Category: High School

Question of the Day

By readyallrow January 31, 2015

I quit rowing and I have no clue what to do with myself and I’m so sad but I can’t go back because I need to do school work … but adjusting to normal life is so fucking hard and I don’t even know how to manage my time anymore.

There have been a lot of questions posted on here that I’ve identified with but this is definitely one of the most relatable ones I’ve come across. I felt the same way when I quit in college but looking back now I can see that the way I “adjusted” to it was, well, wrong.

When I stopped coxing it was the first time in several years where I wasn’t doing some kind of extra-curricular activity that took up a ton of time outside of school for at least ten of the twelve months out of the year. Up to that point having legitimate free time was something I’d only really experienced for about four weeks in December and four weeks in June, so going from an Energizer bunny-like mentality to suddenly having all this time to do whatever I wanted was bad. There was this initial feeling of wanting to go party my ass off and just let loose because I no longer had coaches/teammates to answer to or practices to wake up for. (I remember thinking that this must be how child actors feel…) There was also this feeling of suddenly needing to be fiercely protective of my time. If it didn’t relate to going to class, a project, meeting, or some other school-related obligation, there was no way I was doing it because it would cut into the time I had to myself. I wouldn’t even do anything during that time either, which was so stupid. It was like I was trying to hoard the seconds I had to myself and soak in the lack of having to be somewhere doing something in case this period of downtime never happened again. Cue time wasted. The downside to all of this was that I didn’t experience anything in college. Nothing. All because I quit rowing to focus on school and ended up completely mismanaging my time while convincing myself that I wasn’t because I deserved a break, some time to myself, etc.

I could go on and on and on and on and on about this but to keep things brief, here’s my advice. Take the time you used to spend at crew and divide it in half. On the conservative side, let’s say you spent two hours a day, six days a week at practice. That’s 12 hours, split down the middle to six and six. The first six hours are yours to do whatever you want with. Schedule it into your day if you can – for one hour, Monday through Saturday, unplug, disconnect, whatever, and do something that you previously didn’t have time to do because you were at crew. If that’s as simple as reading a stack of magazines, playing with your dog, or going for a run so you can continue staying active, go for it. Or it could be picking up a new hobby, volunteering, etc. Whatever you want to do, that’s your hour to do it. The other six hours you put into school. It doesn’t necessarily have to be studying either, it could be joining a new club or group that you’ve always been interested in but couldn’t join because the two schedules conflicted or picking up an internship in a field you’re interested in. There are an infinite number of possibilities of things to do on-campus if you’e in college and this is your chance to get out there and try something new so … take advantage of it.

My point with all of this is to not do what I did. Be as protective of your new-found free time as you need to be but don’t be so protective of it that you sabotage the opportunity you now have to do something that you might not have otherwise been able to do. If managing your time in general is tough for you (which is common) then find a planner/scheduling system that you like and put it to work. Plan out your days/weeks/months as necessary and stick to it. That takes commitment but you’re a rower/coxswain so I doubt that that’s a skill you’re lacking in. The bottom line though is to not let yourself spiral out of control because you don’t know what to do with yourself or your time anymore. Find something fun to do to fill up that two hour window every day and move on. Don’t look at this as the end of your rowing career either. You can always jump right back in again if you want to when the circumstances best suit your lifestyle.

College Coxing Ergs High School Recordings

Coxswain recordings, pt. 28

By readyallrow January 22, 2015

Erg room coxing clips montage

This is some audio from inside the erg room where the rowers were doing 500m pieces. As you can hear she gets pretty technical while coxing them. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing – all her calls were pretty good – but just make sure that what you’re saying fits the purpose of the workout. You obviously don’t want to be coxing their technique while they’re doing race pieces or vice versa. And as always, make sure you’re adhering to the golden rule of coxing rowers on the erg: don’t cox those who don’t want to be coxed.

What I liked about what she was doing is that she coxed them on land just like (I assume) she would in the boat. Just because you’re inside doesn’t mean you have to do anything different and that’s where I think a lot of coxswains feel like they fall short in the winter. This is a great opportunity for you to practice your calls, test some new ones (specifically as they relate to individual technique issues/tendencies), and play with your volume and tone. On top of that, maintaining that consistency from the water to the ergs is really great for helping the rowers become used to your style and calls.

