Category: Q&A

Question of the Day

By readyallrow July 25, 2013

I had the shittiest practice ever today … I was so offset and I’m the slowest rower on the team and my coach won’t even follow me with his launch, that’s how far behind I get. I thought I had good technique but there’s a few basic things I don’t do properly and when I get corrections it’s so fucking hard for me to make those corrections and I can feel my coach giving up. I hate feeling so stupid after working so hard and idk like why the hell am I doing this, I’m not even strong. UGH I need a hug.

I’ve had shitty practices like that too – they’re the worst because you know you’re trying or you can see the people in your boat trying and for whatever reason things just aren’t clicking. It’s more mentally exhausting than anything else.

When we’ve fallen behind our coach or the other boats sometimes I would end up running my own practice. More often than not our coaches would make me push them to stay with the other boats, which is a good thing, you need to push yourself and be pushed like that, but other times I think they recognized that the neurons just weren’t firing that day so trying to push them to keep up would have only made things worse.

We’d usually stop rowing for at least two or three minutes, just to give everyone a mental break. We’d talk about whatever wasn’t feeling right and begrudgingly we would start over from the very beginning except much slower. If we were doing a drill or something, we’d break it down even further or if we couldn’t do that, we’d start off by pairs instead of fours or fours instead of sixes. We’d go through everything much slower until we had it down at that stroke rate, then we’d bump it up a beat or two and do it again, from the beginning, until we had it down at that stroke rate.

From there we’d cycle through all the pairs/6s before taking another break for a minute to figure out what went better that time and what we need to take away from it so we can keep doing it that way in the future. I don’t think there was ever time where doing it this way made things worse. Granted it took up a lot of time and sometimes we didn’t accomplish whatever the actual goal of practice was that day but the stuff we did accomplish from taking things slower and focusing more on our issues tended to, in some small way or another, be more helpful to us than whatever else we had planned on doing.

Talk to your coach when you’re on land, preferably when you’ve cooled down, and explain the problems you’re having. Tell him how you’re frustrated because you’re having problems grasping the technical changes that you need to make and that you feel like he’s giving up on you because you either don’t understand what you’re being asked to do or are having trouble making the changes. Ask him, either then or before your next practice, if he can get on an erg with you and explain exactly what the changes are that he wants to see you make, what they should look like, and how what it should look/feel like compares to what you’re doing right now. If you don’t know or understand why something you’re doing is wrong, ask.

Also talk to him about what happens if you fall too far off the pace and end up further behind everyone else. Tell him that it’s frustrating for you but you don’t want the rest of practice to be wasted so does he have any suggestions of things you can do on your own (drills, steady state pieces, etc.). Also ask him if he’d be able to double back every so often to check in. It’s not safe for you to be completely without a coach, especially if you haven’t been rowing that long and/or are out there by yourself (I’m assuming you were in a single), so asking him to check on you for safety purposes alone is the least he can do.

You shouldn’t feel stupid after having a bad work out. Weaker people than you have gone through the same things and quit because it’s too hard so just by being persistent you’re already doing better than most. Bad practices happen. Are they infuriating as hell? Of course they are. The thing is though, you can almost always take something away from them that will ultimately make you a better, stronger rower in the long run. For me I’ve found that the best way to avoid letting crew mess with my head is to leave everything that happened on the water on the water until I’m calmed down enough to look at the situation from a more logical and objective perspective. When you’re pissed off you never see things how they actually are.

After a few hours, think back to practice for a few minutes and try to figure out what went wrong. What were you having trouble with, why was the technique stuff so hard today, etc. Jot down two or three things (and only two or three things so as to not overwhelm yourself) that were particularly difficult and come up with a plan to combat those things over the course of your next two practices or so. Whether it’s giving yourself a two minute break to take a deep breath and clear your head when you find yourself getting flustered or focusing all your energy on moving the legs and arms together on the drive so that it’s more powerful and consistent, give yourself a plan. If you’ve got something to work towards you’ll be able to focus more when you’re out instead of going out and trying to just blindly accomplish things to the point where you get so frustrated because nothing is working that you start doubting yourself.

Don’t use not being strong as an excuse. You can always get stronger, either by going to the gym or by pushing yourself to do better right at the point where you want to give up the most. If you do a 1000m piece and your brain starts telling you to quit at 800m but you push through it, sprint hard, and finish the piece, you got stronger. If you do 8x500m and you decide to quit after seven because you’re tired, you got weaker. If you make lifting a priority, you will get stronger. If you start thinking about the stuff you’re doing well and committing yourself to working harder to improve the things you’re not doing so well, you will get stronger. Any time you unnecessarily beat yourself up over something you’re backtracking on any progress you’d made up to that point. Sometimes you do have to kick your own ass and that’s fine, but know when it’s appropriate and when it’s not.

You’re not the first person to have a bad practice or feel like this and you’re definitely not going to be the last. Something to remember: you’re not defined as an athlete by how well or poorly you perform at one practice – what defines you is whether you show up the next day clear headed, focused, and ready to do work, regardless of how the previous day went.

Coxing High School Masters Q&A Teammates & Coaches

Question of the Day

By readyallrow July 25, 2013

Hi! I am a coxswain who has coxed on my school’s team for 5 seasons. I seem to do better when put in a boys boat (I’m a girl). In the past, I have attributed this to the fact that the girls on my team are incredibly immature and difficult to deal with. It’s gotten to a point where no cox on my team wants to cox a girls boat. How would you approach this? Also, I have recently gotten an opportunity to cox for a local club’s masters women’s boat. How would you adjust to a such a different group?

That’s rough. It sounds like something your coaches need to address (or should have) rather than something the coxswains should be forced to put up with/suffer through or handle on their own. Have you guys tried talking to the coaches about the issues you have coxing them? Are they difficult to deal with because they don’t listen, are unnecessarily combative, and just straight up bitches or are they difficult to deal with because they’re teenagers and doing typical annoying teenager stuff? Regardless of the reason, I think it’s worth bringing up and discussing with the coach so that they can do something about it. It’s also possible that they might not know what’s going on or that the coxswains feel this way so they never realized there was a problem needing addressing. Until then though, if you get put in a boat with them try not to get frustrated. Avoid displaying any outward signs of being irritated that you’re coxing that boat because that’ll either piss off the rowers and give them even more reasons to make things difficult or it’ll just amuse them and give them a reason to antagonize you.

