Category: Q&A

Question of the Day

By readyallrow December 17, 2012

Hey, as a coach you might be able to tell me, in a quad how do you decide who goes where? And the same for an eight? Where you’re placed in the boat, should this tell you anything about where you “sit” compared to the rest of the crew?

I assume where people go is decided the same way it is for an eight or any other boat. I’ve seen coaches get super methodical about it and put lineups together based on tried and true methods and I’ve seen others put them together based on … nothing. Not every coach follows what I’ve written here but it’s what I’ve seen the coaches I’ve been with do so it’s what I know to be the most effective method of putting together a crew.

Regardless of the boat class these tend to hold true for each seat across the board.

The most basic determination of a lineup is based on weight. Lighter rowers are in stern and bow pair and the heavier rowers are in the middle four. This has a lot to do with boat physics. When selecting sides, some coaches will ask the rowers which is their dominant hand to help them determine whether they should row port or starboard. If you think about it, it makes sense. Feathering requires a lot of muscle control and that motion is made easier if the dominant hand, which has a more developed sense of fine motor control, is the inside hand.

With the exception of the coxswain’s seat, bow pair is where your smallest rowers (height and weight wise) will be. The hull is at it’s narrowest back there, so having a smaller rower there ensures that they won’t be impeded by the sides of the boat while trying to row. The main job of bow pair is to stabilize the boat, ignoring the fact that they sit in a very unstable part of the shell. Because of this, their technique needs to be pretty good. Movements and adjustments are felt more strongly back there and tend to have a greater effect on the boat compared to similar adjustments made by rowers in other seats. Thus, these rowers need to be precise. Even though no one is following bow pair, the ability to mirror the movements of the stern pair is critical. The farther towards bow you get, the worse the rushing becomes, so it’s important that they be able to zone in on stern pair’s blades and follow them closely. In boats without a coxswain, the bowman takes on an additional responsibility of being the pseudo-coxswain. They steer the boat with their toes (hence the phrase “toeing the quad”), so their sense of precision has to be heightened. They’re also in charge of making calls for shifts in stroke rate, power, etc. so it’s imperative that they have a good understanding of how the boat moves and be able to assess the situation like a coxswain would.

Seats 3, 4, 5, and 6 are known as the “engine room”. Their only job is to produce power. They sit in the widest, most stable part of the boat, so any movements or adjustments they make have little effect on the rest of the boat. (Don’t read that and think “oh, well, I don’t have to make adjustments then if no one else is going to notice”. WRONG-O!!) These rowers are typically the tallest and heaviest, meaning they naturally have the ability to produce more power. Since that is their focus, they aren’t always the most technically sound members of the crew. If you read that and assume you can get away with shitty technique, you’re 0-2…technique is still extremely critical to making a boat fast. These rowers simply have a slightly different role in the boat than everyone else. Lineups are usually built around seats 5 and 6, where the strongest of all eight rowers are usually placed. Like the stroke, they need to be consistent, although instead of with stroke rate it’s with their power production.

Stern pair is where you want your most consistent (and ideally, technically sound) rowers. They must also be some of the most physically fit members of the crew. Their job is to set and maintain the pace of the boat – they think for the rest of the crew in a way the coxswain can’t. The stroke must have good communication skills in order to be able to relay feedback to the coxswain so they can make the necessary calls. 7-seat acts as a buffer between the stroke and the rest of the crew. Their role in stern pair is to maintain the stroke rate and rhythm set by the stroke and to “pass it back” to the rest of the boat. While the technique of these rowers is usually very good, particularly the stroke’s, it can be affected by focusing too much on the rest of the boat. As stroke, you’re not focused on just one thing like the engine room or bow pair is. This is most often why coaches will put the stroke in 6-seat for a practice or two. If this happens, don’t freak out. It’s not a demotion or indication that you’re not up to par. It’s a good thing because it gives you a chance to row without worrying about the seven other people who are looking to you to set the rhythm. It gives you the opportunity to focus on and clean up your technique before moving back up.