Marist University 2014 Spring break Training trip, pt. 1

There are a lot of really positive things to point out in this video, the first of which is his overall voice and tone. For those that have asked for good examples of that “coxswain voice”, this would be a great one. Remember though, that “voice” doesn’t really have anything to do with your actual voice, your volume, or anything like that – it’s more about what you say and how you say it (assertively, confidently, etc.). One of the things I like in particular is that, similar to the GW recordings, there’s a clear difference between his “calm” voice and his “get the fuck after it” voice. I think that’s an important thing to establish early on and definitely something that should be cemented by at least your third year or so of coxing.

When I was emailing with this coxswain I asked what happened at 0:37 and this is what he told me: “The comment was directed at a fishing boat that was out of the picture. We had been getting waked out all week by fishing boats and this guy thought it was funny to try to wake us as we went past.” People like that are the worst and for some reason they do think it’s really funny to wake out rowers but it’s always best, especially for junior crews, to just not engage them (even if/when they do deserve to get flipped off).

I like the “Right on 28, take it with relaxation and composure…” call at 0:57. This is one of the things we spent a lot of time in the fall working on so I’m definitely going to steal this call and use the next time I’m out. If you try to muscle the blade through the water and yank on it every stroke you’re not going to accomplish anything outside of slowing down the boat’s speed so it’s important for the coxswains to make little reminder calls like this, particularly during rate changes, to reinforce staying loose and getting the power through the drive with the legs.

At 1:12, this is something I tend to do when I’m doing pieces like this. Even though they might not technically be competitive pieces … let’s be honest, they kind of are. I like to take advantage of being able to see the other boat and make calls like this to my crews, either to give them a bit of a boost or to keep the momentum going that we’ve already built up.

At 1:16 he makes a call to the starboards to get the blades in because they’re getting pulled around by the ports – don’t be afraid to say this to your rowers. I’ve encountered way too many coxswains lately that don’t or won’t speak up in situations like this and it’s driving me crazy. If they want you to steer straight then they have to row in a manner that allows you to stay off the rudder as much as possible and that’s something you need to communicate to them if you find that you’re constantly having to make steering adjustments to compensate for some less-than-stellar rowing.

“…big back ends” at 2:09 is a good call for the finish to reinforce the draw through with the arms and having a smooth transition between the legs and upper body as you complete the stroke. It’d also be a good alternative to the “squeeze” call.

Between 3:01 – 3:05, this is just good, smart strategy. When you’re on the outside of an upcoming turn and you’re close to another crew, you want to neutralize whatever advantage they’ll get from having the inside line before you actually get to the turn. In a race this would have been a good spot to take a 20 to move. You can hear him get frustrated at 3:30 because the other coxswain’s not turning – sometimes you’ll find yourself in that situation and you’ve just gotta roll with it. It’s obviously gonna throw off your turn because you’re stuck on the outside but it’s your job to adapt and move on. There’s no need – especially in a practice situation like this – to vocalize your frustration to the rest of the boat. Ultimately this was a super minor inconvenience with no real consequences so injecting that little bit of negative energy into what has otherwise been a pretty good row is just unnecessary.

A couple of you have asked what “hacking” means (you hear him say “don’t hack…” at 3:31) and in the simplest terms it’s basically the same as not going directly to the water and instead rowing it in, except in a slightly more aggressive manner than normal since you’re probably rowing at some kind of high rate and/or pressure. You’ll definitely know it when you see it if you get a chance to see a side-view of a crew. It can be tough to see from where we’re sitting but if you know someone is doing it or hear your coach say something, make some calls about staying light on the seats, being direct to the water, anticipating the catch, etc.

5:15, I love this. In our email I asked Chris what the rationale was for taking three strokes instead of say, five per pair and this is what he said: “The 3 strokes down the boat was something that the guys in my boat and I talked about my freshman year. Not really sure what started it or how it came up in the boat meeting but it has been something that has stuck around with me since then. The guys really like it and it’s just a quick way to get everyone focused and helps us hit that next gear. One thing that we had talked about off the water is that when that one specific pair is “on” for those 3 strokes, the other 6 guys have to back them up because they know it’s their turn soon and they know their teammates will do the same for them. That’s sort of the reason why it’s 3 instead of 5, keeps it quick and simple and doesn’t gas anyone too much. We do it in races sometimes if I think it’s necessary or want to switch things up (mostly when we are even with a crew and the guys start to focus on the other crew and not what is going on in our boat).”

