Tag: coach problems

Coxing Q&A Teammates & Coaches

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My coach has started setting boats and she didn’t place me in one. I am a novice coxswain but am the second most experienced on the team due to other coxswains going to college. Another girl that joined about a month ago has been set to cox the guys varsity boat and girls JV 4+ of our club. She does weigh less than me, (she weighs 110 and I weigh 120), but I was originally set with the lightweight girls boat so I don’t think weight is a huge concern. My coach switched some lineups around and I have been left without a boat. I have talked to her and my team has talked to her about placing me in a boat but nothing has changed. It seems as if she is trying to avoid placing me in a boat. Any ideas why this may be or what else I can do to be placed with a boat?

I honestly couldn’t tell you. I don’t know why a coach would purposely avoid putting someone in a boat unless they felt that they had a legit reason to. The only thing I can really recommend is talking to your coach again and asking why you’ve consistently not been placed in a boat and if there’s something you need to be doing in order to get put in a lineup, could they at least tell you what it is because right now you’re kind of at a loss.

Related: I’m a HS varsity men’s coxswain, but our club spends a lot of time sculling in quads and rowing small boats. As a result, I spend a lot of time sitting on the launch. However, I don’t exactly know what the best way to make use of that time is. Usually I just watch the rowers quietly and mention the occasional technique mistake if I don’t think my coach sees it, but I’m not really sure what the protocol is. Should I tell the rowers directly if I’m seeing something off? Should I try to talk to my coach about what lineups I think are working and what aren’t (he very occasionally asks my opinion on who should get seat raced and stuff like that)? Or is it better to just watch and note what’s going on so I can use it when we do row coxed boats?

Other than that, I’d suggest trying to make the best of your time in the launch (assuming that’s where you are when you’re not in a boat) by picking your coach’s brain about what they’re doing, what they’re seeing, any technical corrections they’re making, etc.

Q&A Teammates & Coaches

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Our assistant coach is not here this season and won’t be back until winter training so our head coach introduced a new assistant coach earlier this week. Every time she tries to correct someone’s form she says it in a way that sounds really mean and negative. After our last piece today our head coach gave us some feedback and told us what he thought was good and what could be improved. After he went to the other 8 she came over and told us we were “ridiculous and mediocre”. The other coxswains and the rowers on my team feel like she’s being way too negative and it’s making everyone feel awful. Sorry that was really long, I just want to know how to handle that kind of coach.

This is a situation where the team captains need to have a one-on-one meeting with the head coach. (If you don’t have team captains work something out so you have one or two varsity coxswains and rowers (each) that can meet with them.) The biggest thing that I’d have an issue with is her saying that you’re “ridiculous and mediocre” after the coach had already made his comments, which sound fairly positive from how you described it. That’s just not cool. I get how two coaches can see things in different ways but this is far from being the best way to address that and she should know that.

From the perspective of the rowers and coxswains, there is no “handling” of it on your end. Leave that to your head coach to deal with once you’ve spoken with him. I know it’s easier said than done for some people but don’t let her attitude get the best of you. I’ve had coaches like that too and usually my stroke and I would just look at each other, roll our eyes, and get on with whatever we were doing. Your head coach already gave you constructive feedback and that’s what you have to internalize and go with. Stupid comments like the one she made are the ones you brush off and ignore because they don’t mean anything. I’m not saying that you should always ignore the assistant’s comments in favor of what the head coach says, rather you should prioritize the comments that offer genuine feedback rather than the ones that just say “you suck”.

As far as everyone feeling awful because of it, this is where the coxswains have to step up and maintain the focus by reiterating the positives and rewording the overly-harsh negatives into something that the rowers can actually use. Negative feedback isn’t necessarily a bad thing but it’s gotta be delivered the right way for it to be effective. Plus, you have to know your audience too. If the coxswains can take what the coach is saying and give it to the rowers in a more constructive format then that’ll do a lot for how everyone feels. Granted, I can’t imagine the morale is going to be THAT great after dealing with this for awhile but that’s why I said the captains, seniors, whoever need to talk with the coach one-on-one and let them in on what’s been going on and how everyone is feeling.