Regarding coxing a masters boat, the biggest difference for me in going from coxing people my own age to coxing people who are closer to my parents’ age was coxing them with the same amount of intensity. It felt weird coxing them like I coxed college or high school crews because they’re so much older than me but once I talked to them about it they said they want to be coxed hard like that, so that’s what I started doing. After a few practices it didn’t feel weird any more. I’d suggest just talking to them and finding out what they look for in their coxswains. Are they a competitive team who expects to be coxed as such or are they just out there to have a good time and get away from the stress of daily life, so they don’t need to be coxed as hard? Don’t be intimidated by them and don’t feel like you can’t call them out on any technique problems like you would a normal crew. They want to be corrected so they can improve just like rowers your own age so make sure you’re talking to them and giving them the same feedback that you’d give your regular crew.

College Q&A Recruiting

Question of the Day

By readyallrow July 24, 2013

I’m a junior starting to look into the recruiting process. What would a good first email to a coach be formatted as? What should I include? How long should it be?

I think the emails I wrote to coaches were fairly short and to the point. I had already narrowed down the schools I wanted to apply to so I don’t think I emailed more than four or five coaches at most. I definitely recommend getting an idea of the schools you want to go to first and the program you want to study instead of blindly emailing places that have decent rowing programs but potentially only so-so academics. Being able to say that you’re interested in this school and this program let’s the coach(es) know that you’ve done your research and are actually interested in the university as well, not just the crew team.

Anyways, I introduced myself, said where I was from, the team I rowed for, and that I was interested in the university and potentially joining the team as a coxswain. I emailed them after I’d already made plans to visit the schools so I said that I would be taking a tour of the university and the exercise science department on this day at this time and would there be any chance that we could meet, either at the boathouse or their office, to talk about the program. Two of the schools I wasn’t able to meet with because they weren’t going to be there when I visited (I think it was during spring break but I can’t remember) and two others I did meet with (Syracuse and Virginia). From there I said that I’d attached my rowing resume for them to look at and I hoped to talk with them soon, sincerely, me.

Example:

Dear Coach (last name),

My name is (your name) and I row/cox for (team name) in (city/state). I’m interested in attending (university name) to study (name of your potential major) and am looking to join the crew team while I am there. I plan on visiting (university name/abbreviation) on (date) to attend their prospective student information session and take a tour the campus and (name of your major/program) department. Would it be possible to meet up at either the boathouse or your office to talk more about the program?

Attached you’ll find my rowing resume with my relevant information and results from the past (#) years. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Thanks!
(Your name)

Simple, straightforward, and to the point.

With regards to doing unofficial visits like this, the only time you’re not allowed to visit is during the NCAA’s dead period, which is when coaches aren’t allowed to have face-to-face contact with any prospective student-athletes or their parents. You can still communicate through email and phone calls though.

Check out these posts too, they might help you out down the line.

What questions to ask coaches during the recruiting process

What NOT to ask coaches during the recruiting process

Waiting for responses from coaches

Getting the attention of coaches

Making a beRecruited account

Rowing scholarships

How to stand out when on an official visit

The “recruiting” and “contacting coaches” tags

Coxing Novice Q&A Rowing Technique

Question of the Day

By readyallrow July 23, 2013

I rowed for three seasons and I have been asked to help cox a crew for a race thing in the beginning of September. A lot of the people haven’t rowed much/before and we are allowed 12 on-water sessions before the race. The coach has said that I need to coach more since I can sometimes see more from the coxswain seat than they can see from the coach’s boat, except I’m not experienced enough with coxing to know what to look for other than obvious timing issues etc. Do you have any tips?

First thing I’d do is go talk to your coach about what she specifically wants you to look for. Ask for two or three things and then talk with her about what you should be noticing about each of them and what it looks like when it’s right vs. wrong. Bring a notebook so you can write down what she says instead of trying to remember everything. (Trust me, you’re not going to remember, especially if you’ve never coxed before.)

Second thing is to talk to your coxswain or other coxswains at your club and ask them about some of the basic things they look for. If they say something different than what your coach said, ask them the same follow up questions you asked your coach about what you should notice, what it should look like, etc.

Related: So, what did you see?

My suggestions of things to look for are timing at the catch, like you said, catch angles, and how clean the finishes are.

Timing

This is the easiest thing to notice as it’s fairly obvious when someone is catching before or after the stroke. Instead of making an ambiguous call like “watch the timing” to the entire boat, be specific about what needs to happen and who needs to do it. “Bow pair, you’re a little early, let’s match the hands away to stern six and swing together…” or “4, you’re half a stroke late, get the body set a bit sooner on the next one…”. Make sure that if they get off with their timing to wait at the finish and come in on the next stroke instead of waiting at the catch or the middle of the slide, which some novices will do. (Why the finish instead of the catch? Because the boat is more stable when people are at the finish and less stable when they’re compressed at the catch, so it’s less likely to throw off the set of the boat if someone comes in at the finish.)

Catch angles

It can be hard to diagnose the bodies when you can’t see them, especially as a novice coxswain, but looking at the catch angles is a good alternative. You want everyone’s angles to be relatively the same and matching the angles of stern pair to ensure that they’re fully compressed and maximizing their leg drive. If a rower isn’t fully compressed the shaft of the oar will be more perpendicular to the boat whereas if they’re over compressed their oar will be more parallel to the boat in comparison to the stroke’s oar. You might have to turn your head to look at stern pair’s oars since it’s easy to look directly over them and only see bow 6’s. If you see someone either going too far or not far enough, you can point it out by reminding them to get to where their knees are over their ankles and no further.