Last thing to pay attention to is how he coxes them through the strokes after the piece ends at 7:10 – reminding them to stay sharp, maintain the ratio, not worry about putting any pressure on the strokes, etc. Rather than making a super vague call like “stay in time” or whatever, try to incorporate in more active calls like those ones to keep the crew engaged and continuing to row well even after the hard strokes are over.

Other calls I liked:

“Just fuckin’ tap it along…”

Marist University 2014 Spring break Training trip, pt. 2

At 0:54, when he says “hold it up” I asked if he made that call for the set, stroke rate, pressure, or something else and he said: “The “hold it up” call was, again, something we had been working on all week. Our 4 seat had just switched to port after rowing starboard his whole rowing career. He was having a lot of trouble holding his finish through and the boat would crash to port around the back end. It was just a little personal reminder to him to stay connected throughout and not lose hold of the back end.”

I like that “pick each other up” call at 1:57 just as a reminder to everyone that the rate’s only going to come up if the entire crew goes after it and, as he said, backs each other up. I’ve made similar calls in the past as a nod to my stroke to let them know that I got their back and that getting the rate up is a collective thing, not just one person’s responsibility. If you notice your stroke getting frustrated with the rate, calls like this are always good to toss in.

Did anyone else notice the tape under the stroke seat’s inside hand? I asked about that too and Chris said: “The tape is actually raised in the middle and he puts his pinky just on the outside of the bump. His grip tends to slide wide throughout the piece so he marks it to make sure his grip stays where he wants it. It is also a bit superstitious, as most of us are. He actually rows with all of the oars and whichever one he has the best piece with is then “his” oar for the spring season.” I thought that was a pretty good idea and a neat hack to try if you’re having similar issues with your grip.

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

College Coxing High School Training & Nutrition Video of the Week

Video of the Week: Katelin Snyder on winter training

By readyallrow December 15, 2014

This is an interview that row2k did with Katelin Snyder, the women’s national team coxswain, earlier this year on the coxswain’s role during winter training, the difference between what the winter months are like in high school vs. college vs. with the national team, her advice for a coxswain going into their first winter training season, etc. I think we can all relate to her comment about how you can “only rearrange the cox boxes so many times”. Been there, done that, right?

Related: Coxswains + winter training

There’s definitely some good stuff to take away from what she says that you can apply to your own “winter training” so make sure to watch the whole video and also check out the post linked above for more ideas on how to spend the next couple of months.

College Coxing High School Teammates & Coaches

Coxswain evaluations + how I organize them

By readyallrow December 9, 2014

I get a lot of emails asking about coxswain evaluations. Coaches want to know what they should say, how long they should be, are they even necessary (why would you ask me, of all people, this question), etc. and coxswains want to know how to interpret everything, what they should take seriously, and how much of what the rowers wrote is based on their level of like/dislike for person they’re writing about. Additionally, if you have a coxswain who is new to the team (like us – we have one freshman and two upperclassmen) it can be hard for them to know what to take away from the evaluations since they likely won’t have coxed many of the rowers if you do these early on in the season and the feedback can be scarce and occasionally harsh.

Coxswain evaluations are important and coaches should make it a priority to do them at least two or three times during the year. The problem though is what I said above – coaches don’t know how to make them and coxswains don’t know how to interpret them which renders the time you put into them all but wasted. Coaches also have to realize that part of doing evals is spending 20-30ish minutes going over them with your coxswains, explaining some of the more ambiguous comments, giving them specific things to work on based off the feedback, etc. Done right, yes, it does amount to a few hours of work but at the end of the day it’s a few hours well spent and your coxswains will be that much better for it. And, to be honest, it’s quite literally the least you can do for them in terms of helping them get better.

Sometime in October-ish we did our first round of evaluations for our three coxswains. I was excited but a little apprehensive at the same time because every coxswain evaluation I’ve seen before this has been borderline awful and/or useless. Thankfully the one they’ve been using is actually pretty good and manages to cover all the bases pretty well. (I’ll go into detail a bit more down below.)

