Category: High School

Question of the Day

By readyallrow May 5, 2015

Hey! Our eight boat leaks really badly but there are no recognizable holes or scratches so the bottom of the boat fills up with about three inches of water at the end of every practice, making it really heavy and hard to get out of the water. Also it’s a really old boat so it is really heavy as it is. The group that rows in that boat is made up of entirely high school freshmen girls who are new to the sport of rowing either during the fall season or even as soon as three weeks ago. Our coach really wants us to learn how to carry the boat with only 8 people but it is nearly impossible, even for the varsity girls. Is it justified for us to ask for a couple more people to help lift and carry it? And is there any way to fix a boat where nothing seems to be wrong? Thanks!

I totally get why your coach wants you to be able to carry the boat with just eight people but I see your point too. When I was coaching my high school team last year (and when I was on the team) we would use this hilarious old wooden four during practice that was so heavy and such a pain in the ass to lift, especially when the women using it were all 110lb novices. For the first few weeks we’d always have a couple extra people help them out with carrying it but eventually they were able to do it themselves.

Ultimately though it comes down to one really simple yes or no question – can you lift and carry the boat with eight people without risking the integrity of the equipment and/or the safety of the rowers? If not then you should either ask to use a different boat until you can figure out what’s wrong with this one or ask a few other people to help you carry it. By a few other people I mean like two at most, simply because you do have to get used to carrying it without the extra help and it’s harder to do that when you’ve got four or six additional people on there.

I don’t know nearly enough about boat building or repair to know what could be causing the leaking issues, let alone how to fix something like that. The only thing that comes to mind is the vent caps not being closed (or at the very least not being closed all the way) and water getting in through there but I feel like that’s a really simple/obvious issue that someone probably would have noticed by now. If anyone has any ideas or has dealt with something similar, please leave a comment! Your best bet though (and by “your” I mean your coach since that’s his/her responsibility) would probably be to contact whoever the manufacturer is and get their opinion/advice. It might come down to the boat’s age being the issue but if it’s something that can be fixed then the boat reps would definitely be able to tell you what needs to be done.

Coxing High School Q&A Training & Nutrition

Question of the Day

By readyallrow April 12, 2015

Hey! I love your blog. I have a couple of quick questions.

1) I have been rowing bow (port) in our starboard stroked bow-loader four boat. When ever we start to row and get to the drive part of the stroke my left ankle keeps cramping up and I was wondering if you had any way to stop this from happening?

2) Like I said before, I row bow and because our coxswain doesn’t have a cox box, nobody but me can hear her when she is facing forward (the way she is supposed to be looking) so she often turns towards us and the coach keeps telling her to turn around, but then the problem is that nobody can hear her. The girl who coxed this boat last season was really good at projecting her voice but the new cox is not. Do you have any advice for her?

3) I was looking at your what to wear blog posts and I was wondering what you think rowers should wear in the rain?

4) I hate running, I always cramp up two steps in and can’t breathe by the thirty second mark. My coach is really into running and running stairs. I don’t want to be that person who doesn’t run with everybody else because I don’t like it, but do you have any advice about making running less painful?

5) What is a good snack to have right before practice if it starts at 3 or 4 and goes till 6, but lunch is at 11:30? I always get so hungry right in the middle of pieces!

Sorry this is so long! Thanks!

The only thing that I can think of that could be causing this is the position of your foot stretchers. If the angle is too steep or too shallow then that could be putting a weird amount of stress on your tendons, causing your ankle to cramp up. I’d mention it to your coach and see if he can look at the stretchers to see if that’s the problem. If it’s not then it’s probably a flexibility issue. You should be stretching before practice for at least 10 minutes so if you’re not I’d start doing that, even if it means doing it on your own. Ankle pushes are a stretch our guys do that might help – it’s basically a mini-squat where you stand on one leg and bend your knee about 30 degrees or so until you feel a stretch up through your Achilles before pushing back up. (If you don’t have very good balance you can find a wall to put your hand(s) on to help keep you stable.)

