Category: Rowing

Question of the Day

By readyallrow November 4, 2014

The other day our coach had all of us move our foot stretchers all the way forward on the tracks. I was wondering what the benefit of doing this is?

Trying not to overthink this too much but my guess is that your coach is just trying to have everyone get a sharper catch angle since adjusting the stretchers has a much greater effect on the catch than it does the finish. The closer to the stern your feet are the closer to parallel the oar will be at the catch and the more shallow of a release angle you’ll have (it’ll be nearly perfectly perpendicular to the boat compared to being at a 20 degree angle or so otherwise).

Just going off what I’ve picked up from coaches and boatmen in the past, I think he’s probably just trying to avoid rigging seats individually (be that out of laziness or because of some other reason, I don’t know). If a longer catch angle is what he’s going for though, I’m not sure if this is necessarily the best way to approach it, although I guess if you’re all novices (and/or short…) then it could be a temporary thing as you work on developing better flexibility and mobility throughout the fall/winter. Still, if he’s trying to go for uniformity with one aspect of the stroke the catch isn’t what he should be going for, it should be the finish since you don’t have to contend as much with individual flexibility issues, amongst other things.

Q&A Racing Rowing

Question of the Day

By readyallrow October 6, 2014

Hey, I was wondering if you could explain the difference between seat racing and matrixes? Thanks!

Someone recently shared this PDF with me that opens to a chapter on crew selection written by Kris Korzeniowski. I’d recommend reading through the first six pages because it explains the entire process of seat racing much better and way more thoroughly than I could. This PDF also explains it well.

Here is another (simpler, I think) explanation that I saved from a Reddit post a couple months ago.

“Say the coach wants to compare rower A to rower B. Rower A starts in boat A and rower B starts in boat B. They race. boat B and boat A tie. Rowers A and B switch. They race again. Now Boat A, with rower B in it, wins by open water. Rower B won the seat race. The only thing that changed was the switch between rowers A and B. When rower B switched into boat A they went faster than boat B and won. Clearly, rower B can make the boat go faster than rower A.”

With the stroke rate and four of the five people in a crew staying constant, the strength and technique of the rowers who are switched (the variables in the equation) will pretty much always tell you who is the faster one of the two because the better the rower’s strength and technique, the more distance they’ll be able to cover.

The “pros” of seat racing are that they simulate race situations fairly well and are easily repeatable. The “con” is that the races can take a lot of time if you have a lot of switches to make in addition to making sure you have equal and adequate amounts of rest time between pieces, the pieces themselves, etc.

Related: Words

A pairs matrix is pretty similar to seat racing except all your rowers are in pairs (hence, the name), are paired up similar to what’s in that table to the right, and there’s more data to work with in the end (which may or may not be a good thing depending on how much you like math). They also take for-freaking-ever. The one time I did this we had like … I donno, maybe five pairs, and it took well over four hours.

The “pros” to doing a pairs matrix is that if you row well technically in a pair then you’re probably going to row well in the eight. Rowing in a pair has a tendency to highlight and sometimes exaggerate your technical ability, for better or worse, so you’re able to look at that a bit more closely than you’d otherwise be able to in a four or eight. The “cons” are the amount of time it takes (did I mention it’s forever…) and that it can favor smaller/lighter rowers who can in turn get crushed in the big boats because the other guys are stronger, heavier, etc. Some people just work better in different boat classes. You have the same issue with seat racing too (which tends to favor the heavier guys) so this isn’t something that’s exclusive to pair matrices, it’s just that it’s a bit more visible.

Related: How to cox a seat race

Hopefully all that makes sense. We did some seat racing this morning and I think I actually have a much better understanding of it now than I did previously (and before I started answering this question). I’d say if it’s something you’re confused by or don’t really understand, see if you can go out on the launch with your coach and record the times. Carefully looking at the numbers and talking it through with the other assistant coach that I went out with (and basically making him explain it to me like I’m 5…) finally cleared up the one part of the process that was confusing me.

Coxing Q&A Rowing Technique

Question of the Day

By readyallrow October 2, 2014

Calls to control rush? There’s only so many ways to say “control the recovery” and “slow the slides.” Thanks!! 🙂

I’m a big fan of “patience”, “looong“, “relax”, “feel the recovery”, etc. When we’re paddling I’ll usually say something like “Guys, there’s not a lot of slide control right now and it’s causing us to [do X and Y]. We need to focus a bit more on [doing A and B] and [staying patient] on the recovery as we come into the catch.” Usually whatever call I plan on using (usually one of the ones I said at the beginning) I’ll say where it says [staying patient], that way they hear me saying it and understand what I’m referencing vs. me just randomly saying “patience!” during a piece with zero context whatsoever.