In smaller boats, the responsibilities of each person in a given seat is still the same with the exception of the middle pair in 4s. They have to take on the characteristics of not only the engine room but also those of bow pair and stern pair.

Q&A Rowing Teammates & Coaches

Question of the Day

By readyallrow December 17, 2012

I row for school, I am not in their boat but I have two good friends in one boat and they are always laughing and talking and not listening. It’s really annoying when the rest of the squad is taking it seriously! Should I say anything or just leave it for the coaches?

Since they aren’t in your boat, I wouldn’t say anything since it’s (hopefully) not directly affecting you or your boat. If they do the same stuff on land that they do in the boat, you could try having a conversation off to the side with them and explain that it’s distracting and frustrating to everyone around them when they see two teammates not taking the practice seriously. Leave it at that. They’ll either get the message or they won’t.

In general though, it’s up to the coaches and coxswains to handle stuff like this. Their coxswain needs to tell them to stop talking and pay attention when you’re on the water and the coach who’s out with them also needs to tell them to stop or get out of the boat. Unless you’re a team captain or something, I think it’d be out of place for you to say something since you’re not all in the same boat.

College Q&A Recruiting Rowing

Question of the Day

By readyallrow December 15, 2012

I’m a junior in high school and I’m 5’11”. What kind of erg times should I strive for to be recruited by colleges? I’ve heard mix things like sub 8 and sub 7:30 – is there a lot of variation among schools and divisions? I’m one of the better rowers on my team but I don’t know what kinds of times other kids have from around the country. I just started rowing a little less than a year ago and my last 2k was an 8:10. Would I realistically be able to get my time down before college?

I think generally coaches from the top openweight programs are looking for times that are sub-7:30ish. Lightweight women should shoot for times that are sub-7:40 to 7:50ish.

It’s definitely possible to get your time down before college but you’ll have to work for it. It’s not all about erging harder either. In order to go harder, you’ve got to be stronger, which means lifting, doing cardio, core, etc. The seconds aren’t going to come off as quickly as they did when you first started rowing. It’s like trying to lose weight … at first it comes off fast, but the longer you workout, the amount of weight you lose decreases as your body becomes more fit. Ideally if you are looking to be recruited, you would have already started the process of researching programs and contacting coaches in the fall. When you do talk with them, keep open lines of communication throughout the year and update them on any PRs you may achieve between now and this time next year.

There is some variation between divisions due mostly to the differing levels of competitiveness. D1 schools are going to be a lot more strict about erg times whereas D3 schools might be more lenient. Most D3 programs are clubs, not varsity (and the ones that are varsity can’t offer athletes scholarships anyways), so the majority of people on the team don’t start rowing until they join. I think on the club team I coach now there is only one rower (of 35-40ish) who rowed in high school. There are most likely some subtle differences between what individual universities are looking for as far as erg times though but to find out what they are, you’d have to reach out to the coaches and ask. The Ivies, Washington, Cal, Stanford, etc. are all very strong programs that tend to attract rowers with exceptional times.

In terms of finding out times of other people in the country, there are a few ways to find out, all involving a decent amount of research on your end. The first is to ask. Talk with your current coach or any alumni rowers from your program who row(ed) in college. Your coach should have a general idea of what previous rowers in your program had if you can’t actually talk with any of them. Second, ask people on Reddit. The rowing community is pretty vast on there and most people are willing to share their times if/when asked (although this question gets asked a lot so search the sub before starting a new thread).

Third, go through sites like CollegeConfidential and beRecruited.com. CollegeConfidential isn’t limited to rowing, so you’ll have to search “rowing”, “erg times”, etc. in the forum to bring up specific results, but there are a lot of great questions and even more great answers on there. The vast amount of information can be overwhelming though. beRecruited.com is something you should consider looking into if you’re serious about being recruited.

