Category: Recordings

Coxswain Recordings, pt. 13

College Coxing Racing Recordings

Coxswain Recordings, pt. 13

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Purdue University 2012 SIRAS Women’s Varsity 8+

The race starts around 2:40. Right off the bat, the only thing I noticed when I was actually watching the video (vs. just listening to it) is how the stroke seat is looking a solid 90 degrees to her left the entire race. Her rowing is pretty unimpressive too – she’s missing a ton of water at the catch because she’s rowing it in nearly every stroke. Even though the coxing was pretty good, I just couldn’t get past this. You have to be paying attention to the bladework and call the rowers out on that (especially when it’s your stroke/stern pair). She does say something at 4:41 about getting the heads in the boat but a couple strokes later the stroke is looking out of the boat again.

At 6:20, I liked how she started the second ten of that twenty with “10 to start off the third 500”. Since that’s usually the hardest part of the race, phrasing it that way kinda gives you a renewed sense of focus and motivation to make those strokes good.

Make sure when you’re saying finish/recovery calls, you’re not calling them at the catch (and vice-versa). She did this with the “send it” call at 6:45. It’s fine to say something like “send it now” with the “send it” part at the catch and the “now” emphasized at the finish but just saying “send it” at the catch is incorrect.

When she calls paddle at the end I was nervous because from it doesn’t look like their bow ball was through the line yet. Even if you hear the horn you should always, always, always row through the line, meaning you don’t call paddle until YOU, the coxswain, are through the line. It’s extra security, just in case.

Other calls I liked:

“Move this boat…”, with regards to keeping the heads in the boat

Purdue University 2013 Men’s Lightweight 8+ vs. Notre Dame JV8+

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&v=zEIWL8p280E&NR=1

This coxswain actually emailed me this video a couple months ago to listen to so below is some of what I sent her.

“Overall, this was really good. Your aggression was good but I could see what you meant about it not being as intense had you been in a closer race. When I first started coxing and had leads like that with my boats, I let my intensity come down a little too. After a couple of races I shifted how I did things and instead of “cruising” the rest of the way I completely stopped paying attention to the other boats and focused solely on my crew. Even though you’re beating the other boats handedly doesn’t mean any of the intensity has to go away. If anything, you almost want to get more intense to keep the rowers in it. They can CLEARLY see they’re beating the other crews so it’s easy for them to start to power down but it’s up to you to make sure they stay at 100%.

It’s not so much about “proving” you can win, it’s more about the psychological mindset that it puts the rowers (and us, to an extent) in. If they know that all they have to do is get ahead before you ease off of them, that is what they’ll start to look forward to each race. If you can keep the intensity and aggression in your voice for the whole 2000m they’ll continue to push for the whole 2000m. It’s all psychological. When it comes down to that one race where you have a crew that’s pushing you down the entire course, you’ll be better prepared to fight them off if you can mentally go 2000m instead of 750m or 1500m. Make sense? Obviously there are exceptions, like if you’re in a qualifying race and all you’ve got to do is place to advance. At that point  you want to conserve some energy so you can go all out during the final. If you’ve got a lead on a crew like you did during this race, it’s OK to back off a little as long as you don’t completely turn the gas off and let the other crew(s) come back on you. When that happens it turns into a frantic situation that results in the rowers expending more energy than they otherwise would have needed to.”

At 1:23 they take a 10 after the start, which is an odd/unnecessary move (literally and figuratively). If you notice you’re even with another crew and you want to make a move, use the settle to walk. After the start (high stroke rate and settle) you want to give the rowers a chance to get into their rhythm. If you go straight from the start into a power 10, especially one that doesn’t have a direct end goal, it makes things slightly frantic again and doesn’t give them a chance to actually settle into the rhythm they just tried to establish.

When she tells them at 1:58 that Notre Dame had moved over a lane, that would have been a good point to take a 10 or 20 to capitalize on their coxswain’s steering error. Coxing is the ultimate form of psychological warfare – when another coxswain gives you the opportunity to take advantage of their mistakes, take it.

Jumping ahead to the end of the race, when she says “last few strokes” they actually took 17 before they crossed the line. If you say “last few” they’re most likely going to assume that means 5 or less. Try and be specific. If you don’t know how many strokes are left, guess, but don’t say something general like “last few”.

You can find and listen to more recordings by checking out the “Coxswain Recordings” page.

Coxswain recordings, pt. 12

College Coxing Racing Recordings

Coxswain recordings, pt. 12

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Hobart University 2011 Head of the Charles Men’s Collegiate 8+

I like how she starts out the piece with “let’s get us moving”. Notice how coming out of the bridges she’s hugging the buoy line? That’s how you wanna do it.

At 1:19, she tells them where Notre Dame is and that’s where they started but it’s not going to be where they finish – that’s a good call to make to give your crew something to work torwards in the early parts of the race instead of going out and just rowing. Pick a boat in front of you, put a target on their back, and go after them. Notice how she’s still hugging the buoys pretty tightly as they start coming around the turn? She’s taking a great course. Remember, your oars can go over the buoys but the hull can’t.

