My coach has started setting boats and she didn’t place me in one. I am a novice coxswain but am the second most experienced on the team due to other coxswains going to college. Another girl that joined about a month ago has been set to cox the guys varsity boat and girls JV 4+ of our club. She does weigh less than me, (she weighs 110 and I weigh 120), but I was originally set with the lightweight girls boat so I don’t think weight is a huge concern. My coach switched some lineups around and I have been left without a boat. I have talked to her and my team has talked to her about placing me in a boat but nothing has changed. It seems as if she is trying to avoid placing me in a boat. Any ideas why this may be or what else I can do to be placed with a boat?

I honestly couldn’t tell you. I don’t know why a coach would purposely avoid putting someone in a boat unless they felt that they had a legit reason to. The only thing I can really recommend is talking to your coach again and asking why you’ve consistently not been placed in a boat and if there’s something you need to be doing in order to get put in a lineup, could they at least tell you what it is because right now you’re kind of at a loss.

Related: I’m a HS varsity men’s coxswain, but our club spends a lot of time sculling in quads and rowing small boats. As a result, I spend a lot of time sitting on the launch. However, I don’t exactly know what the best way to make use of that time is. Usually I just watch the rowers quietly and mention the occasional technique mistake if I don’t think my coach sees it, but I’m not really sure what the protocol is. Should I tell the rowers directly if I’m seeing something off? Should I try to talk to my coach about what lineups I think are working and what aren’t (he very occasionally asks my opinion on who should get seat raced and stuff like that)? Or is it better to just watch and note what’s going on so I can use it when we do row coxed boats?

Other than that, I’d suggest trying to make the best of your time in the launch (assuming that’s where you are when you’re not in a boat) by picking your coach’s brain about what they’re doing, what they’re seeing, any technical corrections they’re making, etc.

Tags: coach problems coxswain qotd