Coxing High School Q&A

Question of the Day

By readyallrow December 14, 2012

I’m in 10th grade. I’m 5’5″ and don’t have very good erg times. I feel like it would be best if I tried to be a coxswain if I want to make it into college, but I’m also afraid I’d be too heavy. How much should a 5’5″ cox weigh and how should I talk to my coach about letting me cox sometime? I feel like it’s the way to go for me, but I don’t think my coach would let me when we have a bunch of perfectly good 5’0″ girls.

Well, the minimum for a coxswain on a women’s team is 110lbs and 120lbs for a men’s team. Weight can be an uncomfortable and tricky topic to discuss when it comes to coxswains, so I’ll just say this: you want to be as close to the minimum as you can be while still being healthy. The school you go to will dictate how rigidly you need to stick to these minimums. Division 1 schools are strict about it because it is the highest level of competition – it’s to be expected. Division 3 is much less strict because it’s typically a club sport not ruled by NCAA, so you don’t have to have the “stereotypical” coxswain’s body. The varsity D3 programs though are gonna approach it the same way as D1 though – you should be as close to racing weight as possible.

It’s hard to say what you should weigh, but if I had to give a vague, overarching answer, I would say that if you are 15+ lbs OVER the minimum, you might consider adjusting your diet and making time in your schedule for exercise. That doesn’t mean though that you should strive to be 110lbs. That isn’t normal or healthy for everyone and it can’t be expected that every coxswain be the same weight. For you specifically, since I don’t know what you currently weigh, I would say you should try and maintain a 3-5lb range over the minimum. That’s based PURELY on your height and nothing else, since that’s all I know about you.

If you’re interested in coxing, just say so! Before you do though, think about your reasons for wanting to cox. Are they based purely on poor erg times or do you genuinely think that you could perform the duties of a coxswain at the level your team (and a collegiate team) requires? Can you be a leader and motivator for your team? Can you be your coach’s right hand man? Can you authoritatively run a practice and get things done? Do you have the skills to be able to point out what the rowers are doing wrong and what they need to do to fix it? If you can confidently answer all of those questions with a “yes”, talk to your coach. I’m not going to say that height and weight don’t matter because they do, but if your coach thinks that you can handle those responsibilities as well as your vertically challenged counterparts, I don’t see why he wouldn’t give you a shot. Ask if you can try running a workout or a practice over the winter. When you get back on the water (if you’re already off), ask to go out with the novice crews. Everyone will be on the same footing in a novice boat, so there won’t be as much pressure on you.

Be prepared though for him to say “Thanks for your interest, but we already have more than enough coxswains. I’d really like to see you stick with being a rower.” If he says that, don’t take it personally. It’s purely a logistical thing and not a reflection on you. If that’s what he says, say “OK, I understand. I’m still discouraged about my erg times though and know that I need to improve. What can I do to work towards bringing my times down?”. Ask for their advice on what you can do to improve and then go from there. A couple people have asked me similar questions on here. If you search the “ergs” tag or the “Q&A” tag you’ll come across them (eventually).

Part of being a coxswain is being confident. If you go into a conversation with your coach thinking he won’t let you cox since you already have a bunch of “perfectly good 5’0″ girls”, you’re already failing the first step towards becoming a great coxswain. If it’s something you want, be confident, recognize your potential, and GO FOR IT.

How To Q&A Rowing

Question of the Day

By readyallrow December 14, 2012

How do you fight off the stress of rowing? I can’t just stop because it helps me ease school stuff but at the same time it makes everything pile up and I can’t hold everything in anymore.

I’ve been there. I’ve realized though that my stress from rowing is/was never actually coming from rowing – it was from everything else. When I was in college, I was majorly and unhealthily stressed over school issues, which led to a lot of late nights that turned into early mornings. I’d get maybe an hour or two of sleep before I’d have to get up for practice. I didn’t really hang out with (or like) anyone on the team because we had nothing in common, so I wasn’t particularly thrilled to have to spend my mornings and evenings with them six days a week. I didn’t feel like the coaches were giving me any opportunities to improve or do anything “legitimate”, so I started becoming disinterested – painfully and obviously disinterested.

