Category: Q&A

College Q&A

Question of the Day

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Thanks for answering that last question! I figured it wouldn’t be that difficult since men’s rowing isn’t an NCAA sport, but I thought you would know more about this than me. Do you have any advice for making the best out of the situation when you’re on a team that you don’t necessarily want to be on for an extended period of time, knowing that you want to transfer?

No problem! I can’t imagine you’ll encounter any issues but better to find out ahead of time and be able to deal with it rather than when you get to your new school and it be too late.

As far as being on a team you don’t want to be a part of…do you have to/even want to be on the team for the rest of the time you’re at your current school? Obviously I never want to tell anyone to straight up quit but there comes a time when you’ve gotta ask yourself if it’s worth it. The commitment to your team as a whole is one thing but the commitment to your teammates as individuals is another. If you’re saying you’re going to go back in the fall and be a part of the team you’re committing yourself to the four or eight other women in your boat. As the coxswain, it’s your responsibility to … not be happy-go-lucky about everything because that’s annoying and unrealistic but to be that person who always shows up, regardless of whatever else is going on, simply because you’re the leader of the crew. If it’s obvious you don’t want to be there for whatever reason, how do you think that would make the other people in your boat feel? I don’t mean to say that to make you feel bad or guilty because you shouldn’t, but think about it from their perspective.

Anyways, back to your question. How do you make the best of the situation? Show up, put the work in, keep off-the-water stuff off the water, have a positive attitude (even if you have to fake it sometimes), try not to make it super evident that you’d rather be anywhere but there, and find something to dedicate yourself to in order to make your time there worth it. If you’re going to be getting up early to go to practice you better have a damn good reason for doing so otherwise you will encounter new levels of disdain and misery that you didn’t know were possible. Been there, did that, can confirm, it sucks. There’s a certain level of selflessness that’s required in rowing, especially as a coxswain, but beyond that, do what you’ve gotta do to make sure you don’t feel like you’re wasting your time.

The summer is a good time to evaluate all of that and gauge how you’re feeling ahead of time so that if you do decide to walk away, you can give your coach(es) plenty of heads up. Regardless of what you ultimately end up doing, your teammates deserve your very best when you’re there and if there’s any question about whether or not you can give that, you’ve gotta ask yourself if it’s worth staying on the team knowing that you’re just going to be transferring to a new school in a few months.

College Q&A Recruiting Teammates & Coaches

Question of the Day

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Do you know anything about NCAA rules and talking to coaches when you’re already on a team but trying to transfer? Specifically from a women’s program to a men’s program…

Your best bet is to get in touch with the athletic department of the university you’re looking to transfer to, specifically the compliance department, and ask them any questions you have. They’ll be able to tell you specifically what rules do and don’t apply to you and what you should do going forward. There’s also plenty of information on the “want to transfer” part of the NCAA’s website.

I did some research and found the NCAA’s Transfer Guide, which I recommend you read because there’s a lot of good information in there that might end up being helpful, regardless if you go with the men or stick with women. Here’s what it says about talking to coaches (at the bottom of page 9).

“Generally, if you are enrolled as a full-time student at an NCAA or National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) four-year school and you want to transfer to a different NCAA school to play, your current school’s athletics director must give written permission-to-contact to the new coach or member of the athletics staff before you or your parents can talk with one of them. That is called having a permission-to-contact letter.

You may write to any NCAA school saying that you are interested in transferring, but the new coach must not discuss transfer opportunities with you unless he or she has received written permission-to-contact from your current school.

If your current school does not give you written permission-to-contact, another school cannot contact you and encourage you to transfer. This does not preclude you from transferring; however, if the new school is in Division I or II, you cannot receive an athletics scholarship until you have attended the new school for one academic year.

Also, if your current school officials deny your request to permit another institution to contact you about transferring, they must tell you in writing that you have a right to appeal the decision. In that instance, a panel of individuals from your current school who are not involved in athletics will conduct a hearing to decide the issue.”

I would start doing all of this as early as possible. Now would probably be a good time to call the compliance department and talk to them since the summer is, for the most part, relatively chaos-free.

