Category: Novice

How to Steer an Eight or Four

Coxing How To Novice

How to Steer an Eight or Four

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Steering is a crucial skill that coxswains need to master quickly. How you steer a race can mean the difference between winning and losing and it’s something that rowers think about when determining who they trust as their coxswain. Rowers don’t want to put all that effort into a 2k only to end up 3rd because their coxswain was drunk steering or playing ping pong with the buoy lines down the course.

Steering is by far the toughest technical aspect of coxing – a 53′ long fiberglass shell is no easy piece of equipment to maneuver, especially when you first start out, but the coaches and rowers are relying on you to steer the boat safely down the river. Steering is, above anything else, a safety issue. If you’re not paying attention or over steering or whatever, there is the potential for you to hit something or someone, causing injury to the boat, the crew, or someone else on the water.

The problem with being thrown into the coxswain’s seat as a novice is that coaches give you two pieces of advice before sending you on your way – “don’t hit anything and steer straight”. The thing they forget to do is tell you how to steer straight. Below are some basic pieces of advice that will hopefully help you decode the steering process and improve your own steering abilities. It’s a simple and complex process all in one but if you’re diligent about practicing, you’ll pick if up in no time.

Pick a point and steer towards it. Make SMALL adjustments when necessary to stay on that point. Every so often during practice (NEVER during a race) look behind you and see the path you’ve taken – you should be able to see it in the water. If for the most part it’s pretty straight, good job. If it looks like the kind of zig zag you’d see on an 80s t-shirt, lay off the strings a little.

When the rudder isn’t straight it can throw off the set, which distracts the rowers and takes their focus away from what they’re supposed to be doing. Don’t make them work any harder than they already have to. Turning the rudder also adds a bit of drag to the boat and will slow it down (something to be aware of if you need to make adjustments during races).

Keep your body centered in the seat, try not to shift from side to side. This can throw off both the set of the boat and your point, since you’re adding more weight to one side. Lean when necessary but keep such movements to a minimum. If you’re moving around a lot AND telling the rowers to adjust the set, they’re never going to know if it was their handle heights that fixed the boat or you re-centering your weight. If you’re trying to see around the rowers, sit up on the back of the coxswain’s seat for a stroke or two. This keeps you fairly centered in the boat and causes minimal movement from side to side. Never, EVER do this during a race – only during practice.

There’s a delay between when you adjust the rudder and when the boat actually turns. Depending on how fast you’re going it could be half a stroke or two strokes. Don’t over adjust thinking that the boat isn’t turning…give it time. The time it takes for your boat to respond depends on many factors, including how old the boat is. The older it is, the longer it typically takes to respond. Pay attention when you get in a new boat to how long it takes so you know ahead of time how long it takes for your boat to start turning.

When you make any steering adjustments is really up to you and what you find works best. The most common rule of thumb is that you should steer when the blades are in the water since that is when the boat is most stable and is less likely to be thrown off balance by the rudder movements. For me, I’ve found that I get a better (and smoother) response from the rudder if I steer when the rowers are on the recovery. This might differ depending on your shell, the rowers, etc. but you should find what works and is most effective for you and then stick with it. When you’re on the rudder make sure you tell the rowers since it can/will mess with the set a bit, particularly if you’re going around a long turn. All you need to say is “I’m on the rudder” and what they need to do to compensate to balance the set (lift/lower the hands). On small adjustments though this is unnecessary since one tap of the rudder is unlikely to throw the shell that far off balance.

To turn left (port), push your left hand forward. To turn right (starboard), push your right hand forward. Once you’ve made your adjustment, bring your hands back to their original position. The best way to know when your rudder is straight is to get some brightly colored electrical or duct tape and mark the center of the string (above your cox box). Do this when the boat is on land that you can move the rudder to it’s straight position before marking the string.

If you’re using the rowers to turn or point you, make sure you only use as many rowers/as much pressure as necessary. If you use more of either, you’re going to be pointed in the opposite direction that you want to go. Specify exactly who you want to row and how much pressure (ie “bow and 3, take three 3/4 pressure strokes”). Know when to have them stop rowing too. If you have them row until you’re perfectly straight, you’re going to end up over-adjusted. Row until you’re about 90% pointed and then use the rudder to adjust the last 10%. If it’s windy or there’s a strong current, you’ll need to adjust for that too.