Your coxswain needs a cox box. Obviously it’s not your responsibility to make that happen but seriously, I really don’t understand how coaches can send coxswains out without one and think they’re going to have a worthwhile and effective practice, let alone a safe one. Telling everyone to just listen is all well and good until you factor in the noise from the oarlocks, the boat moving through the water, the slides, the launch, the wind, car traffic, etc. Being in a bowloader also presents the issue of the coxswain’s voice not going straight at the rowers (like it does in an eight) which makes it even harder for them to hear what they’re saying. Even a perfectly silent crew would have a hard time hearing their coxswain in that situation. It’s not safe being out without one, plain and simple. To answer your question, the only advice I have is to find a cox box. I know that’s not the most helpful answer but that’s really the only solution to the problem.

When you’re rowing in the rain you’ve basically gotta accept that you and your clothes are going to get wet no matter what (which really isn’t that much different than a normal day on the water…). As long as you’re not wearing cotton, which is pretty much the worst thing you can wear while rowing regardless of the weather, you can pretty much wear exactly what you’d wear on an otherwise “dry” day. If you’ve got a splash jacket that you can throw on to at least keep your core warm and mostly dry(ish) then that’s a good thing to do if you know it’s going to be raining during practice. Like I said though, unless it’s just sprinkling it’s not a matter of if you’ll get wet but when.

It sounds like you’re just out of shape. (I only say that because I know I’m out of shape and that’s how I feel too.) It’s just like steady state on the erg though, the better developed your cardio system gets the “easier” it is. You’ve just gotta push through it and keep going. Feeling winded is obviously a natural side effect of being out of shape (even people who are incredibly fit get winded at the start if they haven’t worked out for a week or two) but it could also be a result of asthma (speaking from experience, this is the worst…). Even if this isn’t something you’ve been diagnosed with before it’s worth checking in with your doctor just to be sure you haven’t developed it. I had several friends in high school who were all incredible athletes but all developed some form of asthma that wasn’t diagnosed by their doctors until they started training for crew.

I used to always leave a box of granola bars in my car that I could grab before practice so if you’re a fan of Clif bars then I’d definitely recommend buying a box or two and stashing them in your car, your locker, etc. so you can grab one before you leave school or on your way to practice. Bananas, PB + apples, a bagel, yogurt + fruit + granola, etc. are all tasty options too.

Coxing High School Q&A Teammates & Coaches

Question of the Day

By readyallrow April 10, 2015

Okay so I just need someone else’s opinion other than my coaches and rowers. So I am a dude coxswain for a girls boat for all 4 years of high school, but now I feel like they don’t respect me anymore. They don’t listen when I say hands on or they complain and talk back. We did awful in our first race and now I don’t know what to do. The guys are begging me to cox them and they are winning races. Do I stick with the girls and finish off my high school career or go for the gold with the guys?

Being a guy that’s coxing girls is tough no matter how long you’ve been doing it. I’m curious why things have suddenly changed in your last season together though. I assume you’ve tried talking with them one-on-one or as a boat to figure out what’s going on … ? If not I’d get on that. You need to figure out what the actual problem is, the part you’re playing in all this, etc. and start fixing it like, ASAP. The problem you’ve got is that with a month and a half (give or take) until the end of the year it would look kinda shitty if you suddenly jumped ship and left them for the guys team. On the flip side though, it’s not worth it for you to keep coxing them if the relationship is beyond repair, so to speak, and you (potentially) have a better shot at having a good season by switching over. (Obviously it’s not fair to the rowers either if things aren’t working out – they deserve a chance at a good season too.)

One thing you have to be careful with (and something that might be alienating you from the women, which is why they’re not listening to you) is getting too caught up in the “grass is greener on the other side” mentality and making it super obvious through your attitude that even though your body is in their boat, you’re not really all there because you’d rather be with the guys. If they hear the guys “begging” you to cox them and you not saying “sorry, I’ve already got a boat” that’s gonna make them question your loyalty and in turn become less loyal towards you.