The twelve seconds of “hook, send” from 1:54-2:06 was a little excessive. Normally you don’t want to say the same thing more than two or three times in a row because after that you get tuned out. The over-repetiveness of some of her calls was already driving me crazy and then I realized they’re only at Riverside. It seems like the only thing she’s comfortable saying are calls with “hook” in them. If you’re listening to your audio and notice a similar pattern, take that as a sign that you need to broaden your vocabulary. Your calls should be varied enough that you aren’t saying the same exact thing every 2-3 strokes.

I like that around 5:48 she tells them that she wants to stay up on the boat behind them because she wants the line on Weeks – that’s definitely something you need to communicate with your crew coming into the turns, especially Weeks and Eliot. In order for you to have the cleanest and sharpest line, you’ve got to either hold off the crew that has the potential to pass you until you’re at least through the bridge or make your move now so that you can pass the crew in front of you before you get to the bridge (as opposed to trying to do it under the bridge).

Her course coming into Weeks is great and she does a good job telling the crew exactly what she needs them to do while giving them a bit of confidence (“you guys are going to make this boat fly”) as they get closer to the bridge. I would definitely recommend watching her turn several times through because she nailed it.

At 9:38, “little headwind, swing deep” is a good call. Being able to read the wind and telling the crews how to respond to it is a sign of good coxswain because it shows you’ve got a good technical understanding of the stroke.

Post-Anderson it would have been a good idea to tell them where they are on the crews in front of them. She made a bold statement early on in the race about Notre Dame but hasn’t said anything about them since. Regardless of whether you’ve gained on them or they’ve walked away, you should be letting them know where they are on the competition. They can see the crews following them but they can’t see the crews you’re chasing. Even if you’re out there solo and you’ve got the whole course to yourself, tell them that and then take a move to take advantage of your incredibly lucky situation.

Coming around Eliot she calls for the starboards to give her pressure for three strokes but then ends up needing pressure from them for about 10. It’s always better to overestimate how many strokes it’ll take to do something than to underestimate it because as you can hear, there’s a momentary second of panic in her voice where I bet she was thinking “shit, we’re not going to make it”. In situations like that if you have to keep calling for pressure from one side, help them out by calling the other side down. Other than that she did a great job coming through the bridge. Coming around the Belmont dock you can see how close the hull is to the buoys, which means she set herself up really well for that final turn. One thing that she does particularly well during the race, other than steering, is telling them where they are on the course. I think she pointed out a fair amount of the landmarks, as well as some really important meter-marks. Make sure you look at a map before hand and know where all those things are.

At 15:12 she says she’s got the point for the finish line which is a great thing for the rowers to hear because it means there’s no more steering, they’re in the home stretch, and the ONLY thing all five or nine of you are focused on is driving towards the line. In the end here though, especially within the last 20, you have to stop with the technique calls. This is where all your calls should be about where they are, where the other crews are, how far they are from the line, and any other motivational things you can think of. Hot take here but after Eliot, the technique is either going to be there or it isn’t, and if it’s not it’s going to be really hard for you or them to fix it at this point. This is where all your calls should be about where they are, where the other crews are, how far they are from the line, and any other motivational things you can think of.

Overall I’d say this was pretty good. I would have liked to have heard more variety in her calls but I think she makes up for it (only a little bit though) with her awesome course.

FIT 2011 Head of the Charles Men’s Champ 8+

This coxswain starts out relatively calm but is still sharp (so sharp) and intense with her calls. At 2:51 she does a good job of telling her crew that they’re about to pass MIT and she’s moving to the outside. It might seem insignificant but that’s a good thing to tell your crew (see what I said about using your steering as motivation up above), despite her move here being a little early considering they were still behind them through the Powerhouse. Remember though, you don’t have to pass on the outside. If you want the inside line, the coxswain of the crew you’re passing has to give it up.

I like her call at 7:14 – “it’s time to move through them” to let them know you’re both sitting on each other and it’s time for us to make a move. Same goes for the “I’m taking Weeks before them” call at 7:56.

Coming through the turn, the angle definitely could have been sharper and that’s mostly on the ports to help the starboards out there by backing off so they can bring it around while the coxswain is on the rudder. Ports. I beg of you. When your coxswain says “ease off”, “back off”, etc. DO IT.

At 15:55, she called that shift well – the build into it was calm and then the call for “we’re going for it” was a great way to start the final stretch. I also liked the “now we move” call a little bit later. Overall, well coxed, well steered.

You can find and listen to more recordings by checking out the “Coxswain Recordings” page.