Coxing Q&A

Question of the Day

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How hard is it for a cox to take a break and then jump back in a year [or more than]? Is it like once a cox, always a cox, or is it like a completely new thing all over again?

Speaking from personal experience, it’s definitely “once a coxswain, always a coxswain”. Coxing is like riding a bike, you never forget how to do it. I was out of coxing for five years and once I got back into it I felt like I’d only been out for a few days.

Q&A Rowing

Question of the Day

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Are those competition suits (sorry idk what they’re called) slimming or do all rowers have nice bodies? It’s looks like I’m rowing next year and I don’t have a perfect body so I was just wondering. Sorry if I sound creepy!

Unisuits. I think a lot of rowers would say they border on fairly unflattering, regardless of what you think of your body. You get over the initial discomfort with how it/you look once you realize everyone at some point or another hated how they looked in their unisuit until they realized there are more important things to think about than how you look in spandex.

I think we can all agree that a decent number of rowers do have nice bodies but that’s mostly because they’ve put a lot of time and effort into staying in shape. Rowing takes a pretty hefty physical toll so it’s difficult to not see a positive change in your body the more you row and the more in shape you become. But seriously though, it’s not something worth being self-conscious over. It really isn’t. Embrace what you’ve got and embrace the unisuits.

Coxing Q&A

Question of the Day

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I’m 5’9″ but weigh just a pound more than a boy’s coxswain. I’ve been asked several times if I cox guys and it’s sort of started making me think about making a switch which is utterly ridiculous cause of my height but coxing looks soooo interesting but at the same time … ROWING! Do you see my problem?

I do see what might be a problem but it’s actually not one at all. Are coxswains stereotypically short? Yes. Being short isn’t technically a requirement of coxing although it does make sitting in that tiny seat a lot more comfortable. The main requirement is your weight and how close you are to racing weight. We’re dead weight no matter how you look at it and obviously you want to have as little “dead weight” in the boat as possible.

Zach Vlahos (third from the right) is the current coxswain of the USA Men’s 8+ and he’s 5’9″ and 121lbs, which is the international racing weight for men. In college if you cox men the minimum is 125lbs so if you’re under that or up to 128-130ish, making the switch wouldn’t be that ridiculous.

If it’s something you want to try, talk to your coach about it. If you end up not liking it at least you can say you tried. If you end up liking it and wanting to switch over, who’s to say you can’t still row? Your coaches might tell you to pick one for the season, which is understandable, but that doesn’t mean you can’t still do the other. If you’ve got a local rowing club near you that hosts learn to row or adult recreational leagues, you could get your feet wet with coxing there and use the rest of the summer and fall season to get your bearings, learn the how-to’s, etc. and then transition to coxing full-time with your team in the spring.

Coxing Q&A Teammates & Coaches

Question of the Day

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I’m doing a rowing camp at Yale and my coach there told us coxes to count at the finish rather than at the catch. It’s hard to find time to make calls to bring intensity to the drive as such, and I feel like the rowers have weaker drives when I talk calmly to them during the recovery about slide control and “easy catches”. Do you have any suggestions concerning counting at the finish, or possibly any recordings?

I’d talk to the coach and say that you’re used to calling them a different way and you’re curious as to why they like for them to be called at the finish vs. the catch. Do not be that person that says “well, that’s now how we do it on my team” – I swear, that type of rower/coxswain is at the top of most coaches shit list and once you’re there it is hard to get off it. Tell them that it’s a little awkward for you because you’re not sure how to make certain calls and do they have any advice that might help you out. Also tell them what you’ve noticed about the weaker drives, etc.

If you can, talk to the rowers you’ve been with before you talk to your coach and ask them what they think. How are they used to having things called, in their experience do they think one works better than the other, have they noticed anything (either good or bad) from calls being made at the finish instead of the catch when you guys have been out, etc. Take all that info and talk about it with your coach. It’ll be good for them to know too because it’ll help them know what to focus on during practice.

Related: Hey there, I have a question about coxing. I’ve been coxing for a couple years now and just realized that I call my calls on different times. I mean, for power 10’s I’ll call the numbers when they are half way through the drive to the finish. But for starts, I will call the numbers at the catch such as (1/2, 1/2, 3/4, full, full) as well as 10 highs at the catch. I don’t know if I’m doing this right, but I’ve always done it this way and my crew goes with it. How do you personally do it?

