Category: Q&A

College Coxing Novice Q&A Rowing Teammates & Coaches

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Our novice team has been shrinking by the weeks! There’s only 7 of us left. All but one rower and me are bent on quitting before trying to make varsity. One of the rowers who has high school experience was saying that our coaches don’t really know how to properly prep the varsity team for spring even though we’re a D1 team. 2x6k test today sounds more like a fall test strategy to me, but being a novice cox I’m not about to diss our coaches, you know? Help?

Has your coach not noticed or said anything about the drastic drop in numbers? What have been the other rower’s reasons for quitting? Why do the girls still on the team want to quit? If you know that your goal is to try and make varsity, don’t let the decisions of the other girls, no matter how legitimate they are, affect your decision. It sucks that your team is dwindling like it is but there’s really nothing you can do about it.

I wouldn’t say a 2x6k is entirely abnormal for winter training. If they’re still having you do 2x6ks after spring break, yea, that might be a little out of the norm. As far as not knowing how to prep the team for the spring, as a D1 team that sounds … odd. Has your coach been with your team for very long or is he/she new to coaching? I feel like winter training is pretty straightforward so there shouldn’t be any confusion surrounding how to go about setting up a training program. I get what you mean about not wanting to question them, but there are ways of going about it without sounding like your interrogating them. You could just ask out of curiosity, since you are a novice, and inquire as to what the benefits of long steady state pieces like this are and how they prep you for spring. Assuming your coach didn’t just pull a 2x6k out of his ass, he’ll be able to give you his reasoning. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with questioning your coaches as long as you’re respectful and conversational about it.

Like I said, if you’re intent on coxing the varsity, stick to your guns unless you have a good reason not too. Everyone else quitting isn’t a good reason … although I would offer up the argument that it is a reason, assuming they all had a legitimate team or coach-related reason for quitting. I would see if you could sit down and talk with your coaches or even with some of the varsity coxswains and get an idea of what the spring season is going to look like and what role you will play in it. Getting a grasp on the bigger picture can sometimes help make sense of how things are now. As far as everyone else that’s quit … it does suck, but you have to let it go and focus on the people who are still on the team.

Coxing Q&A Teammates & Coaches

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Hi there, I love your blog! Some of my rowers were talking about coxing personalities. They said I am the happiest person on the team and I’m the “positive cox” while the other cox is the “kick your ass” kind of cox. We’re both competing for the same varsity spot in the spring. I don’t know if this is a weird question but do their comments mean anything? When I heard that, I got a bit deflated thinking that they take her more seriously as a cox. Am I being too self conscious? Thanks for the help.

Just like rower’s earn their nicknames (threetard), so do the coxswains. I wouldn’t read too much into what they said, especially since it obviously wasn’t coming from a mean place. I definitely don’t think it’s a bad thing that they consider you the happiest person on the team – you’ve basically shown them that regardless of the situation, you’ll always be the coxswain that has on smile on her face, which can be a really good thing for them when they have a shitty workout ahead of them and need to find some way to get pumped for it.

I would talk to them and ask them why they consider the other coxswain the “kick your ass” kind. Is she aggressive (in a good way) with them on the water? How does she push them? Does her “kick your ass” style actually kick your ass? What about it works for them? I think that’s all valuable information to have because it gives you more insight into what you’re rowers are looking for in a coxswain, which is something that can in turn help you get in the varsity boat this spring. Keep your bubbly personality but also try and take on a little bit of the edge that the “kick your ass” girl has. The combination is good, especially when you can flip the switch and know when you need to be in “normal mode” and “ass kicking mode”.

You have no reason to be self-conscious. Observe this coxswain and see if you can pick out what she does that has given her that nickname. Try and emulate that a little, in your own style. Don’t be deflated or any less enthusiastic. Each coxswain has their thing that stands out to the rowers. It doesn’t mean they take you any less seriously unless you’ve given them a reason to, which it doesn’t sound like you have.

Coxing Novice Q&A

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Hi! I love your blog, it’s really helpful! I’m a novice coxswain and our team integrates varsity and novices for the spring. Combined, there are 2 varsity coxes and 3 novices including me. We’re all competing to make one of the 3 cox spots for the spring travel team. Being on the west coast, we’re able to be out on the water once a week during winter. The problem is, I’m the least experienced cox. I’ve coxed for total 2 1/2 weeks before our last head race in the fall. Do you have any advice?