From there I’ll combine that call with whatever “A” and “B” was and get a more combined call that addresses all the issues instead of just part of the problem, if that makes sense. So, if the lack of slide control was causing a few people to row it in because they weren’t giving themselves enough time to get the bodies set, I’d say something about body prep, control coming up, and locking on for probably two or three strokes to help them get the rhythm and ratio back. Starting at the release and as the hands come away, “pivot”, as they start the roll, “patience”, as they lift the hands into the catch, “lock”, and then finish it out with a powerful “send” before repeating that again for another stroke or two. “Pivot, paaatience, lock, send…“.

Obviously this is a little easier to do at steady state rates (18-22ish, maaaybe up to 24) and less so at the higher rates but if you can work calls like this into your warmups, steady state pieces, etc. (both when there is and isn’t a rush problem, just to reinforce the message) then if you experience rush at the higher rates you can simplify the call to something that won’t take as much time to say, like “patience, send” or whatever. As long as you’re consistent with the terminology you use, breaking it down into a shorter call like this can/will still get the message across because they’ll be able to reference the longer call you made before. Sometimes at higher rates when I do this (during practices, not so much races…) I’ll say “Starting to feel a little rushed, let’s get that rhythm back we had the other day. Pivot here … pivot here. Now relaaax into the catch, loose in the legs, LOCK and send … LOCK send…“. It’s spread out over the course of 3-4ish strokes (I try not go more than five, max) and that one long call is broken down into two shorter ones.

Does that make sense? Basically what I’m getting at is that it’s easier to maintain a rhythm with how you should be saying the first call at lower rates than it is at higher rates. If you try to say “pivot, patience, lock, send” right now it’s going to sound more controlled when you say it slowly, which is what you want if you’re trying to get the rowers to exert more control on the slides. Trying to say all of that in the space of however much time a stroke at 30spm takes (…I guess that’d be about two seconds, wouldn’t it…) is a little harder because you won’t have as much control and rhythm in your voice because you’re trying to get out a lot of words in a really short period of time, which in turn is going to negate, in a sense, what you’re trying to communicate to the rowers about being more patient and relaxed. So, at the end of the second paragraph, even though I’m saying more words than I was before, the actual calls that I’m making are shorter so that I can still say them with the proper inflection and rhythm.

Hopefully that wasn’t too convoluted and you can kinda see what I’m getting at. It’d probably make a lot more sense to hear me say it than to read it so whenever I’m out next I’ll try to record myself so you can hear what I mean. Also, check out the posts in the “rush” tag, you might some ideas for what to say in there too.

How To Q&A Rowing Teammates & Coaches Technique

Question of the Day

By readyallrow September 30, 2014

What the hell do I, as a stroke seat, do to calm outrageous rush?

If you’re already setting a reasonable pace and they’re not following you, it’s unlikely that things will improve if you try to forcefully resist the rush because that’s just going to result in the timing getting way off, which will cause other problems (obviously). I’ve occasionally had strokes that will try to hold their finishes a little longer but that’ll tend to only work for a few strokes before it gets out of control again (and their backs start to hurt).

If you haven’t already, talk to your coxswain and coach about it. When you’re on the water you should consistently be communicating with your coxswain whenever it feels like you’re getting pushed up the slide. During water breaks or on land, you should bring it up to your coach so they can observe the crew to try to determine what/who is causing it and/or so they can adjust their practice plan, if necessary, to focus on slide control for a bit. Fixing the rush tends to be a collaborative task, at least in my experience, and really requires you and your coxswain to be on the same page whenever you’re on the water. Off the water, you have to communicate what you’re feeling to the coach. The coxswain can explain how it feels to them but we don’t feel the rush the same way you do in stroke seat so it’s important that you tell the coach where you feel it the most during the stroke, if it only happens at specific rates or if it’s a regular and consistent problem, if you notice it more when a certain pair comes in (i.e. if you’re rowing by 6s and you only feel rushed when 3 + 4 are rotated in), etc.

One thing that I’ve consistently heard from my stroke seats over the years is that they’re not going to take the rate above what feels comfortable for them. If we’re doing pieces at a 28 but they feel like shit because of the rush, they’ll row at a 26. If it still feels like shit, they’ll go down to a 24. This obviously requires communication between you, your coxswain, and your coach so it’s something I’d definitely try to discuss before going out on the water but there are other times when you just need to make a game-time decision and tell your coxswain “this feels awful, we’re taking the rate down two beats”. You’re the one responsible for dictating the pace so … assert yourself and do that (without being an ass about it). One of the things that rowers need to understand in general is that there’s no point rowing at a certain rate if it feels terrible just to say you did your piece at a 28 or a 32 or whatever. Find a stroke rate that feels good (even if it’s really low), row at that rate for awhile, then bump the rate up and try to get that same feeling. Emphasizing slow recoveries and making sure your coxswain is calling out the people who are early at the catch are going to be two of the best things for your crew right now. It’s also going to be important for you to tell the coxswain when something changes, either positively or negatively, so they can assess it and make the appropriate call to either reinforce what the crew did well or to continue trying to elicit a change from them.