Clean finishes

If the finishes aren’t clean and people are washing out you’ll see a lot of white water splashing forward, almost like a mini tidal wave. It’ll also be kinda noisy. If the blades are buried too deep on the drive they might get stuck at the finish, especially if the boat isn’t set, which could lead to a rower catching a crab. If you see someone washing out, tell them to accelerate the blade through the water (meaning the stroke should get stronger as you approach the finish), hold the blade in for the entire stroke instead of tapping the hands down before you’re all the way to the finish, and pull all the way into their body before tapping down (thumbs should just brush their stomach before the hands go away). Before you start rowing make sure you remind everyone to bury the blades too. If someone’s blade is only buried halfway instead of entirely when they go to take a stroke they’ll wash out.

Don’t try to look for everything the next time you go out with your boat. Pick one or two things to focus on during practice, then the next practice pick two more things, and then two more after that. Once you’ve got an idea of what everything should look like, start to focus on all of it in the practices leading up to your race. If you get overwhelmed, go back to just watching one or two things. Don’t just watch whatever you think is the easiest to spot though because that won’t help you or the rowers. Make an effort to look for all the little details that you might not otherwise notice. Take notes on what you see either when you’re not rowing or once you get off the water and review them the next day before you go out. Communicate with your coach too about what you’re seeing, if you have questions, etc.

College Coxing High School How To Novice Q&A

TED Talks, body language, and … coxing?

By readyallrow July 23, 2013

I was going through Reddit the other night and came across this talk from last October given by Amy Cuddy, a social psychologist who currently teaches at Harvard Business School. It’s really interesting and a lot of what she says can easily be related to coxing.

I’ve gotten a lot of questions asking “how to do I become more confident”, “will I be a good coxswain even though I’m shy and quiet”, etc. and that made me realize how big of an issue this is for those who are new to the sport (and for some experienced coxswains as well). I get asked a lot how I developed my confidence as a coxswain and I don’t ever really know how to answer that other than to say “I just am/was”. Good coaching, support from my family and friends, and my natural personality all play(ed) into it but it was never something I had to teach myself to be.

That isn’t the case for a lot of coxswains out there though and is really more of a “pick two” situation. You can have two of the above but not the other one and what sucks is that the one you don’t have tends to affect you more than the two you do have. When you’re just starting out in something new, especially something as feedback-based as rowing, that can be the make-or-break thing that helps you decide whether to stick with it or not. I’ve said multiple times that to be a good coxswain you have to be confident in your skills, your decisions, and yourself as an individual and I stand by that wholeheartedly, but how do you teach yourself to become that, especially when there’s no one telling you the process step by step?

One of the things that Amy talks about in the beginning of her talk is how your level of confidence is communicated in your posture, what your body language is communicating to other people, and what your body language is communicating to yourself. If you think about how you approach any given situation, what do you think your body language/non-verbals say about you? If you’re a coxswain, think about yourself when you’re at practice. Do your non-verbals give off an air of “I know what I’m doing” or, as Amy said, “I’m not supposed to be here”? Do you stand up front by the coaches, hands on your hips, waiting to be told what to do or do stand near the back or in the middle of the rowers playing with your cox box hoping no one notices you’re there? What about when you’re on the water? How do your coxing non-verbals make you look? Think about that for a second and honestly ask yourself how you think your non-verbals have affected you so far, either positively or negatively.

A little bit further on she talks about how there’s a grade gap in business schools between men and women and they can’t figure it out because coming in, they’re all on equal footing so you’d think that gap wouldn’t exist. What they attribute part of it to is one’s level of participation in class. Based on personal experience I know that in classes and situations where I’m confident in what I know, I’m a willing, avid participant in whatever’s going on. I’m one of those people that “spreads out”, has their hand high in the air, etc. When I’m not confident (i.e. every math class I’ve taken since elementary school) I don’t say a word and tend to make myself smaller in the chair I’m sitting in with what I can only assume is a “I’m not supposed to be here” look on my face.

When I started thinking about this, we do this at crew too. We all come in on equal footing, not knowing anything about the sport, but the ones who participate more by engaging themselves in the beginning during winter training, talking to the coaches, interacting with the rowers, learning about the sport on their own time, etc. are the ones that (initially) succeed. Those that stand around not doing much, are nervous or afraid to talk to the coaches, are intimidated by the rowers, and don’t do anything to engage themselves other than show up tend to get looked over in favor of those who are displaying more positive non-verbals. That all has to do with confidence. The more confident you are, the more risks you’re willing to take at the beginning to put yourself out there in an unfamiliar situation. That confidence is an inherent thing too that has nothing to do with how much you know or don’t know about crew or coxing. So, how do you become more confident and project those positive non-verbals?

The next minute or two of her talk really justified something I’ve felt and been saying for awhile now. “Is it possible that we could get people to fake it and would it lead people to participate more? … Can you experience a behavioral outcome that makes you seem more powerful?” You all know that one of the things I’ve consistently said, especially to novices, is “fake it ’til you make it” because the more you fake it, the more you start to actually become it. But, as she goes on to say, do the non-verbals govern how we think and feel about ourselves? I say definitely. If you’re awkwardly standing somewhere in a “powerless” position, chances are you aren’t feeling so great about yourself whereas if you’re standing somewhere with your chin up, shoulders back, etc. you probably feel pretty confident … or do you? Maybe you’re faking it. Who knows! That’s the beauty of it. “When you pretend to be powerful you are more likely to actually feel powerful.”