This is definitely a tough decision but I think the deciding factor is going to come down to you having a conversation with your boat and figuring out whether or not you can all work together to finish out the season. Hopefully everyone is just stressed and there isn’t a bigger issue bubbling away under the surface but you won’t know unless you ask. You also have to consider whether or not there’s a coxswain on the women’s side that can replace you. My guess is if there isn’t and you decide to switch your coach/rowers will be super pissed (which may or may not bother you) for leaving them hanging. If you’re in a position where there’s someone who can easily transition into your boat and after talking with your rowers things don’t look like they’re going to improve, talk it over with your coach and see what your options are. If there isn’t someone that could take your place and cox that boat at an equal or higher level than you currently are then you should really consider sticking with them and working out whatever issues you’re having. Unless you’re planning on coxing in college and really need the time/experience in a boat that runs like a well-oiled machine, I think it’s better to stay with the women. You have to think about what you want out of your last season but you also have to consider what’s best for the team and unfortunately those two things don’t always line up.

Keep in mind, my answer is based only on what I assume is a very small part of much larger story. If I knew all the details my opinion might be completely different. I just think that given the short amount of time that is left in the school year and the fact that you’ve already spent four years together, it just makes sense to work out whatever issues you have so you can make your boat go fast. That doesn’t mean you all have to like each other, just that you have to respect what each person is bringing to the table. If you feel like you’ve lost their respect, figure out why/how and start doing something different.

Coxing High School Q&A Teammates & Coaches

Question of the Day

By readyallrow April 7, 2015

I was a coxswain for the fall season for high school novice crew because I was coming off surgery but I ended up falling in love with coxing. My rowers (one in particular) told me off a couple times for not doing anything and I talked to her about it and she stopped after I started doing the erg workouts with the team. I did the workouts with the rest of the team before we got on the water this spring but then my coach told me that I was too tall to be a coxswain any more. I am 5’3-5’4isn but I am still growing. I kind of want to go back to coxing but I don’t know how to tell my coach that and I don’t want to take the possibility of coxing a boat away from anybody else.

There are few things I understand less than the decision-making process of most coaches when it comes to choosing their coxswains. Nearly every female coxswain I’ve known (regardless of whether they’re coxing men or women) is between 5’3″ and 5’5″.. There’s the odd outlier that’s shorter or taller than that but the average is definitely around there. I don’t know why your coach thinks that’s too tall. If you really want to get into it, height doesn’t matter at all for coxing. Does it make it easier to cox when you’re short? Duh – have you seen the seats we sit in? Does it make more sense for someone who needs to hover around 110lbs/125lbs to be on the shorter side? Yes. In the grand scheme of things though, as long as you’re close to racing weight and are a good coxswain, your height should literally be the farthest thing from your coach’s mind. (Just look at male coxswains – our male coxswain is 5’6″, I know two other guys who are 5’8″, the V8+ coxswain at Northeastern is 5’10”, the national team coxswain is 5’9″…)

If you want to keep coxing then meet with your coach and make your case. Highlight the stuff you think you’ve done well and have improved at since you started and why you think you would be a good addition to a boat this season. Keep it simple. If your coach is open to giving you another shot, have at it. If he’s still stuck on the idea that you’re too tall then see if you can compromise and be a “spare” coxswain on days when someone can’t make it to practice, is sick, etc. A lightweight rower I know who started out as a coxswain for three years in high school did that last year when he was recovering from a shoulder injury and it helped his team a lot since they were short on actual coxswains.

Ergs High School Q&A Training & Nutrition

Question of the Day

By readyallrow April 2, 2015

Hi! I am a High School senior lightweight rower who recently got back from injury and I 2k-tested a couple of days ago in which I pulled a 6:50 (my pr is 6:48) and I am really looking forward to lowering my 2k. I heard doing a lot of ss is good but my question is when is a lot of ss is not good? Because I don’t want to overtrain my body. I am also planning in doing ss everyday so I would like to know what type of workouts would work?

