking” something (it’s kinda hard to hear). I get that situations like that are irritating but you’ve got to be careful about spouting off on other crews like that because you can also get an unsportsmanlike penalty even if steering-wise you did everything correct. I’m lucky I didn’t get a penalty last year for yelling “are you fucking kidding me” to the coxswain who thought going three-wide under Weeks was do-able because there were three officials standing on Weeks watching the whole thing unfold. (I was the only one of the three crews to not be penalized so yay for that.) In the heat of the moment it’s understandable but ask yourself if it’s worth a penalty if an official hears you.

Navigating the Schuylkill River (Philadelphia, PA)

Coxing Rowing

Navigating the Schuylkill River (Philadelphia, PA)

By

I got a request last week to do a post on navigating the Schuylkill so that’s what today’s post will be on. I don’t know if I was just overlooking it or what but I couldn’t find a single map anywhere online that showed the 2k course, head race course, bridges, and traffic patterns.

Here’s a panoramic from Boathouse Row’s Wikipedia that shows all the clubs on Kelly Drive. I edited it to add the names so you know which is which. To view a larger version just right-click and select “view image”, then magnify it when it opens.

To the left you can see the entire rowable part of the river, indicated by the blue brackets at the top and bottom of the picture. Even though the Schuylkill is fairly long, there are only about 3 miles of it that crews can safely row on. (This doesn’t count the part of the river up in Conshohocken where Villanova rows.) To give you an idea of how many meters that is, it’s just under 5k one way, so a little over 9.5k total. Time wise, I think going from top to bottom at a reasonable steady state pressure took us about 15-20 minutes this summer depending on the current. Once you get past the railroad bridge at the top of the river it gets pretty rocky and difficult to navigate so crews tend to not venture up there. The lower part of the river is blocked by the dam and a large net-like barrier that prevents crews from getting too close to it. To access the last four boathouses on the Row you have to go under the cables, making sure to stick close to the docks (while still giving crews room to launch). There’s a small island down by the row that, as you’re coming in to dock, you want to make sure you stay to the left of.

When I was at that Level 1 certification class back in March one of the things they spent a lot of time talking about was safety, for obvious reasons. They specifically spent a good deal of time talking about the things coaches are required to carry in their launch, including a paddle and at least 11 PFDs (personal flotation devices), amongst other things. The reason for this is because in 1984 a coach named Kippy Liddle was out with her crew and her engine stalled after getting caught in the vertical cables down by the dam. She didn’t have a paddle or anything that would allow her to row herself out of harm’s way so she instructed the other person in the launch (a coxswain) to put on the one PFD that was in there and swim to shore. She was able to do so successfully but when Liddle jumped out of the boat to try to swim to shore (after drifting closer and closer to the dam), she was swept over it and killed. She was told by the people coming to rescue her to stay in her launch but she didn’t listen, which contributed to her death. The people in the rescue launch also had their engine stall and ended up going over the dam too, but because they stayed in the launch they weren’t hurt. This is part of Schuylkill River history at this point but the point of this story is to make sure your coach’s launch has life jackets and a paddle and to always stay with your boat (regardless of what body of water you’re on).

This is the lower end of the river down towards Boathouse Row. The black dotted line is meant to represent the cables that prevent you from getting close to the dam. It’s not 100% accurate in terms of placement but it’s relatively close, so you get the point.

The biggest difference between the Schuylkill and most other bodies of water is that it follows a left hand traffic pattern, whereas most places follow a right hand pattern.

When you launch, your bow should be pointing upstream so that when you shove, you can immediately begin rowing to the left side of the river. If you’re coming from the lower boathouses, you should turn to port as soon as you get past the cables. If you’re launching from Undine, Penn AC, College Boat Club, or Vesper you should shove off, take a couple strokes to get away from the dock and then have your starboard rowers in bow 4 row to get you pointed towards the west side of the river. If you look at the map and see where the “30” sign is on the expressway, you should be aiming somewhere below that general area as you’re crossing. Any higher than that and you’ll be cutting off people that are rowing downstream. A good rule of thumb is to just row parallel to the cables and then straighten out once you’re on the other side. As you go upstream, keep an eye out for small boats or slower crews ahead of you. Typically you pass on the left but with left hand traffic patterns you pass on the right, which means you might need to venture towards the middle-ish part of the river, depending on how much room the crews in front of you are taking up. If you’re doing warmups and stuff or are only rowing by pairs or fours, stick close to shore so that crews can easily pass you without getting in the way of crews rowing downstream.

