Category: Q&A

Question of the Day

By readyallrow February 13, 2013

How do you deal with coxswains who just don’t really want to do what they’re supposed to do? I’m a very passionate novice cox but there are others who tend to slack off and don’t like going out on water and aren’t very helpful/motivating to the rowers. Some girls on their boats have come up to me and asked me to talk to the other coxswains.

If you were a varsity coxswain, I would probably give you different advice but since you’re a novice, same as them (I assume), I’ll say this: let your coach handle it. You can and should absolutely bring the issue to their attention but as far as talking to them I’d let the coach do it. If the other coxswains figure out that the rowers went behind their backs to talk to you and then you said something to them, even if you have the best intentions, shit could hit the fan. It could come off as you putting yourself on some kind of pedestal and thinking you’re better than or in charge of them, which will lead to them completely ignoring you and then taking it out on their rowers for being snitches.

I witnessed a similar situation in high school when I was a junior or senior and it made practice miserable for everyone. It sucks having people like that on your team but sometimes the best solution is to just let the person in charge deal with it. They actually have the authority to tell them to either shape up or get out.

Ergs Novice Q&A Rowing Technique

Question of the Day

By readyallrow February 13, 2013

I think this is a basic technique thing, but a lot of people seem to forget to watch their arms when we’re erging because they’re so focused on everything else. I know what the finish looks like but what position would you say the arms/elbows are in at the catch? Also with arms on the erg, should they be going straight in and out? Like should the cord (or whatever it’s even called) be moving at all vertically? If that makes sense?

It’s hard to explain over the internet what it should look like – it’s definitely something you need to see, not read – so my suggestion would be to watch this video. It’s the best one I’ve seen because it really breaks down the stroke and shows what everything should look like. They start with the finish around the 0:56 mark, so if you pause the video there, you can see what her body looks like.

The video I’ve posted below is great because it shows you everything people do wrong. You’ll want to pay particular attention to the 1:10 mark where they demonstrate “chicken wing arms”. The opposite of the chicken wing arms that they don’t discuss is the T-Rex arms. If you look at a T-Rex’s arms (in this super educational photo) you can see that they’re tiny, close to the body, and weirdly bent at the wrists, which if you watch some people on the erg, that’s how they row.

Regarding how the arms should travel, yes, they should ideally be going straight in and out, for the most part. Think of the handle and chain as the oar; if your arms and hands are going all over the place on the erg, what do you think the oar would be doing if you were in the boat? The movement of the chain and hands is a hotly contested topic amongst rowers. Some rowers on the erg pull the handle all the way up to their chests because it makes the stroke longer and the output is a few more meters per stroke than if they’d pulled into their usual targets.

If you watch the video below, see if you can pause it at 0:26. Look at the rower in the bottom right of the screen with the black and red shorts. See how far he’s laying back and how the handle is practically level with his shoulders? Now, unpause it and go back a few seconds so you can watch him take the full stroke. Play from 0:23-0:28 a few times and watch the path that the chain travels. He pulls the handle in really high, which, because he lays back so far doesn’t change the chain height too much, but watch it on the recovery … he shoots his hands down from his chest to his knees as he swings up and then brings them even lower over his feet 0:30 before lifting them back up a few inches at the catch. These are all guys on the Canadian national team so obviously whatever they do works for them but for the sake of demonstrating a different side of the argument, this guy does a good job of making my point.

Personally, I think this style is really inefficient so when I’m trying to explain the stroke I tell people to pull somewhere between the bottom of their rib cage and their belly button and make the small c-turn with the handle to mimic tapping down with the oar handle. I think you should row the same on the erg as you do in the boat because why wouldn’t you? People who say “oh, I don’t do this in the boat” are wrong – whatever bad habits they have on the erg almost always translate into bad habits in the boat.

You don’t want the chain flopping up and down because a) that will break it, b) it’s inefficient, and c) it’s just wrong. I tell people to envision a table or something over their legs that they have to slide their hands across as they come into the catch. Visualizing your hands gliding across something helps them to stay level and avoid lifting their hands up (which in the boat would mean they’re catching before their bodies are actually at the catch), as well as from dropping them down too low which would lead to missing water and rowing it in.

Coxing Ergs Q&A Racing Rowing

Question of the Day

By readyallrow February 13, 2013

When do you call power 10s, both on the erg and the water? Would it be like when you see a girl’s split dropping and staying down on a 2k or during a race if you’re close and want to pass another boat? Or could it be any time just for a burst of energy? I don’t really know the strategy, I just know at some point I’ll have to sound like I know what I’m doing and call a few.

