Category: Coxing

College Coxing Drills High School Racing Recordings

Coxswain recordings, pt. 9

By readyallrow June 7, 2013

Dartmouth Heavyweights Pause Drill

This is a long video – almost 15 minutes – but if you’re looking to improve your technical skills then I’d definitely spend some time watching this one, listening to what the coach and coxswain are saying, and matching that up with what you’re seeing with the blades. They’re doing pause drills by 6s (and later all eight) with some continuous (occasionally quarter-feather) rowing in between.

Regarding the actual drills, coxing pause drills isn’t that tough but a common question that comes up is how to transition between pairs while you’re pausing and the beginning here is a good example of how to do that. She’s not saying a ton besides “go” but I assume that’s only because the coach is right there actively giving the crew feedback. If he wasn’t talking as much or they were by themselves I assume she’d be making more regular calls beyond telling them when to take a stroke.

Another reason why I like having my recorder on me as much as possible is so I can go back later and listen to everything the coach is saying and actually absorb the things he’s pointing out so I can incorporate it into my own calls later on. Examples from this recording include:

Change direction at the front end without the bodies collapsing down

Take your time from the finish through the pivot

Establish your length through the pause

All basic stuff but it’s a good habit to take the things your coach is saying and include them verbatim (or close to it) within your own calls to reiterate what they’re trying to teach and to show that you’re actually engaged with what’s going on and not just zoning out when you’re not the one making the calls.

Dartmouth Heavyweights Practice Starts

This is a great drill to do with any crew but particularly novice/less experienced ones since doing starts with them tends to look similar to an octopus having a seizure. The focus is on refining each stroke of the start at low pressure before progressively adding speed and power.

Jesuit Dallas Lightweight 8+ 2013 Youth Nationals Petite Final

There were two main things that I took away from this recording. After a few minutes I got bored because a lot of the calls were the same – stand on it, push, let’s go, big press, etc. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t tune out a few times, open up a new tab, start scrolling through Twitter, and then realize that I missed 45+ seconds of audio. This is one of the reasons why I encourage coxswains to record themselves. If you listen to your recording and find yourself getting bored, how do you think the rowers feel?

Another important takeaway from this is that you can’t go on race-mode autopilot and forget about everything else. There were a fair number of strokes where it 7-seat’s blade wasn’t buried all the way and was washing out at the finish. For as often as the coxswain was looking over to port I was waiting for him to say something about it but he never did. There isn’t a rule barring you from calling out technical issues during a race – if something isn’t right you’ve gotta say something otherwise you’re giving away tiny amounts of speed to the other crews with every stroke that add up over the course of 2000 meters.

At 2:16 he says “two seats up on first place” … so, you’re in first place? A better thing to say would be “we’ve moved into first, two seats up on second”. Also, at the end they definitely stopped rowing before they crossed the finish line. The general rule of thumb is that you don’t call them down to paddle until you have crossed the line, that way you can sure that you’re actually over.

Other calls I liked:

“Time to find that next gear…”

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

College Coxing Q&A Teammates & Coaches

Question of the Day

By readyallrow June 6, 2013

Any words of advice for making the transition from coxing at the high school level to coxing in university? I had my first practice this week (the uni has a club program in the summer) and it’s safe to say that the practice was a little … rocky. Is this normal for the first practice? My coach was really great about it all, saying I have the whole summer to get up to speed and I made sure to take full responsibility for any errors or spotty bits in my communication so as not to start off poorly with the rowers (I’m a girl coxing the men’s team, by the way). But I guess I’m just worried about all the usual things … gaining respect, executing the workout and drills properly, meeting the rowers’ and coach’s expectations, etc. I could rant all day to you about this but I suppose it just comes down to: do I have too high expectations of myself in wanting things to go smoothly right off the bat? How long do you think it will take to get in the swing of things? Sorry if this question isn’t quite coherent.