As you come up on the Girard Ave. bridge (indicated on the map above by a green star with a number “1” in it), you’ll want to be aiming for the first arch on the left hand side, as indicated by the blue arrow going upstream. Coming through Girard you should be aiming for the second arch on the Pennsylvania Railroad Bridge (which until June I thought only existed in Monopoly), indicated by the #2 green star. Avoid going through the first arch here because it’s a tight squeeze and is fairly shallow. The second arch is wide enough for a couple crews to go under at the same time as long as you’re paying attention.

When you’re returning to Boathouse Row, coming through the railroad bridge you should be going through the second arch from shore, as you can see in the picture where the yellow arrow is. Through Girard you’ll want to come through the middle arch. This will point you directly down that straight stretch of the river. Be sure to not venture too far into the middle so that crews who might be passing on the way upstream can do so safely.

As you continue upstream, the next bridge you’ll encounter is Columbia (green star #3). It’s important – very important – that as you come around the turn, you don’t cut it too soon and/or sharply and end up on the right hand (aka wrong) side of the river. On a normal day this is critical but it becomes even more so during regattas when crews who have just finished racing are coming through the bridge. Once you’re through the bridge, stay on the left side of Peter’s Island. You really can’t mess this up unless you go through the 4th arch from the left and not one of the first three. Again, if you’re planning on stopping or are moving slower than other crews, pull over to right beside the island or right along shore so that the crews who are still moving at a good pace can row through the middle of the river without interruption.  A good “pro tip” if you’re out during really hot days (like we were this summer – hello 100+ degree heat wave) is to stay as close as you can to either shoreline so that you’re in the shade, both while you’re rowing and when you stop.

The center abutment on Columbia is the “marker” for what arches are upstream and downstream, which gives you three arches on either side to travel through. Traveling upstream, the center arch of the left three is the “preferred” arch, although the other two are available if the center one is congested. If there’s been a lot of rain, be careful traveling through the arch closest to shore because you’ll find a lot of logs, tree limbs, etc. sitting along the shoreline that can wreck your boat if you get too close. The amount of rain that we got in a one-week period in June was record breaking for Philly, so we saw a lot of limbs and sometimes whole trees floating down the river. Always be aware of stuff like that when you’re choosing which arches to travel through.

This bridge is a little weird because you’re not necessarily aiming for the center of the arch like you would be on a normal bridge. As you approach it, you should sort of be pointed at the upstream corner of the left hand abutment of the center arch. Read that again slowly and think about it. Upstream corner of the left hand abutment of the center arch. As you get closer to the bridge you can adjust as necessary and make your turn to port to get yourself pointed straight upstream.

The downstream arches are marked by the lane numbers, which you can see in this photo. This shows the bridge as you’re going upstream, so you can see that as soon as you come through the bridge at the end of the race course you have to immediately turn to port. If you continue to row straight you can easily get in the way of crews rowing upstream. The closer you are to the shoreline, the sharper your turn is going to need to be, so you might need to get some help from your rowers to bring you around depending on what the steering is like in your boat.

This photo below shows a downstream shot with all the lanes visible, as well as the grandstands and the tower, which is where the finish line is located.

The course isn’t buoyed so it’s important that you get your point on your lane and maintain it to avoid impeding someone else’s race or practice. I think it’s at 300m to go where there is a cable that goes from the shoreline to Peter’s Island that has each lane number hanging down from it. If you line up directly on those coming out of Strawberry Mansion and pass right under them as you come through the last 500m, you’ll be all set.

Moving along, the next bridge you’ll come to as you’re heading upstream is the Strawberry Mansion bridge (green star #5). You can see in the photo the blue arrow indicates the upstream lane and the yellow arrows indicate the downstream lanes, which are on the race course and are indicated by the lane numbers that are along the top of the bridge. As you come out of Peter’s Island it’s important to stay pointed on the western arch in order to avoid venturing into lane 6.

Any time there is not a race happening, lane 6 must be left open as a “neutral zone” between the crews traveling upstream and downstream. This goes for launches as well. There is also a lane 0 that goes through the arch closest to shore as you’re traveling downstream (not shown in the picture) that is used as a travel lane for crews traveling to and from the canoe club and the St. Joe’s boathouse. This is not intended to be a travel lane during regular practices so as you come through the bridge if you’re in lane one, especially if you’re in a blind boat, make sure you’re paying attention and not venturing too close to the docks.

As far as landmarks go, Strawberry Mansion is about 750m into the 2k course and 250m in to the 1500m course. Additionally, in the second map you’ll see four pink arrows with the numbers 2, 3, 4, and 5 in them. These indicate the following points along the race course:

Arrow #2: 500m in to the 2k course/starting line of the 1500m course

Arrow #3: 1000m in to the 2k course/500m in to the 1500m course

Arrow #4: 1500m in to the 2k course/1000m in to the 1500m course

Arrow #5: The finish line (note that it doesn’t run completely parallel to the bridge)

The last set of bridges you’ll encounter are the Twin Bridges, which are up in the East Falls area of Philadelphia. Rowing through here is at your own risk but if you do, the same left hand traffic pattern applies. Racing and high stroke rates aren’t allowed because of the rocks and everything that are just past the bridges. The water gets pretty shallow so to be safe, just don’t go up here. It’s not worth the risk of damaging your shell.