Another thing you can do is ask your coach/coxswain to do pause drills during the warmup. I’ve talked about this before in the post linked above (scroll down to #3 and check out the other links in that section too) but pause drills are great for getting everyone on the same page and really thinking about what they’re doing. I like to break it down into pairs and fours when I can, just because it puts a little more responsibility on the individuals, and because it helps me (as a coach or the coxswain) pinpoint the specifics of what that rower is doing that is contributing to the problem. Obviously that has nothing to really do with you but it’s something you can suggest if they aren’t already part of your warmup or the drills you do.

Also, make sure you talk to your 7-seat (off the water). Their main job is to back you up and maintain the pace you’re setting. That obviously puts a little more pressure on them to resist the rush but at the same time, they can’t be part of the problem by contributing to it. They probably feel it just as much as you do if it’s really that bad so just remind them that you need them to back you up and help set the rhythm.

Bottom line, what it comes down to as far as what you can do to calm the rush is to make sure you’re aggressively and consistently communicating what you’re feeling to the people around you. Effective communication will be your biggest asset here. Let your coxswain (first) and coach (second) be the one to communicate what you’re saying/feeling to the crew as a whole but make sure you’re also talking with your 7-seat off the water or quietly during breaks about how things are going.

Rowing

Rowing Blazers Launch Party

By readyallrow September 30, 2014

So last week, as you saw if you follow me on Instagram, I went to New York for the launch of Jack Carlson’s book, “Rowing Blazers“. I received an invitation back in early August and decided pretty much immediately that I was going because … how often do you get an opportunity like this?

The party was held in Midtown at the Ralph Lauren Polo flagship store on 55th and 5th Ave. and, despite the space feeling unbearably small at the time given the number of people that were there, I don’t know if they could have chosen a better place to host this crowd. Throw in some beer and cocktails (Pimms, of course), lobster rolls, and a live band and you’ve pretty much got the Henley Royal Regatta crammed into 30,000 square feet. Everyone who owns a blazer was wearing it (I get the impression they don’t get to take them out of their closets too often…) so it was neat to actually be able to see them with all their aggressively bold colors and patterns in person. I wish I could have gotten more pictures of the overall atmosphere but being 4’11” at a party where the average height was probably around 6’3″ made that kinda impossible.

The book itself is actually pretty cool although I’ll admit I was (very) skeptical at first. What sold me on it was the stories alongside the photos that discuss the history of that club’s blazer, where the colors and design came from, what the various embroidered emblems mean, etc. I’m a total sucker for stuff like that so after reading through several pages of the book while on the subway I was hooked.

One of the things that really interested me was the introduction where Jack (a former BB&N and Georgetown coxswain) goes into the sartorial history of “the boating jacket” and how its origins as part of a rower’s uniform, “to help keep [them] warm during chilly training sessions on the River Cam and on the Isis in Oxford”, have become what we and all the men in our lives now know as the “blazer”.

One of the highlights of the night for me was getting to meet Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, both of whom co-hosted the party with Jack. Not only did I want to get a picture with them because, let’s be honest, the height difference is amusing, but I also really wanted to know their thoughts on the writers of “The Social Network” having Armie Hammer say “we row crew“. They both chuckled and said exactly what I think we were all thinking when we heard that line – “It’s just not what rowers say!”. They were great to talk to though and I appreciated getting to spend a few minutes with them.

Coxing How To Racing Rowing

Race plans for practice pieces

By readyallrow September 23, 2014

Last week I was going over some audio with one of our coxswain’s from one of the race pieces she’d done during practice the previous week. On Fridays the two varsity eights go head-to-head, sort of, in a 7k race that begins at the 2k starting line in the basin and finishes at the HOCR finish line. One of the things I asked her was if she had a race plan going into the piece or if she just kind of “went with it” and coxed them without one. She said she just went with it, which I kind of figured based on her audio. I suggested putting something together for this week’s piece so that it would have a more organized and focused feel to it, rather than the focus of the entire 7,000 meters being on catching/beating the other crew that went out first.

Having a plan for races is important, obviously, but so is having a plan for the pieces you do during practice. They don’t have to be meticulously planned out or even be that similar to the plan you use during actual races – just as long as you’ve got a couple specific things to focus on throughout the piece other than just beating the other crew. What’s down below is what I detailed to our coxswain as to how I’d do it if I was doing one of those pieces.

What I’ve laid out is obviously going to be different for you since it’s unlikely you’re doing 7k pieces on the Charles but the goal is to get you to look at the pieces you are doing and thinking about how you could break them up into smaller, more manageable chunks. The way I broke up this piece, as you can see, is based entirely on the bridges. Remember, landmarks are your friend.

Starting line → Mass Ave. (1000m)

One of the other things we talked about was how to start this piece since they’re rowing right into it with just a few strokes to build into their rate (vs. taking a “high” 20 and a “settle” 10 to come down to their base pace). If you’re doing something like that, I’d treat it similar to a head race and do something like 3-5 to build to the line, 20 at rate, and then 5 or so to lengthen out and settle in. For the next ~750m your primary focus should be on establishing a rhythm.