Coxswain Recordings, pt. 11

College Coxing Racing Recordings

Coxswain Recordings, pt. 11

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George Washington University vs. Navy

At the start, make sure you remind everyone to bury their blades. 7-seat was only about 3/4 of the way in during the countdown. You can really see it at 2:17 how everyone’s blades are just under the surface but his is peeking out a bit. You can also see it on his first puddle, there’s a lot of whitewater compared to everyone else’s deep, dark ones.

Similarly to the previous GW recordings I posted, the tone, annunciation, etc. of the calls are spot on. A couple examples here include the “jump and send” at 3:13, the intensity at 5:32 when he says “I’m on bowball”, and the actual calmness in his voice when he says “first 500m move, nice and calm” at 3:42. If you’re calm when you tell them to be calm or aggressive when you want to see/feel the aggression, you’re going to see and feel that response on the next stroke.

I was paying more attention to the coxing than the actual rowing but I noticed that it looked pretty unset at times, like they were on a different side every stroke for multiple strokes at a time. You’ve gotta remind them not to settle for that. Small adjustments, get it right at the finish coming around the corner, stabilize it coming into the catch, lock on, send; stabilize, lock, send. Also, compared to the rest of the piece the slingshot 10 at 5:48 looked sluggish. For a move like that, make sure you’re preceding it with calls to stay light on the seats, stay up tall, keep the catches quick and the finishes tight, etc.

George Washington University 2013 IRA Freshman 8+ Petite Finals

One of my favorite things about Connor’s coxing is that he has managed to find that perfect balance between being calm and aggressive. Coxswains that can find and perfect that balance are the kind of coxswains I would give everything for as a rower. Another thing I like is everything that happens after the race is over. He tells them exactly where they were on the other crews when they crossed, congratulated them on a great race and season, and really just made it evident that he loved coxing this boat regardless of the outcome of the race. You don’t say “that was fun as fuck” unless you mean it, trust me. You can also hear one of the guys say “we gave ’em a run for their money” in reference to Princeton (“fucking Princeton”, to quote that person) and they did – they finished 0.8 seconds behind them.

Between 2:58 and 3:03, listen to how he calls their position on Princeton. “Holding our margin … even with Princeton … one seat up on Princeton.” In five seconds he told them their location on another crew three times with minimal effort. All it takes is one quick glance over to see where you’re at. I also like how he calls their position on Wisco a little earlier at 2:26 – he just says “up Wisco”, which is a quick and easy way to say you’re up on a crew while in the middle of making more important calls.

At 4:18 he says “we gotta move, we can’t sit” which is a good call as long as you follow it up with an actual move. Not doing that just kinda leaves the crew hanging and you can lose a bit of that motivational momentum that comes with a call like this.

Again with the tone of voice, the 20 seconds between 4:39 and 5:00 is another good example of how to build intensity with your voice and evoke a response from  your crew.

Other calls I liked:

“Get ready to fuck them in two, that’s one, and two, fuck the lightweights!“

You can find and listen to more recordings by checking out the “Coxswain Recordings” page.

Coxswain Recordings, pt. 10

College Coxing Racing Recordings

Coxswain Recordings, pt. 10

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George Washington University 2013 SIRAs Freshman 8+ Grand Final

Connor recently sent me a bunch of his recordings to listen to and they. are. all. so. good. I’ll be putting them all up in future posts so keep an eye out for them – there’s a ton to take away from each one, from execution to tone to calls and everything in between.

Something he does really well is using his tone to compliment the calls. A good example is at 0:47 when he says “get ready boys, shift in two, one, ready, two, SHIIIFT, BOOM…” and at 1:12 when he says “lengthen out half a beat … on this one, looong there…”. That transition between the high strokes and the shift to base was also flawlessly executed so if you’re trying to work out a good way to call that, that’s a great example of how it’s done cleanly and clearly.

At 1:30 he says “we’re gonna go off their move…”, which is  cementing how invaluable you are to your crew if you can recognize when another coxswain is about to call a move and then capitalize off of it by making a counter-move that the other boat doesn’t know is coming.

Sometimes when coxswains say “this is our race” and it can sound really cheerleader-y and frankly, stupid, but his tone at 2:33 when he said “I’m on 3-seat, this is our race…” communicated a confidence that really made me believe that this was their race. Sometimes when coxswains say that they say it in that loud, aggressive voice that makes me question if they’re saying it because they believe it or because they think it’s what the crew wants to hear. If it’s really your race you should be calm and confident because you know you’re in full control and all you have to do from here is keep executing things right.

Between 3:18 and 3:36, everything. about this. is perfect. The build-up with his voice during the countdown followed by an appropriately-aggressive “slingshot, engage“…awesome. Same for 4:00 when he says “I got bowball!” – after saying “I’m on bow deck but I need more” at 3:46 this is a brilliant response to what the crew did when he asked for more.