It is normal I think because you’re coxing people that you don’t know (that well) and haven’t ever coxed before. There’s going to be that initial period in the beginning where things will be a little “off” because they’re getting used to your style, which is probably different than the way their previous coxswain did things, and you’re trying to figure out eight new people in addition to how to manage practice with a different coach. I wouldn’t worry about it too much. Once you get to know them and vice versa things will be fine. It’s great that your team has this summer program because, like your coach said, you’ve got all summer to hone your skills and get up to speed which means in the fall you’ll be 100% on top of your game.

Gaining respect comes with time. It can’t always be earned on the first day but it can definitely be lost there. Treat your rowers like you want to be treated, carry out your responsibilities appropriately, effectively, and diligently, own up to your mistakes when necessary, and remember that there are people around who are always willing to help you – all you have to do is ask.

Related: Respect

If you’re worried about the workouts or drills, see if you can meet up with one of your coaches one day to go over the drills they like to do. This would be great to do for two reasons – one, you find out what the drills are, how to do ones that you aren’t familiar with, and can get some basic insight on what the coach is specifically looking for with each one and two, it shows your coach you’re committed to the team, you want to be the best coxswain you can be for your boat, and that you’re willing to put the time and effort in off the water to get better on the water. I feel like people are afraid that something like this would make them look like a kiss-ass but from a coach’s perspective, my respect and level of trust in him/her would skyrocket.

In terms of expectations, wanting to meet the expectations of the rowers and coaches isn’t a bad thing. Just know that right off the bat, they have little to no expectations because they don’t know you. The coaches know you from recruiting (if you went through that process) so they have expectations based off what they’ve seen on paper but that’s all. In the fall, yea, they’ll have some that are more established but I don’t think it’s something you need to seriously concern yourself with right now. I don’t think wanting things to go right immediately means you have expectations that are too high but just remember that the expectations you consider to be reasonable may be considered too high by others. Your expectation of the boat has to be a combination of fifty other minor expectations, which I don’t think is something most coxswains realize. For now, you should have one expectation and that’s of yourself to go out each day and execute practice well. If you can get off the water saying that today was a good day, consider your expectations met. If you can’t say that, don’t necessarily chalk one up in the loss column right away. Instead think about why they weren’t met, what happened, what you can do differently, and then apply your realizations to tomorrow’s practice.

Depending on how often you’re practicing, I’d say give it a week or two. It’s not like you’re a novice learning how to cox for the first time – you already know how to do that. What you’re doing is getting used to coxing a new group of people while being coached by a new group of coaches. That takes time but it sounds like your coaches are really encouraging and I would assume willing to help you should you need it. For now, don’t stress yourself out over anything. The summer is supposed to be relaxing, regardless of what you’re doing. And crew, hard as you might/should be working, should always be enjoyable. Don’t ruin it by over-thinking things. Been there, done that, was 10x more miserable. Use this time to get to know your rowers and don’t be intimidated by them. Like I said earlier, treat them like you want to be treated, be friendly and approachable, spend time with them outside of practice, etc.

Coxing Q&A Racing

Question of the Day

By readyallrow June 4, 2013

Hello! I’m not great at estimating distances but I’m learning and getting better – but my coach told me and the other coxswains on the team that it is better to call the sprint early and then ask for 10 more strokes than to call it a little late and wonder what could have been (strokes used in the race). However, I always feel bad if I tell the rowers we have twenty strokes left when we actually have thirty. What do you think? Is my coach wrong or do I just need to suck it up? Thanks!!

I don’t think your coach is explaining this properly. He’s taking two separate things and explaining it like they’re one in the same. The sprint doesn’t have to do with a certain number of strokes – you’re calling it for a certain number of meters, like the last 250m or something (which is the start of the red buoys to the finish line). Some teams do X strokes at 36, X at 38, etc. for their sprint but they still start it when they cross the last 250. The “10 more strokes” thing comes in if you say “last 10 to the line (regardless of whether you’re sprinting or not)” but it ends up being not the last 10 to the line.

Related: Judging distance

As far as wondering “what could have been”, you’re going to wonder that after every race that doesn’t result in a gold medal. If you aren’t paying attention or “forget” to call the sprint at 250m, don’t call it until there’s 100m left, and then lose by a seat, yea, you’re going to really wonder what could have been.

