Category: Q&A

Coxing Q&A

Question of the Day

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In your opinion, what is the worst mistake a coxswain could ever make?

This is tough. I think the worst mistake a coxswain could make is one that they’ve made in the past and made no effort to correct which then leads to time being wasted during practice or worse, an injury to someone in their boat and/or someone else on the water, and/or equipment damage. As a coach, that would infuriate me, especially if it’s something I’ve pointed out to them and told them what they need to do differently in order to avoid making the same mistake again.

Ergs Q&A Training & Nutrition

Question of the Day

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I am doing an 8k sometime this week. I’ve done a 30′ piece before, and I’ve done a few 4k but nothing like this. My split for the 30 minute piece was 2:05.8 but that barely got me into the top 16. I’ve improved a small bit since then but not much. Recently I’ve been making top 3-5 on our erg pieces and I really want to make the first boat, however I know about 3k into it, I’m going to be telling myself I really don’t care and it’s not worth it. How can I approach this physically and mentally?

Have a plan. Break the piece down into whatever size chunks you want (8x1k, 4x2k, etc.) and plot out roughly what splits you want to shoot for during each chunk. Be reasonable and realistic with these. It’s better to say your goal is a 2:05 split and then actually be at 2:04.6 instead of shooting for 2:03 and then being above for the majority of the piece.

Related: On a lot of rowing blogs I hear people mention “negative splits”, especially when discussing 2k’s. What exactly are they and can it be beneficial to know how to properly use them?

Mentally, think about this. You said you want to make the first boat but you also said that 3k in you’re going to be saying you don’t care and it’s not worth it. I think all rowers question whether or not it’s worth it while they’re in the pain cave but deep down they know it is otherwise they wouldn’t have started the piece in the first place. No one that’s truly serious about the sport or making the top boat would say to themselves that they just don’t care in the middle of the piece though, no matter how arduous it is. If making that top boat is your goal then putting yourself through 8000m of pain is worth it by default.

Pushing yourself for that long is going to test your endurance, it’s going to hurt, and at some point you are going to want to quit. What makes you a stronger, more resilient athlete isn’t pulling the fastest splits or coming in first, it’s pushing through the pain and finishing the piece regardless of what happens in the middle. As a coxswain (and a coach) I obviously want fast people in my boats but even more so than that, I want people who know what pain feels like and who know how to overcome it.

College Coxing Novice Q&A Recruiting

Question of the Day

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Do colleges ever recruit novice coxswains? By the time recruiting happens I won’t have done any races so is it still possible to get recruited?

Nooo. Being recruited is something that only those who have been at it for at least 3-4 years should consider. Two, maybe, if your erg scores are off the charts but for coxswains, definitely 3-4. It is very, very unlikely that those with two years or less of experience will be recruited, although there are some anomalies (pretty much all of whom are rowers). No coach though is going to consider someone that doesn’t have race experience, since that’s obviously one of the best, easiest, and most available ways to gauge someone’s skill level. Plus, coxing at the collegiate level is tough – way tougher than high school. You really need those three or four years of learning about the sport and gaining the technical knowledge and leadership experience in order to get off on the right foot in college. There’s a lot of pressure because the coaches have extremely high expectations of you, especially and even more so if you’re a recruit. They’re not unattainable, just very high. It’s rare enough for coxswains to be recruited as it is because the coaches want to save the scholarship money they have for the rowers.

If coxing in college is something you’re thinking about, you should consider walking on, which anyone can do. Typically walk-ons make up at least half of the overall team and can be people who rowed/coxed in high school but didn’t go through the recruiting process or people who had never touched an oar before coming to college. Once you’ve been accepted and everything you can email the coach and say you’ve been coxing for a year or however long it’s been and that you’re interested in joining the team once you get to campus. They’ll give you some information and let you know when to show up at the boathouse.

Coxing Q&A

Question of the Day

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

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

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

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

Coxing Q&A Teammates & Coaches

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Coxing Q&A

Question of the Day

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

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

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

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

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

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

Novice Q&A Technique

Question of the Day

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Hey! I am a novice and today our cox said to check our “hand height” … what does it mean? Is it at the catch or on the recovery? Thank you.

He/she was referring to your handle heights, which is the height above the gunnels that your hands and oar handle are. This applies to the entire stroke but where discrepancies are felt the most is on the recovery when the blades are out of the water. Your handle heights, for the most part, are what help to stabilize (aka “set”) the boat. If the handle heights of the rowers are all the same, the boat will sit perfectly level. If one side’s hands are up high (between your shoulders and mid-rib cage) and the other side’s hands are down low (between their belly button and hips), the boat will be offset.

When you pull through the drive, the handle should be hitting you somewhere between your mid-rib cage and belly button at the finish. For girls, a good reference is about where your bra line is. That might seem high when you’re just sitting normally but when you factor in the layback, it’s just about the right spot. At the finish it’s important to remember to tap down to get your blade out of the water before moving the hands away, which you should do in over smooth, level movement. The best way to think about it is like you’re gliding your hands across a flat surface. You don’t want your hands bobbing all over the place because that’s going to decrease the stability of the boat. If your coxswain says to check your handle heights or set the boat you should think about where your hands are (too high, too low, or just right) and then make any necessary adjustments at the finish (never in the middle) of the stroke.