College Q&A Teammates & Coaches Training & Nutrition

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Hey! At the end of the spring season I was one of the best rowers on my team. I had some of the strongest erg scores and was stroking the 1V8+. However I was rowing through an injury, it was a plica so there was no structural damage, and after receiving a cortisone shot, the pain went down a lot, so I was cleared to row though they said to go see another dr. over the summer for potential surgery. The Dr. I saw over the summer took an MRI and decided to try PT and an anti-inflammatory. She also said to limit my exercise to non-impact workouts, which pretty much meant no erging/rowing, running, or biking. I did do some swimming this summer and focused on building core strength. Now I’m back at school in pre-season, it definitely helped, and my knee is better. However my erg scores (obviously) haven’t been where they were and it’s been discouraging. I’ve been going to every practice to gain an advantage, before mandatory practice starts, but it’s so hard motivating myself to go when I know I’ll be in the middle of the pack, even though I know the only way to get better is by going. What’s worse is that my coach ignores me. This sucks because I’ve picked up that that’s what he does to the girls who maybe aren’t the top rowers on the team. Do you have any advice on how I can boost my moral?

Ah yes, I’m familiar with plica syndrome. I’m pretty sure the chondromalacia that the doctors say I have in the knee I dislocated is actually this. It’s definitely not a pleasant thing to deal with – I can’t believe you rowed through it! I wouldn’t keep doing that though if it starts acting up again just because you will, without question, end up exacerbating the problem and ultimately end up with an injury that is way more severe than this one and will keep you off the water for an even longer period of time.

Even though your erg scores aren’t where you want them to be right now, I think you can at least take comfort in knowing that they’re where they are for a legitimate reason and not because you were lazy and sat around on your ass all summer. There’s nothing wrong with being in the middle of the pack either. I know people look at it as some colossal failure if they were previously at the head of the pack but it’s really not that big of a deal. If you’re relatively in shape then you shouldn’t have any issue getting back to where you were in a reasonable amount of time.

Instead of focusing on getting your scores back to where they were just focus on improving where you’re at right now. If you’re currently pulling (for example) a 1:55 split for a 2k but your PR is a 1:46 then yea, no wonder you’re discouraged. That’s a lot of time to try and make up. Stop focusing on the 1:46 though and instead work on making small improvements on the 1:55. Eventually you’ll get back to where you were but it’ll be a lot easier if you set more reasonable goals for yourself (i.e. like maintaining a 1:53 on your next test…). Being able to knock off small goals on your way to a larger one is much more motivating and better for morale.

If you think your coach is ignoring you, set up a one-on-one meeting with him sometime this week so you can update him on what your doctors told you, what you did this summer in terms of working out, and what your plan is to get your times back to where they were. If he doesn’t have any idea as to what’s going on and it just looks like you came back to campus out of shape then I can understand why he’d be annoyed. I don’t necessarily condone ignoring you for it but I can at least where he might be coming from. Clue him in and go from there. I would also touch base with the sports med staff that works with your team and work something out with them too, that way you can tell your coach that you met/will be meeting with them so that he sees that you’re serious about taking care of yourself and you’re not being flippant about this whole situation.

Coxing Q&A Teammates & Coaches

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Hi, I have a problem with my coach. Whenever I cox she asks me to do things (which I proceed to do) before changing her mind without being very clear or even telling me. I find it very annoying as I am doing my best to follow her muddled instructions and she makes me look incompetent. Also during short pieces she shouts at me and says I shouldn’t be saying certain things, even though I asked the rowers what would be most beneficial to them and am focusing on using those things.

Talk to her. That’s the only way this situation is going to be resolved.