Mass Ave. → BU (1500m)

This section should focus on making general technical calls to the entire boat based on what you’re seeing/feeling and working to incorporate some of the technical drills/changes that you’ve been working on over the last week. You should also be making calls that reference the rhythm you established in the first section.

Powerhouse Stretch (2000m)

Coming out of final 1000m of the 2k course, where you’ve just been talking to your crew as a whole, I would start to break down the boat and talk to the individuals (or if you don’t want to go person by person you can break it down to pairs). Here I’d spend 15-20 seconds per person (adjust the time to be a little longer if you go by pairs) and point out what I’m seeing with their stroke (good and/or bad) and remind them of any technical changes that they’d been working to incorporate over the last week. If your coach spoke directly to them when you were on the water about something, try to repeat what they were saying to reinforce the message.

If you aren’t seeing anything that needs correcting, let them know that their stroke looks strong/solid/consistent, great job backing up [whoever is sitting in front of them], I like that aggressive finish, etc. Positive reinforcement like that works wonders on a rower, especially when you’re doing a long piece. Normally I wouldn’t recommend doing something like this (talking to the individual rowers) during a “race” piece but because this one is so long and you’ve got the time/space available, I think it’d be beneficial. Plus, for those of you that have trouble coming up with things to say, this would help solve that problem.

Weeks → Anderson (500m)

This chunk right here is actually made up of two smaller sections; pre-Weeks and post-Weeks. Pre-Weeks is the first 100m of this section and is just for the coxswain because they’ve got to make sure they’re putting themselves in a good position to come through the bridge. And yes, I think out of the 7,000 or however many meters you’re rowing, the crew can spare a measly 100m to let you do your own thing. One of the things I was telling another of our coxswains was that you shouldn’t/can’t be afraid to take a few strokes off when necessary if you need to direct your attention to something else. If you’ve demonstrated that you’re in this just as much as the rowers are and have been coxing them accordingly up to this point, they’re not gonna care.

The second part of this, the post-Weeks section, is where I would call for the crew to take five strokes to sit up, recommit out of the turn, and mentally prepare themselves to start racing the other boat. (You’ll notice that up to this point I haven’t said anything about the other crew that’s out there with you – nothing at all about racing, telling your boat where they are, etc. Trust me, I did this for a reason.) During the second half of this part, as you’re coming into the bridge, is where I’d be telling my crew where they are on the other boat, how far ahead/back they are, and what your goals are for the rest of the piece in terms of where you want to be in relation to the other boat as you cross the line.

Anderson → Finish line (2000m)

This last 2000m is all about racing and where your tone should noticeably change from “practice” to “race” mode. This is also where you can start actively taking power bursts in the forms of 10s and/or 20s. Before this I’d recommend sticking to 3s and 5s since the primary focus from the start to Weeks is largely technical. Remember though, just because you can take them here doesn’t mean you need or have to. It’s a judgement call on your end so be smart and don’t dilute their effectiveness by overusing them.

You’re probably wondering why I didn’t say anything about racing until you get to the final 1/3ish of the race. Here’s what I think … I don’t think you should be trying to race from the very beginning (unless your coach explicitly says “treat this like a real race”) because you’re either going to be playing catch-up or keep-away the entire time and not actually using the time to focus on the adjustments you should be implementing from practice. I also think that if the rowers go into it thinking they have to race for 7,000m then they’re just gonna hulk on the oar the entire time and not think as much about their technique. The first 2/3ish should have a largely internal focus, meaning you and the rowers are concerned only with what’s happening inside your boat. The final part of the piece is where you should be maintaining the good rowing from earlier and incorporating the changes from earlier as you shift into pure race mode.

It’s important to know that during the earlier part of the piece, your tone shouldn’t be casual like it is during a regular practice when you’re calling warmups and drills. You want it to be firm enough that the rowers know this is a hard piece but not so aggressive that you forget the purpose of the beginning of your race plan. On a scale of 1 to 10 you should be at about a 6.5-7.

The final important thing to keep in mind are the goals you give your crew for the end of the piece – make sure they’re realistic! Don’t say “I want to catch them by the end” if they’re five lengths away and you’ve only got 1500m left. It’s likely not going to happen, your crew will probably see the whole piece as a failure because you didn’t catch them, and then they’ll get pissed at you. Just avoid all of that by being honest about where you are and where you wanna be. If you can reasonably catch the other crew in front of you and cross the line even with or ahead of them (or continue to hold them off/walk away if you went out first at the start) then tell the crew that’s what you’re shooting for.

