An aggregate resource for all those riding in the 9th seat
Teammates & Coaches Video of the Week
What better way to kick off the year than with a clip of Bryan Volpenhein talking about what it means to be an oarsman. Good stuff to keep in mind as we head off on our winter training trips and continue grinding through those erg pieces for the next two months.
We always hear about the types of coxswains you should aspire to be like but rarely, if ever, does anyone ever tell you about the coxswains you don’t want to be like. Part of the problem with no one pointing them out ahead of time is that by the time someone thinks to say something about it, you’ve already got two or three of those coxswains on your team.
I know people are always like “oh we can’t say anything negative otherwise no one will want to join crew” and I get that but at the same time, why wouldn’t you want to just get everything out in the open and say “here’s what we’re looking for, here’s what we’re not looking for, if the former applies to you then you might be a good fit and if the latter applies you might not be a good fit”? It would probably save the team a lot of headaches down the line if that’s the way things were done, at least in my opinion. At the very least it’d save a lot of you the time spent writing me emails asking how to deal with your coxswains who fall into one or more of the categories below.
This one literally has no idea what they’re doing. One of two things tends to prevent them from asking for help (either their ego or their shyness) and as a result, things are done incorrectly, inefficiently, or not at all.
If you’re that person: Suck it up and ask for help. Do your own research and educate yourself on the things you’re unsure of and/or don’t know how to do. Don’t assume that you’re the only one that can see that you have no idea what’s going on because, trust me, it’s way more obvious than you think.
This one is shy, quiet, and unauthoritative. The only time they say anything is when they absolutely have to and even then it’s hard to take them seriously because they don’t take themselves seriously. It’s unknown why they joined the team but the reason they got stuck coxing probably has everything to do with their physical stature and nothing to do with their actual personality or potential.
If you’re that person: Not everyone is outgoing and in-your-face and that’s fine … but if you’re gonna be a coxswain you’re going to have to adjust a little when you’re at the boathouse. Being authoritative and sometimes loud (OK, most of the time…) are requirements of the job. If those aren’t things you’re used to being that’s fine when you first start out but you need to step outside of your comfort zone and be a little more bold.
These ones are the ones that freak out about everything, constantly say “I don’t know what to do, what do I do, I can’t do this, OMG I can’t do this…” and in general just get on everyone’s nerves due to their sheer inability to just get. a. grip.
If you’re that person: Assess the situation and why you’re freaking out. If it’s because you aren’t sure what to do, ask yourself how freaking out is going to make things any easier for you and the eight other people you’re on the water with. If you know that you’re a relatively high-strung person in general, figure out the best way for you to become calm and maintain a more level head when you’re at practice.
This one is non-committal about pretty much everything, regardless of whether it’s what warm-up to do with the crew, who they want to row, how many strokes they need to take, or how much distance they have left to cover. Usually this coxswain is a combination of the incompetent one and the basket case – they don’t know what they’re doing so they panic and then can’t process or decide what the next course of action should be.
If you’re that person: The first thing you need to do is figure out is what you should be doing and how it should be done. Ask someone if you don’t know. If you start to feel overwhelmed or unsure of what to do next, take a deep breath and make a decision. Don’t debate with yourself. Either it’s going to be the right one, an acceptable one that works for the time being but could be done better next time, or the wrong one. Just pick one though and at least pretend that that’s what you were planning on doing all along.
These are the ones that let the power go to their head, take themselves way too seriously, have an “I’m better than you” attitude, and/or think that their sole purpose is to run practice like boot camp. What they were either not told or selectively chose not to hear was that being given a certain amount of responsibility and power doesn’t mean that you’re exempt from being coached or given feedback.
If you’re that person: Contemplate the definitions of “boss” and “leader” for awhile and consider how your style of “leadership” is coming across to your teammates.
To be clear, none of these have anything to do with any amount of coaching they may or may not received. I know I talk a lot about where coaching falls short when it comes to coxswains but a lack of instruction can only be blamed for so much – at some point it’s going to come back to the person behind the mic and that is what this post is getting at.
Additionally, this post is mainly geared towards coxswains who are new to the sport or have only been doing it for a year or so, mainly as a way to say “don’t be that person and if you are that person, recognize it and do something different otherwise you’re wasting your time, your coach’s time, and your teammates time”.