On the erg, I don’t call a power 10 unless the rower has asked me to beforehand. A lot of rowers don’t like to be bothered during 2ks so they can get/stay in their zone and randomly popping up behind them to give a power 10 can sometimes do more harm than good. When they’ve asked me to give them one, they usually say to do it whenever it looks like they need one or they’ll say “I want a 10 at 1500m, 20 at 1000, 10 at 750m, 10 at 500m, and 10 at 150m.” If they say to call it whenever I’ll try and do one at each of the major meter marks and/or within the last 100m. In between there if it looks like they’re falling off a little I’ll give them a quick 5 instead of a 10 to get them to refocus.

On the water, I always have a strategy ahead of time that I try and stick to. Nearly every burst I call is called with a purpose – I very rarely call a burst just for power but if I do it’s usually because I’m not feeling the power or because I want to get up with or past another crew. During sprint races in high school I was always trying to listen to the other coxswains and when I’d hear them take a 10 or 20, I’d wait for them to get about halfway through it before I’d start my own burst. Not only would that counteract their move nearly every time but it’d also put us a little bit more ahead at the end of it. Sometimes those spontaneous calls would interfere with my planned calls so I’d either go straight into the planned call or I’d skip it if we were far enough ahead that I could afford to do that. For head races, using the course map to find the landmarks, mile markers, etc. will help you a lot in figuring out where to make calls.

In sprint races, I don’t deviate too much from “the plan” each week since 1500m or 2000m courses are the same everywhere. They’ve all got 1500m, 1000m, 500m, and 100m to go marked along the course and since those are major points where I tend to call strategic bursts, I don’t change it up very much.

Normally my crew would also have a “special move” thrown in outside of my usual spots, usually to counteract another team’s move or to just open some water on the other crews. This was typically a 20 where we’d build for three, bump the rate up a beat or two for 15-18, then settle back into our regular pace over the remaining couple of strokes. These moves always had code words associated with them so that the other crews wouldn’t know we were making a move. “POWER 10” is really, really obvious (and easy to exploit by other coxswains), especially when you’re yelling it into your mic, so we’d talk during practice the week before and figure out what they wanted me to say. Usually it was something simple like “fire ’em up” and they would just know, without me saying it, that the move starts on the next stroke. They’d make the move and I’d cox them as normal. Even though I wasn’t calling it I could see it happening because we’d either be walking on or away from a crew and I could see the stroke rate change on my cox box. (We practiced this a lot to ensure everyone knew when to bring the rate up and when to bring it down too. Doing it on the fly I think would have been a mess.)

At bigger regattas where sprints were a bigger deal we’d take 5 to build into the last 250 but before that burst we’d take a build into the build that was purely for power. My senior year when I used the build-into-the-build nearly every race, I’m convinced that it’s what put our bow ball ahead in the few races we didn’t win by open water. I don’t remember what I’d say to start that build but it was always something synonymous with “power”. I think one of the things I said most often was “bend ’em”, meaning to hang on the oars so hard that you’re bending them as they go through the water. Going into the 5 to build into the sprint, the call was always “light ’em up” and then the start of the sprint was “afterburners”.

The best thing you can do is to sit down with your coach, your crew, and a course map. Figure strategic spots along the course to make a call then figure out what that call is going to be for. If you’re going to use a code word, discuss that with your crew. Make sure everyone knows what the word is and what means. Once you’ve got the strategy down, figure out your “special” move, what it’s going to be, where you’d ideally like to call it, and then make sure you practice it throughout the week so the crew gets used to hearing and feeling it.

Coxing Novice Q&A Teammates & Coaches

Question of the Day

By readyallrow February 11, 2013

Hi! I was wondering if you could give me some advice on how to cox rowers who seem to not be willing to push themselves? I cox the novice girls and there’s this one really tall girl who I know has great potential and probably tons of power in those long legs of hers but she just doesn’t seem to try at all during erg pieces. How do I help her live up to her potential?

As a coxswain I’ve always thought (and heard my coaches say) that each rower has to already be motivated when they get on the erg or in the boat, otherwise how can you be expected to motivate them? If you’re not going to motivate yourself first and I can see that you’re happy with settling for mediocrity, there is a 99.9% chance that I’m going to just shrug my shoulders and be done with it.