There’s nothing for you to “suck up”, really. Just keep practicing. At some point or another every coxswain has said “last X strokes” and it’s actually be a few more or less than that. If you can nail it and have the last stroke happen just as your bow ball crosses, rock on, but it’s not an exact science and most of the time you are estimating and hoping you’re within a stroke of what you call for. If you say “last 10” and it ends up being the last 11, it’s not a huge deal. If you say “last 10” and it’s actually the last 20, that’s a bigger issue because by now you should have an idea of how far your boat travels in ten strokes and be able to guess when you’re that far away from the line. Plus, your rowers are trusting the fact that you can see where the line is since they can’t, so they assume that when you say “last 10” you really mean last 10. Like I said though, it comes with practice and consciously making an effort to gauge the distance you’ve traveled in ten strokes, twenty strokes, etc. when you’re out doing pieces.

Coxing Q&A Racing

Question of the Day

By readyallrow June 3, 2013

This kind of relates to the not being first off the start but my coxswain would always tell us not to walk, even if we could, until the sprint so that we would be sure we could hold it. She thought it made more sense and the majority of my boat agreed with her. I however think that if you can walk then you should walk, where ever you are in the race. We kind of saved it for the first thousand and then just went crazy in the second thousand and won our regional final but I think it would’ve been a much more clean and firm win had we walked in the first thousand like we could have. What do you think?

I disagree with her because I think if you don’t walk you’re potentially digging yourself into a hole that you might not be able to get out of by the time the last 250m rolls around. I assume by “hold it” she means to conserve your energy throughout the race so you can apply it all to the sprint. That reminds me of this scene from The Incredibles.

I’m the guy at 0:17.

I guess in the end the hardware is all that matters but I agree with you, it probably would have been a smoother race overall if you hadn’t held back at the beginning.

College Coxing Racing

It’s OK to not be in first place…

By readyallrow June 3, 2013

…coming off the starting line.

I was watching the NCAA Championships yesterday morning and was pleasantly surprised to see Ohio State dominate the V4+ and 2V races. (You can watch the full replay of yesterday’s races here. The V4+ race is at the 89:51 mark and the 2V race is at 109:11.) When I’m coxing, something that I like to do with my crews is get out ahead immediately. I would much rather defend a lead than work towards it – psychologically I just think there’s less hurdles to overcome when you start in the lead. Plus, it was just one of those things that all the coaches I’ve ever had have taught me. Both of Ohio State’s boats though, despite winning by 3 seconds and 2 seconds respectively, started behind. The V4+ started in fourth place and the 2V started in 3rd. As I was watching the races I noticed something: it seemed like both coxswains were content to not be in front off the line, like not being in first was OK … or something.

This got me thinking – both boats started behind but then dominated the field the rest of the way down the course. Maybe not being in first off the line is OK. By the time the 2V had reached the 500m mark, they were sitting in 3rd place, 0.65 seconds behind first. Right around the 1000m mark (2:45ish into the race), the coxswain made a call that resulted in the boat walking about a deck length in five(ish) strokes. From there, they were gone. Same with the V4+. They started back, worked their way up (effortlessly), and then refused to relinquish the top spot. I’m still a huge proponent of getting your bow in front right away and keeping it there but I also enjoy a good challenge. Being in front means you have a target on your back which only makes it easier for me to hunt you down, one by one by one.

The point is this: patience is everything. Be content to not necessarily be in front but don’t settle for that. When you’re coxing you want to give your crew small, achievable goals throughout the race with the ultimate one being to cross the line first. After the start (the full start, no sooner than 3ooish meters in), find out where you are in relation to the other crews and go from there. If you’re sitting in third, forget about the first place crew. Set your sights on second place and start taking the strokes you need to walk through them. Once you’ve absorbed them, put your focus on the first place crew. Once you’ve gotten through them, put your focus on pushing everyone else back and reeling the line in. Part of the reason why coxswains get frantic at the start when they’re behind is because they put all their energy into walking on the crew that’s way out ahead in first instead of the crew that’s only three seats ahead in second. If you maintain an aggressive composure, your boat will too.