This transitioned into what she was saying about how powerful and effective leaders have high testosterone and low cortisol levels, testosterone relating to dominance and cortisol relating to stress. As she says, when you think about power you tend to think more about testosterone and less about cortisol but the thing with power is that it’s not all about how dominant you are over a situation or group of people, it’s also about how you handle and react to the stress of being in that position. Tell me that isn’t exactly like coxing. As she goes on to say, think about the kind of leader you want to be — do you want to be a dominant leader who is also very reactive to stress or a leader who is dominant and not very reactive to stress? I know there are a fair number of rowers out there cringing as you recall situations where your coxswain was freaking out about something on the water and you spent the next several minutes wondering if he/she was gonna have their shit together at any point during practice. That’s not the kind of coxswain you want to be. You want to be the kind that manages stress effectively by figuring out a solution to the problem rather than outwardly reacting to it. Why? Because the non-verbals you display in situations like that let your rowers know you’ve got things under control and their confidence in you ultimately translates into confidence in yourself. See how that works? (On the flip side though, the exact opposite can also happen…)

Moving on to “primate hierarchies”, think about when your coach decides to make a change by randomly and all of a sudden taking you out of your novice 4+ and putting you in the varsity 8+. You’re probably nervous, questioning your abilities, and thinking “oh shit, what if I mess up”, right? You’re replacing an “alpha” coxswain -someone who is most likely more confident, more experienced, and more skilled that you. But, after a few practices with the boat you realize it’s just like coxing any other crew with only minor differences. You start to worry less about how you’re doing as you settle into your groove and become more comfortable with the rowers. This demonstrates what she’s saying about your testosterone going up and cortisol coming down. As you continue working with them you gradually become more and more confident with yourself, which is what she’s saying about how role changes can shape the mind. On that same line, the more confident you become, the more positive your body language becomes, which in turn circles back around and increases your confidence. Body shaping the mind. Bam. Science.

Hopefully by this point you get how big of a role your body language plays in that. The trick is to do it in small doses like she says (starting around 10:19). For two minutes stand in a “high power pose” like one of the ones from her PowerPoint. Obviously you don’t have to do this somewhere where people can see you if you’re worried about looking silly. Do that and see how it makes you feel. Do this every day before you go to school, before you go to practice, etc. and after a week or two, see if you notice a difference with yourself. If what she says is right, the more you do it the more confident you’ll feel and see yourself becoming.

I have a great story to tell about “having the opportunity to gamble”. So, about two weeks or so before I left for Penn AC I was basically in the midst of a full-on quarter-life crisis. Fellow millennials will probably know the feeling – messy personal life, feeling stuck in our jobs, and freaking out about our (lack of) finances. I went out to breakfast one morning with one of the women in my boat and she said to me, dead serious, “you look like you’re going through life like you’re in the middle of surgery with no anesthesia”. That was a serious wake-up call because I knew how shitty I felt and I had been trying really hard to keep it to myself but apparently I was failing (miserably). What had given it away was how I was carrying myself. I wasn’t carrying myself confidently like I normally did; instead I just looked defeated all the time, including when I was on the water, which had never happened before. Ever since I started coxing this boat they’ve all consistently said to me, with wondrous amazement, that I’m a completely different person on the water. I’m a much more reserved and quiet person than I used to be but when I’m on the water, my true personality really comes through. I’m the person on the water that I wish I still was on land. How they knew something was “off” though was by how I was acting whenever we’d go out for practice. Up to this point I was always 100% in command, 100% focused, and never once questioned myself. Now though, I just wasn’t into practice, I couldn’t concentrate, and my mind was always on other things. They didn’t know any of that but they read it all through my body language, which was giving them the sense through my non-verbals that I didn’t have an ounce of confidence in my body.

For the first time in a long time I questioned myself in the middle of a race piece. I haven’t done that since I was a novice and didn’t know any better. Looking back at my non-verbals I know I was giving off the “I don’t belong here” vibe because in that moment that was exactly how I felt. We were doing race pieces with another boat and we were coming up on the last 400m or so. It was close between the two of us and I wanted to call a move to put us ahead once and for all going into the final sprint. I was already not 100% mentally into practice, in addition to being nervous about how close we were to the other crew. I debated for too long about whether or not to make the move, whether it would hurt our speed during the sprint, etc. and missed the opportunity. We lost the race by about two seats. I was furious with myself, which then made me feel even less confident and more defeated. It also just went to show how irrational I was being because it was just a practice piece — there was literally nothing riding on it whatsoever and my boat was happy because it was a good piece. My coach asked me afterwards what was up because he’d never seen me like that in the boat before. He said his first clue that something was off was as soon as we crossed the finish line I buried my head in hands and started crying, which is really unlike me, especially on the water.

Fast forward about three weeks to Penn AC. The guys were doing 4x2ks and I ended up coxing the last one. Up to that point I’d been having a great week so I was feeling pretty good all around. Seeing how well the guys had been doing up to this point just sent my enthusiasm levels through the roof and having the guy at stroke say to me “let’s go fuck this other boat up” before the start just totally did it for me. Thinking back on it, I was willing to take the risk I did because I was feeling good about myself and the boat, which was translated to my body language (I was in a “high power” stance, or as close as you can get in the boat), which then translated how I felt to those that were watching us. Compared to the piece I did with my own eight, my testosterone and cortisol levels were probably the exact opposite of what they were before. I felt completely in control and wasn’t stressed because I knew that no matter what I said the guys were gonna go with me.

I called for a move with 750m to go that took the other crew by complete surprise and helped us get even with them after being about a length or so down — something we should not have been able to do given the difference in size and experience between the two boats. It was a risk and as one of the coaches later said, a ballsy one at that. It could have backfired and killed the momentum we’d built up but in the moment that wasn’t even something I was thinking about. Later on I ended up talking with another coach about that piece and they said that they had a feeling that I was going to do something “crazy” just based on my body language. He said that he told the rower that was riding with him to watch our boat because “she’s gonna do something … I don’t know what or when but she’s gonna do something and they’re gonna move.”

That definitely ranked in the top 5 compliments I’ve gotten on my coxing and it really boosted my confidence even though I had no real reason to need a confidence boost. It’s not like I needed any kind of validation on my coxing skills (but when has something like that ever hurt…). Put yourself in that situation though or go back to a time when something similar happened to you — how awesome would/did you feel immediately afterwards? What would/did that do for your confidence? And now think that it has nothing to do with your coxing, it all came straight from what your body language was communicating.