What was actually happening was I was getting burned out, hard and fast. Even though I wasn’t enjoying myself anymore, the time I was on the water was the only time in the 24 hour span of a day that I was somewhat at peace. I wasn’t thinking about anything – it was like I was in a fog, just floating along. My interest was still waning hard and I was furious that I had committed myself to coxing when it seemed to indirectly be the root of all my problems. It was a double edged sword. After some serious reflection on everything, I ended up removing myself from the team. I then spent the next five years away from the sport and it was the most miserable five years of my life. I literally had nothing to wake up for anymore. For five years all I did was go through the motions. Nothing I did was done with passion or interest or eagerness or desire. I had no one to talk to, no one to turn to, and no one who understood the struggle I went through every morning just to get myself out of bed. My parents were obligatorily concerned but didn’t really understand and my boyfriend wasn’t supportive and acted like I was just being lazy and whining about dumb shit. The ONE thing that had always brought me tranquility and a few hours of stress relief was gone. It wasn’t until I started coaching that I realized how important rowing was to me, not just for what it is, but because it kept me from falling apart. Without it, I fell apart. I had no way to release my frustrations like I did when I was coxing and keeping that energy pent up for 5+ years nearly drove me towards a total breakdown.

I’ve realized over the years and especially since I’ve started coxing and coaching again that rowing isn’t a source of stress for me. It’s a relief from my stress. There are things about rowing that stress me out but it’s never actually rowing. I get upset when I’m coxing because I realize I could have done better or if I’d called the end of that piece differently, would we have met our goal. I get angry at the time commitment and dedication it requires because it’s caused a lot of problems with my relationship. I get upset because I can’t pay my bills or because I’ve committed myself to coaching but finding a real, full time coaching job that pays well is tough. So many things about rowing piss me off that I ask myself at least once a day why I put myself through all of this … but then I go out on the water. I get in the boat and start practice and immediately feel this enormous weight leave my shoulders. For two hours in the morning, I have no stress, no worries, no problems, no bills to pay, no failing relationships, no reason to crawl into bed and cry, no anger … nothing. When I get on the water, that’s MY time. In order for me to have a successful practice and enjoy myself, I have to leave EVERYTHING and EVERYONE else on land. On the rare occasions that I bring practice off the water and let something nag me, I can’t escape it. It infiltrates everything and I do get frustrated and stressed. The only way for me to alleviate that stress is to turn around and throw it all into the next day’s practice. It’s a cyclical process sometimes and it makes NO sense to anyone but me, I think.

The moral of this (most likely unhelpful and far too long answer) is don’t let anything about rowing stress you out. Use what would/could stress you out to fuel you. If something shitty happens at practice, leave it at practice. Don’t take it home with you. You’ve got to teach yourself to cut the stress off. Take a step back and look at what exactly is causing your stress…is it actually related to rowing or is it outside stuff that just exacerbates the normal unavoidable craziness of crew? Figure out what you can do to alleviate some of that stress so that it doesn’t infiltrate your practices. You need that one thing you can turn to when you have nothing else and for me, that’s always been rowing. If I let my shitty life circumstances break that bubble, I might as well stop coaching and coxing because I’ll never be able to give 100%.

If rowing helps you deal with school stuff, that’s OK. Figure out why it makes everything pile up and what you can do differently or better so that doesn’t happen. If you ever need to talk or anything, I’m always here. I know the feeling of being on the brink of losing it and I know what it feels like to not have anyone who really understands. The thing with rowing is that unless you do it, you don’t understand it. My inbox is open, so don’t be afraid to use and abuse it.