Don’t panic if you don’t start quick off the line. Instead, focus on rowing smarter than the rest of the field and giving your crew all the information you have so they can put together the right combination of solid strokes to get their bow out front. And, like the announcer said during the V4+ race, it’s all about strategy. Some crews just aren’t good off the line but they’ve got a killer middle 1000. This is another spot where knowing your crew’s tendencies will be of huge benefit to you. If I had to throw out a guess, I think this was part of Ohio State’s strategy; come off the line solid but conserve the bulk of their power for the middle, which was where both crews started to break the rest of the field.

Image via // @rbcmsweeps

College Coxing Q&A Recruiting

Question of the Day

By readyallrow May 30, 2013

I’m a coxswain for my high school club’s men and women’s boats but since I’m closer to the men’s minimum weight I’ve been thinking of trying to get recruited as a coxswain for men. When I go on college sites to fill out recruitment questionnaires, since I’m a girl should I fill them out for the women’s team or the men’s team? So far I’ve just been filling out for women’s teams because it feels weird to do it for the “men’s crew”.

If you want to row for the men you need to fill out the recruiting questionnaires for the men’s team. If you fill them out for the women they’re going to assume that is who you want to cox for and might be annoyed when they say “yea come cox for us” and then find out you really want to be with the guys.

College Coxing Recordings

Coxswain Recordings, pt. 8

By readyallrow May 30, 2013

Marin Rowing Alumni 8+

This is just a short little snippet of what I assume was a practice row or something but I wanted to share it for two reasons. The first is how he calls the crew back down a beat at 0:14. Instead of saying “bring it down” or some other annoying phrase like that, he says “let’s relax together one beat…”. I like this because it just sounds more effective than “bring it down” but also because when you’re only trying to come down one beat, you don’t really need to change that much with the slides or speed through the water – all you’ve gotta do is relax a little.

The second reason is for how he calls the crew up two beats to a 32 (0:33) and 34 (0:54), especially the 34 one. I like how he calls “legs down boom” and “pump it” (or whatever he says … initially I thought he said “bop it” which made me think of that toy from the 90s) as they bring the rate up and then “sustain it” once they’ve hit it.

2012 University of Tennessee Practice

I can’t embed this video so you’ll have to click over to YouTube to watch it. It’s from one of Tennessee’s morning practices and has some good clips of warmups, steady state, pieces, etc. in it.

During the warmup/steady state at the beginning, one of the calls she makes is “distance per stroke by 6s”. This is usually what you’re going for when doing low-rate stuff and an easy way to see if you’re gaining or losing distance per stroke is by watching the puddles. Usually steady state pressure is when bow seat’s puddle is somewhere near the stern deck by the time you take the next stroke (it’s all relative based on the strength/experience of your crew) so it’s important to make sure you know the baseline for where your crew’s puddles usually end up after each stroke so you can gauge how the boat’s running.

For about 20 seconds between 2:20 and 2:40 she’s making some aggressive-ish calls related to the catch but a lot of the rowers are rowing it in and not matching up with what she’s asking for. This is largely on you – you’ve first gotta have a good understanding of the stroke and how what happens on the recovery (i.e. roll up timing) sets up the catch so you can make the necessary calls to ensure the catches are actually on point before you start making calls for how powerful they should be. Driving before the blade’s in the water is just wasted energy and speed.

At 4:55ish when she realizes there’s something on her skeg, she tells bow pair to drop out to stabilize the boat and then sticks her arm in the water to clear the skeg while stern six is still rowing. They’re not gonna be able to take good, clean, effective strokes when you’re throwing the set off by reaching under the boat so you might as well weigh enough for 10 seconds, clear the skeg, and then pick it back up. You should also not try to grab stuff out of the skeg while the boat’s moving anyways (you run the risk of hitting another piece of debris that smashes your fingers against it and slices them open – I’ve seen that happen and it is not pretty).

Overall I think this was some decent steady state. I think her tone was good but could have been a little more chill for the majority of the pieces; not every call needs to be so punch-y. I think as you’re coming into the end of a piece it’s OK to transition to a more race-y tone/style of coxing (even though you’re still doing steady state) but you should be building into that rather than this being your baseline tone throughout practice.