If they’re far enough ahead that you don’t think you can catch them but you know you can definitely close the gap, tell them the goal is to close the gap from five lengths of open water to two lengths. Don’t go by seats because that’s too small for them to picture and you to visualize when the gap is that wide. It’s not a realistic unit of measurement unless you’re actually within a length of them and will be overlapping with them at the finish. You can also go by time (which you should be able to see because you started the timer on your cox box at the start … right?) and say “we’re X minutes into it, let’s try to break Y” or “they started 15 seconds ahead of us, let’s get that gap down to six…”.

Hopefully all that makes sense and you can easily apply it to the pieces you’re doing while preparing for head race season.

Image via // @rowingcelebration

College Coxing High School Racing Rowing Teammates & Coaches

Interview with 2004 M8+ Gold Medalist Coxswain Pete Cipollone

By readyallrow September 18, 2014

Back in July I got an email from Jeremiah Brown, one of Canada’s silver medalists in the men’s eight from London asking if I’d be interested in reading and reviewing the book he’s been working on, “The Four Year Olympian“. It chronicles his journey from being a complete novice to making the Olympic podium in less than four years after picking up the sport. Yea … less than four years. Can you imagine doing that?

As I was reading through his book there were a couple sections that stuck out to me where he mentioned how when times were tense during training, he and the rowers would dish out a lot of abuse to their coxswain, Brian Price. Swearing at him, blaming him for things beyond his control, etc. – you guys all know what I mean because at some point or another in the last two years you’ve emailed me or messaged me on Tumblr trying to figure out how to handle those exact same situations.

This got me thinking … if elite level coxswains are dealing with this, maybe it would help you guys out to hear from them and read about how they handled being put in that position. So, I reached out to Pete to get his insight and see what advice he had to offer.

Here’s part of the email I sent to give you a bit more insight into why I wanted to do this:

“Hey! So I’m wondering if I could possibly persuade you to help me with a project I’m working on. Jeremiah Brown, from Canada’s ’12 M8+, wrote a book on how he made the Olympic 8+ and asked me to check it out before it got sent over to the publishers. While reading it, I had the idea to contact some national team coxswains that have been through the rigors of Olympic training and get their thoughts on how they handled taking the abuse of their rowers when tensions were high.

Jerry mentioned how they treated Brian like a “whipping boy” when things weren’t going so great, which actually surprised me because I didn’t think that that would be something you’d have to deal with at that level. I think I just assumed that by the time you reach that point in your career you’re mature enough or have developed good enough coping mechanisms to not have to take your frustrations out on other people.

It was encouraging though at the same time because I get a lot of similar questions from younger or newer coxswains that read my blog and want to know how to handle the rowers who feel like the only way to blow off steam is to blame them for every little thing that goes wrong. I think it would be helpful/reassuring for them to hear that it’s not something that’s exclusive to just high school rowing – coxswains at every level experience it and have to figure out how to work through it while maintaining positive working relationships with their teammates.”

Since there’s a tendency to hear the same regurgitated or long-winded replies that lack any substance (am I right or am I right…), I tried to put together questions that I haven’t seen be asked before so that the answers would be fresh and hopefully relatable, regardless of whether you’re just starting out or midway through your collegiate career. I hope you find this helpful and enjoy reading through it!

When tensions in the crew were at their highest, how did the guys treat you? Was there ever a point where you were the target of their frustration? (Side question, when during the Olympic cycle was everyone on-edge the most? Was it during the selection period, in the lead-up to the Olympics…?)

“The most tense time was always mid-spring of the Olympic year. By that point everyone had invested a whole lot of themselves and it was becoming clear who would make it, who would not, and who was right on the cut line. The athletes on the line had it worst, since, perhaps oddly, their fate was mostly out of their hands. All they could do was try to stay cool, pull their asses off, and hope things broke their way. The top athletes were focused on getting faster and staying healthy. The “cuts” were looking forward to pair trials and going to the shore with their girlfriends after it was all over.

As for me, I was always treated as an integral part of the team. The only time I caught any heat from the guys was if I made a mistake, or if some random new guy just blew a gasket in a moment of frustration. If I made a mistake, I owned it, apologized and resolved never to do it again. The guys held me to the same standards that they held themselves. Obviously, they were not happy with any miscue, but I think they respected the fact that I gave it everything and did not make excuses when I came up short. In the other case, new guys who could not take the heat had short half-lives. Teti definitely selected for composure under pressure. The more someone got wound up, the more Mike would push his buttons. There was a dark humor to it, and those guys either figured out they were getting played, or they blew up.”

If there was ever a point where the rowers started directing their frustration towards you, was that something that you shut down right away or something you just brushed aside since you knew it was the frustration of training talking and not so much the rowers personal feelings coming out?

It was really situational. If I got called out for substandard performance, then I took responsibility for it. If it was someone blowing off steam, I usually made fun of them and reminded them to lighten up. That works well as long as you have their respect and your response does not hit too close to home. People have a chuckle and everyone gets back to business.

There were certain times, usually when tensions were already high, where I would be the go-between for the athletes and the coaches, delivering messages no one wanted to hear. In those times, no one was really happy with me. It was the least fun part of the process, but my role was to help us win, not to be buddies or blow sunshine.