I’m debatable about the “it’s gonna be an easy win” call at 4:51 but not because I don’t like them. On the contrary, I think they can be a confidence boost for the crew but the one time I said this to my boat, the crew that we’d just annihilated with a move at 750m to go (we’d gone from me sitting on their 5-seat to having a full seat of open water), our biggest competition in this particular race, made a huge move on us during the sprint and came within about four seats at the finish. After that I never said any race was going to be an easy win ever again, regardless of how much open water we had on the field. My advice is to be cautious with this call – it can definitely give you a false sense of security sometimes.

Last thing – at 5:42 he says “sprint for those shirts, sprint for the win, that’s it, take it…” This is an infinitely better way of saying “how bad do you want it, show me you want it, etc.”.

Other calls I liked:

“Pryyyyyy through…” The tone is great, as is the addition of “through” at the end since “pry” on its own is kinda awkward.

“Go now, break away…”

“5-seat’s getting his blade in for UVA, you’ve gotta get yours in too…”

“5 to breathe and swing”, particularly the fact that he called it when they were 1500ish into the race

George Washington University 2013 Freshman 8+ vs. Georgetown

At the start he says “can’t lean to starboard otherwise we’ll turn…”, which I think is a really important thing for rowers to understand. If there is ever a time for you to not be moving around and constantly adjusting your weight, it’s at the starting line when your coxswain is trying to get a point. You have no idea how frustrating it is trying to get a point, especially in windy conditions, get it, and then have to go through the whole process again because someone off-set the boat and it turned. Please, do your coxswains a favor and sit still during and after the period of time where they’re getting a point. Coxswains, you can also help them out by giving them some “adjusting time” (dependent on how much time you have between getting locked on and the start of the race) before saying “OK, I’m getting a point now”.

At 4:06 he calls for “five for relaxation”, which I think can be beneficial after you’ve made a big move and gained something significant on an opposing crew. It helps to bring the focus back in between your gunnels, relax the bodies, breathe, and sharpen up the strokes while still maintaining the level of intensity that got you where you’re at in the first place. This is also especially good if you’re planning another big move soon after.

“You see them now, you don’t let them walk back one fucking inch…” is a great post-walk or post-move call when you’ve just gotten through the other crew. Remind them that they’re in the commanding position and it’s up to them to keep you there. Don’t give anything back. Same for 5:18 when he says “oh yea, now we’re moving away” and at 6:02 when he says “you gotta work for it”. Notice how he said they still had to work for it after telling them they’ve got 3/4 of a length of open? You can’t get complacent when you open up a lead like that because you never know what that other crew has left. It’s your responsibility to remind them of that. Do the work necessary to get you ahead and then keep doing the work to keep you ahead.

At 5:31 he says “this is where we died last race”, which I think can have one of two effects on a crew. For me, I use calls like this as a challenge. Last time this is what happened but the difference between then and now is we’re better, we’re stronger, and we’re smarter – it’s not going to happen again. The two outcomes are that they’ll either remember this is where they fell apart last time and their brains will give into that and they’ll die again or the brains will respond with a determined “fuck that” and will rise to overcome the challenge. In order for this call to be effective and come off the way you want it to, you have to understand the brains of the eight people in your boat. If there’s even a question of the mental vulnerability of any one of them, you can’t use this call.

Other calls I liked:

“Fuck yea, I’m on their 3-seat, get ready to break them and crush their fucking dreams…“

“Through and through…”

“Blackout 10 motherfuckers!”

You can find and listen to more recordings by checking out the “Coxswain Recordings” page.

Coxswain recordings, pt. 9

College Coxing Drills High School Racing Recordings

Coxswain recordings, pt. 9

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Dartmouth Heavyweights Pause Drill

This is a long video – almost 15 minutes – but if you’re looking to improve your technical skills then I’d definitely spend some time watching this one, listening to what the coach and coxswain are saying, and matching that up with what you’re seeing with the blades. They’re doing pause drills by 6s (and later all eight) with some continuous (occasionally quarter-feather) rowing in between.

Regarding the actual drills, coxing pause drills isn’t that tough but a common question that comes up is how to transition between pairs while you’re pausing and the beginning here is a good example of how to do that. She’s not saying a ton besides “go” but I assume that’s only because the coach is right there actively giving the crew feedback. If he wasn’t talking as much or they were by themselves I assume she’d be making more regular calls beyond telling them when to take a stroke.

Another reason why I like having my recorder on me as much as possible is so I can go back later and listen to everything the coach is saying and actually absorb the things he’s pointing out so I can incorporate it into my own calls later on. Examples from this recording include:

Change direction at the front end without the bodies collapsing down

Take your time from the finish through the pivot

Establish your length through the pause

All basic stuff but it’s a good habit to take the things your coach is saying and include them verbatim (or close to it) within your own calls to reiterate what they’re trying to teach and to show that you’re actually engaged with what’s going on and not just zoning out when you’re not the one making the calls.

Dartmouth Heavyweights Practice Starts

This is a great drill to do with any crew but particularly novice/less experienced ones since doing starts with them tends to look similar to an octopus having a seizure. The focus is on refining each stroke of the start at low pressure before progressively adding speed and power.