When sitting easy in the water, use bow and 2 to get your point. For large adjustments have them take a full 1/2 pressure stroke and for small adjustments have them take an arms only stroke. (Remind them that half-pressure means half-pressure, not zero-pressure.)

Anticipate turns and bends in advance and make your adjustments as necessary. Don’t wait until the last minute – by then, it’s too late (think Titanic…). The pivot of the boat is usually somewhere around 3 seat, so the turn the boat takes might not be what you expect. Think about the trajectory of the boat ahead of time.

Always keep your hands on the strings. Never take them off unless you’re sitting easy and not moving. If there isn’t some kind of tension on the balls while the boat is moving, the water current will move the rudder around, which will cause your steering to be all over the place.

I often find that when I have both hands on the strings, I over steer. To force myself to only steer as much as necessary, I only steer with one hand. 90% of the time it’s my right, since I’m right handed, but if I’m making a particularly large turn, I’ll switch to my left. I hate wearing the mic so I always hold it in my left hand (during practice only, never races), which means I only have one hand available to steer anyways. If your coach is OK with you doing this, try it during practice one day and see if it makes a difference. It has REALLY helped me combat my over-steering, which has always been my biggest issue.

For more tips on steering, check out the “steering” tag.

Image via // Hear the Boat Sing

College Coxing Novice Q&A Training & Nutrition

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I’m currently a novice coxswain at my school’s club team. I weigh about 125ish. I’m thinking about transferring schools but I still want to do crew. One of the schools I was looking at was D3 and they said that coxswains should weigh less than 115. Do you think they would let me cox because I have already been doing that or would I need to lose weight? I try to work out. I’m planning on doing winter training but I’m not a good runner and I don’t have much erg experience so I don’t know if it would pay off.

If you have the option you could cox for men where the minimum for coxswains is 125lbs. I think you should talk with them and explain that you’ve been coxing for X number of seasons and would like to continue but be prepared for them to reiterate that they want their coxswains at 115lbs or under. (It’s not an unreasonable request either, especially when racing weight for women is 110lbs.)

If you’re not a good runner, that’s OK. You can always walk on the treadmill (put the speed at higher than normal walking pace but lower than jogging and/or put it on an incline), do the stair stepper, or hop on the bike. You should learn how to properly erg and try doing short pieces so you can develop the muscle memory. One of the things that really bothers me with coxswains is those who tell rowers what to do in terms of the stroke, body positions, etc. but don’t know how to at least erg themselves. There are plenty of ways to workout though beyond running and erging – find something you like and that you’ll stick with and just commit to doing it.

Ergs Novice Q&A Rowing

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I just finished my first full year as a novice and I’m a girl, 5’5 and 140 pounds. My 2k time is a 7:58 which for a heavy weight isn’t too great. Do you think it is a reasonable goal to go lightweight by the end of January?

For a novice that’s actually not too bad. If you lost 2lbs a week (the standard recommended amount) over the next month, month and a half, sure. You could technically be a lightweight. But what’s your motivation? Is it just so your erg time seems more “acceptable”? I wouldn’t focus so much on trying to become a lightweight as I would getting stronger at your current weight. Increased strength = increased power = lower splits.

High School Novice Q&A Rowing Training & Nutrition

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I’m a novice rower for my high school crew team (I’m in 9th). I weigh around 150 and am 5’4, should I lose weight? I know height is a huge part of rowing and I don’t have that yet (or ever maybe who knows) but I’ve always been curvy so I don’t know if losing weight is going to be easy. I’m also asking because there are only five girls on our novice team (including our one coxswain) so I want to do the best for my boat.

I wouldn’t focus so much on losing weight as I would gaining strength. For some reason there’s this misconception that losing weight will make one stronger/make one’s boat faster, when in reality, the only thing that will make you stronger/make your boat go faster is YOU building muscle mass, which translates into increased power output. (Obviously you want to be lean and not have a ton of excess weight that you can’t move but at the junior level this isn’t nearly as big of a focus as it is at the collegiate level.)

I would put my efforts into doing a decent amount of weight lifting, core, erging, and cross training (running, swimming, and biking) over the winter. This will help you build muscle, which like I said, will make you stronger in the end. You might lose a few pounds too. It’s more likely though that you will lose FAT but actually GAIN weight, since muscle is denser than fat. This is GOOD, so don’t freak out if you do the workouts and actually find the number increasing slightly.

