Hi, so I have been a rower for 2 years and on my high school rowing team next year there will be a few coxswains leaving because they are seniors. I am making my transition to coxing so by next year I will a cox. I have tried coxing once and I realized how difficult steering is, I won’t be able to practice steering on an actual boat until spring season in March but how can I practice steering so I will be ready? Are there like video games to help steering a boat that I could try? Any recommendations or advice?

Don’t overthink steering. I’ll always consider it the hardest skill to master with coxing and it is tricky when you first start out (which is normal … cannot stress that enough) but it’s nowhere near as difficult or panic-inducing as people make it out to be. The best thing you can do to “practice” steering before the spring is to learn the traffic pattern of your river/lake, read up on the basics, how to dock, how to spin, etc., and talk to the other coxswains to see what advice they have. The more aware you are of this stuff before going out the less likely you’ll be to freeze up in the moment and potentially put yourself in a bad situation.

Here’s some questions/posts to start with (you can find a lot more in the steering tag here).

Tips & Tricks: How to steer an eight

What do coaches look for in a coxswain?

Cutting corners

Coxswain skills 101, part one (oversteering) and part two (always steering vs. never steering)

Do you have any advice for a novice coxswain who just crashed for the first time? It really shook me up, and I know I won’t be able to get back in the boat for a few days (due to our walk-on coxswain rotation) but I want to get over it.

I heard that you should just steer whilst the blades are in the water to reduce drag and maintain the set. Does that mean I only move the strings when the blades are in, or do I return them to the straight position during the recovery? The latter doesn’t seem like it would turn the boat much.

The other day I was stuck in the center lane. Let’s just say it didn’t go so well. How do you concentrate on boats on either side of you/your point, your rowers, making calls and stroke rate? Ack, overwhelmed!

Any tips on how to properly dock an 8+?

Tags: coxswain qotd steering