Jesuit Dallas Lightweight 8+ 2013 Youth Nationals Petite Final

There were two main things that I took away from this recording. After a few minutes I got bored because a lot of the calls were the same – stand on it, push, let’s go, big press, etc. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t tune out a few times, open up a new tab, start scrolling through Twitter, and then realize that I missed 45+ seconds of audio. This is one of the reasons why I encourage coxswains to record themselves. If you listen to your recording and find yourself getting bored, how do you think the rowers feel?

Another important takeaway from this is that you can’t go on race-mode autopilot and forget about everything else. There were a fair number of strokes where it 7-seat’s blade wasn’t buried all the way and was washing out at the finish. For as often as the coxswain was looking over to port I was waiting for him to say something about it but he never did. There isn’t a rule barring you from calling out technical issues during a race – if something isn’t right you’ve gotta say something otherwise you’re giving away tiny amounts of speed to the other crews with every stroke that add up over the course of 2000 meters.

At 2:16 he says “two seats up on first place” … so, you’re in first place? A better thing to say would be “we’ve moved into first, two seats up on second”. Also, at the end they definitely stopped rowing before they crossed the finish line. The general rule of thumb is that you don’t call them down to paddle until you have crossed the line, that way you can sure that you’re actually over.

Other calls I liked:

“Time to find that next gear…”

You can find and listen to more recordings by checking out the “Coxswain Recordings” page.

Coxswain Recordings, pt. 8

College Coxing Recordings

Coxswain Recordings, pt. 8

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Marin Rowing Alumni 8+

This is just a short little snippet of what I assume was a practice row or something but I wanted to share it for two reasons. The first is how he calls the crew back down a beat at 0:14. Instead of saying “bring it down” or some other annoying phrase like that, he says “let’s relax together one beat…”. I like this because it just sounds more effective than “bring it down” but also because when you’re only trying to come down one beat, you don’t really need to change that much with the slides or speed through the water – all you’ve gotta do is relax a little.

The second reason is for how he calls the crew up two beats to a 32 (0:33) and 34 (0:54), especially the 34 one. I like how he calls “legs down boom” and “pump it” (or whatever he says … initially I thought he said “bop it” which made me think of that toy from the 90s) as they bring the rate up and then “sustain it” once they’ve hit it.

2012 University of Tennessee Practice

I can’t embed this video so you’ll have to click over to YouTube to watch it. It’s from one of Tennessee’s morning practices and has some good clips of warmups, steady state, pieces, etc. in it.

During the warmup/steady state at the beginning, one of the calls she makes is “distance per stroke by 6s”. This is usually what you’re going for when doing low-rate stuff and an easy way to see if you’re gaining or losing distance per stroke is by watching the puddles. Usually steady state pressure is when bow seat’s puddle is somewhere near the stern deck by the time you take the next stroke (it’s all relative based on the strength/experience of your crew) so it’s important to make sure you know the baseline for where your crew’s puddles usually end up after each stroke so you can gauge how the boat’s running.

For about 20 seconds between 2:20 and 2:40 she’s making some aggressive-ish calls related to the catch but a lot of the rowers are rowing it in and not matching up with what she’s asking for. This is largely on you – you’ve first gotta have a good understanding of the stroke and how what happens on the recovery (i.e. roll up timing) sets up the catch so you can make the necessary calls to ensure the catches are actually on point before you start making calls for how powerful they should be. Driving before the blade’s in the water is just wasted energy and speed.

At 4:55ish when she realizes there’s something on her skeg, she tells bow pair to drop out to stabilize the boat and then sticks her arm in the water to clear the skeg while stern six is still rowing. They’re not gonna be able to take good, clean, effective strokes when you’re throwing the set off by reaching under the boat so you might as well weigh enough for 10 seconds, clear the skeg, and then pick it back up. You should also not try to grab stuff out of the skeg while the boat’s moving anyways (you run the risk of hitting another piece of debris that smashes your fingers against it and slices them open – I’ve seen that happen and it is not pretty).

Overall I think this was some decent steady state. I think her tone was good but could have been a little more chill for the majority of the pieces; not every call needs to be so punch-y. I think as you’re coming into the end of a piece it’s OK to transition to a more race-y tone/style of coxing (even though you’re still doing steady state) but you should be building into that rather than this being your baseline tone throughout practice.

Other calls I liked:

“Every inch out of that finish…”

“Simple strokes, simple movements…”

You can find and listen to more recordings by checking out the “Coxswain Recordings” page.

Coxswain Recordings, pt. 7

College Coxing High School Racing Recordings

Coxswain Recordings, pt. 7

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Oxford vs. Cambridge 2011 Boat Race

https://soundcloud.com/kpcc/olympic-sounds-boat-race-coxes

This is a short clip of Sam Winter-Levy (Oxford) and Liz Box (Cambridge) from the 2011 Boat Race. The thing to listen to is their tone and how they’re communicating their calls to each of their crews. One spot in particular is right at the beginning when there’s a clash of blades – nothing changes with her tone, she doesn’t fall apart, she just communicates what’s happening and moves through it without any loss of focus.

