I’ve only been coxing for three years but I feel like it has changed my voice .. .do you feel like that? Like, I feel like I can’t hit as many high notes when I sing in the car (haha) or is there something I’m doing wrong?? I lose my voice easily in races now, especially during the spring when we have like 3 races in a day. What can I do about this? Should I change the way I cox?
YES. I felt the same way when I was in high school. I’ve only completely lost my voice twice and neither came directly from crew, although I don’t think coxing helped. I did notice, and still do occasionally, that I can’t hit the same notes when I sing in the car. I don’t think it’s anything we do wrong, per se, I think it’s more so that over the years we’ve inflicted little bits of damage on our voices from all the yelling and tonal changes, which has led to minute changes in how we talk, sing, etc.
When I was in high school we were a big enough team that we were able to everyone in multiple races which was awesome, but for the coxswains – between heats, semis, and finals – by the end of the day we were lucky to still be able to talk. I have a naturally loud voice that, for the most part, seems fairly indestructible but whenever the weather was bad (cold, windy, rainy) my throat would always hurt a lot more than when the weather was nice.
One of the things that I started doing midway through high school was instead of “yelling”, I started projecting, meaning instead of using JUST my voice, I started using my diaphragm and core to make myself louder. That’s another reason why I really recommend coxswains do core exercises with the rowers during the winter … it helps our voices, odd as it may seem. When you’re on the water though, if your abs are on fire at the end of a piece or a race, you’ll know you’ve done it right. You know when you’re yelling you can kind of “feel it” in your throat? That’s why coxswains lose their voices. If you instead project from your core, you aren’t straight yelling as much, which gives your voice a break.
Make sure you drink lots of water so that your throat doesn’t get dry. I’ve never tried the hot water and honey trick that people tell you to do when you have a sore throat, but I’ve heard it works so that’s an option as well. When you’re not coxing, especially at races, try not to yell or unnecessarily raise your voice. Save the loud stuff for when you’re on the water.
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