As a coach, right off the bat there are three things that I observe with coxswains: how you interact with your teammates, how interested/focused are you on learning (everything there is to learn) and what efforts are you making to practice what you’ve learned, and what kind of leader you are. One thing you do NOT want to do is to get in an obvious competition with the other coxswains to the point where there’s just an abundance of negative energy in the atmosphere. Competitiveness for a spot is fine to an extent – I touched on that briefly in the post linked below.

Related: I am in my 3rd year coxing and I’m fighting for the JV boat with another girl who is in the same grade as me. I was really, really bad my novice year and wasn’t really good until now. I really want to beat her so I asked some rowers what I could do better and they said that people respect her more, and that she is more authoritative. But the thing is when I try to be authoritative people just think I’m a bitch because I’m normally really friendly and nice. How do I earn their respect?

Focus on improving yourself and not what the other coxswains are doing. Take inventory of the two and a half weeks you’ve spent as a coxswain so far. What are the most GLARINGLY obvious things that you need to work on? (You should have plenty of stuff to choose from.) Was there anything you picked up quickly? How assertive were you with your crew and teammates? Would you consider yourself a leader? How can you continue to improve your leadership skills? In observing the varsity coxswains, what did you notice about how they did things?

Give yourself goals of things to work on so that you’re not just showing up every day and going through the motions. Be enthusiastic about being there and make sure everyone else is excited as well. They don’t have to like what they’ll be doing that day but they need to come at it with a certain level of “pep” if they want to do well. If the coach asks “who wants to run circuits”, volunteer. If he says “who wants to take down erg times”, volunteer. Don’t be that coxswain that slinks to the back and never steps up. Get to know everyone on your team, even the people you know and don’t like. Your role on the team is to be objective, so personal relationships don’t matter when you’re in the boat.

Related: Hey there! Basically, my team lost all of their coxswains for the fall season, so I got bamboozled into coxing the Varsity A boat at the Charles with only 2.5 weeks of experience. So now winter training is in full swing and the novice team found a coxswain who coxed all four years of high school. The varsity guys are thinking about “stealing” her as their coxswain instead. On one hand, I want the boys in my boat to win and if they could do better with her as their coxswain then I want what’s best for them. But on the other, I don’t want to lose them! I feel like I’ve improved so much over just one season and I’ve been doing tons and tons of research these past few months off the water to prepare for the spring. I don’t know what I can do to keep my spot at their coxswain. What are your thoughts?

Also spend time learning about technique, what calls to make, steering, etc. When you’re taking the boat out, take your time, especially if you haven’t had much actual experience with the boat (more on that below) – better safe than sorry. Talk with your coach beforehand and see what the plan is for when you’re on the water. If you’re not comfortable yet with steering, spend a practice or two figuring it out and getting comfortable navigating around your waterway before you start trying to talk to the rowers. Learn the calls you’ll make with your crew, what the warm ups are, how to transition, etc.

Related: How to cox a boat in and out of the boathouse

Basically, make an effort to show that you are just as committed as the other people on the team. Don’t skip practice or assume that your presence isn’t necessary. The respect you gain from your rowers is like currency … the more you have, the better off you are.  It doesn’t mean you should work any less hard but it does put you in a much better overall position.

Ergs Q&A Training & Nutrition

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Do you have any advice on tackling a verrrrry long steady state erg piece without music?

Focus and concentration. Take each stroke one at a time and focus on making each one a little better than the last one. Try not to pay too much attention to the overall meters – when you’re tired and sore, the number of meters you have left just looks like a black hole. If you can, just put the screen up so you don’t have to look at it for awhile. Otherwise, break the piece down in chunks and give yourself a “technical focus” for each 500m or 1000m. For example, the first set’s focus is connection with the feet, second set’s is sitting up tall on the recovery and keeping your core tight, 3rd set’s is a quick turnaround with the hands, 4th set’s is visualizing the stokes your taking on the erg as stokes in the boat, 5th set’s is controlling your breathing, etc. This will give you something to direct your mind towards OTHER than the number of meters you have left.

If you know what you need to work on, spend some time doing that now. Have your coach or coxswain come watch you so that when you’re finished, not only will you have gotten a workout but you’ve also gotten some feedback out of it too. I talked a bit about negative splitting the other day, which is something you can also utilize in situations like this. Instead of bringing your split down every 500m, bring it down every 1500m or something similar. If your steady state is doubling as a test, negative splits are a good strategy to utilize. It gives you something else to focus on, especially as you get closer to the end of the piece. As you get more fatigued, the amount of power your body can produce will start to fall off, which you don’t want, so focusing on staying within a +/- 2-3 second range is another way to keep your mind occupied as you near the finish line.