For example, one day Mike wanted to do race pieces for the third day in a row. I knew the guys were already tapped out. Mike asked me if the crew was all jacked up for timed pieces and I told him, no, they were exhausted but would throw everything into the workout and then go home to crash. At first he was miffed, but he countered with, “If you guys break X time in the first piece, the workout is over.” We beat the time, and I think he said, “Let’s just do one more short piece flat out.” Then the workout was really over. We ended up doing less than half of the planned distance, but it worked out.

Being truthful and direct in those interactions is not only the right thing to do. Over time I learned it was also a competitive advantage, even if it meant telling a good friend something awful, like “No, I don’t think you have a path from here to make the team,” or “Athlete X is injured but won’t tell you.” They remember and appreciate that you leveled with them.

When a rower or the crew as a whole was having an off day what was your strategy, if you had one, for getting things back on track and getting the crew re-focused without getting an onslaught of criticism, emotions, etc. thrown at you? Did Teti ever get involved or were you expected to handle it on your own?

My teammates and I occasionally got what Bryan Volpenhein called “the shanks.” Sometimes the only cure was time. We just had to ride it out, and we relied on one another to help us recover. If someone had a really strong track record of winning, Teti would cut them some slack where they had time to rehab themselves. My role there was to help them get back on form as quickly and with as little drama as possible…unless I was the one with the shanks, which did happen once or twice.

If a whole crew was getting slaughtered, I would try to break things down into the smallest possible unit of achievable progress and then drive them toward that. It might be things like “let’s be first off line on the next piece,” or “no matter where we are, let’s neutralize the other crew’s move and then sell it to move on them.” Even if we still lost the piece, even a little win can spur some confidence. A couple athletes in the crew get fired up and that becomes contagious. It takes persistence to find something that lights a spark, but that strategy worked better than any of the others I tried.

Teti never missed a trick, and if a crew was having a bad day, he would give us some time to get it together. A big, common goal was to figure it out before Mike decided you needed his help. If things got that far, you were entering a world of pain.

How did you avoid having “the shanks” interfere with your coxing, particularly on days when everyone was having an off day and tensions were high all around? If there was an instance where it did interfere, did you handle it the same way as before (taking responsibility when someone called you out) or a different way?

As the cox, when you have the shanks, you have to do your best to minimize the impact on the crew, and get yourself back on track as quickly as possible. My version of the shanks was magically forgetting how to go straight. In Teti’s system, going straight was the coxswain’s job #1. It is difficult and you have to practice it. When the shanks happened I would go to as much “silent time” as the crew could handle, and focus my attention on getting my mechanics back. If we were doing pieces, I had drills for myself, namely, taking my hands completely off the ropes and putting them on the outsides of the gunwales. My aim was to get myself back together as quickly as I could, which meant not panicking.

If the whole crew is having a bad day, the cox is expected to lead the crew out of it, or at at a minimum, get them focused on some relevant aspect of rowing. If you can do that, you can mitigate the damage, and then you just take your lumps. It is not personal. It is what happens when you underperform. Accept that you had a crap outing, lick your wounds and put it behind you, then come back for the next row ready to go.

What’s your strategy/advice to keep tense situations from escalating to the point where the rowers go off on the easiest target (usually their coxswain) and/or for preventing it from happening in the first place? Does it really all go back to simple mutual respect for your teammates?

Respect and trust are such huge parts of coxing. If you don’t have those things with your crew, you are a sitting duck. But they must be earned over time. Working hard on coxing fundamentals and being the person who looks out for the well-being of your athletes goes a long way. By looking out, I mean helping them get faster. If the coach has identified flaws in their rowing, work with the athletes to fix them as quickly and calmly as possible. Calm athletes can make changes. Tense people cannot.

I don’t think it is possible to completely avoid getting hammered by the athletes every now and again. What is possible is to build that respect and trust so the rowers know they have their own work to do before coming after someone else, namely the cox.

What advice do you have for junior/collegiate coxswains who may be dealing with rowers who feel like the only way to blow off steam is to blame them for every little thing that goes wrong, keeping in mind that younger coxswains tend to have a harder time maintaining a poker face and not giving in to how the rowers’ treatment makes them feel? At what point do you feel it’s gone past being something they could/should handle on their own and instead needs to be brought to the coach’s attention?

Be honest with yourself, and take athletes’ comments seriously, but not to heart. The former is a behavior change any aspiring champion must embrace; the latter is hard, since emotions form a huge part of our initial reactions and they generally run hot.

When they challenge your coxing, come right back and ask: “What can I do better? How should I do it? Coach me and I will work my ass off to improve.” If you take criticism seriously, you train your athletes to give only serious criticism. If you are willing to be coached – which intrinsically means accepting that your coxing is not perfect – and can show that you can make improvements, too, you will get massive respect points. From first principles, racing is about going as fast as you possibly can. Winning is just a byproduct of that. Starting here, getting coached (even harshly) and making changes are simply parts of the process.