Before you get to the bridges is where you’ll spin. As you come down, make sure you’re hugging the shore a bit so that once you start rowing you’re not tripped up by the slight bend in the river right before the starting line of the 2k course, which is indicated by the #1 pink arrow. Once you get to this point you should line up on one of the lane numbers on Strawberry Mansion and aim to stay in that relative area for the duration of your row down the course. Coming through Strawberry Mansion there’s another slight turn to starboard (seen in the second map) that you’ll need to hit in order to stay in line on the course. I’d recommend consciously practicing this when you’re out so that on race day it’s a natural reaction and not something you’re spending too much time thinking about.

The last thing I want to go over is what I briefly talked about at the beginning with regards to the island down by Fairmount. I took a screenshot from Google Maps (zoomed in all the way) of the cables that go across the river, which you can see more clearly if you enlarge the picture. You can see the vertical cables across the majority of the river with the exception of the small channel closest to the docks, which is outlined by the blue line. There are no buoys or anything where that blue line is drawn so even though in theory you could row through the cables coming downstream and venture into that open area, it’s ill advised because of the dam (hence the red circle). Aim to stay where the green checkmarks are between the docks and the imaginary blue line when traveling to and from the lower boathouses.

The Schuylkill is a decent body of water to row on but it gets congested quickly due to the number of crews that row in that area. You’ve really got to be on top of your game in order to have an efficient practice and avoid getting in another crew’s way. I was surprised over the summer how many boats were out so I can only imagine how magnified that is during the school year.

Check out this video that a double took of their row upstream. It shows them launching from Fairmount, rowing under the cables (0:39), and then rowing over to the far shore on the west side. It jumps through to each of the bridges so you can see what they look like and what the travel lanes are. They steer a pretty good course so I’d recommend trying to replicate it as closely as possible when you’re out.

This video (by the same rower) shows the route to take as you’re coming in to dock. He was going to Bachelors, which is the club just on the other side of the cables. By the time you get around the turn, you shouldn’t be rowing by all eight or all four anymore. I’d drop down to fours or pairs if you’re in a four. There’s a lot of traffic in this area and not a lot of room to maneuver. Safety first. Also be aware of the Penn AC dock as you come around the corner. It sticks out farther than the other docks on the Row (as seen in this aerial shot), which means you’ve got to swing a little wide coming around if you’re docking anywhere below Penn AC. If you come around the corner tight it sets you up really well to dock at the Girls’ Club or Undine but will basically mean that you’re going to run yourself up over Penn AC’s.

This video is the same thing except the camera is on the stern instead of the bow, so you can get a bigger picture of what the docking process looks like.

And finally, this video shows both an upstream and downstream row, complete with shots of all of the bridges and the grandstands at the finish

Image via // @TheBoatsMan

Coxing How To Q&A Racing

Question of the Day

By

Hi! Since fall season hit, I’ve been trying to improve my steering. The problem is, my team has a limited number a boats and we’re taking a Resolute to a head race. The steering essentially forces me to go straight and I find it impossible to make it around big turns! I was wondering, how can I steer a head race in a Resolute?

Whenever I’m in Resolutes I feel like I’m steering a bathtub or something. I don’t know if they’re all like that or just the ones I’ve been in but it was really frustrating. I think one of the boats we used at Penn AC was a Resolute too and I remember the coxswains had a lot of problems steering around the turn right after the finish line on the Schuylkill, probably because we had the same racing rudder that you have.

Your best option is going to be using the rowers to help you turn. In some races, like HOCR, this is a necessity anyways on some of the turns. You should still use the rudder and turn it in the direction you want to go but to fully get around the turn, you’ll want to have the rowers adjust their power so that one side powers down while the other side brings it around. Having one side row at 100% and then telling the other side to “pull harder” just does. not. work. It doesn’t! I don’t know why coxswains do this. If you’re turning to port, you want the port rowers to go down to maybe 75% (I never go less than 50% on any turn) and then have your starboards go balls out to bring you around. It’s gotta be coordinated well so that everyone still stays in time, knows when to adjust their power, and when to even it out again. I typically say something like “ports down, starboards up in 2…in 1…now, starboards GO”. This tells everyone what to do in as few words as possible. We also practiced doing this a lot before HOCR last year so they had plenty of opportunities to get used to how I was planning on calling it.