Coxing Novice Q&A Teammates & Coaches

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How do I get my boat to respect me?? I’m a novice coxswain on the B boat. I do all the workouts and I asked a few people for advice in what they want to hear etc but some still don’t respect me! I’m nice but firm when needed to be. I was a rower for 3 months in a a single and 2 months in an 8 and 4. I was good, they wanted me to go to varsity singles this year so I kinda get rowing better than most coxswains so I do what I wanted my coxswain to do but still no respect from half my boat!!

Hmm. I guess my question here is why your boat doesn’t respect you…

How old are you/the rowers?

Do you know them well (are you friends outside of crew or did you just recently meet them)?

Do the rowers actually CARE about crew/do they know that YOU care?

Have you done something, knowingly or unknowingly, that might have pissed them off or given them the wrong impression about you?

When you’re on the water, do you know what you’re doing or are you constantly starting and stopping (to fix steering, have someone explain the workout, etc.)?

What is different about the people who DO respect you vs. the people who don’t?

Gaining the respect of your crew can be hard. It’s more about trust than anything else. The rowers who want to be there recognize that and will usually make an effort to get to know their coxswain if they don’t already know them. Doing the workouts with them is a good start and the fact that you have rowed before will be really helpful to you.

If you’re still having problems with those few people, I’d make a concerted effort to get to know them. Talk to them when you’re not on the water, offer to give them a ride home, etc. Maybe if they get to know you, they’ll stop being assholes. If something unpleasant happens on the water, leave it on the water. Don’t bring drama into the boat in the first place but leave whatever drama happened on the water out on the water. Be the mature one and shut that down immediately.

Before you start winter training (or if you’ve already started, after you get back from Christmas break), sit down with your boat and have a “goal setting session”. Take it upon yourself to do this. Ask them what their goals are for the winter and what their goals are for the spring. Write them down and revisit them throughout the winter, at the beginning of spring, and at the end of the spring season. Remind them what your goals are and that in order to accomplish them, you have to work as a team, which requires mutual respect amongst everyone in the boat.

If none of these things work, I’d take them aside individually and figure out what the problem is. Tell them that you’ve noticed that things are weird between you guys and you don’t want it to effect the boat while you’re training over the winter and especially once the spring season starts. Ask if there’s something specific that you’ve done to offend them or give them the wrong impression. If they’re being an ass just to be an ass though, that’s a problem you should talk to your team captains/coach about. Hopefully they recognize your efforts in working out with them, as well as your rowing knowledge, and can give you a little more firsthand insight than I can.

Coxing Novice Q&A Training & Nutrition

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So I’m a novice coxswain and I’m really not athletic. The other coxswains told me that during winter training we do everything the rowers do but because I haven’t been erging and working out with the team, I’m scared I won’t be able to keep up with them. What should I do?

One of the benefits of being a coxswain is that you don’t necessarily have to have the same amount of athletic prowess as the rowers. Some coxswains are extremely athletic and participate in other sports besides crew (I did) and some aren’t. It’s really not a big deal. No one, not even your coach, expects you to be going as hard at the workouts as the rowers are, so don’t ever feel like you’re “behind” or not as good as the rowers.

If you haven’t been erging or working out with them, it’s fine. Don’t try and match the level that they’re at but still put some effort into whatever you’re doing. Do things at your pace. If you can’t erg below a 2:30 split without dying, then don’t! If your steady state pace is a 2:40, then row at a 2:40. If you’re doing calisthenics and core workouts, PUSH YOURSELF. These exercises are great because there’s no weights involved and you’re just using your body – everyone can do them.

Related: My coach makes coxswains do winter workouts and 2k’s with rowers. Do you think that’s fair? We don’t get a break with the workout, at all. We have to do the same exact thing as rowers.

While getting in shape and physically fit is a great motivator for working out with the team, your coaches are probably watching to see how well you interact and can keep the team motivated when you’re doing the same workouts as them. You could be the most miserable person in the room but you’re the coxswain…you’ve got to put on a happy face and find what it takes to keep everyone else going. They also want to see your leadership skills at work…can you get everyone started and lead them through the workouts or do you slink back and all hell break loose?

Don’t be nervous. Keep an open mind and go into it with a positive attitude. Don’t feel defeated before you even start…remember, your attitude at the beginning of a task determines how successful you are at completing it.