Going back to my first answer, there is a difference between the national team and youth/college programs. In our case, the coach ruthlessly weeded out temperaments that would be liabilities at Worlds and the Olympics. Most other programs do not have that luxury, since they need the butts in seats or the massive erg score that occasionally comes with an outsized ego. If something is bothering you with one of the athletes, then my suggestion is to address it one-on-one first, as above – find out what the beef is and see if you can make an improvement. If that does not work, ask a respected crewmate to help you work it out with the person. If it escalates to the coach, you have a major problem. One of you is likely gone, and unfortunately the cox usually loses out. Our job is to glue the team together and lead them. If we cannot do that, someone else will at least get a chance at it.

If there are any rowers and coaches reading this, let me point out that rowers improve faster than coxswains, especially early on. Think of how often second-year rowers make the varsity. I bet you know of several. Now think of some second-year coxswains who made the varsity. Probably not too many. The right answer to this is to coach your coxswains as rigorously as you coach your athletes. Don’t just rely on someone figuring it out on their own. It’s not complicated and pays dividends as the season progresses toward championship racing.

That last paragraph is really important and definitely something that I hope coaches take into consideration. It also reiterates the point I’ve been making for the last two years that you have to coach your coxswains and give them the tools to succeed just as you do with the rowers.

I hope you guys enjoyed that and as I said earlier, are able to taking something away from it that you can incorporate into how you work with your crews. If you’ve got any questions or a follow-up on something that was discussed, feel free to comment below or shoot me an email.

Pete, thanks again so much for your support and your help with this!

Image via // World Rowing

Coxing Drills Q&A Rowing Technique

Question of the Day

By readyallrow September 11, 2014

Heeey so at the moment we’re doing a lot of work on the finish and the release but I am struggling to come up with calls that really work. I have a few basic ones but not many so I find myself repeating them over and over and over and over. Do you have any calls for technique at the finish and release that I could borrow or modify to suit my crew?? TY x

Good question. First thing (or first two things, rather) I’d do is talk with your coach about what he/she is specifically trying to achieve with the work you’re doing on the finish/release. Usually they’ll have at least one or two things in mind that they’d like to see the rowers improve on so find out what those are and as you’re listening to your coach explain them, write down 2-3 of the key things he says about each one (these should be short phrases, 5-7ish words max). From there, you can either use exactly what he said as a call or come up with a call on your own based off of his explanation.

For example, let’s pretend I had this conversation with my coach: “What I really want to focus on with these finish and release drills is making sure the guys are setting themselves up to have a good recovery and follow that up with a sharp, clean catch. If their posture is poor as they come through the finish it’s going to be hard for them to maintain the pressure with the outside hand that’s needed to tap the handle down and extract the blade from the water. That’s one of the reasons why we’re doing those pause drills at the release, to get them to think about staying up tall throughout the entire stroke and not slumping down into their hips as they lay back and draw through the finish. The other thing I want to focus on with the finish is making sure they’re continuing to move the handle consistently through the back end of the stroke and not giving up any of the speed from the front end.”

There’s a lot of info packed in that paragraph but that’s a good thing because it gives you plenty of inspiration to draw from. Something I did when I was in college whenever I’d try to get my biochem professor to explain something to me was I’d take my recorder and record our conversation so I could go back and listen to it later and pause it at the spots I thought were particularly important. This gave me a chance to actually process what was being said and compare his explanation to the notes I had from class vs. trying to recall everything he said a few hours later and forgetting half of what I asked him. I’d recommend doing this if you know you’ve got a specific question that (hopefully) has a long-ish answer, that way you can go back and review it later.

So, from that paragraph this is what I’d take away and what call(s) I’d create from it.

Take away: ” …making sure the guys are setting themselves up to have a good recovery and follow that up with a sharp, clean catch…”

Call(s): This is where I’d appeal to the coach’s good side while also communicating what we’re doing to the rowers. By repeating what he said to you shows you were listening and actually absorbing the information he was giving you. Even though this isn’t a specific finish/release call it achieves the same thing. “OK guys, as we go through this next minute let’s make sure we’re always thinking ahead to the next stroke and setting ourselves up for a smooth recovery. How good our catches are will be determined by how committed we are to having strong finishes and clean releases…”

Take away: “…poor posture through the finish = hard to maintain pressure with the outside hand…”

Call(s): This is where you have to do some work and think about what the finish should look like when they’re rowing with ideal posture. What does that “ideal” posture look like when they’re in the finish position? You should be able to come up with … I’d say five or six things easily that you can then use and direct to either the entire crew or to individual rowers if you know they have a specific issue with something posture-related at the finish. (I know I’m not giving you anything specific here but … that’s the point. I want you to do the work and come up with this stuff on your own!)