Hi. I walked on half a year ago as a coxswain knowing absolutely nothing, and this blog was such a godsend for me. Thank you! I was the absolute worst when I started – steering all over the place and almost dead silent during practices because I was so nervous about what to say. I’ve come a long way since then. My steering is much more consistent and I feel pretty confident about the things I’m saying in the boat but I feel like I’ve plateaued in my progress because I don’t know how to bring personality into the boat. I can rattle off canned phrases and words, but I don’t know how to really MOTIVATE the boat and get the rowers riled up. I’ve been told that I’m “too nice” when I’ve asked for criticisms from the rowers. I am not an inherently sassy person – I am actually pretty calm and mellow and I’m not sure how to address an issue like temperament. Is this something I can fix or was I just not meant to be a coxswain in the first place? All of the successful coxswains I know are so outspoken and I feel like I have a more quiet intensity that I try to bring into the boat. Thanks!
You seem really self-aware which is a great quality for a coxswain. It’s a good thing to be able to recognize where you started, where you’re at, what you could work on, etc.
You don’t have to have an inherently sassy personality to be a coxswain, although I don’t think anyone would deny that a little sass now and then never hurt. It’s not even sass either, it’s just knowing when to be assertive to get something done. I actually think having a quiet intensity and a less “in your face” approach to coxing is better because it makes your race-day aggressiveness more genuine. I actually talked about this in one of the first questions I ever answered on the blog last year (linked below). It’s sort of the opposite issue that you’re experiencing but there might be a nugget or two of advice in there that resonates with you.
This is quickly becoming my go-to piece of advice but talk to your rowers. One of the best ways to figure out how to motivate them is to find out what they find motivating. Why are they there, what drives them, what do they want to accomplish, etc. If you find out stuff like this, then you can make calls specifically for that during pieces and races. For example, if Brad says that he’s been trying to hold onto his finishes and can feel that his strokes are stronger because of it, use that during the race to kick off a burst and motivate Brad/the crew at the same time. Bonus points if you involve the crew(s) you’re racing against. In a situation like this I’d say something like: “Columbia’s washing out on their finishes, let’s take 5 to squeeze it in and take a seat. Lead it Brad … on this one … now … go!”
Another thing you can do is take a five or ten or whatever number applies to rattle off your competition. Instead of saying “1…2…3…etc.” you’d say “Georgetown … Princeton … Navy … Wisco … Harvard … Penn … Cornell … Dartmouth … Yale … “. Hearing the names of the people they’re racing that are trying just as hard to beat you as your boat is trying to beat them will make them dig deep (literally and figuratively) and crank out some killer strokes. This is best used towards the end of the race, maybe right before the sprint or so.
Motivating your crew is not all about the rah-rah-sis-boom-bah calls. Stuff like what I said above is motivating because you’re capitalizing on something that the rower(s) have spent hours working on at practice. The best way to get them to reap the full benefits of their efforts is to remind them of what they’ve accomplished during the 6-7 minutes when it matters most. To really get under their skin and push them your tone of voice has to be there too. I took out one of our freshman eights the other day and did some 20s with them racing me in the launch. The coxswain is a freshman walk-on who is still learning the ropes and finding her voice. The first few 20s they did were good but something was lacking. At one point when the guys were getting a drink I told her to get aggressive. I literally didn’t even care if it was over-the-top yelling, I just wanted her to get in their faces and push them. It’s really hard to explain what I mean in situations like that … you sort of just have to “get it” and do it. She made some great changes in her tone which resulted in the next several 20s just being balls-to-the-wall on. Once we stopped to spin I asked her how it felt and she said “better” and “really good”, to which I replied with “why?”. She said a couple things about technique but I said that I thought it was because of the change she made in her voice, which the guys all agreed with. At some point you have to just let go and do something you haven’t done before.
Related: TED Talks, body language, and coxing
Don’t ask for criticism from the rowers, ask for feedback. Try to keep track of what they say (write it down) and make an effort to pick out one or two things to work on each day. Similarly to the rowers, most likely the changes you make are going to feel weird, uncomfortable, or silly but you’re definitely paying way more attention to that kind of stuff than the rowers are. Also work on becoming more confident in your role. Typically your coxing voice gets stronger as you become more confident with yourself. Forget about being “sassy”. Listen to some recordings to get a feel for what other coxswains sound like and use that to help you get a feel for you can do with your boats. When you’re at practice, try to keep everything but the hard pieces fairly conversational (like I talked about in the first post I linked to) but maintain that “quiet intensity” you talked about earlier. You’ll know the right time to bring the aggression based on what your coach has you doing.