I’m one of those people that gets really frustrated when instructions aren’t straightforward and clear from the beginning, mainly because it’s a huge waste of my time (and probably other people’s as well) to think this is what you want me to do but not be 100% sure. It’s particularly frustrating on the water because there is no time to waste and when it is wasted the coxswains are the ones that get blamed (even when the rowers are equally as confused). I don’t blame you for being annoyed because I, and I’m sure many other coxswains, would be too.

Here’s the thing about coaches telling coxswains what they should and shouldn’t say. If a rower asks their coxswain to make a certain call, that is off limits for you to comment on (unless they asked for a “power 10 for cupcakes” because that is stupid; use your common sense here). You cannot tell the coxswain they shouldn’t be saying that and at the same time preach about how important it is to gain the trust of the rowers, get feedback from them, etc. This goes double, maybe even triple, if you were never a coxswain in the first place. If what they’re saying maybe isn’t phrased in the best way then by all means, suggest an alternative way to call it – I’m all for that – but don’t flat out say they shouldn’t say it. In situations like this, loyalty to the rowers (particularly if it’s a close-knit crew) is almost always going to trump the coach telling you to stop doing something. Yelling “stop saying that” during a piece, I mean really, what are you trying to accomplish by doing that? (Related, see today’s VOTW post.)

The best and only way to get this situation taken care of is by (firmly) pointing out to her how difficult it is to do your job when her instructions are unclear and that the reason you’re saying those things is because you were specifically asked by the rowers to say them (for whatever reason). One thing that usually helps when it’s tough to understand what the coach wants you to do is to go over it each day before you go out on the water – like, as soon as you get to the boathouse. That was one of the things I really liked in high school and college was that our coaches would go over the workouts, goals, etc. for the day with us and answer any questions we had while the rowers were changing, getting oars down, etc. It’s important to work something out though because it’s really hard to be an effective coxswain when there’s poor communication between you and your coach and you feel incompetent whenever you do something because it ends up not being what they wanted.

There’s nothing wrong with wanting/needing all the details when you’re being asked to do something (and it’s really annoying when people act like it is – that’s just pure laziness on their part) so if having all of that up front is what you need to be an effective coxswain for your boat, then you should say that. Everybody functions a little bit differently (as we as coxswains know firsthand…) and part of being a good coach is recognizing that and making little adjustments to your style to accommodate that.

Coxing High School Novice Q&A Teammates & Coaches

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Hello!! First I just wanted to say that I am a high school novice cox and your blog has helped me so much. But I have a problem. My varsity/head coaches are so supportive and nice, but my novice coach isn’t. She has missed practice almost everyday for 3 weeks, and she flipped when I missed practice one day for an appointment that I had scheduled months in advance. She’s a good athletic coach who knows a lot about rowing and sports injuries, but not about feelings. At our last regatta my dad was talking to her. Today at practice in front of my whole team she blamed for the team’s loss. Considering the fact that she hasn’t been a real part of the team and then just shows up out of the blue, I think that’s part of what messed up the team. She came in and changed our start sequence and everything that we’ve learned. She kept knocking me down in front of the team. It got the point that I came home and cried for two hours. Everyone on my team calls her “a hero” because of how much she knows. I agree that she knows a lot about rowing, but not about coxing. What should I do?

Whoa. Personally, I automatically lose a lot of respect for any coach that calls someone out like that in front of the team, especially in a sport that is as team-oriented as rowing is. That’s just not cool. I can’t really even understand her frustration with you missing practice due to an appointment that was scheduled months in advance. If you’re a novice how likely was it that you knew you’d be doing crew when the appointment was made anyways? Regardless, it’s pretty hypocritical for her to be upset that you missed one practice if she’s not even consistently there.