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

The one thing you don’t want to do though, like I said, is just focus on the meters. The only thing longer than microwave minute is an erg minute, and when you’re doing steady state pieces, erg minutes last ten times longer than microwave minutes. If you spend your time watching the meters tick down, you’re going to eventually get frustrated because, even though you see them decreasing, it doesn’t feel like you’re going anywhere. Frustration leads to waning focus which leads to mental blocks which can lead to you getting off the erg before you’re ready. Take a couple closed-eyed deep breath before you start and remember: one stroke at a time.

Q&A Rowing

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So my coach was telling me how this spring there’s a good chance that I’ll be racing a single due to the fact that we have a very small squad this year (only 3 girls) and the other two girls have raced a 2x prior to this season. The only time I’ve really been in a single is paddling around every so often over the summer. What are some tips about racing a single? Being all by myself just seems kind of daunting.

Assuming you already know the basics of sculling, I’ll skip over that and tell you what I’d practice if I was rowing a single. For you scullers out there, send me a message or leave a comment with your tips and tricks!

Practice racing starts

Out of everything, I think this would be the toughest to execute. The smaller the boat, the more disastrous  a bad first stroke can be, so it’s important to spend time working on those first four or five strokes. Think of your start like a basketball player thinks of foul shots.Making them might not win you the game but missing them can definitely lose it for you. Starts are the same way. Races aren’t won at the start but they can be lost there. Talk with your coach and figure out which one works best for you. 1/2, 1/2, 3/4, full is the most common starting sequence in sweeping and sculling, so that might be a good one to practice with before you ultimately decide what you want to do. From what I’ve seen of scullers practicing starts, the most important part is making sure your strokes are short, sharp, fast, and clean, that way you can build on them as you establish your rhythm. Some basketball players won’t leave the gym until they’ve made 100 free throws – those are the guys that shoot 85-90% on a season. Commit to doing at least 5 GOOD starts each practice. If that means it takes you 13 tries to get four good ones, so be it. Focus on one stroke at a time before moving on to the next one. Try and perfect it, then move on to the next and try and perfect it. Then combine the two and perfect them as a pair. Do the same thing with the last two strokes, then combine both pairs to get your full start. Practice makes perfect. Once you’ve established the starting sequence, start adding in your high burst and settle.

Focus on steering

Since you no longer have the luxury of having a coxswain you now have to figure out steering for yourself. If you’re lucky you’ll race on buoyed courses so you’ll always know when you’re in your own lane, but you should still practice on getting your point and maintaining a straight course. My advice if you’re on non-buoyed courses is to get out ahead early and stay there. Actually having everyone in your eye line when you’re ahead of them can help you avoid rowing into their lanes. At the start, know how the wind or water conditions will effect you coming off the line so that you can make the appropriate adjustments.

Study, study, study

Get course maps for every race you’re going to. Even though they’re all straight, each one is different in that they all have different landmarks. For more info on that, read the post linked below that I wrote before the Head of the Charles. Even though I wrote it during head-racing season, it’s still applicable to sprint races.

Related: HOCR: Race plans

Make sure you understand the traffic patterns, how to get to the starting line, the procedure for getting lined up, etc. Make sure you go to the coxswain meeting too. Yes, it’s at an ungodly hour in the morning almost every single time but trust me – the time spent listening to the race official give you all the specifics of the regatta is well worth it when you have to utilize something they said later on. (Tip for everyone – they’re not JUST for coxswains; scullers should always attend the meetings so that they know what’s going on and what the procedures are.)

Have a plan

Just like coxswains have strategies for calling a race, so too must you. Know what your starting sequence will be, how many strokes your high burst and settle will be and at what stroke rates, have a stroke rate in mind for the body of the race, determine at what meter marks you want to make a power move, where you want to start your sprint, what the build to the sprint will be, and what stroke rate you’ll sprint at. If you can get your hands on a speed coach to take in the boat with you, that will really help you stick to the plan as far as sticking to a stroke rate goes. Get a good feel for the plan before you get in the boat and then once you’re out on the water, put it into action when you do race pieces. The best way to eliminate any nervous jitters before a race is to ensure that you are as prepared as possible ahead of time. Before you head to a regatta, make sure you get at least two GOOD practice race pieces in.

Be self-motivating

You really have NO choice in this area – you don’t have a coxswain telling you to get your ass in gear, you’re being walked on. YOU have to recognize that and tell yourself what you need to hear in order to get yourself down the course. I feel like sculling is very personal in this respect because you are completely in control of everything that happens to you during the course of that race. You have the power to tell yourself when to make a change or to push a little harder or now’s the time to lay it all on the line. A video was posted recently about Alan Campbell and his winter training boot camp that he undertook this past month. It’s fantastic and the undertones of it are very motivating.