Looking back to the times in college when I had to do things that I wasn’t been totally thrilled about, I’ve asked myself the following questions:

Why am I doing this?

Is it because I have to do it (i.e. someone’s making me, it’s required, etc.) or because I wanted to do it? The answer to this usually dictates my level of enthusiasm for the activity. If it’s something I have to do then I’ll do the bare minimum to get by and get out of there but if it’s something that I want to do, I throw myself into it, heart and soul, if you want to be cliche. I’d start by asking your rower the same thing. Why did she join crew? Was it at her parent’s behest or was it something she wanted to do? If she wanted to do it, why did she want to do it? What persuaded her to sign up?

How committed am I?

When I sign up for something, I’m automatically committed 100%. It’s like a rule I have for myself. If I don’t want to do it at the end of the semester, month, year, or whatever that’s fine but until that specific time period ends, I have to stick with it and give my best efforts. If I’m not going to give at least 100%, the question then reverts back to the previous one – why am I doing this in the first place? I like to assume that there is always someone depending on me, even if no one is, thus I can’t quit. With crew, there are at least four or eight other people depending on you at any given time. You have to assume that they are giving 100% at all times and are counting on you to do the same. The next question I’d ask your rower is how committed she is – is she willing to give her all or is she just trying to make it to the end of the season?

What are my goals?

Goals are a requirement of crew. I really believe that it is just not possible to be a part of crew and not have personal and team goals. Ask your rower what hers are. If she doesn’t have any, ask her why and then maybe help her come up with some. Maybe the reason she’s not trying hard on the erg is because she has nothing to try hard for. If she doesn’t have a goal of pulling 7:45 on a 2k she’s certainly not going to try just for the hell of it. Help her figure out a goal or two and give herself something to work for.

I’d also tell her that she has potential and you can see it but are sure of what it’s going to take to make her see it. I don’t want to say that you should say that in a guilt trip-y kind of way but I know for me, I always hated when someone would say that they can see my potential, why can’t I? That was always motivation enough for me to get my ass in gear if need be. At the coaching conference I went to last week, something I heard that I know will stick with me forever was: “At the beginning of every season, the best thing a coach can say to you is ‘you have a tremendous amount of potential.’ At the end of the season, the worst thing a coach can say to you is ‘you have a tremendous amount of potential’.”

Talk to your rower one-on-one, somewhere away from all the noise of the boathouse. Sometimes just taking an interest can make her want to try a little harder because she knows that there’s someone on her side rooting for her. Figuring out why she’s there, what she wants to get out of it, and how hard she’s willing to work can be of huge help to both you and her.

When I was in high school I had a similar situation and looking back on it, if the girl I was coxing had had a personality different from mine, this wouldn’t have worked at all, but knowing that we were fairly similar I relied on the fact that I knew if someone did this to me, I’d go balls to the wall on whatever we were doing. She was doing a 2k and I knew she could go harder than she was going. I was pissed because she was in my boat so I went up behind her and yelled “harder” every. single. stroke. She’d take a stroke and I’d say “NO, not good enough, HARDER“…”NO, you can do better”…”NO, I’ve seen you give more than this”…”NO, more“…until she was pulling what I knew she could pull. When she reached that split, I’d say “YES, do it again”…”again”…”again“…”AGAIN”. I was right in her ear at every finish. After half-assing the first 1000m she kicked it into gear for the last half and ended up pulling a pretty decent time (and when you can do that and still end up with times that are up there with the fast girls on the team, you know you can be good if you just try).

After she’d cooled down (physically and mentally) we went outside and sat for awhile and talked about the piece. I told her that I never wanted to have to cox her like that again because I knew what she was capable of and more importantly, so did she. She was tall, strong, athletic … everything you want in a rower … and it shouldn’t take me yelling at her to pull harder for her to get a good time. For the next two months, her 2ks were some of the best on the team and she said that whenever she felt like quitting she’d imagine me yelling in her ear “NO, harder”, “NO, you can do better”, etc. Sometimes the motivation someone needs is as simple as a little tough love.

The best thing you can do is just talk to her. Let her know that she has potential and you want to know what you can do to help her reach it. I think framing the conversation that way is a lot more effective than pretty much anything else because it lets her maintain some control over the situation without feeling like she’s being pressured or guilt-tripped to give you an answer about why she’s not doing better.