Other calls I liked:

“Every inch out of that finish…”

“Simple strokes, simple movements…”

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

Coxing How To Novice Teammates & Coaches

How (NOT) to piss off your rowers

By readyallrow May 28, 2013

Previously: Steer an eight/four || Call a pick drill and reverse pick drill || Avoid getting sick || Make improvement as a novice || Protect your voice || Pass crews during a head race || Be useful during winter training || Train when you’re sick (as a rower) || Train when you’re sick (as a coxswain) || Sit in the boat || Lose vs. how to win || Cox (and coach) novices

About two weeks ago I wrote a lengthy post in response to a question I got that basically asked what rowers do that piss off their coxswains and how they can avoid doing such things in the future. After putting that post together I wanted to give rowers the same opportunity to tell coxswains what they do that pisses them off.

Over the last week I’ve gotten even more feedback than I did for the first post (read into that however you want) and even though a lot of it is really obvious stuff, I think it all bears repeating, especially for novices who might not know to not do these things. The fact that it is so obvious though means that it should be an easy fix.

Keep repeating things that aren’t working

Meaning you’ve been saying “stop rushing” for about 10 minutes and everyone is still rushing. You need to be able to recognize the problem, say how they should fix it (which means you’ve got to have a solid understanding of technique), and what specific changes they need to make to get back on track. Repeating the same thing over and over is lazy, not to mention whatever you’re saying loses its meaning and leads to you getting tuned out.

Aren’t mindful of their weight or of athletes in their boat who are trying to make weight

Obviously no one’s saying that you shouldn’t eat or that you should hide all traces of food when the lightweights are around. What they’re saying is that it’s a real asshole move to stuff your face with food in a “haha I get to eat and you don’t, suckers” kind of way.

In that same vein, another thing that came up, regardless of whether you’re coxing lightweights or heavyweights, is not being aware of your own weight (or straight up not caring). I’ve talked about the issue of coxswains and weight before and the fact of the matter is, we are expected to be as light as possible because we are literally dead weight in the boat. It’s part of the job and a responsibility your teammates will expect you to take seriously (especially if you’re coxing lightweights).

Yell at the rowers for talking in the boat while you carry on an unnecessary conversation with the stroke seat

I talk pretty frequently about how you need to talk to your stroke seat and communicate with them throughout practice – obviously you should keep doing that. What this rower was getting at is that everyone else in the boat gets really irritated when you tell them to stop talking but then you immediately turn around and start talking with your stroke about stuff completely unrelated to practice.

While you’re on the water, try to keep everything focused on whatever you’re doing that day and not on anything that isn’t related to rowing. Along this same line, when you are talking to your stroke (or stern pair, really), don’t talk into the mic, regardless of whether you’re talking about rowing related stuff or not. It’s distracting to everyone else and can sometimes generate a lot of opinions on something that don’t really require everyone’s input. If you’re talking about something that effects the entire crew, talk about it with your stroke first (with the the volume off), determine what needs to happen, and then give the rest of the boat the pertinent information.

No aggression during races or pieces

The rowers feed on your energy and if you’re not engaged in what’s going on, how do you expect them to be? Don’t worry about sounding silly or stupid or whatever. If that’s how you feel about getting louder during pieces you’re probably in the wrong sport.

Getting distracted

You are the eyes and ears for eight other people – you can’t be ogling whatever is happening on shore or pointing out things that have nothing to do with practice. Stay focused and present in your boat.

Messing up the count or sides

Starboard is right, port is left. It’s OK if you accidentally skip a number – as in one – when you’re really into a piece and doing a power ten but that’s about all the leeway you get. I occasionally do it and I know it immediately but the rowers don’t tend to notice it because they’re focused on whatever I’m telling them to do. If you go from 4 to 7 though, that’s an issue.

An even bigger issue with messing up the count that someone brought up is calling “x” number of strokes to the line multiple times. Don’t. Just don’t. Start practicing judging distances while you’re at practice so that when you’re racing you can gauge how far you are from the line and call the final 20 appropriately.