Abingdon vs. Belmont Hill 2009 Henley Royal Regatta princess elizabeth cup Quarter-final

At the start, good job telling the crew what’s happening as far as when your hand is up, when it’s down, that your timer is ready, etc. I feel like this helps keep the crew focused and prevents any surprises (like, “oh shit, we’re starting now!”). Maybe – maybe – overdid it by telling them about Belmont’s coxswain but I don’t think it’s that big of a deal considering there’s only one other crew there. Personally I probably would have just focused on what I was doing and only said “both coxswains’ hands are down” when I saw that we were both ready but it’s really not that big of a deal. I don’t think any crew has ever complained about their coxswain giving them too much information.

Right when the marshal says “attention”, you can see Belmont bury their blades just a tad. Look at their blades at 0:43 compared to 0:45. This is a good habit to get into practicing with your crew just so you can be positive that the blades are fully buried at the start and you’re able to get as much water on the face of the blade as possible. It also drastically reduces the likelihood that you’ll wash out on the first stroke.

The intensity in his voice off the line is solid. Take note guys, this is how a good start is called. The intonation at 0:57 when he’s saying “one, send, two, send…” is spot on. The catches are called with a sharp bite to them while the recoveries are a bit drawn out, just enough to remind the rowers to keep the slides long. Similarly, notice at 1:13 that coinciding with the shift in pace is a shift in his tone of voice? The intensity is subtle but it’s there even though the volume isn’t as high as it was a few strokes ago. Don’t get so caught up in coxing that you forget to talk to your crew.

At 3:33 he makes a call for a “…concerted effort for one minute…” If you remember Pete Cipollone’s HOCR recording, this is exactly like what he says when he calls for that one minute commitment through the Powerhouse Stretch. I think this is a great call – you should never be afraid to ask for, or at times demand, a commitment like this from your teammates. This is a strategic call though and not something you should just randomly call out for because you think it makes you sound like you know what you’re doing (novices). You’re essentially asking them for a power 10 except over the course of 60 seconds – it’s not always an easy thing to do which is why this should be used sparingly and only when necessary. Later when he says “level, now walk“, that’s where you finish the job that you started with the one minute commitment. If that was where you started to break them, this is where you finish it. Once you’re level, you don’t give up a single inch to that other crew. Commit and go.

I love the call he makes at 4:04 – “they went too hard, fucking punish them…” I obviously respect the crews I’m racing against because when it comes down to it we’re all doing the same thing but you can bet when we’re racing that I’m sure as hell not going to feel bad for them. If they make a mistake and I see it, I’m gonna nail them on it and do my absolute best to make sure it haunts them long after the race has ended. Watching the other crew(s) in addition to your own can be tough but it gives you the advantage of seeing when someone else messes up, which then gives you the opportunity to say “punish them” and really mean it.

Another thing to pay attention to is when he’s telling his crew where the other crew is. Abingdon is down for the majority of the race but I doubt any of the rowers ever felt defeated by him saying where Belmont was on them. Several times he’d say “they’re up half a length” or whatever the margin was but I don’t recall him ever saying that his crew was down. Other times he’d just say “half a length” without saying “up” or “down” at all. There’s a subtle bit of psychology there that I think is important to think about. If you hear that someone else is up it’s like, “ok, time to do some work to close the gap” but if you hear that you’re down it’s like “ugh, dammit, how are we gonna get out of this”. Think about the words that you’re using (another reason why recording yourself and planning ahead is important) and see if there are any subtle changes you could make that might affect your crew differently.

The last thing is at 4:45 when he calls for the “magna shuffle”. You can hear him at 4:46 call for the bow pair to get in quick and for the middle four to “lift”. Calling for the bow pair to go in quick isn’t necessarily saying “go in before everyone else”, it’s more so about being so spot on with the timing while erring towards being just the tiniest bit early (less than a nanosecond-tiny) in order to get the bow out of the water right at the catch. Lifting the bow like this makes it easier to accelerate the boat, which is what he’s asking for when he calls for the middle four to “lift”.

Another thing that helps “lift” the boat is making sure everyone is sitting up tall and is light on the seats. Lightness is key. Generally when the boat looks or feels heavy it’s because the bow isn’t coming out of the water at the catch (for whatever reason), which results in the rowers feeling like the load is heavier. Think of the bow being lifted up like you walking on your tiptoes through molasses. The lighter you are and the less you’re touching the molasses the easier it’ll be for you to traverse it, whereas if you were walking normally with your feet completely flat on the ground it’d be very difficult for you to move because there’s more surface area for the molasses to attach itself to which in turn increases the load you’re working against in order to move. Watch this video of the USA men’s 8+ and pay attention to the bow of the boat. Look at the difference between when they’re paddling and when they’re on. See how at the catch there’s just a little bit of daylight under the bow of the boat? That’s what I’m getting at.