If you’re not comfortable talking directly to her, I’d say that if you’ve got a good relationship with your head coaches, talk with them since that’s obviously who she’d report to hierarchy-wise. You could also have your dad there if you wanted since he talked with her at your regatta and might have addressed some of the issues you’ve been having. Explain the issue(s) to your coaches though and say that while it’s obvious that she knows her stuff about rowing, it’s coming across like she doesn’t understand much about coxing and it’s becoming very frustrating for you because instead of being coached you’re being blamed for team losses, etc. Hopefully from there either they can talk with her or have a group meeting with you and her. I would say outside of just ignoring the negative things she says, talking with them and hoping they can address things with her is probably your best/only option.

Coxing Q&A Teammates & Coaches

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I have coxed for two seasons for my school and I am the most experienced cox and we have no novice coxes. I am 5’5 and 110lb but my coach thinks I am too tall and heavy to cox? Am I? I still fit in the cox’s seat and have room to spare! Me and my crew have just recently won the champs, they wouldn’t have done it without me, and they all say they would rather have a cox a couple of pounds over than a useless cox, but I don’t think my coach thinks that. I really want to cox but I still have 6 months till the next regatta! How can I convince my coach that I can still cox and want to? I can’t let my crew have a novice cox as they all want to win next season!!!

5’5″ might be just a little on the tall side to be a coxswain compared to the rest of us but ultimately it’s not height that matters when it comes to coxing, it’s weight. The minimum is 110lbs so … you’re fine.

As far as convincing your coach, it really depends on how amenable he is. My suggestion would be to not say anything about it unless the issue is brought up by him and then if it is, reiterate that you don’t feel like your weight is an issue and that your crew feels that your skills on the water outweigh a pound or two (no pun intended).

I wouldn’t say that they couldn’t have done it without you though because that sounds pretentious and like you think you’re the sole reason they won (even though I’m sure that’s not how you intend it to come off). I’d also not say anything about them wanting to win next season and not wanting a novice coxswain because that makes it sound like you/they think they don’t have a shot in hell if someone new is coxing them. Granted, yes, there’s a learning curve with novice coxswains that they’ve gotta overcome but it is certainly still possible to win with one of them in your boat. To be honest, if I heard an experienced/varsity coxswain say something like that I’d take them out of the boat immediately and replace them with a novice just to give them a wake up call that everybody is replaceable.

Bottom line is, keep whatever conversation you have with him about the issue at hand (nothing hypothetical), don’t bash the novices in the process, and again, don’t say anything unless it’s brought up to you by him. Keep doing what you’re doing and make sure you’re staying on top of your responsibilities on and off the water.

Coxing Novice Q&A Teammates & Coaches

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I’ve been having problems with one of the assistant coaches. Overall, his attitude towards me has been one of dislike/disappointment. Part of this may be due to him not knowing I’m a novice cox and expecting me to be at the level of an experienced one (I’ve been with the varsity a lot #coxswainshortage), but most of it is definitely due to a few bouts of incompetence earlier in the season.

Now, however, I’ve improved significantly, but he still has very little patience for me (compared to other coxes) when I ask for clarification on the water and is very reluctant and disdainful when I ask for advice (on land). In addition, there’s significant communication issues, as he (and the other coaches) use plastic-cone megaphones, and whenever I can’t hear clearly and ask for clarification (or can’t hear at all), they always interpret it as me not paying attention, which further reinforces his bad image of me.

Today especially was a terrible practice, as all these elements and more were at play. My boat and one other were under his sole supervision the entire time we were on the water. He was pissed at one of the other boats not with us at the time, and he was quite clearly projecting that anger onto us. Due to various factors (seaplanes, head coach not present, pointed his megaphone at other boat) the communication issues were at an all time high, and his short fuse made me afraid to ask for clarification. As a consequence, I felt quite helpless, especially as he seemed strangely angry whenever I did manage to do what he wanted. In addition, it seemed as if he were merely along for the ride, as said NOTHING other than the drills and pieces we were supposed to be doing. Help!