Related: Judging distance

Talking down to the crew

This is the fastest way to lose the respect of your boat. Respect is a two way street and if you’re not willing to give it, you sure as hell can’t expect to receive it. You’re not perfect and as much as we’d like to think we don’t, we make mistakes too.

Being a coxswain requires a lot of self-control too because it’s easy to get an ego when you’re 14 or 15 years old and you’re given the responsibility and power that comes with being a coxswain. We all have shitty practices but it’s never any one person’s fault. It’s not your right or place to act like the quality of practice or a race rests solely on the shoulders of the rowers.

Related: Words

Not giving or withholding info about the race

You have to relay to the crew what is happening during the race, specifically and most importantly where they are, how far in they are, and how many meters are left. They don’t want to feel like they’re rowing an endless race because eventually their minds are going to give out. You have to keep their brains in the game (or race, rather) and tell them what’s happening. Withholding info because you think it’ll bring them down doesn’t help either. If they’re down, tell them. They don’t want to know that they’re not in first, obviously, but at the same time, they do.

Blaming the rowers for your mistakes

“Big mistake. Big. HUGE.” If you make a mistake, who cares? Admit it, learn from it, don’t do it again. There’s never an excuse to blame something you did wrong on someone in your boat.

Have boat meetings to discuss what to call during a race and then not calling what the rowers asked for

There’s a simple way to avoid this: write. everything. down. Try to hold these meetings ahead of time (at least a day or two before the race) so you can start incorporating the calls when you do practice pieces, that way it becomes ingrained into your “muscle memory”. If you can’t do that, write it on a post-it note and tape it beside your cox box. If you ask your rowers to tell you what they want and then you ignore it, that’s going to cause a rift. Saying “oh I forgot” isn’t an excuse either because, like I said, you can easily write it all down and bring it into the boat with you.

Being indecisive

Commit to something. Don’t debate and go back and forth because each time you do it, the confidence your boat has in you goes down exponentially. They want to know that you have control over the situations you’re in and if you’re constantly questioning yourself or what you should be doing, that makes it hard for them to focus on what they should be doing. It’s better to commit to running into a bridge than to debate back and forth and then hit it because you couldn’t decide which side to pass the pier on.

Letting rowers walk all over you

Pretty self-explanatory, I think. You’re expected to act like and be a leader, which means being assertive and, like I said in the post about respect, not inviting contradiction.

Related: RESPECT

Checking the boat to get a point while people are rowing

Whoever sent this, bless you. Seriously though, who taught you this?! If you do this, stop. You have cables attached to a rudder for a reason. Use them to steer and get a point while you’re moving, not the rowers.

“Be pompous assholes.”

The Napoleon-God complex thing is just a joke, guys. Don’t take it literally.

In addition to these things, I would encourage talking with your individual boats and asking them if there’s something you do that they’d prefer you didn’t. Don’t take what they say personally – remember, it’s coming from a helpful place. If your rowers aren’t comfortable saying stuff to your face, talk to your coach about doing regular coxswain evaluations so the rowers can anonymously provide you with some (presumably more honest) feedback.

Image via // @theboatsmancompany

Coxing Novice Q&A Teammates & Coaches

Question of the Day

By readyallrow May 28, 2013

Hi! So sometimes my coach will send out my four (bow loaded) with two 20 minute pieces where for 10 minutes there is a certain rate and then the other 10 minutes another rate. My coach normally won’t come out with us or will focus on other boats. I get really annoyed because I’m a novice and all the rowers are varsity so obviously they want feedback on their rowing but I can’t see them nor do I know what they’re doing wrong. I feel bad because during these pieces I won’t talk I’ll just say the rate and time and I can tell they’re getting annoyed and they feel like they’re not getting any better. Do you have any suggestions on what to say and how to keep talking the entire time?

Before going out, talk to your coach about what they want you to focus on that day. Get specifics. Ask them what they want the rowers to be working on, what the changes are they need to make, etc. Write all of that down and then when you’re on the water, make calls based off of that. Even though you can’t see the rowers you can still remind them of what they should be working on. It puts the bug in their ear.