How To Survive Winter Training: Coxswains

Coxing How To Novice

How To Survive Winter Training: Coxswains

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Previously: Rowers

We all know that winter training is the bane of every coxswain’s existence. It’s boring, there’s nothing for us to do, and … there are a ton of other things we could be doing besides watching people erg. When I was a freshman in high school, I did a lot of standing around and observing. My team didn’t really have a fall season because the majority of the team participated in other sports (soccer, cross country, etc.) or were in marching band (*raises hand*). I spent the winter season, which started the first day we got back from Christmas break, learning everything I could about rowing and my responsibilities as a coxswain. If you’re a novice, educate yourself. If you’re on varsity, continue educating yourself by helping to educate others.

In addition to what I’ve mentioned here, something that all coxswains should consider doing is working out with the team. So what if you can’t hold the same split as them? You can hop on the ergs once or twice a week, right? There’s no rules against running core sets and doing them at the same time. While they’re lifting, you can run or hop on the bike for 45-60 minutes. Coxswains should not look at exercise as a bad thing. “I’m not athletic/strong/coordinated” is not a legitimate excuse for not working out with your team. Some teams don’t care, some require it. Regardless of whether or not it’s mandated by the coaches, the rowers will notice if you do the workouts with them and it will help them formulate an idea in there head as to whether they want you as a coxswain or not.

Have a positive attitude

Don’t go into winter training thinking “ugh what am I even doing here, I’m so bored, I’m just going to sit and watch this paint dry while you guys do 2 x 6k.” No. No, no, no. When has going into something with a less than positive attitude EVER worked out for anyone? Never, that’s when. As the coxswain(s), the rowers and coaches look to you to keep the atmosphere light and upbeat during winter training. The rowers look to you for motivation and encouragement while the coaches observe your leadership skills and ability to take charge of a crowd. Like I said in the rower’s post,  your attitude at the beginning of a task determines how successful you’ll be at completing it. You can either go into winter training with an objective or you can go in without one. Which leads me to…

Set some goals

What are your goals this season? What did you do last season that you hope to improve on this season? Which regattas are you REALLY planning on going hard for? Which of your skills needs work? What about college – have you started emailing coaches and looking at potential majors? All of these things are goal-worthy, meaning you should be making a list of all the things you want to do or get out of this season and set some “deadlines” for them. Just because you’re not on the water doesn’t mean you can’t get better.

If you’re a varsity coxswain and already know roughly what your lineup will be, sit down with some of them and discuss what your goals as a crew are for the season. Look at how quickly you covered courses last year and figure out what you should be able to do them in this year. Talk with your coaches about what they’d like to see you do this season, both as a leader of the team and with your boat. Take it upon yourself to take the novices under your wing and help them set some goals of their own.

Take some time off

If you need a break, now is your shot. Everyone needs a break every now and then but coxswains have the luxury of actually being able to take it in the winter without getting too much shit for it. Talk with your coaches and explain why you want to take a week off from practice so you can come back refreshed and ready to go. Have a legitimate reason though – you know there won’t be anything for you to do is NOT an acceptable excuse. Staying at practice and just going through the motions doesn’t help anyone and it’ll become obvious quickly that you don’t want to be there. Listen to your brain and your body when it tells you it needs a break.

Do something fun with your team

Get to know your new teammates. If your team doesn’t do the fall season or there are people that have joined since then, organize a game night, social, dinner, etc. to introduce yourselves and the team to the new rowers and coxswains. Have a team Christmas party and do Secret Santa. Get with some of the varsity rowers and organize something fun to kick off winter training. Team triathlons sound like a ton of fun to me and would be a great way to start the indoor season on a fun, happy note. You could also organize a boathouse cleanup – the team breaks up into groups of nine and are each given a list of tasks that need to be completed around the boathouse. The team that finishes first wins a spectacular prize!

Strategize

Have a plan for how you’re going to approach the indoor season. What are you going to do to make sure you make the most of the time you’re on land? How are you going to help the rowers? What are you going to do to help the coaches out? What are you going to do to help the novice coxswains get prepared for the spring season? What are you going to do to prepare yourself for the upcoming races?

One thing I always tried to do at some point during the winter season was sit down and look at my race notes from previous seasons. Pull up the course map on your laptop at practice one day and go over it with everyone, including the other varsity coxswains. Discuss where good spots to make a move are, what the various landmarks along the course are, etc. Start to formulate very basic and general race plans for the regattas your team plans on attending. Clue the novices in on the course, what it’s like, etc. Discuss race strategy with them, why it’s important, and how to form race plans.