Q&A Training & Nutrition

Question of the Day

By readyallrow February 9, 2013

Do you think having my team do yoga once a week is beneficial? We bring in a teacher from a nearby studio for an hour once a week. I’ve been having them do it for a while but the boys coach recently stopped having his rowers do yoga and I’m wondering if I should do the same.

The first thing I would do is talk to the other coach and figure out why he stopped having his team do it. It could be that the boys were just uninterested and he felt time could be better spent elsewhere or no one felt like they were getting anything out of it so they weren’t putting any effort in. Get his take on it and once you’ve got his input, talk to your team. Ask them if they’ve been enjoying it, if they’ve noticed their bodies feeling any different as a result, etc. Don’t say “are your bodies feeling better” because that kind of leads them into an answer. By being vague in the question you’re giving them the chance to be descriptive in the answer – “yea, I’ve noticed I don’t feel as sore later” or “no, I’ve noticed that my back is twinging a lot more than it used to”. Give them a chance to tell you what they think and then make your decision from there.

Ergs Q&A

Question of the Day

By readyallrow February 8, 2013

I am a little wary of doing a 2k soon, since I really haven’t done one since May of last year. We are starting to move into sprinting pieces, so I assume that the 2000m is coming within a week or two. Would it be smart to do a “pre-2k” where I go in on my own and try to hit just my PR from last year and see how it feels? Or should I just train super hard the next few weeks and hope that the test pops up on a good day? I don’t really mind doing 2ks but I just want to do the best I can. Thanks!

I think doing a base 2k or a 2k-predictor workout like 8x500m with equal amounts of work and rest would be a good measuring tool to to see where you’re at. I’d keep in mind what your PR was from last season but also when you achieved it. Was it in the middle, at the end, during winter training, etc. Go out and do this practice one and obviously go at it like it’s a real one but use it just to see how your time compares and to get your mind and body back into the swing of things. Don’t specifically go out with the goal of hitting your PR because if you don’t you’ll just unnecessarily beat yourself up for it. If it happens naturally, great. If not, it’s only February. There’s plenty of time for a PR to happen this season.

Related: 2k test strategy

I don’t like when people “hope” they have a good test … hope isn’t a strategy. The goal with winter training is so that by the time the first 2k rolls around you aren’t hoping for a good test, you know you’re going to have a good test because of all the work you put in during the winter (and building upon previous seasons if you’re an experienced rower). Don’t hope for it, just do it.

Coxing Q&A Racing

Question of the Day

By readyallrow February 7, 2013

I never know what to say at the beginning of a head race. I know what to say once we get going but not before, any ideas/tips?

This past season with my eight, I think the only thing I consistently said to them while we were staging was “we’ve got a plan, let’s get after it” or something like that. I tried not to talk too much before the starting line (with the exception of telling people to row) because I wanted them to focus in and not be distracted and I needed the quiet time to focus on getting us lined up in the chute.

Coxing How To Novice Q&A

Question of the Day

By readyallrow February 7, 2013

How long did it take you to learn how to dock correctly? It’s taken me this whole month, still trying to learn and it’s always a 50-50 whether or not someone on the dock has to pull our boat in.

It took me about 2-3 weeks to feel comfortable doing it as a novice (with our coach on the dock to pull us in and give hints on what to do if I needed it) and maybe a week or so after that (when it was just us with no one to catch us) before I felt like “OK, I got this”. My coaches were great because they’d have us dock, push off, row up a few hundred meters, turn around, dock again, and repeat the whole process until we’d gotten it right a couple times (like, at least five times) before the end of practice.

The trickiest part was coming in at the right angle. We practiced this in all kinds of weather – wind, rain, snow, etc. – so that I could practice coming in when I’ve got something working against me. Doing it over and over and over really helped me pick it up fast. The rowers were always super patient too (or at the very least they never let on how bored/annoyed they were), which was actually one of the most helpful parts of learning to dock.

One thing I realized pretty quickly is that you don’t need someone on the dock to catch you. Sure, it’s convenient when they’re there but it’s not at all necessary. What I would do is point my bow as close to the dock as I could and then when we landed, I’d have my bowman hop out and grab 6’s oar to get the stern of the boat in. Or, I’d just hop out and pull the boat in myself. Once the boat has stopped, for the most part, it’s not hard for the coxswain to stand up and step over on to the dock; you’ve just gotta be aware that it’s probably a foot to a foot and a half (if you docked right) of water you’re stepping over. I’m experienced enough with it now that I tend to bound right out of the seat while we’re still moving and think nothing of it.