Check out both of the posts linked below, they should answer your question and give you some ideas on different kinds of pieces to do.

To summarize both of those, 45-60 minutes is roughly what you should be aiming for. If you wanna mix it up and bike instead of erg then you can do a 75-90 min bike (broken up into chunks, like 3×25, 2×30, or something like that) at 75%-ish of your max HR. (I don’t often see our guys when they’re on the bike but this is the range that I think most people shoot for). How often you do it depends on your team’s training schedule – you can definitely overdo it if you’re trying to do that much extra work on top of two practices a day but since you’re in high school you probably won’t have to worry about that.

We practice primarily in the morning for two hours and will eventually add in one afternoon technical row each week but outside of that in the afternoons/evenings the guys have two lifts per week and on the other days they have captains practices where they erg, bike, or row in the tanks. If you practice in the afternoon then you might want to do your workout in the morning before school (yea it means waking up earlier and that’s never fun but you do what you gotta do). I wouldn’t do a steady state workout every day though – maybe 3x a week at most right now.

Related: How to prepare for a 2k test

Issues with overtraining tend to arise when you fail to give your body an adequate amount of recovery time. Give yourself a few hours between when your team is practicing and when you’re doing your own workouts (the minimum that I’ve heard several coaches say is four hours), make sure you’re taking at least one full day off per week (this is necessary for your muscles to recover and get stronger), and make sure you’re fueling yourself properly (which I talked about in the post linked above).

College Coxing High School Novice

Some things to know as a novice coxswain

By readyallrow March 3, 2015

One of the most frequent emails I get from novice coxswains is some form of “I’m new, tell me everything I need to know, kthxbyeee“. Well, first of all, I can’t do that because everything you need to know isn’t always (or ever, really) at the tip of my tongue and even if I could, you’d remember maaaybe 5% of it. Second of all, stop it, it’s really hard to help you if you ask super general questions like that. Like, I understand that you’re clueless about this stuff but you’ve gotta narrow down your cluelessness to a few specific things at a time.

About a year ago someone posted a thread on Reddit asking “what are some things a novice coxswain should know” and then specified by saying “what are some things that I should learn, bring, and do to carry out my job better?”. I initially wasn’t going to reply because, as you can probably tell, generalized questions really irritate me but I liked the follow-up question so I responded with the following three pieces of advice:

Learn

The drills the coaches like to do before you get in the boat. This means asking them directly what the drills are, what their purpose is, what you should be focusing on when you do them, etc. Talk to the experienced coxswains about how to call them. Bring a notebook and write it all down because you. will. not. remember it if you don’t and then you’ll have wasted everyone’s time.

The names of the people in your boat and what seat they’re in. This might change day to day but it’s your responsibility to know who is where before you get on the water. Calling people by their seat number kinda gives off the impression that you don’t really care enough to learn their names or who’s in what seat.

How to keep your personal relationships with the rowers off the water and outside of practice. (Elaborated a bit on that here.) On the water and at practice you’re not their friend or enemy, you’re their coxswain. That means that you need to learn how to treat everyone equally regardless of your relationship with them (positive or negative).

Bring

A positive, “let’s get shit done” attitude every day, even on the days when you feel like shit.

A recorder every single day you’re on the water. Listening to yourself and getting feedback from others is how you improve.

One more layer (for top and bottom) than you think you’ll need and a waterproof jacket and pair of pants to put over everything. You’re stationary for pretty much the entire duration of practice which means you’re going to get colder faster than everyone else. You can always take layers off if you get too hot but you can’t put on what you don’t have. The waterproof stuff is great even when it’s not raining because inevitably there will be some splashing, waves if it’s windy, etc. In May when it’s warmer it’s not such a big deal but you don’t want to be sitting in the coxswain’s seat, not moving, with wet clothes on.