Once the rowers had filled them out (this took maybe 10-15 minutes total) I collected them and asked the other coaches if they were going to go over them with the coxswains. They said “nah, we usually just give them the sheets to read on their own” to which I responded with this exact expression (I’m completely serious). Now, let’s think about this for a second. If you were given 20+ evaluations containing a lot of comments but no real indication of which of the three coxswains the feedback was directed towards, how much would you get out reading them? Probably not a lot. So … here’s what I did to make it easier for the coxswains to actually use the feedback they were being given.

To preface this, I’ve made templates of my “system” for you to use with your coxswains if you’d like. Everything is explained down below and can be found in this Google Doc.

First things first – the evaluation itself, which is on the first tab of that spreadsheet. MIT’s used this one for awhile so I can’t take credit for making it but I do like it so at the very least I’m endorsing it. It’s simple and to the point but open-ended enough for the rowers to elaborate if they have any specific comments (which, obviously, the goal is for them to do that with each section).

Once you have your evaluations and they’re filled out the next thing you’ve gotta do is figure out what to do with all that information. The first thing that I did was take all the numerical ratings and average them into one number so that instead of having 20+ ratings for each of the nine sub-sections, they’d only have one number each. (The sheet for this is under “Overall Evaluation” in the second tab at the bottom.) This allows them to get a better idea of where they fall on the 1-5 scale. It’s just like what your teachers do with your grades – instead of giving you a million individual grades at the end of the semester they just give you one that you can then compare to the pre-defined scale in order to determine how you did.

I tend to spend a lot of time on this section because averaging 20+ numbers for nine sections times three people is rather time-consuming. Luckily the day that I crunched all the winter numbers last week was when everyone was either biking or out on a long run so this ended up being a good way for me to pass the time until they got back. I have a pretty good system that works well for me so it only took me about an hour, or maybe a little less than, to get everything averaged out.

The next part is the most time-consuming. I’ve done this twice now and each time I’ve spent about 2.5 – 3hrs total putting these spreadsheets together (so about 45-60min per coxswain). How long it takes you will depend on how many coxswains you have, how many comments your rowers have left/how detailed they are, how diligent you are about dividing them up amongst the coxswains they apply to, and whether or not you boil down the comments to two to four bullet points of specific things to work on (hint: you should).

Each coxswain has their own sheet for each season that we’ve conducted the evals. We just did our second set last week so as you can see, each coxswain has two sheets so far for the year. Each individual sheet (noted as “Coxswain A”, “Coxswain B”, and “Coxswain C” in that spreadsheet) is broken down into four main sections, just like the evaluation itself. There’s a “pros”, “cons”, and “general comments” section where I’ve taken all the comments the rowers have left and divided them up to fit into one of those three categories. Most of the time the rowers will specify if their comments are directed towards a particular coxswain but if they don’t then I just consider it a general comment that’s directed towards everyone and I’ll include it on each person’s sheet.

As you can see, some of the comments are a bit repetitive but I think it’s important to write them all down regardless so that the coxswains can see what the rowers are noticing and how they feel about certain aspects of their coxing. If one person says “steers a great course” it’s not nearly as much of a confidence boost as four people saying it is. Same goes for the negative comments – they might not take “doesn’t steer competitive courses” that seriously when it comes from one person but if six of their teammates say it then it holds a bit more weight.

The “things to work on” section should be two (minimum) to four (maximum) bullet points based on all the pro/con/general comments. These really don’t take that much effort to come up with either. As you read through the comments you should easily be able to get a sense for what areas the rowers think they can or want them to improve on.

After putting all that together then you can go over it with your coxswains. When I sat down with ours I printed out their individual sheets so they could read the comments for themselves as we went over them and essentially just read through everything, pointed out anything that I thought was worth discussing and/or elaborating on, and got their thoughts on how they felt about the comments (did they agree/disagree with anything, have questions, etc.). We did this individually the first time but when we go over the most recent ones I think I’m going to do it as a group just because there’s only three of them and not as many individual nuances to discuss this time around.