It’s helpful to have someone on the dock but it’s really not necessary and definitely not something you should rely on. I think it’s way better for you to learn how to dock with no one there than it is to only learn how to dock when you’ve got someone to pull you in. I guess the only time I’d say it’s really necessary is if you’ve got a strong crosswind that’s hitting you from the dock-side and making it hard to get as close as you normally would. In those situations though, hopefully it would be common sense for the people on land to come down and help the boats that are coming in.

The key is to have control of the situation and to not get visibly frustrated. There were many, many times when I got frustrated but even when it failed miserably my rowers and coach always said that I seemed pretty calm. If you get frustrated and it’s obvious that you don’t know what to do or something’s not going the way you want, your rowers will be less likely to listen to your instructions and more likely to start telling you what to do. Stay calm, assess the situation, take your time, and be smart about it.

College Ergs Q&A

Question of the Day

By readyallrow February 6, 2013

My team only ergs once a week but we are still an extremely well known competitive team. I am wondering if this is normal as most people seem to erg multiple times a week. And also will going from a once-a-week erg to a multiple times a week erg in university be a hard transition? Thanks!

I wouldn’t say it’s totally abnormal. In the winter my team would erg every day but once spring season rolled around we’d only erg once every two weeks for their 2k test. If you’re only erging once a week during winter training that’s definitely unorthodox but if your team isn’t suffering any ill effects (I assume because you’re rowing the rest of the time?) I wouldn’t worry about it.

Regarding making the switch in college I would say this: just because your team right now only ergs once a week doesn’t mean you only have to erg once a week. You can erg as many times a week as you want. It might be an adjustment switching to a more “normal” erg schedule in college but I don’t think it will be that difficult. It’s like when the semesters switch and your class schedule changes – it’s weird for the first few days but then you get used to it after the first week and that becomes the new normal.

Coxing How To Q&A Rowing

Question of the Day

By readyallrow February 6, 2013

If the wind pushes the boat into the grassy reeds, how do you get out of it without being pulled out by a coach? Do you have the side that’s not stuck back? Thanks!

First things first is to tell your boat to be quiet. Everyone is going to have an opinion on the best way to get out of there and there’s a good chance that someone or everyone will be annoyed at the situation. It’s your job to tell them to listen to your instructions because the more at-attention they are, the faster and easier it’ll be for you to get out of there.

The biggest thing here is making sure your skeg doesn’t get broken or bent. If it’s shallow or the weather’s been bad lately (and there’s a lot of debris in the water), you’ll need to listen for any bumps or noises that indicate you might have hit a log. Sometimes they can get caught up in the reeds too which makes it hard to avoid them. Make sure you don’t push it straight down because it’ll just pop right back up and do more damage (possibly catching your fingers in between it and the skeg, which would probably result in some form of bloodshed). If you don’t here any bumps or anything but still find it hard to steer with the strings, you might have to stick your arm under the boat and pull off anything that’s gotten caught around the skeg and the rudder.

As far as actually getting out of the reeds, if you’ve been blown in from the port side, for example, would require some backing mainly from the port rowers. You can have the starboard side assist but it could be hard for them to row if their oar is in the reeds. As soon as rowers (starting from bow pair) start getting clear though, have them row.

To clear your the blades if you’re really stuck in there, I’d feather the blade and just hack back and forth a bit to cut the reeds down a little. I saw a crew do this at a regatta once on the way to the start line and they were out of there in about two minutes. Unless the wind is really bad and negating anything you try and do, I wouldn’t do more than arms and body rowing. This is to avoid swinging the boat to quickly and sharply, which could cause damage to it if you hit something under the surface.

I’d start out with 6 and stroke backing to get your bow pointed towards open water and then have bow and 3 row to swing the bow out. Once your bow pair or bow four are clear of any visible reeds, have them row full slide to get the rest of the boat free. Once you’re clear, quickly put your arm back in to pull off any lingering reeds on your skeg/rudder, get your point, and row on. I can’t count the number of times I’ve seen a crew get out of a situation like that only to sit idle once they’re clear and then get blown right back into the reeds. You have to get away from them if you want to avoid getting stuck again, so row up a few hundred meters to a spot where it’s clear and then stop if you need to.