Q&A Rowing Teammates & Coaches
Next weekend is the last race of the season. I’ve been stroke all year, but for this last race I’m suddenly put in bow seat. I can row both sides that’s not an issue, I just sort of feel useless because I don’t have the same responsibilities anymore. I really want to ask my coach about it, but I don’t want to sound ungrateful or cocky. How should I approach this?
If you want to ask your coach about it just be straightforward and to the point. As long as you aren’t whiny or accusatory, there’s really no way that you can look bad. Just say that you’re curious why the lineup was changed for the last race, if this is indicative of something you need to work on, etc. and listen to what they have to say.
Without knowing your coach’s motives, here’s my take. As the stroke, you had one job – set and maintain the pace for the crew. Because strokes tend to spend so much time thinking about this their technique can start to falter, which is why sometimes coaches will throw them back in 6-seat for a practice or two to relieve them of the pressures of stroking and let them re-focus on their own rowing and technique. In bow seat your technique needs to be solid because you have a much more profound impact on the set because the boat is narrower there vs. in the middle of the boat or in the stern. So, if you’re moving from a position where you could theoretically get away with having okay technique to the spot in the boat that requires some of the best technique, that’s a sign that your coach is confident that you can contribute from any seat in the boat. I wouldn’t be too upset about that since that’s a good thing.
Plus, the whole point of the sport is that no one rower contributes more than another so regardless of what seat you’re in, you’re not useless just because you’re not the stroke.
So I just read all your posts and what makes someone a good coxswain … you talk a lot about personalities. In general I think I have a personality of a coxswain. I’m pretty loud and sarcastic and I generally like to talk. However, I have often been told that I am not aggressive enough as a coxswain and that I need to be more stern. I have tried but I can’t seem to get that guttural sounding voice. Any advice?
I do talk a lot about personalities. I think one’s personality is a large determining factor in their ability to be a coxswain (not even a good coxswain, just a coxswain in general). I don’t know if being loud, sarcastic, and liking to talk necessarily equates to having the personality of a coxswain but I get what you’re saying.
You don’t have to get that deep, growling voice to be aggressive. Does it help, sure, but is it necessary, no. I don’t really know how to phrase this so that it makes sense but the aggressive part of coxing is almost more of a state of mind than it is about your voice. I know I talk about it coming from your voice a lot but you have to be in the right state of mind first. The voice is almost a secondary thing, if that makes sense.
What helps me keep my voice low and intense is talking from my core. Instead of just yelling from my throat, I get low in the seat and use my entire core to project my voice. I find that not only does this save my voice but it also helps what I’m saying come across a lot clearer. If you’re talking mainly from your throat it’ll have a tendency to crack a lot, which doesn’t happen as often when you use your core. I talked about that a little in one of my earlier videos. The aggressiveness comes across in my tone and my words. For the most part I don’t think I really have that growl-y voice but I still think I maintain a pretty solid level of aggressiveness.
Listen to some of the recordings I’ve posted. Most of the coxswains are aggressive in their calls but not necessarily in the same way. This coxswain coxes similarly to me in that we’re both conversational with our coxing but the intensity is still there vs. someone like this coxswain who naturally have that growl in their voice. If that deep, guttural voice doesn’t work for you, that’s OK! Find what works for you and go with it.
So … why in an eight is 3 seat considered the “worst rower?” Technically they’re still in middle 4 and I just don’t get it. Thanks!
I touched on this in a similar question about 5-seat – it’s linked below. The middle four has ONE job – row hard. They’re usually the bigger rowers of the crew so their only responsibility by being put in the middle is to generate power. That’s not a bad thing. Three seat just happens to be the seat where you have the least amount of impact on the balance of the boat (due to the boat being more stable in the middle since it’s wider), so theoretically you could put your weakest technical rower there and it would have as much of a negative effect on the boat as if they were in one of the other seats.
I think the only reason people think three seat is the worst rower is because they read those boat personality things and take them way too seriously. And by people, I mean novices (sorry guys) who sign up for crew, do some Googling to find out more about the sport, and then get it in their head that that’s the worst seat in the boat and they must suck as a rower if/when their coach puts them there.
Assuming your coach actually put some thought into the lineups, each person was probably placed in their specific seat for a reason. Unless you coincidentally display the same kind of personality traits as the ones listed in those boat personality things, they don’t actually mean anything.
So what’s the deal with five seat? I’ve heard a lot of jokes where people say five seat is the strongest but one time I was rowing five and another girl on my team goes “hey isn’t five seat the fat person?” Is that true or is it just kinda the same thing as “threetard’?