Ergs Q&A Teammates & Coaches

Question of the Day

By readyallrow December 13, 2012

How do you stop competition over erg times from ruining a friendship?

Just … don’t?

The only real suggestion I can offer is that someone in has to be the bigger person and remove themselves from the situation entirely. Make it clear to the other person that erg times are separate from the friendship and wanting to pulling a better time than someone isn’t indicative of anything other than dedication to the team and motivation towards getting in the best boat possible. I would say that if these people were really friends they would be encouraging each other to get the best times they can instead of letting something silly tear them apart. In the grand scheme of things, i.e. life, erg scores aren’t important. It’s really not worth ruining a friendship over something so trivial.

High School Q&A Rowing

Question of the Day

By readyallrow December 11, 2012

If I’m currently a lightweight at 129 but on the border of open weight. Do you think it is better to be a small open weight or a big lightweight? (Btw I’m a sophomore in high school.)

Lightweight max (for women) is 130lbs so … I think it’d be better to stay a lightweight if you can do so safely and in a healthy manner, especially if that range is where your natural weight lies. The lightweights that I’ve known who have tried to row with the openweights have had a hard time with it (and have gotten injured in some cases) simply because it’s harder to keep up with rowers who are at a different level than you. For comparison’s sake, it’s like basketball for me. I’m 4’11” and when I play with other short people, I’m pretty good, but when I try and play with the taller people, I suck because I can’t guard them, I can’t power through an open lane against them, and I can’t shoot over them. Our bodies are different and that affects how well we play.

I would stick with being a lightweight for now and if over the next few seasons you find that that weight is harder to maintain, you can talk with your coaches about being an openweight. Talk with your coaches right now though too and see what they say. They’d probably be able to give you better advice because not only do they know you better, but they also know the kind of rowers on your team that you’d be with if you moved up to openweight.

Q&A Teammates & Coaches

Question of the Day

By readyallrow December 11, 2012

Winter training has caused all of the rowers at my club to become insanely competitive. Our junior team is now completely broken into cliques and honestly everyone (including me) is completely on edge. Only some of us train twice a day based on if we have morning spares for school and the people that go to that suddenly think they’re more elite than anyone else. Do you think there’s anything we could do? Also it doesn’t help that half the team is in a relationship with someone else on the team, so there’s tension there.

Yikes. Not the best situation to be in during the cabin fever months of winter training. My first thought was “team meeting”. The captains (or coxswains, if you don’t have captains) need to recognize and assess the situation, then hold a team meeting to tell everybody to basically get their shit together. I can kind of understand the cliques thing because during the season each boat kind of becomes it’s own little clique, but if it’s getting to the point of people being in cliques à la Mean Girls, that has to stop. Captains and/or coxswains need to take responsibility and get that under control. A divided team during winter training does not bode well for a happy, collective team during racing season.

Training twice a day does not make you better than people who train once a day. You can go to the gym thirty times a day and it doesn’t make you any more dedicated than someone who goes once. The beauty of winter training is that things can be done on one’s own schedule, so if some people have the time to go twice a day, then great, but not everyone does. Winter training is also the one time during the year where if people need a break, they can take one. Unless you specifically know that people aren’t working out because they don’t care, don’t want to, or some other illegitimate reason, those rowers have no right to think they’re more “elite” than anyone else. The way you said that also made it seem (to me, at least) that the only reason they go twice a day is to say they’re going twice a day and to hold it over other people’s heads, which in turn makes me question how hard they’re actually working out.

Relationships within the team is a messy situation all around. People know the risks of dating someone else on the team and if they don’t … they’re potentially in for a rude awakening. The tension that comes with that unfortunately can’t be avoided in most cases unless those involved take action to ensure such tension does not exist. You can’t really make a rule saying “members of the crew team can’t date each other” (well…technically, I guess you could), so you’ve just got to deal with the effects of it as they come along.