Dear coaches, you wanna know who can hear what you’re saying when you use those stupid cone things? NOOO ONEEE. No one knows what you’re saying because your words are muffled and not in any way whatsoever louder or clearer than if you just shouted them from across the river. Those cones suck. Stop using them, particularly if you’re the type of coach who gets pissed and/or irritated when your coxswains ask you for clarification or to repeat your instructions because they couldn’t hear you the first time you said them. And again, just to reiterate the point, the reason they couldn’t hear and/or understand is because – say it with me! – THOSE. CONES. SUCK. Seriously, just save everyone the frustration and buy a megaphone.

Have you talked to your head coach about this? I could tell you how to deal with each of these problems individually if it was like, a one-off situation but it sounds more like the issues you’re having with the assistant have turned into habitual problems. When it gets to that point, that’s when you need to consult whoever’s above them (in this case, your head coach) and bring to their attention what’s been going on. If you haven’t brought any of this up, I would try talking with your head coach privately and explaining the situation. Since he actually knows your assistant he might be able to give you some advice on how to work with him or what the best ways are to go about communicating with him. At the very least, hopefully he can talk to him and point out the fact that what he’s doing isn’t effective for anyone (and that he’s being an asshole).

If he doesn’t know that you’re a novice I would definitely point that out to him so that he does know. I can understand expecting you to cox at a higher level if you’ve been working with the varsity crews (that’s understandable and pretty reasonable, regardless of why you’re with them) but you’re also going to make mistakes simply because you aren’t experienced enough yet to know better. That’s to be expected of any novice coxswain, provided you learn from the mistakes you make and make an effort to not repeat them in the future. He should be making an effort to teach you how to avoid making those mistakes too instead of getting annoyed at you if/when it happens.

Whatever “bouts of incompetence” you had before really doesn’t matter now, particularly if you’ve stepped up your game and improved your skills. If he seems reluctant to give you advice when you’re just talking face to face, honestly, I feel like I can pretty much guarantee that it’s because he doesn’t know what to tell you. I’ve had plenty of coaches do that before and the older/more experienced I got, the more I realized it was just a way to avoid saying “I don’t know”.

I’ve definitely had days where stuff outside of crew has pissed me off enough that I’ve brought it to practice with me but I do try really hard to not project that on to the people I’m coxing or coaching. It’s just not productive or fair. If another boat does something that makes me mad or makes them worthy of being made an example of then I’ll try to explain to whatever boat I’m coaching why I’m mad, why what they did was wrong, and what they should have done instead. That’s a much better use of your time as a coach because at least the rowers will learn something.

The best thing you can do as the coxswain in that situation though is to keep your boat under control and not do anything to aggravate his already short fuse. Having to tip toe around your coach is pretty shitty but sometimes it’s the best thing for you and your crew to do. It might and probably will be very tempting to back talk him and just blurt out “dude, what is your problem” when he’s treating you unfairly due to something completely unrelated to your boat but you have to resist the urge and just keep your mouth shut. By no means does that mean you have to accept it, just don’t engage it at that moment.

One thing you should never be afraid of though is to talk to your coach about something and if you are, that’s when you need to go over their head and talk to the head coach about all of this. Feeling helpless as a coxswain is quite possibly the worst feeling you can experience (been there, felt that, it sucks), especially when you already feel like none of the coaches have your back or are willing to help you out when you need it. The best advice I can offer you in this situation though is to talk to your head coach, either on your own or with a couple guys from your boat, and let him handle this. It sounds like it’s gotten to the point where it’s more of a personnel problem that he needs to handle than anything else.

Coxing Q&A Teammates & Coaches

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I’m over coxing weight by some, but I’ve been working on it and it is going down (healthily). My coaches know that I’m over and they aren’t putting me in good boats because of it (only thing). We have a race soon and I’m getting closer to 110. I know my coaches have issues with my weight but they haven’t brought it up with me, but I think they will soon. What should I say/do? And if they don’t, should I tell them if I’m at 110 or talk to them about my issue/what’s going on?