Carry (in something like this, this, or this)

A notebook (and writing implement of your choice). Before you go out, write down the lineup and get the workout (or at the very least, the warmup) from the coach. Ask questions and take notes on anything you don’t know/understand once they give it to you. After practice is over, write a quick summary on how it went, what you did, what did you specifically work on (calls, steering, etc.), etc. When you get home, go through it again and fill in any details that you didn’t write down before. Refer back to this frequently so you can see the trends with your boat(s), keep track of any technique issues that individual rowers have problems with (and how/what to say to fix them), etc.

A 7/16 wrench because you never know when a nut and/or bolt will need to be tightened.

Spare band-aids, alcohol swabs, Neosporin, and athletic tape because when rowers get a blister they rival toddlers in their ability to whine incessantly so having stuff on hand to take care of them will just make your life easier.

Something else that someone said that I think is especially important to learn and internalize early on in your career is that yelling as loud as you can is not the same as having authority or being a leader. You’re not automatically a “leader” just because you’re named a coxswain – it’s something you have to embrace and grow, nay mature, into and negatively embracing the Napoleon complex mindset is only going to hurt you.

In that same vein, don’t be that coxswain (or rower) that tries to rally your teammates against the coach because you think after three or four weeks you suddenly know more than us. Everyone has their own leadership style that they grow into with time and experience so don’t dig yourself into a hole right off the bat by assuming that everyone will look up to you just because you yell loud and tell them what to do.

That pretty much covers the basics but if you want to know more, check out these posts.

Making improvements as a novice coxswain

Body language, coxing, etc.

Steering and docking

Earning respect and how not to piss off your rowers

Basic gear for novice coxswains

Image via // @rowingrelated

College High School Rowing

2015 Summer Camps

By readyallrow March 3, 2015

So I did things a bit differently this year and posted everything in a spreadsheet in an attempt to keep it all a bit more organized and easier to find/read. You can find it here. There are a few programs not on there yet because they haven’t posted their 2015 stuff but when they do I’ll update the spreadsheet and link to it here.

A couple quick notes…

Camps are color-coded and divided into the regions where they’re located, that way it’s easier to see what camps are offered near where you live. All the camps I have info on so far are listed on the first tab titled “2015 SUMMER CAMPS”. The individual tabs that follow include the location, dates, cost, website, any social media links belonging to the hosting team/program, and any reviews that I got from you guys.

“Experienced” in the context of these camps implies that you’ve been rowing for at least one full year. Doing a learn to row camp in the spring but not actually training and racing does not make you an experienced rower/coxswain. If your school only has a spring season or that’s the only time you can participate due to playing another sport in the fall then you should be OK but you can always email the camp directors to make sure.

A lot of the camps are not cheap but you shouldn’t let that deter you from reaching out to the coaches and inquiring about whether or not they offer some kind of financial assistance if you’re interested in attending but aren’t sure if you can afford it.

There are a couple programs in here for college-aged rowers (Thompson Boat Club’s open men/women and Penn AC’s U23 team) so if you’re looking to row over the summer check out those two programs.

Keep in mind that some of these camps require rowing resumes, erg scores, letters of recommendation from your coaches, etc. to be submitted when you apply. Make sure you’re aware of which programs ask for that so you don’t send in an incomplete registration.

I hope all that helps you start narrowing down your plans for this summer. Let me know if you have any questions or know of a camp that hasn’t been added yet. Also, feel free to email me if you’ve been to one of the camps that doesn’t have any reviews as I’d really like to get something posted for each one.

Click here to view the 2015 Summer Camps spreadsheet.

Coxing High School Q&A

Question of the Day

By readyallrow February 26, 2015

Hi, I’m a first year junior girls light weight rower for my school team and I would like to eventually become a coxswain. Right now I weight 119 lbs & I’m 5’3.8 feet tall. My coach used to be a coxswain and she’s not the most approachable person so she’s not someone I want to talk to about this yet. I can afford to lose weight but what do you recommend ? Should I just stay a rower?