The takeaway here is that coxswain evaluations should be a regular thing that you do at least twice per season (for comparison’s sake) and in order to maximize their effectiveness you, the coach, need to spend a few hours organizing them so that you can go directly to each coxswain and say “Here’s what your teammates said, here’s what we’d like to see you work on based on the feedback they’ve provided, let’s discuss…”. Don’t just give them a pile of papers and expect them to sort through all that themselves because they won’t do it (and I don’t blame them). Hell, you can outsource all your evals to me and I’ll organize them for you if it means you’ll actually do evals for your coxswains (…totally serious, by the way).

After the first round of evals that we did all three of us (the coaches) noticed some major improvements in our coxswains so if you want proof that spending the time doing these and providing them with real information actually pays off, just look at the fall vs. winter averages in the first picture. I was a little skeptical initially because I didn’t think there was going to be much of a difference (mainly because I didn’t think the rowers would notice anything, not that I didn’t think our coxswains had improved) but I was really excited to see actual numerical data that backed up what we were seeing on the water.

Anyways, I hope all of this is helpful and encourages everyone to make coxswain evaluations a regular part of your seasonal plans. Coxswains, if your team hasn’t done evaluations before you should pose the idea to your coach(es) and show them the first tab of the Google Doc. If you have done evaluations but want to discuss some of the comments or get some additional feedback/insight, feel free to get in touch.

Image via // @mlcsrs_17

High School Video of the Week

Video of the Week: Snowflake Regatta carnage

By readyallrow November 17, 2014

What the actual hell…

Coxing High School Racing Recordings

Coxswain Recordings, pt. 26

By readyallrow November 13, 2014

Brookline Boys V4+ vs. Duxbury and Arlington-Belmont

This coxswain recently emailed me their recording so below is part of my reply to them. If you’re coxing bow loaders, take note of the first paragraph. Like I said, it’s a one-in-a-million chance but keep in mind that for the work you’re doing, your body isn’t necessarily in the most efficient position and forcing it to do even more unnatural stuff (such as making your voice way deeper than it needs to be) can lead to less-than-pleasant outcomes for you.

“I like the way you called your start and the intensity that you had. The only thing I’d recommend here is to be a little more natural with it and try not to force your voice to be super deep, particularly if you’re in a bow loader. I was talking to a friend a few weeks ago who said that while he was coxing his four over the summer he actually developed a stress fracture from tensing up his torso too much and trying to force out a voice that wasn’t natural for him. It was so bizarre but I can see how it’s possible – you’re laying down and essentially doing a crunch every time you force the air out to make your voice deep like that, which puts a lot of strain on the muscles around your rib cage. Something like that happening is probably one in a million but it’s definitely something to be aware of. Doing that also wastes a ton of oxygen and energy which just ends up causing you to become tired and out of breath early on in the race.

At 2:05 when you say “bow pair, what are you doing for our boat right now…”, I would caution against calls like that because it comes off like you’re saying you don’t think they’re doing anything or that they’re not pulling as hard as the stern pair. Even if that’s true, you don’t want to make it seem like you’ve lost confidence in literally half your crew. Instead, I would eliminate that part entirely and just say something like “bow pair, let’s channel your power into the next five finishes … squeeze it through and send the boat … ready, on this one“. That way you’re getting them to think about harnessing their power, you’re giving them a specific part of the stroke to target, and you’re putting a bit of responsibility on them for the next few strokes to really make the boat move. Ideally you’d follow that up with some positive calls during the five (“yea bow pair…”, “that’s it…”, etc.) to maintain the momentum and motivation too.

You’re doing a great job of telling the crew where they are on the other crews. This is where a lot of coxswains fall short and you’re nailing it. Great job.

At 2:39 when you tell Kyle to get his seat ahead of another crew “before this bridge”, in the future I’d just throw in how many strokes there are until you reach the bridge since that’s obviously something you can see but they can’t. I’d say something like “Alright Kyle, we’re 15 strokes out of the bridge, I want you sitting on their bow ball when we come out the other side – you’re leading this 10, ready, GO…”. Again, it gives that person a bit of personal responsibility while letting them know exactly what you want and how many strokes they have to do it in.