I think it’s really stupid to keep a coxswain out of a boat just because of their weight if they’re only a couple pounds over (a couple being five or less), especially if you’re in high school and especially since you’re close to the minimum, which most coaches apparently don’t know the definition of.

Related: What coaches look for in a coxswain

If they say something about it just be honest with them and let them know where you’re at now (do. not. lie. about your weight) and that you’ve been working on it. There’s not much more you can do (or that they can expect you to do) other than continue exercising and eating healthy. If they don’t say anything then whether or not it gets brought up is up to you.

Unless they’ve specifically said to you that the reason you’re not in any of the good boats is because of your weight, then I’d talk to them to figure out why you’re in the boats you’re in now and what you can/need to do in order to move up. If there’s a specific boat that you want to be coxing, tell them that your goal is to cox that boat for your upcoming race, that way they know that you’re actually striving to be in a certain boat and not just saying “I weigh 110lbs now, put me in a good boat!”.

Q&A Teammates & Coaches

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Hey, so I’m team captain of a high school team in the South. Recently, we got a transplant teammate from up north. Though he was out of shape to begin with (the move having disrupted his training) he has worked really hard and put in a ton of effort at every practice, and has made a lot of progress in the limited time he’s been here. However, when our coach released the roster for the travel team (we don’t take the whole team to away regattas) the new kid wasn’t on there. I think it has been a pretty big disappointment – it denies him any chance at youth nationals and means that he will only race twice in the spring season, which doesn’t at all reflect his dedication and commitment.

My co-captain and I personally feel this is unfair, and there have been complaints from my teammates along the same lines. His attitude is better and his erg scores and technique are more competitive than some of the guys that have made the travel team, and I know that we have space in the bus/hotel/etc. However, who makes the travel team is 100% not my call. I definitely feel wary of questioning a coaching decision and don’t want to undermine our coach’s authority and respect. Should I say anything to our coach about possibly including our new teammate on the travel team? And if so, how could I approach it in a way that doesn’t seem like I’m out of line or being disrespectful?

PS – Thank you so much for writing your blog – it’s seriously helped my development as a coxswain in any number of different ways and now we’re using your recordings section to teach our novices. It’s definitely appreciated.

The first thing you’ve got to find out (if you haven’t already) is how your new teammate feels about all of this. Don’t assume he’s disappointed, actually talk to him and find out how he feels. Does he feel like he’s being treated unfairly given the hard work he’s put in or is he OK with how things worked out given the fact that he’s the new guy on the team? The only reason I say this is because you don’t want it to turn into a situation where you think you’re helping him out but in reality you’re potentially only making things worse. (If you’ve ever seen The Incredibles, it’s kind of like when Mr. Incredible saved the guy that didn’t want to be saved.) If he’s OK with you saying something, then fine. If he’s not comfortable with it, let it go. If he’s not comfortable with you guys saying anything but he’s still unsure of why he was left off the team, encourage him to talk to the coach and offer to go with him as moral support.

All that aside, I think being team captain gives you a little more … legitimacy, I suppose … in questioning your coach’s decision. Maybe not directly questioning it but at the very least, getting some clarification on it. I look at team captains the same way I do assistant coaches. I feel like assistant coaches are there to back up the coach’s decisions but at the same time, question them when they don’t feel like they were necessarily the right ones. The worst thing you can do as team captain, in my opinion at least, is be a lemming and not speak up for your teammates when it’s necessary. The coaches don’t always have an ear to the ground with the team like you guys do so if you’re hearing something that we aren’t, I would hope that you’d bring it to my attention so I can address it.