There are a lot of different connections to be made here which can get confusing trying to put all the pieces together, so, to recap:

Non-verbals communicate to other people as well as to ourselves

Positive non-verbals = “happy” feelings; negative non-verbals = “sad” feelings

Happy/sad = confident/not confident

“Fake it ’til you make it” = mind shaping the body

Confident/not confident = dominant/powerless, indicated through testosterone and cortisol levels

Feelings of confidence or lack thereof displayed through “high power”/”low power” body stances

“High power”/”low power” stances = higher/lower risk tolerance, higher/lower testosterone, lower/higher cortisol

Non-verbals govern how we think/feel about ourselves

Bodies change our mind

This video from the Harvard Business Review also gives a good, quick overview in simple terms of what’s been talked about so far.

Back to the Ted Talk, fast forward to 13:50 where she’s talking about what you’re doing before a job interview. Translate this to race day or right before your first practice of the season on the water with a group of people you’ve never coxed before. Instead of making yourself small and finding ways to distract yourself from “the big moment”, you should be making yourself big by spending two minutes in one of your power poses.

Fast forward again to 15:10. It’s not about what you’re saying, it’s about your presence. This is something I really want the novice coxswains to pay attention to. You can listen to as many recordings as you want and borrow as many calls as you want from all the great coxswains out there but if you lack presence, what you say isn’t going to matter. What you say is not what makes you seem more confident or like you know what you’re doing, it’s how. you. say. it. and the vibe you’re giving off as you do it.

When she’s talking about her car accident, going to Princeton, and feeling like she didn’t belong, that’s intense stuff but it’s something that in one way or another we can relate to because we’ve all felt that way at some point. Some of you have said that you don’t feel like you belong at crew because you’re just not confident enough, you don’t think you’ll ever have the personality for coxing, etc. and that you want to quit. I’m going to say to you what her professor said to her:

You’re not quitting. You’re gonna stay and this is what you’re gonna do. You’re gonna fake it. You’re gonna cox every boat you ever get asked to cox, you’re gonna do it and do it and do it, even if you’re terrified and paralyzed and having an out of body experience until you have this moment where you say “Oh my gosh, I’m doing it. I have become this. I am actually doing this.”

Don’t fake it ’til you make it, fake it ’til you become it. There’s a saying that says “don’t practice until you do it right, practice until you don’t do it wrong” that is along the same lines. Don’t fake it and practice your skills until you’re confident in yourself for one practice, practice until you’re confident in your skills every practice and you don’t have to fake that confidence anymore because you’ve actually become confident.

Do I have all the answers for how to become a more confident coxswain? No, but what I do have is a way that you can become more confident as a person which will hopefully translate to you becoming more confident as a coxswain. Win-win, right? And don’t gimme that bullshit of “oh, *scoffs* that’s lame, that’s silly, it won’t work, I’ll look pretentious, this is just smart people talk about smart people stuff that only smart people do, etc.” Don’t knock it before you try it. I fully admit that I am one of those people that definitely thought stuff like this was ridiculous until a time came when I needed stuff like this just to make it through the day. Try it for a week and then tell me you don’t feel just a little bit better about yourself and that your coxing isn’t improved by your new-found positive attitude towards yourself.

As she says at the end of her talk, try the power posing and share the science. I shared it with all of you so now I want you to share it with someone else. Forward the link to a coxswain on your team that you see struggling with his/her confidence because like she said, those without resources and power are the ones who need it most. Novice coxswains tend to lack both. This also goes for coxswains who are moving up to varsity. Hopefully they’ve found a few resources that have helped them learn the ins-and-outs of coxing but they might still be lacking when it comes to power so share this with them too.

College High School Novice Q&A Teammates & Coaches

Question of the Day

By readyallrow July 21, 2013

Next year (most likely) I’m going to be a sophomore novice rower. Practices are for 2 hours, 6 days a week. I’m really stressed out about not having a social life or time for homework. I’m assuming you’re in high school or rowed in high school, so how did you manage? Was it really bad?

It wasn’t that bad, to be honest. I did marching band all four years in addition to coxing and at some point probably spent just as many hours doing band-related stuff each week as I did crew stuff in the spring … this lead to learning insane time management skills.

First, my social life. I had two groups of friends in high school, my band friends and my crew friends. I didn’t see much of or hang out with my crew friends until winter rolled around unless some of crew friends also happened to be band friends, which several were. In the summer and fall though, 100% of my “circle” was in band. In between full rehearsals and sectionals we’d all go get lunch together and then spend the next hour talking and complaining about shit (the weather, our music, time commitments, school, college, bad reality TV, etc.). If we had rehearsals in the evening, some of us would show up an hour or so early because we were section leaders and had stuff to do before practice started. Usually someone would bring popsicles and we’d hang out together while doing whatever we had to do. After practice the whole band would normally stick around for another 45 minutes, sometimes just to hang out, other times because the parents brought everyone food. Sometimes my group of friends and I would go to this legendary donut place downtown (at like, 10pm), grab some donuts, and then either go driving around for a bit, go see a movie, or go sit by the river and hang out. This usually added another couple of hours to the amount of time I spent “at band” in the evenings.

In the fall when school started, our rehearsal schedule would change slightly but we’d also add in football games on Friday nights and competitions on Saturdays. Friday nights were great because 75% of the football game was spent just hanging out. We’d warm-up ahead of time, run through the show, do pre-game, occasionally play a song when they’d score, do halftime, play a few more songs, do post-game and be done. The rest of the time we’d just be sitting in the stands doing whatever. One of my friends and I spent a solid four games in a row our junior year trying to learn the Harry Potter theme song without music. That was fun. Other times we’d bring cards and play Poker or something. After the game, we’d have to load everything up so we’d be ready for the competition the following day and also clean up the stadium, which we got paid to do. From there we’d either all go get food, go bowling for a bit, or if it was really late, just head home (this was rare though). Saturdays were an all day thing with competitions so we were stuck with each other for at least 12 hours, if not more.

