Hi, so I’m coxing a race this weekend and its a bit of a funny course. Its raced 2 X 1800m stints so I am unsure how to cox it? As two separate pieces? Or as the full 3.6k? How tired should they be at the mid point, as they get a good few mins rest?? I am also racing the course later in a crew so it would be interesting to know your take on racing such an odd head. Sorry for all the questions, Thanks a lot! 🙂
Personally, I think I would try to cox it as a combination of a head race and a sprint, with the starts being head-race style and the bodies being sprint race style … ish.
A few things, first…
I’m assuming this is set up more like a head race course and less like a sprint race course. I’m also assuming that in between each 1800m you’ll want/have to keep the crew moving (meaning no one completely weighs enough). If you do get to weigh enough, pretty much everything I said in orange doesn’t apply (except for the park about making sure they all drink something).
Break the two pieces up like you would a head race – the first third is all about technique, pace, and rhythm, the second third is starting to incorporate in some motivational calls (sparingly), and the final third is mostly motivation while still keeping them on pace. With this race, your middle third is going to be the end of one piece and the beginning of another so you’ll probably end up doing calls that center around “clean strokes, finish out the first piece strong” and “let’s re-establish that rhythm we had in the first piece, *compliment them on something that felt really good that you want to carry over to the 2nd piece*”.
Make sure you and your crews stretch before you go out, drink plenty of fluids, and eat something small within 30min of your race. Also, don’t forget to go over your race plan one final time with them before you launch. Keep the warmup conservative but if you have room and time to spare, try to get at least one good practice start in at at least 3/4ish pressure. Don’t take too many hard strokes though, you don’t want to tire them out before you even get to the starting line.
You’re right, this is a really odd race but I think the key to racing it successfully is having a coxswain who knows how to pace his or her crew. The rowers also need to know how to pace themselves but I think it’s a lot easier to do that when you’ve got one person saying “this is when we’re gonna go hard, this is when we’re gonna stay relaxed, in 50m we’re gonna hit it, etc.” If you’ve got eight people that are rowing as eight people instead of one crew, you’re not going to be able to pace yourself and you’re going to burn out really fast.
I would say how tired they are probably depends a lot on their individual fitness and stamina but if I had to make a really rough guess, I’d say if they were working hard and you paced them properly they should probably feel like they just did a 2k at about 85-88%, give or take. They should be tired and feeling it but not so tired that they can’t do it again after 3-5 minutes.
Brilliant insight! Thanks a lot.
We have this sort of race regularly ie 2 of them every year. We’ve tried all sorts of combinations with different crews (eg pacing ourselves for one and then all put for the other; pacing ourselves for both etc) but we have found that the best way is to treat each leg like a separate race and do what you would normally do on a 1800m head course. And then do it again. Ie all out both times. Don’t save yourself on the first leg. You’ll only regret it on the 2nd and you won’t make up the time. We have a good 20 min gap in between the 2 legs as the crews spin get in line again for the 2nd leg. We are parked and stationery so it’s very difficult to stay warm – that the biggest challenge as you have to go off at Head race pace stone cold. Injuries often follow. The first leg will give you a chance to get a specific idea of the conditions on the course as you will get them in reverse on the way back. You may be able to have a discussion with the crew before the 2nd leg and alter your calls if there is something to work on. I’m not a great fan of this sort of race because of the he injuries but it does give an opportunity to do two race pieces very close together with all the nerves of a race. It also highlights technical problems a little more than ann ordinary head race because of the two legs and conditions In reverse. If you are matching another crew’s time with a tail wind but 15 secs behind the same crew with a head wind, ask yourself why? Best of luck.
Are you in the US? I’ve never heard of a race being run like this so I’m curious where they’re held.