It’s really up to you. At your height/weight you could really do either one. If you’re already rowing then you could always finish out the spring season and then transition to coxing in the fall. If you can get some experience coxing over the summer at a learn-to-row camp or something then that might make it a little easier to approach your coach since you’ll at least have a little bit of experience under your belt.

The only way I’d say you should “just stay a rower” is if you don’t want to talk to your coach at all about this. She’s not going to magically assume you want to try coxing unless you say something though. My advice would be to row this season then try coxing over the summer when things are a bit more relaxed and if you decide you like it, talk to her maybe a week or so before school starts to see if you can cox full-time.

College Coxing High School Teammates & Coaches Training & Nutrition

Mental health + rowing

By readyallrow February 24, 2015

This week, Feb. 22nd – 28th, is National Eating Disorder Awareness Week. I’ve talked about eating disorders on here before and wanted to link those posts here for those of you who haven’t seen them before or for those who might want to revisit them again.

National Eating Disorder Awareness Week: Intro

Eating disorders defined + explained

Warning signs + symptoms

Coxswains

Lightweight Rowing

Your experiences

More so than probably any other set of posts on the blog, I think I’m most proud of these ones because of the discussion/realizations that they sparked. It was scary when I got so many emails initially saying “I have an eating disorder, I’ve been dealing with it for awhile” or “That describes me, I know I have bad habits when it comes to food, I think this might be me, what do I do?” because eating disorders aren’t something you mess around with. There’s obviously a huge mental component to it and with the stigma around mental health issues in the US it’s no wonder why so many people don’t know where to turn or what to do.

I remember spending a good deal of time thinking “Oh shit, what did I get myself into” when I first wrote those posts because I didn’t want to say the wrong thing or give the wrong advice but I learned really quickly that what a lot of the people needed was someone to talk to and just some genuine encouragement to seek help. It’s been so exciting to hear back from a lot of those people and hear them say that they did talk to their coaches, parents, doctors, teammates, etc. and are working on normalizing their relationship with food and their bodies. That alone takes more willpower and strength than any 2k you’ll ever pull.

Below I’m posting an excerpt from an email I got at the beginning of the year from a rower-turned-coxswain who has really motivated me to make sure that I’m doing my part to keep this discussion alive.

“You were the first one that I confessed to after my coaches. Things have gotten worse (broken foot, plus being put in the B boat and freaking out forever until we won the second novice race) and better (not being able to work out sucks and I already eat healthy – sometimes borderline orthorexia), my weight is nerve-wracking and anxiety-inducing still, and everything still feels “off” (energy levels, thyroid, mood, ability to lose weight is nonexistent I swear it drives me crazy) – but that’s definitely a byproduct of almost seven years of disordered eating. And after talking to you and feeling your understanding and support, I was brave enough to open up to so many other people in my life who have been incredibly supportive.

Thank you for always reminding us to take care of ourselves. Whenever I start to slip up and make bad decisions the NEDA week posts are my go-to reading. Your frank, honest attitude and advice about telling people who make those insensitive comments to your readers are so refreshing and they always remind me to take care of myself. When I freak out about weighing more than the four (for two boats!) other, shorter coxswains on my team and losing my spot, you always remind me that I cannot steer and motivate a boat if I do not take care of myself. Thank you for always, always, stressing your advice with weight with “healthy” and “sensible” and “obligatory reading.” Because sometimes you don’t want to admit your darkest parts to yourself until someone else makes you face them.”

Coaches, I really encourage you to talk about these issues with your teams (regardless of whether you coach men or women) because this stuff is real. There are probably rowers and coxswains on your team right now who are dealing with an eating disorder or walking that fine line between trying to be healthy and experiencing disordered eating. If you’re not comfortable doing it, reach out to a nutritionist at a local hospital or within the athletic department and have them come talk to the team. Trust me, it’s worth losing 45 minutes of practice time for. I’ve said this a thousand times but part of being a good teammate is looking out for each other. If you think that one of your teammates might be dealing with something like this, don’t jump the gun and accuse them because when has that ever been a logical and successful approach? Instead, just let them know that if they need someone to talk to you’re there if they need anything. More often than not that’s all it takes, just knowing that someone is willing to listen without being judgmental.