We didn’t have a fall rowing program because nearly everyone on the team (100ish people) was either playing a fall sport or was in marching band, so we only had winter training and a spring season. Because we traveled out of the state of Ohio for all but maybe two of our seven or eight regattas, we were excused from school on Fridays so we could travel. Nearly every Friday through Sunday starting in early April and going through the end of May from 2002-2006 I spent in hotels and on charter buses. We’d race Friday afternoons or Saturday mornings through early Sunday afternoon and then get back late Sunday night, sometimes really early on Monday morning. And yes, we had to be at school on Monday. Because of this, in addition to all the time we spent at practice, we spent a lot of time around each other. On Thursday night before races we’d have boat dinners, so we’d either go to a restaurant and monopolize a table for 3+ hours or we’d go to someone’s house, eat a TON of pizza, make t-shirts, watch movies, and just hang out.

The point I’m trying to make with all of this is yes, I had a very busy schedule for 10 months out of the year, but because 99.9% of my friends did the same things I did, I never felt like I didn’t have time to socialize or was missing out on something. We were always around each other, whether at practice or while traveling, and there was always plenty of down time for us to do normal teenager stuff. Both groups of my friends and I all determined pretty quickly that anyone who did row or wasn’t in band probably wasn’t as much fun to hang out with anyways. We never really had any problems with being around each other that much either, which still amazes me. There were definitely times when we would get irritated with one another but I think the fact that we all realized in order for the band or boat to do well, we needed to suck it up and get over it. Tensions like that, in addition to being plain annoying, were just a hindrance to whatever it was we were trying to accomplish.

With regards to school, homework, etc., like I said earlier, you really learn how to manage your time well. Granted there are times when you just say “fuck it” and slack off for whatever reason but you quickly find that all that does is put you in a hole that becomes progressively harder to climb out of as the season progresses. I definitely did this a couple times but my teachers were great and knew what our schedules were like, so they usually cut us a little bit of slack and worked with us so we could get all of our stuff done and turned in. They had every right to not do that but the fact that they did really only encouraged us to work harder. It taught us too that if we want to do crew or band and do well in school, we had to set limits and manage our time properly.

Our coaches were really on us about our grades too. They knew when report cards came out and they’d come up to every single one of us and ask how we did. Not in an interrogative way, luckily, but because they were genuinely that invested in us. This also really encouraged us to work hard and stay on top of things because we knew our coaches wanted to see us succeed off the water too. There were several times that I can remember them telling someone they weren’t going to be able to row for a certain amount of time until they picked their grades up and most of the time the kids did the work and got it done. Other times they just said screw it and quit (and continued not doing their work).

In the fall I’d leave my books at school on the days when I had evening rehearsals and just go an hour or two before I normally would so I could get started on (and hopefully finish) my homework. This worked for me because it forced me to give myself a much needed break in the two hours of in-between time. It was also great because those of us that had classes together would all get there early, pile into someone’s car, go grab some dinner, head back to the high school, and then do work until rehearsal started. I swear the only reason I passed some of my math tests is because my friends that were better at math than me helped me out while we were there. By doing this though we were able to not only get our work done but hang out at the same time.

In the spring I’d sometimes bring whatever book we were reading in English with me but doing homework when you’re stuck on a bus for 5+ hours isn’t too appealing, so I did the majority of my work at home like a normal person. Because I was only really at home for four days during the week, I had to get all my work for the rest of the week and the beginning of the following week done so I could turn it in early and not have to worry about doing anything when I got back at 11pm on Sunday night. When I was in school if I was sitting in a particularly boring class I’d get out my homework for another class and work on it. Obviously you’ve gotta be careful about doing this but as long as you’re stealthy you won’t have a problem. If my friends and I weren’t going out for lunch I’d try and get something accomplished during that time for at least one class. Most often this was when I worked on chem labs since that didn’t require much work, just a lot of writing and some math.

You quickly find out what your priorities are when you have a busy schedule like that. It definitely helps when your friends do the same things you do because then you can hang out while you’re at practice and not have to sacrifice any of your “outside” time if you can’t/don’t want to. In the grand scheme of things though, especially if you’re not planning on rowing in college, school has got to be the number one priority. Even if you are planning to row in college, school still has to be first because you can’t row in college unless you can get into college.

Plus, if you find that the time commitment is too much and you really miss not being able to hang out with your friends, it’s not like you can’t walk away (at the end of the season, NEVER in the middle). You’re not bound to the team the entire time you’re in high school. Again, it comes down to priorities. You might love rowing but if your participation in it comes at the detriment of other stuff, you need to re-evaluate why you’re doing it, what you’re getting out if it, if it’s something you’re planning on sticking with for a long time, etc. Crew is great but it’s not the end all, be all. If there are other things that are important to you, you have to put in the effort and make time for them. If they’re not important, most likely you’ll find a reason or an excuse to not make the time. It’s very rarely about finding time, it’s about making it and once again, it all comes down to priorities.

College Coxing Q&A

Question of the Day

By readyallrow July 20, 2013

So I’ve always been a coxswain on a men’s team and I was recruited by men’s programs at various schools. The school I ended up having to choose (not my number one) only has a women’s program. I’m concerned because I’ve always been around a comfortable weight for a men’s coxswain, not a women’s. Any tips for making the switch with my weight? I’ve been really concerned about it.

Does your school have a club men’s team? Sometimes they aren’t as well “advertised” as women’s programs but it’s worth checking into if you haven’t already.

I’d talk to the coaches first and just say that you’ve always been naturally and comfortably around 120-125lbs, which has never been an issue because up until now you’ve been a men’s coxswain. Being 110lbs (or in that range) might not be reasonable or even possible for your body and coaches have to understand that. Don’t do anything drastic just to get super close to the minimum and don’t let anyone tell you that you need to be exactly 110lbs either. If you can be somewhere in the range of 115-117lbs, that should be fine.

Like I said in that question from yesterday, find out what a healthy target is for you and just make simple changes to your diet and exercise routine. Doesn’t need to be anything drastic. In the fall there’s some leeway with weight for everyone – it doesn’t become something that anyone really starts thinking about until spring season rolls around – but you should still be aware of your goal and be consciously working towards it. If you get to a point where you’ve got nothing left to lose and you’re starting to feel some negative effects from it, talk with your coaches again. This shouldn’t be something you obsess over either, both now or when you’re at school.