Ergs Q&A

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

Negative splitting when you row the second half of a race faster than the first. Each progressive 500m should be rowed at a lower split than the previous one – for example, if you start out rowing a 2:02 split, your second 500m would speed up to 2:01, 3rd 500 to a 2:00, and the final 500 to a 1:59. It’s “marketed”, for lack of a better term, as the opposite of flying and dying.

The theory is if you’re going to fade at the end of a piece, why not just start off slower and build into the end? Meaning that instead of fading on strokes 8, 9, and 10, you go “easier” on strokes 1, 2, 3 so you can go harder on 8, 9, and 10. If you pulled the splits I listed a few sentences ago, you would pull an 8:00 2k, which is the same as pulling a 2:00/500m. Trying to pull a consistent 2:00 split gets more difficult as your body becomes more fatigued and you typically end up seeing your splits go up as you get near the end of the piece, whereas with negative splitting the splits start out high (2:02) and finish low (1:59).

There’s also a mental aspect to negative splitting too – if you see yourself going faster and the splits coming down, you can avoid the mental block you experience when you’re trying to hold one split and instead see the numbers go up.

I do think that it would be beneficial to know how to use them although from what I’ve read, their effectiveness varies amongst everyone. Some people just find it easier to stick with one target split throughout the piece whereas other people perform better when they focus on the negative splits. I would recommend trying it and comparing your time to your average 2k time to see what the difference was and how well it worked for you. Negative splitting doesn’t just apply to 2ks either. You can use it for any distance, 2ks are just where they are most commonly used.

College Coxing How To Q&A Technique

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I have been told by my rowers that I need to call them out directly more, rather than general corrections to the boat as a whole. I cox collegiate men but I’m not afraid to push them around. My problem is that I am having trouble actually seeing what the problem is. I can tell that catches are off, someone is rushing, but I can’t always tell exactly who it is. Any suggestions for improving this skill?

That’s good that your rowers want you to call them out more individually – don’t take it as a bad thing! There’s a couple things you can do to help yourself get more acquainted with the tendencies of the individual rowers.

When you’re inside on the ergs, watch the rowers for a few minutes each. Have a notebook handy and write down what you see about their stroke – get REALLY analytical about it. Look at the catch, drive, finish, hands, bodies, slides, where their chin is, etc. This will give you an idea of each rower’s “style” and from there you can make the appropriate calls, both as positive reinforcement and constructive criticism.

When you’re out on the water, ask your coach if  you can spend a day just focusing on the rowing. Maybe do a long steady state piece or something where you don’t have to talk very much and can focus on the bladework. For us as coxswains, it’s very hard to see the individual rowers since we’ve got a 6’5″ mammoth sitting directly in front of us blocking our view of the rest of the rowers. Go through the boat pair by pair, then by fours, then all eight and see what you notice about the blades with each group. Breaking it down and looking at the boat in small chunks is sometimes easier than trying to process the whole eight at once. Another thing you can do to focus your brain on the blades is too stare directly at your stroke’s sternum. It sounds weird but looking directly ahead like that allows your peripheral vision to take over, which can help you see which seat is early or late. Have a recorder with you when you do this that way you can just say what you see instead of jostling around with your pen and paper.

Ask your coach if he can record the crew when you’re on the water, preferably one day when you’re doing drills and one day when you’re doing steady state. Get side views of the entire eight (both on starboard and port) as well as 30-45 second long zoomed-in shots of the individuals, preferably shot from the side they row. A flip cam works great, but if you’re brave you can use an iPhone too. The quality on both is pretty good. If your coach has the time, ask him/her if they’d mind watching it with you and pointing out what they notice with each rower, things that they would like to see improved or have noticed about their rowing in general. See if you can spot anyone rushing, diving at the catch, being early or late to the catch, etc. Make note of what you see.

Talk to your rowers. If they’re asking you to call them out individually, they probably already have something in mind that they want you to say to them. Six-seat might know that he rushes the slide but not be aware of when he does it. Three-seat knows that his catches need to be sharper but tends to forget to just unweight the handle during harder pieces. Communicating with them and then repeating to them in the boat what they’ve told you is a GREAT way to earn respect and trust from your crew.

When you talk to the “whole boat” and tell them to fix something, internally with each rower it usually becomes “well, I know I’m not doing this so I assume that the person who IS doing it will get their shit together and fix it” … generally the rower that thinks this is the rower who you’re actually directing your call towards but they don’t know it because you didn’t say their name or seat. As you become more familiar with their individual tendencies, that’ll happen less.