Talk to the rowers. What do they want/need to hear? What specifically about their rowing do they know they need to work on and how can you help them/what can you say that would remind them to do or not do X, Y, and/or Z?

Also work on feeling the boat. Being in a bow loader puts you in a much better position to feel what’s going on compared to when you’re in an eight. When they do something right, what does that feel like? When they’re doing something wrong and you call for a change, what does that feel like? If you know what it feels like when someone is rushing, you can call for a ratio shift or whatever without guessing if that’s what you need to do.

Related: Boat feel

Don’t just say the rate either. Rowers hate – hate – when the only thing their coxswain says is “24. *five minutes later* 24 1/2.” Remind them to stay long, relax the recoveries, push and send, lift the hands into the catch, lighten up the seats, accelerate through the finish, breathe, jump on the first inch, no hesitation around the corner, keep the chins, eyes, shoulders, and chests up, engage the legs, etc. Throw in a 5 or 10 every minute for whatever – maximizing the run, cleaning up the releases, sharper catches, etc.

I would also talk to your coach and ask them if they’d mind spending some more time with you guys because as a novice there’s only so much you can do, especially with no instruction, and the boat feels as if they’re hitting a plateau because they aren’t getting any coaching. At the very least, ask them to give you specific things to focus on while you’re out instead of just saying “go do 2×20 minutes, have fun!”.

Coxing Novice Q&A

Question of the Day

By readyallrow May 26, 2013

Tips on teaching new coxswains? So far I’m trying to let them make as many decisions by themselves (i.e pick a side to touch if we want to turn & if its wrong they can just change rather than telling them) & explaining why we do specific calls, but beyond that I’m not quite sure what to say to them. I don’t want to be too demanding but I want them to be really confident moving the boat too!

With regards to picking a side to touch, you should be telling them which way to push the strings if you want to go one way or the other because it’s a huge waste of time if they have to constantly keep adjusting their point because they went the wrong way. It’s never “just” changing, there’s a lot that goes into it. Steering as a novice can be hard and trying to process how to fix it, especially if no one’s told you what to do in the first place, is a recipe for disaster or at the very least, a really irritated and overwhelmed coxswain. This isn’t to say that you should be holding their hand and telling them what to do every step of the way every time you’re out on the water, but you do need to thoroughly go over everything with them before you go out and then once you’re out, remind them every so often for the first week or so if you notice they’re doing the opposite of what they should be doing. Letting them make and learn from their mistakes is fine but they need that initial bit of instruction to go off of.

I’d suggest writing the basics down, photocopying it, and then distributing it to them to read before the season starts. How to get the boat on and off the water, how to steer, the calls you use, etc., that way they can start to learn the stuff before they get on the water. I find it’s better to get acquainted with that kind of stuff before you have to use it vs. trying to learn it as you do it. Give them small tasks to do that lets them test the leadership waters – run warmups, supervise a certain 8+ being loaded onto the trailer, etc. so they can get comfortable leading groups of people. Observe them and then tell them what they did well and what they can do better on next time – i.e. speak louder, give specific people specific tasks, be more confident when giving instructions (no stuttering or stammering), etc.

Something that’s also important is to explain their role in the boat and on the team. I don’t mean the “you’re the short person that yells and tells people what to do” version, I mean the “as the leader of the crew, the rowers rely on you for technical feedback and encouragement, the coaches rely on you to be the ‘middle man’ between them and the rowers, and the team relies on you to be a leader who is able to delegate, foster cooperation, and be a ‘jack of all trades’ to do whatever is needed to ensure the team’s success” version. If they know right off the bat that these are the expectations of them by their coaches and teammates they can start to “buy in” to the position a little bit faster than if they just went through the motions of making calls, telling people what to do, and being loud.

I would caution though that unless you’re a coach or a varsity coxswain, try to avoid telling the novice coxswains what to do. From observation and reading a lot of the emails and messages I get, novice coxswains tend to find it confrontational, intimidating, and not helpful when rowers start telling them what to do. When you’re on the water, the only person who should be talking to the coxswain is the stroke (and coach, obviously) and even then, the stroke needs to issue restraint and not butt in too much.