Like you said though, you do have to be cautious in doing this because you don’t want it to come off as you questioning or undermining their authority. Assuming you’ve been on the team long enough to know your coach’s personality, that’ll clue you in on how best to approach it. If they’re fairly laid back and you’ve built up a good relationship with them then you can probably get right to the point. If they’re more … aggressive … then you’ll probably have to spend some time carefully phrasing what you want to say so as to not come off as being (in their eyes) insubordinate. The coaches have complete discretion over their team and the decisions they make and I respect that but I also don’t think that that means they shouldn’t be questioned from time to time. And as I’ve said in the past many, many times, if they want to maintain an atmosphere where their athletes feel like they can approach them with issues like this or whatever else comes up, the willingness to be transparent about why they do the things they do is pretty important.

It’s also important that you go into this with the realization that it is very, very, very, very, very unlikely that anything is going to change. If someone’s already been told that they’re on the team that will be traveling, you can’t really expect the coach to take them off in favor of someone else unless they do something so egregious that the coach has no choice but to remove them. That’s not to say thought that it’s not worth it to speak up. The worst they can say is “no”.

My approach would probably go something like this. First, set up a captains and coaches meeting for either before or after practice (guesstimate that it’ll run for about 20 minutes and plan accordingly). Assuming you have a head coach and an assistant coach, ask both of them to be there, if possible. Go in with your co-captain (make sure you’re both on the same page with everything) and say that you wanted to talk about the travel team and get some clarification on how the coaches decided who was going to be on the roster because there had been some talk amongst the team about it and before you brought up the issues that were brought to your attention, you wanted to hear straight from them what their thought process was in determining who would and wouldn’t make the team. Listen to what they have to say and try to see if you can make the connection between why certain people were left off the roster and others were put on based on what the coaches were looking for during the selection process.

When they’re done, thank them for explaining everything (because they definitely didn’t have to if they felt it was unnecessary or none of your business) and then bring up the concerns you have. Preface it by saying that you’re obviously not trying to undermine them or anything, but over the last few days/week/whatever time frame you’re working with, you both heard your teammates voicing some discontent and felt that it was your responsibility as team captains to bring that to their attention. (I wouldn’t say anything about the people with lower erg scores, worse technique, etc. or knowing that you have space on the bus and in the hotel because all of that is beside the point.)

Tell them about what you’ve seen regarding your new teammate in terms of his dedication, effort, attitude, work ethic, etc. and based on all of that, in addition to him appearing to have all the qualities the coaches were looking for (assuming what you’ve seen aligns with what they said when they explained their selection process), you and your teammates felt that it was unfair to leave him off the team. (I know that if I were in charge of a decision like that and I had the team captains telling me that a significant portion of the team felt that someone who was left off the roster deserved to be on it, I would be taking a step back and reevaluating my decision.)

Let your coaches know that you understand that the decision on who does and doesn’t travel is completely up to them but because there are things that go on that you hear/see that they don’t, you thought it was worth bringing up to them in the hope that this particular teammate could be given additional consideration. At the very least, maybe propose the idea of using him as an alternate when you travel just in case something happens and someone from the original roster is unable to row. Once you’ve done all that, thank them again for talking with you and then leave. Assuming you finish the meeting feeling like it was productive and you handled the situation maturely, you don’t want to press your luck by badgering them for an immediate response. (Even if you don’t feel like the meeting went well, you should still leave without pressing the issue further.) After a day or two, ask them if they’ve given any more consideration to what you talked about and see what they say. Regardless of their final decision, you have to respect it and move on.

The other key thing is that whatever you discuss stays in the room you discussed it in. Don’t leave and then go tell your teammates what you talked about, what the coaches said regarding their decision-making process, etc. because inevitably someone is going to get pissed and say “well, I do all that stuff, why didn’t I make the team” or they’ll take what they heard, go tell someone else, and eventually what was actually said is so twisted and convoluted that it doesn’t even resemble the original conversation. If people ask you what you said or what you talked about, just say “nothing important, just team captain stuff” and leave it at that. The best way to shoot yourself in the foot is to have a productive conversation with your coaches, leave having them thinking that they made the right call in choosing the two of you to be co-captains, and then have them find out after the fact that you two were the start of the rumor mill that they now have to waste practice time shutting down.

