Coxing High School Q&A

Question of the Day

Hi, I’m a first year junior girls light weight rower for my school team and I would like to eventually become a coxswain. Right now I weight 119 lbs & I’m 5’3.8 feet tall. My coach used to be a coxswain and she’s not the most approachable person so she’s not someone I want to talk to about this yet. I can afford to lose weight but what do you recommend ? Should I just stay a rower?

It’s really up to you. At your height/weight you could really do either one. If you’re already rowing then you could always finish out the spring season and then transition to coxing in the fall. If you can get some experience coxing over the summer at a learn-to-row camp or something then that might make it a little easier to approach your coach since you’ll at least have a little bit of experience under your belt.

The only way I’d say you should “just stay a rower” is if you don’t want to talk to your coach at all about this. She’s not going to magically assume you want to try coxing unless you say something though. My advice would be to row this season then try coxing over the summer when things are a bit more relaxed and if you decide you like it, talk to her maybe a week or so before school starts to see if you can cox full-time.

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