These camps are meant to teach you something and this is a great learning opportunity that you should definitely take advantage of. Asking questions is part of your job and something you should be doing anyways if something comes up that you don’t understand. Don’t be nervous to talk to the coach about it either. They’ll most likely appreciate the initiative and willingness to understand and learn how to do something that you’re not used to doing.

It’s hard to know what recordings I have where the coxswain calls things at the finish. I don’t think it’s anything I’ve really paid attention to. If there’s video with the recording it’s always easy to see where they’re called but it’s obviously tougher with just the audio. Plus, calling things at the finish is rare, at least in my experience. Like I said in the question I linked to up above, I only do it when I really want the focus to be on something at the front end of the stroke.

My suggestion again is to talk to your coach and get some advice from him/her and then try to apply what you talked about with them in the boat. It’s definitely going to require going out of your comfort zone a bit but you should be in the habit of doing that regularly anyways. Talk to the rowers and say that it’s something you’re going to try so they know why things might be weird for a bit and then get some feedback from them after practice. Keep talking about it with your coach(es) and ask them on the water after you’ve called a power 10 or something what they thought, how was that, etc.

Coxing Q&A Teammates & Coaches

Question of the Day

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In the past, I’ve had a lot of trouble with my coach thinking I’m talking back to her which ended up bumping me down a boat (I’m a coxswain). Last week she told me to have the rowers pause at arms and body and didn’t tell me how often so I just had them pause every 3 which is typically how often we pause and then she yelled at me that I wasn’t listening and that she told me to pause every 5 … what do I do? If I tell her she didn’t say it then she’ll think I’m talking back again.

I totally get what you’re saying. I’ve done my fair share of “talking back” too and I get why it came off as talking back but I just really, really hate when people don’t give me the information I need and I end up looking incompetent or whatever in the end because of it. Yea, I’m probably going to get pissed if you tell me to do something, leave out a crucial detail, and then jump on me for not doing it the way you wanted. I think anyone would.

In high school I had a coach just like this who I butted heads with a lot, over practically everything. It got to the point where my boat thought he was doing stuff on purpose just so he’d have a reason to yell at us, tell us we were talking back or being rude, and then speed away in his launch, waking us out every single time to the point where we’d have a few inches of water in our boat as a result. At one point I got so pissed about it that we got into an actual yelling argument with each other on the dock about how I thought he was a shitty coach and how he thought my/our boat’s attitude sucked.

Luckily my other coach came over and calmed things down enough to where we could have an actual conversation. I told him that he’s saying things on the water that I either can’t hear or don’t understand (because I can’t hear him) and then when he doesn’t give any clarification or response at all, I just go with what I’ve done before because I don’t want to waste any more time trying to figure out what he’s saying. It’s not me ignoring you, it’s not me undermining you, it’s just I. can’t. hear. what. you’re. saying. When I repeatedly tell you that and you instead interpret me saying “what?!” all the time as not listening or just plain sucking as a coxswain, you can rest assured that I’m going to develop a chip on my shoulder from that.

Related: Ok but seriously I probably hear 0.2% of anything my coach says ever while my crew is out on water. I believe this is a recurring issue with coxswains… I think my primary conversations with her consists of “WHAT!? WHAT!? WHAT!? WHAT!? …oh… WAIT, WHAT!?

The next day before we went out he apologized and said that he didn’t realize how difficult it was to hear what he was saying, he’d make more of an effort to use a megaphone or speak louder, he was sorry for interpreting my frustration as having an attitude, and that he’d like for us to make more of an effort to work together instead of against each other all the time. I apologized for voicing my frustration the way I did and for making it seem like I wasn’t listening to what he was saying. Our (meaning the boat’s) relationship with him was by no means friendly or anything after that but it was for the most part, civil and cordial, whereas before it definitely wasn’t. I don’t think that whole exchange would have happened though if my other coach hadn’t said something to him after practice. He had witnessed nearly every incident and knew that my boat and I weren’t just making things up to cause a problem. Before hearing a fellow coach’s perspective I think he just thought we were being pains in the ass for no reason.