And on that note I also wanted to link back to this post on suicide awareness. Last week the rowing community lost a high school rower named Draven Rodriguez. Some of you might know him as “laser cat meme guy“, others of you might know him as a teammate and member of Shenendehowa Crew. I remembered reading the story about the yearbook and his cat (seriously though, how great is that picture…) last year but I didn’t know he was a rower until this weekend when someone messaged me on Tumblr about it. They said they didn’t know him personally but as a fellow 17 year old rower they were upset and shocked and didn’t know how to react.

I’ve never known anyone who’s died (at least not that I’ve been close enough to that would evoke some kind of response) so I don’t really know how to react in situations like this either. I think the only thing you can really do is use this to reinforce to yourself that everybody’s got their own shit that they’re dealing with and you never truly know how someone is feeling at any given moment. Be supportive of your teammates, even the ones you might not be friends with, and if you’re going through something find someone you trust to talk to about it. You can always email me of course (sometimes it’s a lot easier to talk to someone who doesn’t know you personally … I totally get that) but I would encourage you to reach out to someone at home too, whether it’s a sibling, parent, coach, friend, teammate, teacher, etc. just so that you have a support system nearby if/when you need it.

I know that this is a pretty random post and not at all about rowing or coxing but like I said earlier, I think we all have a responsibility to do our part in eliminating the stigma that surrounds these issues by talking about it with our teams and teammates. I encourage all of you to read the posts I’ve linked to in here and find some small way to do your part, either by making the decision to seek help if you need it or by reaching out to a teammate who might be having a hard time. At the end of the day, all of this is a lot bigger than crew and I hope reading through all of this helps to hammer that point home.

Image via // @rowinginmainz

Coxing High School Racing Recordings

Coxswain Recordings, pt. 29

By readyallrow February 19, 2015

Capital Crew 2014 San Diego Crew Classic Men’s Junior 8+ Grand Final

One thing that I think every coxswain can always work on is being calm when they’re down on other crews. He does a really good job of just telling the crew where they are without freaking out about it. This is one of the things I really like about the George Washington recordings too – he doesn’t let the place they’re sitting in phase him or have any kind of effect on the delivery of his calls. Keith, the coxswain in this recording, is the same way. Having a coxswain like that is a huge advantage for a crew because if the coxswain is calm, the crew is calm and when the crew is calm they can be downright dangerous.

Right off the bat, I really like how he calls the first few strokes of the start. It’s very rhythmic which is great because it helps the crew establish the boat’s rhythm almost immediately vs. the start just being an all out clusterfuck and the crew not getting into any kind of sustainable rhythm until 20-30 strokes in. You shouldn’t be saying anything about the other crews during your high strokes though (like he does about 20 seconds in). Focus on your own boat and tell them where the other boats are once you’ve finished your entire starting sequence (start and settle to base pace). Telling them anything before that means nothing because it’s all moving so quick that who’s up and who’s down can literally change every other stroke. Give it at least 200m before you say anything.

At 1:18 he makes tells them that they’re “sitting in 6th place right now…”, which … not that sitting in sixth in the grand final is bad or anything but it’s always good to try and spin it positively so the rowers don’t get discouraged or frantic or whatever. If you’ve got contact on all the boats a call like “sitting in sixth, we’re in this…” is always a reliable go-to. Similarly, one like this also works well: “Sitting in sixth right now, [position on crews X, Y, and Z], we got plenty of water to work with, plenty of time to walk into these guys. Let’s relax and focus on getting our catches in one stroke at a time…”

I’m a huge proponent of calls where you’re calling out a specific rower and saying “you lead this”, which is what he does at 2:20 when they take a five and he tells one of the rowers to lead the send in the boat. If your 3-seat has been working on being direct to the water during practice and you call a five for sharp catches, tell your 3-seat to lead that five. Make the connection between who’s been working on what during practice and incorporate that into your calls. Same goes for power – if your middle four has some nasty ergs, call on them to lead the charge and use their 6:10s or 5:50s or whatever to move the boat.

