I have noticed sometimes when coxing that some of my rowers tend to sort of bang the gate with their oar (not sure how to fully describe it) and was wondering what are they doing wrong in the stroke and appropriate calls to fix it?
If I’m picturing this correctly, what I think you’re saying is that the rowers are pulling the oar away from the oarlock and the “banging” is when the collar comes in contact with it again. I see novices do this a lot, mostly because they don’t fully grasp that you have to apply consistent pressure against the pin to prevent that from happening. Something that helps with this is making sure you have the right grip on the oar. If your hands are really far apart and/or your outside hand is a few inches away from the end of the oar then you’re much more likely to pull the oar away from the oarlock. Hands shoulder-width apart, outside pinky resting on the edge of the handle – that’s what your grip should look like.
Technique-wise though, the simplest way of explaining it is that you want to be exerting pressure in the direction that the blade is moving rather than the direction your legs are moving (keep in mind those two things are moving in the opposite direction). If you’re applying pressure towards the front or back of the oarlock (depending on whether you’re on the drive or recovery) rather than flat against the whole oarlock, you’re more likely to pull the oar away from it at either the catch or finish and when you begin moving in the other direction, that’s when you’ll get that “bang” that occurs, like I said before, when the collar comes in contact with it again. As far as calls go, keep it simple and just remind them to keep pressure against the pin and that the collar should always be in contact with the oarlock (which means they need to be applying force in that direction).
I’d really recommend talking about this with your coach though because they’ll be able to address the technical aspects of it with everyone and then once the rowers understand what’s actually happening, whatever calls you make will be a lot more effective. A huge, huge pet peeve of mine is when coxswains see an issue like this and think that all it takes to fix it is a couple magical calls (which don’t exist, by the way). Not that that’s what you’re implying (because this is a really good question so I’m glad you asked it), I just that I think that’s what a lot of coxswains expect when they ask questions like this. This is something that has to be coached so tell your coach what you’re seeing so they can address it, otherwise whatever calls you make (which may or may not even be correct) won’t make a difference since no one will understand what you’re talking about. I know it’s said a lot that coxswains are “the coach in the boat” but coaching the rowers isn’t your job. Now that you (hopefully) understand a bit better what’s happening you’ll have an easier time following your coach’s explanation so listen to how they explain it to your boat and reiterate the key points they make using the same language and terminology they use … that is how you fix a technical problem. What I said up above (and pretty much everything I say on here), it all equates to doing the assigned reading before your next class so you’re not staring wide-eyed at your professor as he flies through the lecture. Ultimately my goal is to hit the high points so you can follow along while your coach fills in all the little details.
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