What do coxswain seat races entail?
I think the same thing as regular seat races … do a piece or two, switch, repeat.
Personally I think coxswain seat races are a waste of time because I look at every practice as being a seat race. They should be going out and practicing like the coach was making the decision on who was going to cox the boat based on how well they did that day. It’s also impossible to do a seat race for coxswains. Some coaches might have come up with a way but nearly every coach I’ve ever had or talked to about this has said it’s just not possible. There are too many variables that can’t be controlled, unlike with regular seat racing. You’re getting switched into a boat that you’re not used to and who isn’t used to you.
In addition to that, you could be a not-so-great coxswain who gets switched into a good boat that can function fairly well regardless of the coxswain they have whereas the coxswain who is normally with that boat gets switched into a boat that isn’t as good, isn’t usually coxed very well, and is in a mental and physical hole before they even start the piece. The “good” coxswain is at a serious disadvantage and the “not good” coxswain is at an advantage. The only thing that I can even think of that would be worthwhile is seeing who steers a better line but you can do that anytime and even then it can be affected by who’s rowing, the weather conditions, the boat itself, etc.
Related: Coxswain evaluation tag
Instead of seat racing I’d suggest coaches do formal evaluations, listen to recordings, get feedback from the rowers, maybe actually coach the coxswains and pay attention to what they’re doing on the water from time to time, and then make a decision. There are a lot of things that go into coxing that can’t all be displayed or summed up in one practice 2k.
Re: Brenna
Exactly! It’s definitely a huge honor system thing – I’ve had friends on teams in college that talked about how seriously messed up team dynamics were after seat racing because if the boat was used to one guy and another got switched in they just wouldn’t pull when the new guy was in there so they could stick with their friend/the guy they’re used to. I get the point of seat racing and the value that comes along with it but this is one of it’s biggest caveats, in my opinion. I would hope that before it got to the seat racing point with coxswains, the coaches would already have an idea of which coxswains worked best with each crew. Obviously there are a ton of things that coxswains need to do well but if that connection with the crew isn’t there, nothing else they do matters. And that’s something that builds over time too, so ideally coaches would be observing this from the time they got out on the water until they needed to make their final lineup decisions and then combining those observations with evaluations, recordings, practice piece results, etc.
So just last week my team did coxswain seat races and this is how it worked: we set up, in order of skil,l 4 8 8 4. there are 5 coxswains and we drew from a hat to pick a starting boat and 1 of us started in the launch. we did a 1k in each boat and then rotated to the next boat that was better (so if you started in the shitty 4 you then moved to the shitty 8 then the good 8 then the good 4 then to the launch) that way all coxswains could be compared together. also we did it in 2 groups so every race it was good 4 vs good 8 and bad 4 vs bad 8 and then you compared how much each boat wins buy to determine winners. Also each coxswain recorded and those were sent to the coach and following the 1ks each rower filled out coxswain evaluations which factored in. It works fairly well. obviously there are a ton of variables and its definitely less precise than rower seatracing, but i was pretty impressed with how well it worked.
Ah, thanks Brenna! I’m glad recordings and evaluations were part of the process. The biggest issue that I think I’d have with it would be if the four or eight rowers didn’t want you as their coxswain, they could just…not pull. I’m glad it worked for your team though, I’m definitely going to keep that model in mind for the future if I ever feel like testing out seat racing coxswains for myself…
i definitely see the issue with that, but if they don’t want you then you’re not the right coxswain for the boat. i’m not sure if that makes sense but if a coxswain has a horrible relationship with the top 8 rowers and they don’t wanna pull for them during a 1k they’re not gonna wanna pull for them during the 2k of regionals or whenever else. Although it shouldn’t be based on just that, the same principle applies to rowers seat races doesn’t it? if 7 of the rowers happen to now want whoever it is in the boat they could just not pull for them. honor system i guess.