College Coxing Q&A

Question of the Day

By readyallrow July 19, 2013

Hi! I rowed for four years of high school but the college I’m going to has a very strong D1 women’s team and at my height and 2k score (5’4″, 8:11, plateaued junior year) there’s no way I’d be competitive on it. The men’s team is club but they’re pretty competitive so I’m going to join as a coxswain. I’ve emailed the coach and went to a practice last fall, and they even said I wouldn’t have to try out. Problem is, I told them I weigh 125, when in actuality I weigh 133 on a good week, but normally 135-138. I didn’t worry about it during my senior year, I was mostly focused on staying strong to have a good season as a rower, but now I’m leaving for school in a little over a month and I’m worried this will hurt me. Despite my lack of experience, I think I’d make a pretty good cox. I’ve spent a lot of time as bow in quads, I was captain and generally a leader on my team, and I have a lot of experience with the sport that I believe will help me – I’ve rowed every type of boat, I’ve been in very winning and very losing crews, and I went from having horrible technique to one of the best on my team. When I went to a week-long summer camp as a cox I was quickly put in the top men’s boat and I got a lot of positive feedback from the coaches. I’m just worried that my weight combined with my lack of coxing experience will prevent me from making a good boat. What is your experience with the importance of weight and what can I do to get it down while still staying healthy? Thanks!

Any reasonable coach would choose a coxswain with solid skills, good rapport with their teammates, and who they can trust over a coxswain who weighs 110lbs or 125lbs but lacks every other important component of what makes a good coxswain. In that same vein though, it is important that you’re at or within range of racing weight (for a men’s coxswain I’d say 127-130lbs would be a reasonable cutoff). It’s a pretty big part of being a coxswain and it’s well within the coach’s right to point that out.

It sounds like you’ve got a lot of potential given all the various experiences you had. The only way that I can think that your weight would come to the forefront is if there is another coxswain of equal skill who weighs closer to the minimum that you’re competing against for a boat. In that instance I would choose the lighter coxswain simply because it makes more sense. Most likely though you’ll be coxing a novice boat your first season anyways so unless you’ve got multiple novice boats, there’s a slim chance of you being kept out of one.

As far as getting it down while staying healthy, the first thing for you to determine is what exactly is a healthy weight for you. It’s been awhile since I’ve looked at height-weight charts but I think the “average” weight for a 5’4″ female is something like 124 to 130lbs or something like that. That might not be “normal” for you though so that’s important to figure out before you start doing anything drastic. Ideally you should talk to your doctor about it and discuss it with them since they know you better than I do. Plus, you’ve got to ask yourself if you’re willing to make that commitment. I’m gonna go ahead and assume that you’re pretty healthy and in shape given the fact that you were a rower but still, losing weight is a commitment regardless of how many pounds in total it is.

My suggestions are the same as they always are – simple lifestyle changes. You don’t have to change everything and suddenly go all “Biggest Loser” on yourself, just make small changes to what you’re already doing. Try to replace two or three things you each with healthier options, drink lots of water, and add in 2-3 days of solid exercise a week to start. Find something fun so it won’t feel like working out and you’ll be more likely to stick with it. There’s TONS of options out there, you’ve just gotta search them out. It’s better than just aimlessly going to the gym and being bored with what you’re doing.

Don’t obsess over your weight but be mindful of it. Fall season isn’t as important as spring season when it comes to being close to racing weight (it is, but less so) so you’ve got plenty of time. For now just focus on learning as much as you can.

College Coxing Q&A Recruiting

Question of the Day

By readyallrow July 18, 2013

First of all, I just wanted to say that your blog is amazing and I’ve learned a lot from reading your posts. I’m going into my freshman year of college at a university that wasn’t my first choice. I was recruited as a coxswain for the men’s team at UW but unfortunately couldn’t afford to go there. I’m still crushed about it, but I’m trying to eventually transfer if I can find ways to deal with the money situation. Do you think it would be best to transfer before spring season or in the fall?

I think from a rowing standpoint it’d be best to transfer in the fall because then you’ll have a couple months to get acquainted with the coaches, the rowers, the team culture, the equipment, etc. before the craziness of the spring season sets in. The winter training trip will be way more fun and way less awkward for you if you’ve already established some friendships with the guys vs. coming straight from your other school, not knowing anyone, and being expected to jump right in and take charge.

From a school standpoint I don’t think it makes much of a difference if you go in the spring or fall. It might push your graduation back to August instead of May or June if you transfer before the spring semester but if that’s not an issue for you I wouldn’t worry about it. Some classes are only offered at certain times so that could get tricky initially with scheduling if you have to take classes with pre-reqs but all in all, spring vs. fall doesn’t really matter.

From a “social” standpoint, transfer before the fall. You’ll get to come in at the same time as all the new freshmen and it’s right at the beginning of the year so there will be a ton of stuff happening. Going in the fall also has the potential to make it easier to meet people too since most people will be starting off not knowing anyone or wanting to make new friends, whereas in the spring everyone’s already spent four months together in classes, extra-curriculars, etc. This can help you out with crew too. If you come in at the same time as the new freshman recruits instead of four months after them you won’t have to deal with any drama later on with them having attitudes or whatever because “they were there first”. I was talking to someone about that a few months ago and it was the most ridiculous situation ever but it makes sense why it happened.

Talk to the coaches at UW, particularly whoever is in charge of recruiting. Let them know (like, now-ish) that you are hoping to transfer to UW and give them a timeline of when you’d like to do that. I’m sure they already know why you turned them down but reiterate that to them and ask if they have any suggestions for discussing financial aid with the university. I have to assume they’d be able to give you some good advice in that area. Get as MUCH information as possible on grants, scholarships, etc. from the registrar’s office and find out what you’re eligible for. Start working on those applications sooner rather than later. You’ll have to reapply to the university too, even though you were already accepted, so don’t wait too long to get started on that. During your fall semester at the school you’re currently at try to form some relationships with your professors who might be able to write you a letter of recommendation to include with your transfer app. Obviously don’t suck up to them just to get a LOR but you know what I mean. Go to office hours, show up to class, participate, etc.

