Hi, this is my third year rowing and I am currently a freshman. I started rowing in 7th grade and loved it in middle school, but now as I enter the high school team (it is a club team) I am realizing that I am a lot smaller than other girls. I am currently 5’2 and about 105 in weight. I have mentioned to my coach that I want to cox and she shuts me down every time I ask. (My team is really low on coxswains too.) My question is what should I do? Should I finish fall as a rower then start coxing in the spring? Thanks!
I would finish out the fall season as a rower and then revisit things with your coach maybe mid-winter(ish), well in advance of when your team plans to get back on the water (but not immediately as soon as you start winter training because if you’ve already been consistently asking your coach this will just annoy her even further, which won’t help your case).
You’re the perfect size to be a coxswain so hopefully the only reason she’s saying no is because she doesn’t want to make the switch mid-season, which I can understand (although if that is the case I don’t know why she wouldn’t just say that). If your team is already low on coxswains you’d think that they’d jump at the chance to have someone make that transition but they might have a reason for wanting to keep you as a rower so if you haven’t yet, maybe ask your coach why she wants you to keep rowing instead of switching to coxing and see what she says.
After hearing what she says, if you still feel like you want to try coxing I would, like I said, wait awhile before bringing it up again and then talk with her one-on-one about why you want to switch to coxing and why you think it might be a better fit for you than rowing.