I think it’s a good thing that the two of you are considering saying something. I understand why you’re cautious about doing so but I think if you approach it in a mature fashion, you’ll be alright. Like I said, it might not change anything but at least it won’t be for lack of trying. I’d rather have captains on my team that say something when they feel like something needs to be said and not get the results they want than have captains who just sit back and let stuff happen. It’s the act of being a captain vs. being a captain in title only.

Coxing Q&A Teammates & Coaches

Question of the Day

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Hey! So I keep getting put in boats that I don’t think I belong in at races/practices, even though the boats that I should be on request me and I’m sure I’m better than the coxswain in those boats. When talking to my coach, he tells me that because we lost a race to a technically slower boat, it is literally all my fault and no one else’s fault even though my boat doesn’t blame me at all, so I shouldn’t be on the faster boats.

I’m so frustrated and just thinking of quitting but I need a reason to not quit because I will regret it if I do. I love this sport yet getting the blame being put entirely on me by my coach unfairly really bothers me. I’m just confused and don’t know what to do anymore. Another note on losing to the slower boat, we lost due to many reasons, most being technique issues in the boat and the other coxswain didn’t even have a cox box so it wasn’t that boat’s coxswain’s calls. Thank you so much. Sorry for the long question, I’m just really frustrated.

Have you tried talking to your coach about this? Blaming coxswains for every single thing that goes wrong in the boat is something that irritates me so much (and not just because I’m a coxswain either). My theory is that unless someone catches a massive crab that completely eliminates you from contention, losing a race is on everyone in the boat, not just one specific person or a couple  specific people. There’s always things that everyone can do better and to put the blame solely on a coxswain not making the right calls or whatever is BS.

Coxswains can only do so much too … like, yes, you’re there to give instructions, make corrections, etc. and you could do that until you’re blue in the face but unless the rowers actually listen to you and make an effort to do something different, things aren’t going to change. You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make them drink is essentially what I’m getting at.

I’d approach him about this and say that as a crew you all agree that the reason you lost was because of technique issues that everyone was having and now that you, as the coxswain, are more aware of what those issues are and what calls to make for them, you feel like you deserve an opportunity to work with them for at least a couple practices to show your coach not only your improved communications skills but also the positive effect that you have on the boat when you’re in there with them. Think about what you contribute to the boat, how you being in there makes them faster, and tell him that. If he doesn’t respond to that or keeps putting you in the other boats … I mean, that’s kind of unfair in my opinion, but you’ve essentially got to accept that that’s the decision he’s made (regardless of whether it’s right, fair, etc.) and commit to working with your new boat to help them go fast.

Going back to what I said about being more aware of the technique issues, make sure you actually are aware of what specifically was causing problems, what the stroke should look like compared to how it looked that day, what you need to tell the rowers to do differently, what calls you would make, and how you would make those calls. Be cognizant of all of that with whatever boat you’re put in and make an effort to be really on top of watching their technique so you can immediately point out something when you see it. Not only will that make you a better coxswain in the long run but it’ll also give your coach an opportunity to watch you with a completely different crew and see that you’re making an effort yourself to do something differently/better than you were before.

Whenever I’m in a boat that’s consistently having technique problems one of the things I always do is re-evaluate how I’m communicating with them and if I’m saying the right things. Even if what I’m saying sounds good to me or good in my head, it might not be resonating with the rowers, which means I’ve gotta either stop using it or reword it so everyone understands what I’m saying. One of the biggest mistakes you can make as a coxswain is continuing to use an ineffective call or saying the same thing over and over with no results. If your coach sees you making an effort to improve that area of your coxing then he might be willing to give you another shot with your original boat.