My point with this story is this: talk to your coach after practice one day, preferably once everything’s been taken care of and people are leaving. Explain that you’re not talking back and you’re sorry if that’s how it comes off but _____ (fill in the blank with whatever issue it is you’re dealing with). Try to look at it from her perspective to see if you can understand how you might be coming off as talking back to her and say that you’ll make more of an effort to not do that in the future but at the same time could she please talk louder when giving instructions, be more clear, etc. Avoid getting frustrated, especially if/when your coach gets accusatory and says “you always do this”. It’s really easy to turn around and put it back on them by saying “I do that because you always do this” but ultimately that’s going to put you in a worse off position (been there, done that).

No matter how you do it, the conversation will be awkward and uncomfortable because no conversation where you have to tell someone in a superior position that something they’re doing isn’t working for you is easy. It’s a give and take situation though and your coach has to realize that too. You’ve got to go into it being willing to make some concessions on your end while staying firm on what you need from the other person (regardless of the position that person is in).

Coxing Q&A

Question of the Day

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Hey there, I have a question about coxing. I’ve been coxing for a couple years now and just realized that I call my calls on different times. I mean, for power 10’s I’ll call the numbers when they are half way through the drive to the finish. But for starts, I will call the numbers at the catch such as (1/2, 1/2, 3/4, full, full) as well as 10 highs at the catch. I don’t know if I’m doing this right, but I’ve always done it this way and my crew goes with it. How do you personally do it?

Everybody does this a little differently. If something’s been working for you and your crew, don’t feel pressured to change it. I was taught to call everything right at the catch so regardless of whether I’m calling starts, power 10s, etc. I always call everything as the blade enters the water. The only exception is if I’m trying to get the the rowers to focus on their catches or something else that happens up at the front end, I’ll say sharp one, sharp two, sharp three…” or something to that effect instead of saying the number first. Saying “sharp” kind of loses its power if you’re saying it halfway through the drive, which I noticed was happening when I’d call the strokes right at the catch.

The reason I don’t call things in the middle of the stroke is because I found it always caused people to rush into the next stroke … and it’s just sloppy. When I was a novice (and probably the first time I ever called a power 10) I did this and my coach corrected me on it immediately. From the launch he could see the rowers rushing up the slide to match their catches to when I was saying the stroke number so after that he explained why calling things right at the catch was more appropriate/effective and that’s the way I’ve done it ever since.

I try to be really consistent about when I call things and when I made the adjustment to calling the numbers at the finish in these instances my eight definitely noticed. I explained why I was doing it though and they thought it made sense. The key is to just keep them in-the-know about what you’re doing if you decide to change something. Like I said though, if you’ve been doing something that’s been working for your boat, even if it’s slightly unconventional, don’t feel pressured to change it. If you want to try doing it a different way, tell them that ahead of time and then let them know if you decide to revert back to what you were doing previously or if you decide to stick with the new way.

College Q&A Recruiting

Question of the Day

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What can I do during an official visit that will help my chances of being a recruit? I am one out of 35, and they choose about 10. Also, do you have any links for previous posts on this subject? Thanks!

Congrats! The most relevant thing I’ve written up to this point that I think might help you is the post linked below where I listed a ton of things that you could/should ask your prospective coaches during the recruiting process.

Related: What questions should you ask coaches during the recruiting process?

Outside of that, the top three things I can think of are as follows:

The best thing you can do is be yourself (obviously) and indicate a real interest in the school. The program, yes, but more so the school. Be able to talk about why you’re choosing that university, what attracted you to the major you’re interested in, where you hope it’ll take you in the future, etc. and then go on to discuss how rowing will be a part of all of that. I think that coaches want to see that the team will be a priority for you but they also want to see that rowing isn’t the only thing you’ve got going on. Your education is first and foremost – after all, that’s the entire reason you’re going to college.

Be honest with the coaches as to where they rank out of the schools you’re looking at. It’s OK if they’re not your number one school but don’t make it out like they are when they’re not. If they ask why they’re ranked here instead of there, have genuine reasons that you can provide. You don’t have to give all your reasons but it doesn’t hurt to give one or two.