If you find that the splits are starting to creep up towards the end, instead of saying “get them back down” or something equally as vague, relax your voice and just talk to the crew. Take all the tension out of the air and get them to relax. They’re tired, they’re in pain, they can’t breathe, and they just want this to be over but you’ve still got 400m left … what are you gonna do? Take 5 to breathe, 5 to relax the shoulders, 5 to refocus, and 5 to recommit and reestablish the ratio. Focus your calls specifically on only those things when you’re calling for them. When you’re calling that last five, remind them to lengthen the recovery, power through on the drive, swing together, and feel the rhythm. From here you should be able to go right into the build for your sprint.

Last thing, when you’re calling for them to get the rate up, remind them to get it with power on the drive, that way everyone is going after that higher rate the same way at the same time.”

Winter Park High School 2014 Bertossa Cup

This style of coxing is perfect for pieces (5x5min, for example) during practice. There’s a good balance with the calls and the tone is just aggressive enough. During a race I would probably want her to be a little sharper and more concise with the calls (vs. dragging them out a bit here) but for practice pieces this is totally fine. Definitely give it a listen though because it’s just another example of good coxing and you really can’t ever have too many of those.

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

College High School Novice Q&A Teammates & Coaches

Question of the Day

By readyallrow November 5, 2014

What are some good team bonding exercises to do at practice? Our novices are moving up to varsity and we are looking for ways to bring the two groups together. Thanks! Love your blog!

Check out the two posts linked below. They all touch on “team bonding” in one way or another so there might be some ideas in there that you can use. The “secret motivator” one was a ton of fun for everyone so I definitely recommend that one as you get farther into the season.

When I coached at Marietta in the spring I was still trying to learn everyone’s names after about a week of being there and I noticed that a lot of the freshmen didn’t know any of the varsity girls names either so one day while they were warming up I had everyone get in a circle and go around one by one and say their name and grade. The catch was that you had to also say the names and grades of the people that went before you, which got progressively more amusing the farther around the circle we got. It was a good way to introduce everyone and break the ice, in addition to being a sneaky way for me to learn the names/grades of the people I didn’t know yet.

From there the “bonding” kind of happened on its own. Carpooling, boat dinners, traveling, silly activities like the name/grade thing, etc. all facilitated some of it but I’ve always been of the opinion that you can’t really force stuff like that, you’ve just kinda gotta let it happen naturally. If people are friendly and make an active effort to get to know one another then the two groups will merge into one pretty quickly.

Coxing High School Novice Q&A Racing

Question of the Day

By readyallrow October 29, 2014

Hi. So this is my first year being a coxswain and I’m pretty young (not going to specify). We have just started the season for regattas and I was wondering if you have any advice on what to call during a race with a novice crew? When we are just practicing I don’t really call much because our coaches like to come out on speed boats and help. Also what kind of weights do you take in the boat with you because at the last regatta we have had some problems with weights changing before and after the races which meant we got disqualified.

If you’re not talking a lot during practice because the coaches are working with the boat then the (usually unsaid) expectation is that you’re listening to what the coaches are saying to the individuals and boat as a whole so that you can incorporate the things they’re saying once you start coxing the boat more. So ideally, if you’ve been paying attention and not zoning out, you should already have a solid list of things that you could say to your crew.

As far as weights changing, I’m not sure I know what you mean. That would only matter if you’re coxing a lightweight boat but novice lightweight crews are fairly rare. Weight changing after the race doesn’t matter either, the important thing is that you’re at weight when you weigh in a few hours beforehand. After that you can pretty much do whatever you want. Most places will give you a wrist band or a stamp on your hand or something that indicates you’ve made weight too.

The only weight that should go in the boat is if you are below the minimum of 110lbs for women’s crews and 120lbs for men’s crews and you have to bring a sandbag or weight plates out with you to make up the difference (i.e. I weigh 95lbs so I’d have to carry 15lbs if I was coxing women or 25lbs if I was coxing men). Unless you’re going to actual USRowing sanctioned events though it is highly unlikely you’ll ever weigh in. I think I only did maybe three times my entire high school career. Sorry I couldn’t be more helpful with this part of your question though. Feel free to clarify in the comments or shoot me an email if what I said up above totally missed the mark.

Check out the posts linked above – they all kind of touch on first races with novice boats, things you can say, etc. Some might be for spring races but nearly everything is applicable regardless of whether you’re doing a head race or a sprint race. There are also links within those posts that might help you out as well.