If you’re coxing at your current school, I’d keep the fact that you want to transfer on the DL. I wouldn’t hide it, per se, but I wouldn’t make it blatantly obvious that this team/school wasn’t your first choice. It’s kind of like looking for a new job when you’ve already got a job – don’t say anything until you’ve got something secured lest your attitude, dedication, commitment, loyalty, etc. be questioned. At that point have the conversation with your coach and go from there. Having it be known right off the bat that you turned UW down (legitimate reasons aside), are at your second choice school, and want to transfer as soon as you can’t probably won’t do you any favors in building any sort of camaraderie with your teammates.

Coxing Drills Q&A Rowing Technique

Question of the Day

By readyallrow July 18, 2013

I’m a HS coxie, and I’ve been a long time fan of your blog. I’ve been training during the summer and recently my boat has transformed from a coxed 4+ to a coxed 4x+. One of our members has summer school so we’re out on the water fairly early, ~30 minutes before most of the coach boats come out. What are some useful drills for some guys who are transitioning from sweeping to sculling? These guys have done both but it’s obviously a bit of a change. Right now, we’ve been doing fairly basic stuff, SS with a few pause drills, square blade, etc. Any ones that you think could really help shape up the crew? I’d appreciate any advice that you could give. Thanks a lot and keep at what you’re doing!

Your coaches are OK with you going out 30 minutes early without them?

Pause drills are definitely a great thing to do. Try to vary where you do them since each one hits a different technical point depending on where the pause is (hands away, bodies over, 1/4 slide, 1/2 slide, and 3/4 slide). Have the guys focus on their posture at each position and think “am I really at 1/4 slide, did I go too far or not far enough”, etc. Go through each pair (stern, middle, bow) before working your way up to all four. Here’s how I’d do it:

3-5 regular strokes to get the boat moving

10 strokes pausing at hands away

5 regular strokes

Repeat 10 pause, 5 regular until you’re all the way through the drill then pick it up from the beginning with middle pair.

When you’re through with the pairs go to all four and pause at the major points – arms away, bodies over, and half slide. Do 5 pauses and 10 regular strokes (reverse of earlier).

Make sure you really emphasize during the in-between regular strokes what you just worked on – getting the hands away smoothly and at the same speed as the boat, early body prep, starting the slide together, making sure you’ve still got room to come up when at 1/2 slide, etc. This should be done at a comfortable stroke rate too. Not too fast obviously, but not too slow either. 18-20 is good. I would imagine that you could easily use up the entire 30ish minutes doing this drill but if you have some extra time row by all four continuously and work on putting together everything you were working on. Talk to the guys and find out what they’re having trouble with, if anything, and make a note to focus on that the next time you go out. Remind them to not just go through the motions with this drill – consciously think about every single stroke.

A stationary drill you can do is catch placement drills, which will help them work on putting all their blades in the water together in addition to helping them move the wheels of the slide together. Start at the finish, you say “go”, they come up to the catch and drop their blades in without taking a stroke. Pause for a second then have them relax and come back to the finish. I’d start off with pairs again, do this until you’ve had at least 10 good catches and then move on to the next pair, followed by all four. Remember, there’s a difference between 10 good catches and 10 total catches. 10 good catches teaches you not to settle for anything less than your best. It might get frustrating at times but that’s OK. When they’re coming into the catch, I like to tell my crews to really exaggerate the “plop” sound so that they can all hear their blades going in. I find that helps them hold each other and themselves more accountable. Remind them also that they’re not lifting the blade into the water, they’re just unweighting the hands.

Feet out is another great thing to do. It’s not a sculling specific drill but it’ll help you focus on keeping the connection all the way through the finish and release, supporting the stroke with your core, keeping pressure out against both pins, etc. I would do your usual warmup with feet out and then go straight into all four continuous for 5-10 minutes with a couple added 10s or 20s at 18-20spm. My eight does our warmup with feet out every day and I’ve seen a lot of positive changes come out of it.

The last drill that comes to mind is the first inch (also known as top-quarter) drill. There are a couple of different variations and ways you can do this but the one I like to do is a progression drill starting with the first inch, going to the top quarter, top half, and then finally taking full strokes. You start at the catch, blades buried, and then take really short, choppy (but clean) strokes, making sure you’ve got a really solid connection with the stretchers. Do 5-10 of those before lengthening out and repeating the same thing on the top quarter of the slide, followed by the top half, and then finally with full slide strokes.

This is good because it works on the connection, quick catches, clean releases, timing, and a ton of other things. When I do this I tend to not count out the number of strokes either. I leave it up to the rowers because it forces them to pay attention and not zone out. It drives me nuts when they do drills on autopilot. I’ve never done this drill with scullers before but I think it’d be useful to do to help them get acquainted with having two oars now instead of just one, amongst the other obvious stuff. This is another drill I’d start off doing by pairs before transitioning to all four.

Communicate with them and talk about what you’re all doing well and what needs work. What do they think needs work (and why) and what do you think needs work. Present that to your coach and say “this is what we’ve been doing, we’ve all noticed this getting better but something we noticed is that we sometimes have trouble with ____” and then ask what drills they’d suggest to work on that.

If you’ve only got 30 minutes, make sure you use that time effectively. Don’t try to cram in a ton of drills or anything like that. Do one drill each day and then use whatever extra time you have to do steady state with feet out until your coaches get there. Focus on using your time wisely instead of trying to do everything. Do the drill and reinforce what it taught during the steady state. If you do pause drills for 20 minutes and are able to do 10 minutes of steady state, use 2 minutes each to focus on keeping the hands quick around the turn, getting the body prepped before the slides move, staying controlled on the recovery, having quick, solid, together catches, and then finish it off by dropping the rate a couple beats (14-16spm maybe) and rowing at 100%. The strokes should feel long, relaxed, and connected.

Something you can do too to help with boat “cohesiveness” is to get everyone breathing together. Have you ever seen a crew rowing together at those powerful, low rates and they’re all exhaling together at the catch and it sounds like a train’s coming through? There’s a relaxing intensity to it that lends itself well to maintaining the focus and rhythm.