Ergs Novice Q&A Training & Nutrition

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Hi there! I just wanna start off by saying I really enjoy your blog! I started rowing in June, and was in an eight this fall. The season is now over and I really wanna continue in the spring, but the coach I was with said I should erg and train in the winter for the spring. I have been on the erg once, and my split wasn’t very good. Around 2:19.0/500m. I was wondering what I should do to improve and how often I should erg? Thanks!

Your coach is right – to be prepared for the spring season, winter training is a necessity. Strength training and core exercises are two things that you definitely want to make a part of your routine. If you have the time and access to the appropriate equipment/facilities, adding in some kind of cross training will help your endurance and get you in (better) shape. Running, biking, or swimming are all great options. You can get your cardio in as part of your warmup on the days you’re not cross training. Those are the days when you can do some erging.

Strength training and doing core exercises consistently will help build muscle, which in turn will help you generate more power when you erg, leading to lower splits. When you erg, you shouldn’t be going for any kind of PRs…you just want to focus on getting the technique right and building up your endurance. As you get stronger, the splits will fall. Don’t force anything.

If you have trouble deciding what to do when you erg, check out Concept 2’s website. They have three different workouts posted daily depending on how long you want your erg session to be. You can also sign up for their daily emails to get the workouts sent to you in the mornings. When you’re just warming up on the erg, keep it short – no longer than 15 minutes or so. A good warmup to do that also works on your technique is the pick drill (arms, arms + bodies, 1/2 slide, full slide). Do each for 20 strokes, then switch. Take your time with this and don’t rush through it. Focus on really nailing each part of the stroke and then connecting all of it when you get to full slide. Once you’ve done that, row at a steady pressure for the last 10 minutes or so at around 18-20 strokes per minute. Work on slide control and keeping the recovery controlled while at the same time getting a good strong press with the feet on the drive. Aim for a split and try and maintain that. Every week or so, shoot for a lower split (by 2-3 seconds) than the one you went for the previous week. Every week or two, test yourself. Do a 2k and record your times and splits. See what the difference are between the times. You’ll start to notice consistent changes as you progress through your training.

Here’s an example of what a winter schedule might look like:

Monday: Erg warmup + strength training (3 sets of high weight, low rep exercises)
Tuesday: Cross training + core (3-5 sets of 10-12 exercises with at least 15 reps each)
Wednesday: Medium – long erg session (45-70 minutes)
Thursday: Erg warmup + strength training
Friday: Cross training + core
Saturday: Long run/bike/swim (80 minutes)

Some things to remember:

Give yourself time to rest. When you exercise, you produce small micro-tears in the muscle. In order for you to get stronger, the muscles need time to adapt to the stress and repair. If they don’t have that time, you’re risking serious injury.

STRETCH. After your erg warmups or a quick lap around the track spend at least five to seven minutes stretching. Your muscles are more flexible when they’re warm vs. when they’re cold, so stretching is key. Not stretching can also lead to injuries such as pulled or torn muscles/tendons/ligaments. ALWAYS STRETCH BEFORE AND AFTER YOUR WORKOUT. If you have a foam roller, use that at the end of your workouts.

Maintain a proper diet. Your body needs proper and adequate fuel in order to give you the necessary energy you’ll need to train effectively. Make sure you’re eating well balanced meals and not skipping any of them. Have a small snack before you workout and another one after.

Get some sleep. When you sleep is when your body repairs itself…if you’re pulling all nighters or just not sleeping for as many hours as you should be, your training will suffer because you’ll be lacking in energy.

Find a time that works for you to go to the gym and make that a daily part of your routine. Don’t blow it off. Manage your time properly around school, work, family, friends, etc. so that you can spend at least an hour every day training. Remember your goals and why you’re doing this. Making training a non-negotiable part of your routine will not only show your coaches how dedicated you are but it’ll also subtly reinforce in your own mind how and why this is important to you.

Coxing How To Novice Q&A Racing

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Hi! I will be doing a 2000m race with my crew tomorrow. I’m my team’s coxswain. It will be my second race, but my first 2000m race. I understand steering and such, and I know what calls to make for technique, and I know our starts, but my coach hasn’t really gone over the race itself, I guess. What I’m trying to say is that I need some guidance on how the race should go. Also, stake boats terrify me. Any help you can give me would be amazing!