Coxing High School Q&A

Question of the Day

By readyallrow October 2, 2014

Hey, so I’m the head varsity cox on my high school team and my coaches have never really paid attention to my weight. I’m really muscular from our strength program at school and I’m also a swimmer. However, I’m physically fit and am short (5’0″). But since I’m really muscular, I weigh a good 15 pounds over the minimum of 110. We just got 2 new assistant coaches who come from collegiate programs and I’m worried that they’ll ask about my weight and then pull me out of the coxing position. But I don’t think its physically healthy and possible for me to get down to 110 or 115. I don’t want to be put in the humiliating position of not being able to cox and do what I love because of my body type. What do I do? Also, coxing for men isn’t an option because I go to an all girls school.

Unless they bring it up to you I wouldn’t worry about it. I don’t think they would say anything just because they’re coming from college programs either. The coxswain’s weight is of slightly more importance at the more competitive collegiate schools for obvious reasons but unless you’re one of the very top junior crews in the country, it really doesn’t make a difference. Even at the top junior programs, coaches that obsess about their coxswains weights should probably re-think their priorities. Usually (but not always, unfortunately) that’s something that is discussed amongst all the coaches before a decision is made. If yours have never paid attention to your weight before it’s highly unlikely they’re going to suddenly care now. Weight is (usually) pretty low on the totem pole of things coaches use as part of the metric to decide who’s coxing what boat so as long as you’re executing everything else at a level your coach and crew(s) are satisfied with, it seems pretty unlikely that someone is going to suddenly pull you out of the coxswain’s seat and say “here’s an oar, you’re a rower now”.

Related: What coaches look for in a coxswain

If they do bring it up to you don’t automatically assume they’re going to make you stop coxing just because you say you’re ~125lbs. Tell them what you weigh, you’re also a swimmer, etc. and if they press you on it after that just say that you don’t feel comfortable trying to get down to that weight for X, Y, and Z reasons. Personally I don’t think you should have to give a reason outside of it’s not something you’re comfortable doing but you’ll have to gauge that situation if it comes to that to determine whether or not they’ll be OK hearing that and nothing else. Like I said though, if your coaches haven’t cared before I doubt they’re going to care now.

Coxing High School Q&A

Question of the Day

By readyallrow September 25, 2014

Hey! I’m the head cox on my team now (I’m a junior in HS) and I’m packing my very first fanny pack. Right now I have electrical tape, a 7/16 wrench and a Vespoli tool. Do you have any recommendations about what else should go inside? Also, I’m looking to buy a voice recorder. Obviously I want one on the cheaper side but it also obviously needs to be good. Any recommendations on that? Thanks so much!!

Definitely check out the post linked below for some ideas since you’ve pretty much got the basics already. I’d also throw in maybe a small role of athletic tape and some band-aids and then depending on how big your fanny pack is, maybe also keep a pencil and a small notebook in there (the small 3×5 inch ones), some Hot Hands for when it’s cooler out, and some chapstick (coxing with chapped lips = torture), preferably with SPF.

Related: Miscellaneous coxswain gear

For recorders, check out the ones in the post linked below. The problem with most of the cheaper ones (usually $40 and under) is that they don’t have USB ports, which means there’s no way to get the audio off your recorder and on to your computer. That’s pretty inconvenient since you wouldn’t be able to store anything. The ones I’ve included in that post are from Sony and Olympus – I’m partial to Olympus because that’s what my recorder is and it still works great after 10+ years so that’s typically what I recommend. Out of those options though, this Sony one and this Olympus one would be the two I recommend, though you really can’t go wrong with any of them.

Since most recorders don’t have a clip or way to attach it to your body some kind of carrying case would also be worth looking into. You could get a waterproof phone case and put it in there to carry around your neck or get a soft case like this one that’ll keep it protected if you sit it on the floor of the boat. I’ve done that in the past and haven’t had much issues with it getting thrown around or anything. I’d probably recommend the waterproof case though, just to be safe. One other recommendation I’d make is to buy some Duracell or Energizer rechargeable batteries to use with it, that way you’re not throwing batteries away all the time (depending on how much you use it). I’d keep a fully-charged spare set in a plastic bag or something in your fanny pack too just in case it dies while you’re on the water.