When you do talk to the whole boat though, make sure you give them specifics of what you want them to do – for example, setting the boat. We tend to get lazy and say “set the boat”, assuming that everyone can feel what side the boat is dipping to and what change needs to be made. More often times than not, that isn’t the case. Instead say “let’s set the boat, starboards let’s raise the hands a 1/4 inch at the finish, ports let’s bring ’em down just a little”. The specifics make the rowers on each side think about their hands and where they are in relation to what you just told them to do, so EVERYONE can make an adjustment. Talking to the boat without giving specifics makes the rowers complacent – giving them a specific instruction, even when you’re talking to the whole crew, reels their minds back into the boat.

Related: In the boat, when you’re calling a rower out to make a change, is it better to call them by their seat or name? A rower told me that by using a name it puts them on the spot – but isn’t that the point to make a change?

Calling them out individually doesn’t strictly mean one-by-one either. You can talk to them by pairs (or sometimes fours) too if you notice that something that both rowers are doing.

Coxing Q&A Racing

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How does getting weighed in work during the spring season? I’m a coxswain for a collegiate men’s team where the weight minimum is 125. I’m naturally under 110, so what’s going to happen? Sand bags? Will it be a problem?

Nope, it’s not a problem at all. The weigh-in procedure may vary amongst regattas so you’ll have to ask your coach to find out the specifics for the ones you’ll be attending. Some require weigh-ins the day before (IRAs and Sprints, for example), some require it no less than two hours before your event, some don’t weigh in coxswains at all, and some have you weigh in each day of competition. It just depends on the regatta. If you’re under the weight minimum, you’ll be required to carry either sandbags, weight plates, or whatever you come up with to make up the weight into the boat with you. They must be placed in the coxswain’s seat with you, NOT distributed throughout the boat (that will get you DQ’ed). At the end of the race the officials will ask that you hold up your weight so they can see that you brought it with you and that it’s in the coxswain’s seat, not somewhere else in the boat.

If you know ahead of time that you’ll be under the weight minimum, you’re almost always allowed to provide your own external weight. It has to be in the form of sandbags or plates though, not extra layers of really heavy clothing. This is highly suggested by most regattas if you require more than 10lbs of extra weight, that way they don’t have to give you all of their sand to carry in the boat. Most regattas also require that you label the weights you use with your name and/or team, regardless of whether they are yours or belong to the regatta.

Here’s a PDF from the IRA that details their weigh-in procedures for coxswains and lightweights if you race there. If you scroll down to page 6 you’ll find the information about coxswain weigh-ins. That should give you a decent idea of how the process goes.

College Coxing Q&A Recruiting

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As a coxswain are you treated differently as a recruit to a D1 college as opposed to a varsity cox who walks on the team? Or is it rare to have someone walk on a crew team who coxed through high school?

I don’t think it’s rare to have a 3 or 4-year coxswain walk on to the team. If they’re not 100% positive that they want to cox in college, they might forgo the recruiting process and go to walk-on tryouts to get a sense of what the team is like, what the commitment is like, and whether or not it’s something they really want to pursue. I think as a recruit you might be given slightly more “responsibility”, for lack of a better word, because the coach already has a sense of your abilities whereas with walk-ons, depending on where the need for coxswains is, you might be lumped in with the rest of the recruits or you might start off with the walk-on rowers as they learn how to row. Every team approaches it a little differently.

This is also why I always recommend that coxswains email the coaches if they’re thinking of walking on, that way they can at least introduce themselves and give them an idea of their background, skill level, etc.

College Novice Q&A

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How hard is it to just start rowing in college, especially at a D1 or Ivy League school?

It’s hard but the degree to which it’s hard is largely determined by you. The biggest adjustments don’t come from learning a new sport, because regardless of what sport you try to pick up, it’s always going to be tough at first. The hard part is adjusting to waking up early several days a week, having practice six days a week (sometimes twice a day), and just learning how to manage your time better. Even if you’re a rock star at time management and self-discipline, joining the team will seriously test those skills.

If you have a demanding course load, it can be tough finding a good balance, especially if you fall behind earlier and have to spend a few weeks/months playing catch up. Once you find the balance though, it gets easier. You learn where your time needs to go and personally, I think, makes you a better overall student. If you have a hard time managing your time and/or you’re not very disciplined when it comes to getting things done, rowing probably isn’t the sport for you.

A lot of rowers pick the sport up in college – just look at the number of people on the national team that were walk-ons as college freshmen. It can be done but like I said, how tough it is is going to be determined by you and how disciplined you are at managing everything else in addition to crew.