Be personable and genuine in your interactions with the people you’ll be meeting with. Firm handshakes, look them in the eye, stand up tall, speak clearly, etc. Present yourself as someone that they’d be lucky to have on the team without being pompous or egotistical about it.

Check out the “recruiting” tag too, as well as “official visit” tag – you might find more tips in there that’ll help you out. Good luck!

Coxing Q&A Teammates & Coaches

Question of the Day

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Hello! How do you get adjusted to a new team and location? I’m wondering because I am transferring schools and I’m really nervous about getting adjusted. I know that each team might have a different way of docking or calling different things. I’m coxing and I worried that if I don’t know those specific things because they are different that I won’t seem as authoritative.

The best – BEST – thing you can do, not only for yourself but your new teammates as well, is to talk to them. Talk to the other coxswains and ask them to give you a tour of the boathouse, show you where the cox boxes are, etc. and ask them to go over the calls they use because, like you said, everyone does things a little differently. Different doesn’t necessarily mean wrong but it is good to have a consistent language when telling people what to do or how to do things. I’ve never been “the new kid” anywhere so I can’t speak from personal experience but I’d suggest just going into it with an open mind, a friendly and confident attitude, and a flexible mindset. Things will inevitably be different so it’s important to not be 100% set or stuck in your old team’s ways. Adaptability at the beginning is going to be what the coaches look for in terms of how coachable you are. If you’re open to adjusting to the ways of your new team and not constantly saying “well, my old team did this” or “that’s not what my old team does”, things will work out a lot better for you, both in terms of making new friends and vying for the spot in the top boat.

Talk to your coaches too and figure out how they like to run their practices. We had an issue…well, not even an issue really, more so just lots of miscommunication…last week with a coxswain who was used to running practices on her own with the bare-minimum of input from her coach, whereas our coach likes to call the switches during warm-ups or tell her when to start/stop specific drills himself (as opposed to doing it for a certain number of strokes). At first, as a coxswain, this kind of bothered me but once I found out why he liked to do things like that it made a lot more sense (as a coach; as a coxswain, it still annoys me). The downside to this whole thing though was that it turned what should have been a good day on the water for this coxswain (on her first day back from Henley) into a stressful one that didn’t really leave the greatest of impressions on the other coach and I. Looking back on it, someone should have said “this is how I/we like to run practices, etc.” that way everyone would have been on the same page. His preference for how he liked to run things wasn’t something I knew either until the middle of practice when I asked but going forward I’ll know that that kind of stuff is something I need to go over with coxswains before going out.

Related: Hey. I’m just beginning as a coxswain on the men’s team at a D3 college and had a question about the relationship between the captain and the coxswain. They’re both supposed to be leading the team, so where do their jobs differ? I understand that in the boat, of course, the coxswain is in charge but I was wondering more how you handle your relationship with the captain leadership-wise during practices, on land, for team affairs, other leadership functions aside from specifically coxing the boat, etc. How much captain control is too much? I’ve heard that coxswains are supposed to run practices when the coach isn’t around and during the offseason but my captain has been doing that. I realize I’m new so it makes sense, but if I weren’t, theoretically, is that atypical? Thanks for all of posting all of these things. It’s been really helpful.

I can’t encourage you enough though to talk to them though and ask them how they do things. Do they like to do all or most of the talking during practice, do they prefer you to call everything on the warm-ups, how much input from you do they want on the water, etc. Ideally you and your coach would have a collaborative and openly communicative relationship but far too often that’s not the case. It’s always best to find that out before you get on the water though and not in the middle of practice.

As far as not sounding authoritative, that goes along with being confident. Talk to the coxswains, figure out their language, and then run that shit like you’ve been there since Day 1. If you sound unsure of yourself the first time you go out with them, the first impression you’re giving is that you’re that coxswain who doesn’t trust herself or her teammates. Don’t be that person! If you make a mistake, who cares. Brush it off and move on. You’ll get a bit of leeway during the first week (hopefully) but after that everyone will expect you to have everything down. Use the first couple of practices to get acquainted with everyone and everything but do that with an air of confidence. Just because you’re going to a new team doesn’t mean that you’re completely resetting the “coxswain” part of your brain. 1% of everything you know might change. Do what you already know how to do and adjust if/when necessary.