It sounds like your team needs to do some serious bonding. One of the main reasons why collegiate teams go on training trips far, far away from campus is because it helps the rowers get to know one another and thus, everyone is closer as spring season draws near. Read #4 on this post and this post. They say practically the same thing but there might be one or two ideas that are different. The biggest thing that needs to happen though is a team meeting of some kind where those in charge put an end to the petty crap. If it’s serious enough to get the coach involved, do it. You could even talk to him/her and explain the situation and what advice can they give you on how to handle it? Then the captains/coxswains can take it from there. If that doesn’t work, you’ve got to step back and let your coach handle it. Hopefully though everyone on the team can see the effect that this is having and they’ll all be willing to make some changes so that it doesn’t continue.

Q&A Teammates & Coaches

Question of the Day

By readyallrow December 11, 2012

At the moment I have been doing quite well within my squad, I have been in the A boat (quad). I row for school and next term part way through the season we have a new rower joining us as one left. She is really tall and said her older brothers were quite good rowers. Today was her first time in a boat and she has never been on an erg. Is it possible that she could take “my” spot? This is my second season rowing and I am not very tall, 5’3. I am really worried she will!!

I’d say probably not. The thing about rowing is that no matter what, everyone sucks when they first start rowing. I think you’ll be hard pressed to find someone who immediately hopped in a boat or on an erg and didn’t suck. You can pick up the sport fairly quickly, but you’ll spend the next 30 years perfecting every inch of the stroke. If you’ve been rowing in the top boat for awhile and she is just now joining the sport, I would think that your spot it safe. Don’t worry about things that don’t matter like whether her brothers were good or how tall she is. Technique, strength, focus, dedication, determination, and commitment matter 100x more than any of that stuff.

Instead of worrying about whether she’s going to take your seat, focus on YOUR training and making sure that your coach has no reason to take you out of the boat. Don’t give them a reason to think that she deserves it more than you when she has less experience. Focus on your training, your technique, your erg times, etc. and let your coaches worry about teaching the new girl. I assume since you’re in the A boat, there’s a B and C boat? She’ll probably start off in one of those and then as she improves, maybe she’ll be put into the A boat. If she is, set the example for how “A boat” rowers do things. Until that point comes though, don’t worry about hypotheticals.

Coxing Q&A Teammates & Coaches

Question of the Day

By readyallrow December 11, 2012

As a coxswain I do all the workouts (to keep weight down and to encourage/have respect from rowers) but none of the other coxswains do. Do you think I should ask them to join? I just feel when we are concentrating to do 50 push-ups and they are laughing they kinda bugs me / gets me off track, I don’t want them to sacrifice our rowers work outs. I know the rowers are quite annoyed also … should I tell them to leave join, stop, etc?

If you’re a varsity coxswain and they’re younger than you, you can definitely tell them to either take it seriously or go away but if you’re younger or the same age as them, they might not take you seriously and think that you’re just being a jerk or sucking up or whatever. In that situation, I would talk with your coach and explain how you and the rowers feel like they’re undermining the workouts, the team, etc. by being distracting and doing whatever they do. Hopefully they can talk with them and handle it from there.

I wouldn’t ask them to join because if they’re screwing around just watching, the chances that they take it seriously when they actually have to do it is slim to none. This ties back to coxswains half-assing it and pissing the rowers off. Coxswains should never not be doing something when they’re at practice. Whether they’re working out with their boat, coxing people on the erg, taking times down, watching video, helping the coaches, etc. there’s always something to do.

In this situation, you are the more mature one. Regardless of the pecking order, find a solution to your problem and be OK with how you handled the situation. Ask your coach for advice on what to do and go from there. If he says he’ll handle it, leave it at that. If he tells you to tell them to join in or leave, do it. Be confident in how you say it and make them understand that in this moment, they are not being valuable members of the team and no one appreciates their attitudes or apparent lack of interest. Situations like this suck, but they happen. How you handle it says a lot and really helps the rowers get a feel for the kind of leader and coxswain you are.