College Q&A Recruiting

Question of the Day

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Can a coxswain back out of a verbal commitment? I want to tell a very good D1 school that I will commit to go there but my coach said I should wait until after HOCR because I might be able to go to a better school if I do well. What should I do? Can you still go on an official to another school if you verbally commit?

The NCAA’s definition of a verbal commitment is this: “A college-bound student-athlete’s commitment to a school before he or she signs (or is able to sign) a National Letter of Intent. The college-bound student-athlete can announce a verbal commitment at any time. This commitment is NOT binding for either the college-bound student-athlete or the school. Only the signing of the National Letter of Intent accompanied by a financial aid agreement is binding of both parties.”

Verbal commitments are a tricky thing. They’re not binding but you’re expected to honor your word. It’s one of those unspoken, common sense things. If you say to a coach that you’re coming to XYZ University, they’re assuming that you are indeed coming to XYZ university, committing yourself to the team, and forgoing any other offers or applications. Depending on how big of a score you are for the program, the coach(es) might end up pulling verbal offers that they have made to other athletes. There are definitely repercussions but I think it’s more on their end than it is on yours because they could potentially lose out on more athletes than just you if you de-commit. It would also put you in an awkward situation because they’ve spent all this time, effort, money, etc. on recruiting you and you respond by changing your mind after previously saying “yes” to them. I wouldn’t blame them for being pissed.

Related: Official vs. unofficial visits

That’s not to say that de-commiting is the wrong thing to do though. It might be the right thing for you because you realize, for whatever reason, that the school or team isn’t the right fit for you. That’s fine and completely understandable, but the reasons that prompted you to come to that conclusion are all things you should have thought about way ahead of time. I can’t think of too many things that would suddenly pop up this far into the process that would cause you to back out of a commitment.

Unless you’ve signed an NIL, been accepted by the university, and have said “yes” to the coach, no one’s going to say you can’t go on another visit. This is actually called a “soft commitment”, which means you say yes but keep going on officials. I’ll warn you though, the other coaches will ask you where else you’re looking, where else you’ve gone or are planning to go on officials, and how interested you are in those other schools/programs. This isn’t to pressure you into saying that the school you’re at is your favorite but it is to gauge your level of interest across the board. If it’s obvious that you’re leaning towards another school, they’re probably going to back off and move on to the recruits who are still very much interested in their program. If you say you’ve already verbally committed to another program (they’ll find out anyways so it’s not worth lying about) they’ll, again, probably be annoyed that you’re kinda leading them on and wasting their resources by being there when they could have brought someone in that really wants to go there and hasn’t already said yes to someone else.

The best analogy I can think of is that it’s like you’re engaged to someone but are still going on dates with other people just to make sure you’re actually with the right person. The person you’re engaged to is probably thinking “WTF, seriously? After all this time, you’re still not sure?” and the people you’re going on dates with are thinking “Why did I just buy you an expensive dinner when you’re not even available?”

With regards to Head of the Charles … I get what your coach is saying but going to college still comes back to academics first, athletics second. Sure, the crew team might be better at Washington than at Cal but Cal might have the better academic program. You have to think long term and not just about the immediate future. I guess in theory if you do well enough then you might make yourself look like a better prospect to the higher end programs you’re looking at but I don’t think it would ultimately make that much of a difference. Regatta results, let alone results at one race, are only a small piece of the puzzle. Unless you’ve applied early decision to the school you want to commit to and have been accepted (which I don’t think any schools have even announced yet…), I wouldn’t give anyone a verbal, regardless of how well you do at HOCR.

Keep in mind that the potential for something to come up that causes you or the coach to change your/their mind is always there and you don’t want to get stuck in a bad spot because you’ve turned down other schools or didn’t apply anywhere else because you were set on going to this school. Just like you can rescind your verbal, so too can the coaches. Most people tend to forget that and then experience premature aging when they realize they don’t have a Plan B. Until you’ve been accepted by the university (the most important thing) and have signed on the dotted line, nothing is official.

College Q&A Teammates & Coaches

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Hi, I am a college freshman, and am in an uncomfortable situation with one of my assistant coaches. I like her and think she is a good coach however other girls have said she’s a bitch. At first I thought they just didn’t like her being a hardass (even though I didn’t even see her as that) but then the other day I found her a walk-on and she said I was her favorite freshman. She also said it to everyone else at practice. At first I was thinking she was joking around but I also see the way she acts around all the other freshmen and she can be pretty mean to them, especially our cox. She also came up to me while we were erg testing and was saying what our top freshman split was and how I was under it and that she wanted me to beat it. She didn’t say much to anyone else. The others have noticed the favoritism and personally I don’t think it’s fair to them because they work just as hard as me. Any advice on handling this situation?

Yikes.

She’s definitely in the wrong here for making it blatantly obvious that she’s playing favorites. My best advice would be to talk with your head coach about this and explain that it’s making you uncomfortable and putting you in an awkward situation with your teammates because it seems like your assistant coach is giving you preferential treatment while being overly-harsh with everyone else. If you’re comfortable saying that to your assistant coach, go for it, but I think it would be better to let the head coach deal with it since I think it’s something they’re better suited to handle. Since they have more authority than a freshman rower, it’s more likely (I would hope) that she’ll listen to them and take things a bit more seriously than if you said something.

How to Pass Crews During a Head Race

Coxing How To Q&A Racing

How to Pass Crews During a Head Race

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

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

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

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

Related: HOCR: Steering around the turns

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

Related: Yaz Farooq’s HOCR coxswain clinic

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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