Take away: “…pressure with the outside hand that’s needed to tap the handle down and extract the blade from the water…”

Calls: Remind them that just the outside hand should be used to extract the blade (younger rowers in particular tend to try and use both) and make a few calls about having a relaxed, flat outside wrist with the elbow up and out (find a happy medium between T-Rex arms and chicken wings…). Keeping the elbow up will help them maintain a flat wrist position which in turn will help them exert the right amount of pressure on the handle to get the blade out. Don’t be afraid to tell them to look out over their outside shoulder to see if their elbows are up or to have them glance down at their wrist, particularly during a finish pause, to see what if they’re flat or a little hunched. Obviously that’s not something you can see with anyone other than your stroke (and even then it can be tough sometimes) so telling them specifically what to look for and what to change (if necessary) is what you have to do in situations like this.

Take away: “…purpose of the pause drill = to get them to think about staying up tall throughout the entire stroke and not slumping down into their hips as they lay back and draw through the finish…”

Calls: I would say exactly this since sometimes it isn’t communicated well or isn’t clear to everyone why you’re doing certain drills. In cases like this I would also talk specifically to that one person in your boat who consistently has shitty posture (there’s always at least one) and say “Dan, we’re doing these pause drills for you. Through these next five strokes I want you to think about staying tall all the way through the drive and not losing any height as you finish the stroke.” This puts some personal responsibility on Dan and gives everyone else something to think about too. Another thing I like to do when I’m doing pause drills at the release is let them take 2-3 normal strokes and then on the third pause say “OK now everyone sit up…”. You will magically see everyone get an inch or two taller. Once I say “go” I’ll tell them to stay tall into the catch (said on the recovery), drive with the cores (said at the catch), and support it here (said as they come through to the finish). Basic reminders like this are a good way to get them to think about what they have to do at each point during the stroke in order to have a supported finish.

Take away: “…making sure they’re continuing to move the handle consistently through the back end of the stroke…”

Calls: For simple things like this I like to keep it basic and say “squeeze” (my most common finish call), “draw through“, “pull in high, snap at the finish…”, etc. Sometimes I’ll also say “keep the handle moving through the back end” on the drive and then say “snap” or “here” right at the finish as the arms draw through.

Take away: “…not giving up any of the speed from the front end…”

Calls: I was just talking about this with the walk-ons the other day. One of the most important things to remember at the finish is that in order to maintain your speed and give the end of the stroke a little extra “oomph”, there has to be a flawless transition from the momentum that’s been created by the leg drive to the draw through with the arms. The arm draw is responsible for taking advantage of the momentum created at the front end and carrying it through to the back end, so in order to do that there has to be consistent pressure exerted on the face of the blade as you come through the finish. I like to appeal to the musculature here and make calls like “squeeze the lats”, “elbows and triceps up”, “press back with the shoulders”, etc. Other times I’ll just say what I said at the beginning – we can’t give up any of the speed we got with the legs so keep the transition between the legs and body smooth and sharp. Another thing I’ve said is “don’t cheat the speed”, meaning don’t get lazy at the finish and expect the boat to do all the work for you.

The other thing I would do is talk to the rowers and find out what they want/need to hear. Some have individual things they’re working on, others are looking for more general reminders … find out what all those things are and make note of them. A lot of times they’ll say “if you could say something like X if you see me/us doing Y…” which is usually a good starting point for you to go off of and build your calls from there.

Racing Rowing

Question of the Day

By readyallrow September 5, 2014

Why do coaches put out mixed crews for races? Don’t they want us to win? Your blog is AMAZING!! You have helped so much, thanks! 🙂

To be honest, I never really understood mixed lineups during races either but all in all I think it’s a pretty harmless thing to do. Mixed lineups during practice, especially at the beginning of the season, is great but I probably wouldn’t race those lineups at any point past the first race or two. I really don’t think it has anything at all to do with winning or losing though. If your coach races mixed lineups and you’re curious why, just ask him/her what their rationale is behind that. Once they explain it it might make more sense to you and seem less random/dumb.

In my experience it’s largely been a chance for the less experienced rowers to be in a boat that’s (hopefully) more stable which in turn lets them focus a bit more on their stroke and technique without having to worry about all the other distractions that would otherwise be present in a boat made up of entirely less experienced people. For the varsity rowers who might be/probably are pissed that they’re rowing that lineup, all I can say is … chill. You were in that position once too and there were probably varsity rowers that at the time felt the same way about you. Part of being able to call yourself a varsity athlete is knowing that there’s some responsibility on you to help the less-experienced rowers get up to speed. Just go with it and use that time to set a good example by having a good attitude and focusing on rowing well as an individual. The boat’s probably not going to feel perfect but again, you should look at that as an opportunity to figure out what adjustments you can make to your rowing so that when the boat feels similarly once you’re rowing in your regular lineups you’ll already know what changes to make before your coach or coxswain says something.

Rowing is the hardest thing you will do sitting on your ass.