Other calls I liked:

“Swing the waists into the headwind…” Good job reading the wind here and telling the crew how to react to it.

“Loose, long in the wind…”

“Now we’ve broken them, go, go, go…”

“On bowman, finish the fight…”

“I’m coming for you Belmont!”

You can find and listen to more recordings by checking out the “Coxswain Recordings” page.

Coxing Q&A Recordings

Question of the Day

By

What would you want to hear in a coxswain recording? Is there something that really makes a good recording?

A short list of things include…

Know the difference between intensity, assertiveness, etc. and just being loud

Actively give feedback to the crew (this includes technical feedback during practices or if you’re racing, where you are on the course, what’s happening around you, etc.)

Execute the practice/race plan

There’s obviously a ton more things that make up a good recording but these are the three primary ones. I also don’t want this to become a checklist that coxswains try to “tick off” when they’re on the water so that’s why I’m just leaving it at three. I think that would just lead to them focusing too much on making sure they hit every point rather than actually doing their job.

Coxswain recordings, pt. 6

College Coxing Racing Recordings

Coxswain recordings, pt. 6

By

Purdue university men’s Lightweight 8+ 2012 Milwaukee River Challenge

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=KbhgdqCq12M

There’s a lot going on here with the rowing that is pretty … bad … so I’m going to skip over talking about a lot of that and focus on just the coxing. This is also a long recording so I’m cherrypicking what I think is the most important parts rather than pointing out every single thing. Ultimately I think this audio was solidly average. There were a lot of missed opportunities but the stroke seemed happy with it so take what I say with a grain of salt. If your rowers like what you’re doing by all means, keep it up, but at the same time, recognize where improvements can/should be made too.

While they’re sitting there waiting to start, see how 7-seat is moving his oar back and forth a lot? This would have driven me nuts because it messes up your point, not to mention is really irritating (especially up in the stern) since it jerks the boat a little. That’s probably part of the reason why he has to tell 2-seat to tap it a couple times.

At 3:11 he says “we’re in the cute”, which is a good thing to let your crew know, especially in bigger head races like HOCR where the entire starting area is a humongous clusterfuck.

At 4:45, notice how he calls the 10 really sharp and concise (albeit a little forced) but returns to his normal voice in between counts? That’s a good way to maintain the intensity and keep the crew relaxed.

Between 4:56 and 5:07 is a good example of how to communicate with your stroke during a piece or race. They’re not having a conversation or anything, rather the stroke says what he’s feeling in one quick breath and the coxswain translates it to the rest of the crew. In that same vein though, as the race went on this started to annoy me because even though stroke-coxswain communication is important, I wanted this coxswain to be saying all the stuff the stroke was saying before the stroke said it. Everything he said, with the exception of a couple things at the beginning, the coxswain should have already seen and made a call for. The coxswain should not be coxed by the stroke, if that makes more sense.

When he says “we gotta pull something out” … *long pause* … “alright, we’re going for it” at 11:36, I was pretty convinced that he didn’t actually have a plan or know what he needed to do in the upcoming stretch. You can’t say in a semi-aggressive tone that they’ve gotta make a move and then stop talking. You also can’t say “alright we’re going for it” like you’re debating whether or not you should actually go for it. If now is when you need to make a move, get on their asses and tell them you’re taking a fucking move. When you’ve got contact on a crew like this and you’re trying to walk through them, this is where you take a 20 to get even or put your bow ball in front. A 10 might get you to them but it’s not going to get you through them, which is what you want. If you stop your ten and you’re only half a length through them, that’s going to give their coxswain an opportunity to counter whereas if you take a 20 and can get up to their 2-seat, you’ve essentially absorbed them and it will be harder to counter.

A pro-tip for going around turns like the one at 12:43 is to tell one side to power down to 1/2 or 3/4 pressure and the other to power up. It seems counterintuitive but it’s actually a lot more effective than having one side still at 100% and trying to get the other side to out-pull them. In most cases you should be able to get around in 5-6 strokes. This is something you should practice when possible though so the crew gets used to “powering down” for a few strokes and develops that muscle memory for what it feels like (because 1/2 pressure when you’re consciously thinking about it is a lot different than 1/2 pressure in the middle of a race when you’ve got a shitload of adrenaline pumping through you).

When he says “you’re missing a ton of water” at 15:06, my immediate reaction was “…no shit/OK? How do you want them to fix it??”. You should never assume they know what to do or that something is obvious, especially since it’s your job to tell them what to do and more importantly, when. They’re missing water, you want them to not miss water, but what about their technique needs to change? Just saying “get it in” isn’t going to do much, especially if you’ve already been saying that for 10+ minutes.