Stake boats aren’t as scary as they seem. Have you practiced them at all during your practices? The best way to figure out how to do it is to practice it with your coach. Have them (or a teammate) lie stomach down on the launch (which should be sitting stationary, obvs) and act as the stake boat-holder, while you row up and try and back it in. It’s not going to be EXACTLY the same because you’ll have the current of the river moving the launch as well as the boat, but it gives you a GREAT sense of how to do it. Plus, your coach can see exactly what you’re doing and give you pointers on how to correct it.

Here’s a pretty good video that explains a lot about how to get into the stake boats.

As for everything else … it’s pretty straightforward. You row up to the start, get locked on, and go. It’s a straight 2k (I’m assuming) so you won’t have to worry about steering around curves or anything. You want to steer as little as possible so pick a point in the distance and keep it right off your stroke’s ear or shoulder and shoot for that down the course.

Pay attention to what they tell you about the starting call in the coxswain meeting. They’ll either do a quick start (“Attention, GO!”), a countdown start (“5, 4, 3, 2, 1, attention, GO!”), or a polling start (“Harvard, Penn, Cornell, Dartmouth, Cal, we have alignment, attention, GO!”). If it’s very windy or the weather isn’t great, they’ll most likely do a quick start, otherwise they’ll probably stick with a countdown start. That’s been my experience anyways.

Last minute tips:

As soon as you get locked onto the platform and start getting your point, raise YOUR hand and have your bow raise THEIR hand. Unless the marshal’s say they aren’t recognizing hands, they cannot start the race until everyone’s hand is down. If they’re standing on a platform above where you are, it’s easier for them to look down and see the bowman’s hand than it is to see yours, so make sure they’re both in the air.

Find out what the rule is about breakage. Typically if it’s in the first 100m, they’ll call all the boats back to the platform. Breakage has to be legitimate, like a wheel came off the seat or the oar broke. Oarlocks that aren’t closed, crabs, or popping a slide don’t count as breakage.

Also find out what the rule is about flags. Typically they use a white flag to signal the start. In my experience, we were told to go on the flag drop, NOT the call “GO”. If the flag drops before you hear “go”, you can start. Find out the rule for your specific regatta though.

Take a deep breath at the starting line and shake out your shoulders. RELAX!! 2ks are the best kinds of races in my opinion. I’d choose a sprint race over a head race 10 out of 10 times. There’s probably a million other things I could suggest but I don’t want to overwhelm you too much! Have a great time and good luck!!

Coxing Novice Q&A Racing

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Strictly, I’m a rower, but I’m struggling with injury & looking at other options. I’ve been offered the opportunity to get involved in coxing our club’s ‘Masters’ 8, with a view to coxing them at Vets Head on the Tideway in March 2013 (do you know much about the Tideway? It’s a hellish course for coxes for a no. of reasons). I have limited coxing experience & haven’t coxed an 8 before. Is it possible to learn to cox an 8 effectively in so little time? I love a challenge but worry it’s too much…

I think you can definitely learn the basics of coxing in that period of time. You can learn all the calls you’ll need and can practice them (with the exception of directional ones) with the rowers while they’re erging. Once you get on the water, you’ll already have the basic calls down, so you can instead shift your focus towards steering, getting a feel for the boat, and watching the rower’s oars for technique issues.

Here’s my suggestions for over the winter:

Get with your coach and see if he/she has any video of that particular crew or any other crews that you can watch. As a rower, hopefully you already know the ins and outs of rowing, but having your coach go over it with you from HIS perspective will give you an idea of what you should be looking for as a coxswain. It’ll also give you an idea of things to say to the rowers, both when they’re on the ergs and on the water.

Watch and listen to audio/video from the coxswain’s seat. This will not only give you an idea of things to say but also things to pay attention to. The only thing to keep in mind with this though is to not get too set on doing things exactly how you hear or see them being done by other coxswains. Putting yourself in a box like that makes it really difficult to experiment with your own coxing style and adapt to what your own crew wants/needs. Use the recordings as a framework to build off of rather than a strict “how to” guide.

Related: Coxswain recordings

Get to know your boat. Work out with them. Go to breakfast. Have a boat meeting. Find out what makes them tick. What is an important characteristic to them for their coxswain to have? What do they like hearing in the boat? What are some things they know they specifically need to work on? What are their goals?

Coxing is just like rowing in the sense that you can pick it up quickly but then spend years and years refining your technique. Study up over the winter on the basics of coxing and ask lots of questions. I’m here if you need anything and I’m sure your coaches will be more than willing to help you out too. You’ve got five(ish) months, which is more than a lot of coxswains get when they’re first starting out. You can definitely do it if you put the effort in.