Boat personalities, while sometimes true, are mostly made up just to poke fun at everyone in the boat. They aren’t an actual indication of the character or abilities of the person sitting in that seat.
5 and 6 tend to be some of the bigger people in the boat which is why they’re put in those seats since that’s where the widest part of the boat is. That doesn’t translate to them being “the fat kid seats” though. Their responsibilities are purely power production (which is why the middle four is called “the engine room”) so it makes sense to have the bigger guys in those seats.
Clear something up for me about the relative importance of stroke vs. 7 in an eight? My coach today inferred that because I’d rowed stroke most of last season 7 should be easy because it doesn’t have the same responsibility, it’s just following. I always thought stern pair were equally important as 7 “strokes” bowside. Am I wrong?
I think I understand what your coach is saying, although I don’t think he phrased it right. I’ve always been taught that stroke and 7 are equally important despite the difference in responsibilities because your stroke sets the rhythm but 7 is the one who relays it to the rest of the boat. It’s not “just” following – if 7’s timing is off, the other six rowers will probably be off too. That’s why you usually want your most consistent rowers up front.
Assuming you can row both sides you’d probably do fine at 7 since your experience at setting and maintaining a rhythm in stroke seat would (theoretically) make it easier to translate the new stroke’s rhythm back to bow six.
I was reading on a rowing forum a commenter said that good coxswains are born not made. They can be guided to be successful but not much more than that. Is there any truth to it?
This is definitely a matter of opinion but I personally think that’s a true statement. Some may argue that the phrase “leaders are born, not made” is false but in the majority of my experiences in playing sports (bordering on 20 years) and working with other people I’ve never found it to be so.
With coxswains, as with any leader, there are certain personality traits that you inherently have to have in order to be successful and not having those traits puts you at a real disadvantage. Most coxswains are, by nature, strong leaders, organized, calm in the line of fire, a little pedantic, stubborn, cocky (in a good way), strong-willed, assertive, outgoing, extroverted, confident, persistent, creative, proactive, competitive, goal-oriented, adaptable, conscientious, observant, meticulous … I could go on and on. Those traits aren’t something you can be taught. I think you can pick them up over time but I can’t teach you how to be any of those things. If someone already possesses them, they can be nurtured and built but they can’t be taught or explained to someone who doesn’t already get it. There’s a mindset that comes with being an athlete and there’s no way you can possibly understand that mindset unless you are one – it’s the same way with coxing. Based off of what I know about myself and nearly every good coxswain I’ve ever met, we were all born to cox. Passion for the sport aside, it’s what makes sense based on who we are as people.
Like I said, it’s all a matter of opinion. There are always going to be anomalies but like I said, a lot of the traits that make coxswains can be nurtured but it’s hard to teach them to someone who’s passive, shy, quiet, etc.
Coxing Q&A Teammates & Coaches
Hi there, I love your blog! Some of my rowers were talking about coxing personalities. They said I am the happiest person on the team and I’m the “positive cox” while the other cox is the “kick your ass” kind of cox. We’re both competing for the same varsity spot in the spring. I don’t know if this is a weird question but do their comments mean anything? When I heard that, I got a bit deflated thinking that they take her more seriously as a cox. Am I being too self conscious? Thanks for the help.
Just like rower’s earn their nicknames (threetard), so do the coxswains. I wouldn’t read too much into what they said, especially since it obviously wasn’t coming from a mean place. I definitely don’t think it’s a bad thing that they consider you the happiest person on the team – you’ve basically shown them that regardless of the situation, you’ll always be the coxswain that has on smile on her face, which can be a really good thing for them when they have a shitty workout ahead of them and need to find some way to get pumped for it.
I would talk to them and ask them why they consider the other coxswain the “kick your ass” kind. Is she aggressive (in a good way) with them on the water? How does she push them? Does her “kick your ass” style actually kick your ass? What about it works for them? I think that’s all valuable information to have because it gives you more insight into what you’re rowers are looking for in a coxswain, which is something that can in turn help you get in the varsity boat this spring. Keep your bubbly personality but also try and take on a little bit of the edge that the “kick your ass” girl has. The combination is good, especially when you can flip the switch and know when you need to be in “normal mode” and “ass kicking mode”.
You have no reason to be self-conscious. Observe this coxswain and see if you can pick out what she does that has given her that nickname. Try and emulate that a little, in your own style. Don’t be deflated or any less enthusiastic. Each coxswain has their thing that stands out to the rowers. It doesn’t mean they take you any less seriously unless you’ve given them a reason to, which it doesn’t sound like you have.