Last thing – unless you’re like, 5 strokes from the line, you’re not “almost there” … and even if you are, “almost there” is not a call you should make EVER.

Other calls I liked:

“Together, we move…”

“The boat felt alive…” He said this after the race but this is a great (motivational) call to make during the race when the boat’s running well and you’ve got a good rhythm going.

OARS Lightweight 8+ 2013 Youth Nationals Petite Final

Right off the bat I love that he reminds them to “look at the flag”. This is important and definitely something I recommend coxswains do. Remember, you go on the drop of the flag, not when the announcer says GO. If the flag comes down before he says GO, you go anyways. You can’t see that so it’s important that everyone else in the boat is watching for it.

About a minute in he says ““we’re ahead of everyone” … cool but by how much? If you’re going to tell your boat you’re ahead or behind, always tell them by how many seats. If you only say you’re up or down, inevitably someone is going to look out of the boat because they want to know by how much. Usually I’ll say something like “up on the field, three seats over Lane 3, two seats over Lane 5” and tell them where we are compared to the lanes on either side of us. When everyone is still clustered together it tends to be too difficult to say specifically where you are on five other lanes so a semi-specific overview is generally sufficient.

At 6:15 he says “come on, don’t let them take it…”, which can be a good or bad call depending on your tone. You’re in the midst of a very high-energy situation and you obviously don’t want to give anything up but you also don’t want to make it sound like you’re begging because that just comes off like there’s no hope. Instead of “come on” say “show me what ya got”, “right here, lemme see it”, “stomp on the feet, lemme feel it”, etc. Instead of “don’t let them take it” say “don’t give an inch”, “don’t yield to them”, “show ’em you’re not backing down”, etc. All of this requires a bit of “planning” ahead of time but if modifying how you say something results in a more positive psychological response by your rowers, it’s worth it.

SoCo Crew 2013 Youth Nationals men’s v8+ Heat

The very first thing I noticed – not even joking, the very first thing – is where the starboard buoys are at 0:27 (a foot or two off the blade) and where they’re at at 0:43 (nearly under the rigger). Come on guys. Gotta steer straight. It’s literally your primary/only job.

When you’re counting out strokes try not to just count out the strokes and say nothing in between. I’m definitely guilty of this sometimes, usually when I’m trying to concentrate on something else that’s going on (either where we are, something with the blades, etc.), but it’s something I’m always conscious of and working on. When you’re just counting strokes, especially during a 20, it’s so monotonous. Case in point, the beginning of this race was 50 seconds of straight counting. Go sit in front of someone and count continuously for 50 seconds and see how long it takes for them to get up and walk away. Personally I’m also really anti-counting up and then counting down when calling 20s. If you’re going to count up (1, 2, 3…) on the first ten, do the same with the second ten. Don’t start counting down (10, 9, 8…) because it makes it seem like you’ve hit a peak and you can start coming down now when in actuality you’re still building into the piece. Psychology, guys. Psychology.

At 1:23 he says “we need to get under 1:40 the whole time to win this…”, which might have been something they discussed beforehand but regardless, there are definitely better ways to make this call. Knowing your splits during a race can be both a blessing and a curse and as the coxswain it’s your responsibility to know how to work that information to your advantage. You should go in with a plan – are you going to negative split the whole time or try to hold a steady average? If you go into the race wanting be under a 1:40 you’ve got to communicate and remind your crew of that in an encouraging way. “We committed ourselves to holding a 1:38, let’s see that commitment right now. Sitting at a 1:40, let’s go, big press now … drive it, find that rhythm, 1:39, press swing … 1:38. Connect, press, sssend. YES! Let’s maintain this until we make our move at the 1000m. Commit, sssend. Commit, sssend.”

“I want it bad so we gotta have it…” is a bullshit call and not something you should ever say to your crew. Stop with the separation between you and the rest of the boat. Same goes for the “this is unacceptable” call at 3:17. Yea, maybe it is, but this still is not something you say to your crew in the middle of a race.

The counting between 6:06 and 6:46, randomly calling power 10s in the middle of another power 10 … dude, no.

The biggest thing I noticed in this piece was that the coxswain sounded so irritated the whole time, like he was just pissed to be there. Yea, you’ve gotta stay on them and pay attention to what’s happening around you but saying stuff like “this is unacceptable” or “I want it bad” during a prelim would make me seriously reconsider wanting you in the boat for semis and finals. I went and looked up the heats results from Youth Nats this year and in this race it was first place to semis, next two to the reps. Does going to the reps mean you’ve gotta row another race, yea, but sometimes you’ve gotta cut your losses and know that that’s the inevitable result instead of pushing your crew to beat a team that you’re (most likely) not going to catch. Anyways, I feel like this coxswain has a lot of potential that he’s just not taking advantage of. His voice is great and his intensity (when he’s channeling it properly) is solid but the calls and overall race strategy need work.

You can find and listen to more recordings by checking out the “Coxswain Recordings” page.