Overall this is a really good piece. I like how he uses his voice, mainly by smoothly changing his volume and/or tone to fit the situation, and how he uses the rowers and almost gets them to work off of each other by saying “you lead this”, “X, pass it up to Y”, etc. He also does a really good job of keeping the crew informed of their position on the course and against the other crews. I can’t say this enough guys, do not underestimate the importance of your crew knowing their location at any given point during the race. It’s like free motivation, so you might as well take it and use it.

Other calls I liked:

“Gimme give together … smile … and light ’em up…”

“Get hungry boys…”

Oregon Rowing Unlimited 2003 San Diego Crew Classic Men’s Varsity 8+ Grand Final

He does a good job at the beginning here of instructing the crew (mainly “Ben”) in a clear, calm voice. At the start when you’re getting your point you want to make sure that your instructions are concise and easy to hear/understand. Save the “uh’s” and “um’s” for later. Don’t get antsy if you have to keep making small adjustments either – you don’t want to inject that kind of nervous energy into the boat before the race even starts.

Overall their starting sequence between 1:38 and 2:27 is pretty solid. You could argue that he’s counting a little too much but I’ll give him a pass because his tone and clarity is spot on.

At 2:39 they’re about sixty seconds into the race and probably have about 1700m of race course left so “get ready for our move to keep us in contention…” isn’t really a call you need to be making that early in the piece. Being three seats down is still in contention because, as I said, you’ve probably got three-quarters of the course left to work with. Don’t get freaked out if you’re dead even or ahead after your start. If you really feel the need to tell your crew your three seats down on everyone, at least say something like “3 seats down, that’s alright, we’ve got plenty of time to reel them in…”. Keep it positive and then go right into coxing them. You’re right in the pack so you’ve got plenty of things happening around you that you can use to your advantage and to help get your crew going. Focus on that and less on the fact that you’re down a few seats.

Of all the things you can could or should take a ten for, timing is absolutely not and never will be one of them. He calls for this at 2:50 but all he does is count the strokes. In general, if you’re not going to add anything to the burst you’re calling, just make it a silent one or better yet, don’t call it. If the timing’s off, make an active call to correct it and do it on this one.

3:57 when he says “you’re in a battle for third place right now” was a missed opportunity. If you’re gonna say that to your crew, follow it up with a move. Saying “you’re in a battle” and then not going after those other crews with a ten or twenty is like a pretty good example of “stopping short” in crew. If you’re gonna say that, go all the way with it. Also, “you’re” not in a battle, “we’re” in a battle. Stop separating yourself from the rest of the boat.

One of the things that he does well is build the intensity with his voice throughout the race. In the beginning he starts out fairly chill (maybe even a little boring) but by the time they get to 1000m and are even-ish with the lead crews, you can tell he’s really getting into it. You don’t have to always been at 100% during a race and frankly, you shouldn’t be because that doesn’t leave you anywhere to go when you actually need to ramp up the energy and intensity. It’s better to start high, back off a bit, and then slowly build towards the end, that way your calls are actually punctuated by something rather than being one-note the whole race.

By this point (6:35) I think they’ve take four or five bursts for timing. STAHPPP. There’s no excuse for that unless you’re a novice crew. If your crew’s timing is off you better be able to say “catches together now … catch chaaa, catch chaaa” and have them immediately respond to it. It’s like a snap-of-the-fingers kinda thing, it should be an automatic reaction. It really shouldn’t take more than two or three strokes max to get it back.

Another thing he does well is tell them where they are on the other crews. He consistently says “2 seats down, 1/4 seat up, 1 seat up, 2 seats up, etc.” which is exactly what you should be doing when the race is close like this. Don’t assume that just because you’re beside a crew the rowers know where you’re at.

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