Tag: college

College Coxing High School Racing Recordings

Coxswain recordings, pt. 20

By readyallrow May 13, 2014

Marietta Tiger Navy Lightweight 8+ 2014 Midwest Championships Grand Final

This is from Sunday’s final in the lightweight 8+ at Midwest where they finished 2nd overall and received an automatic bid to nationals at Mercer.

One of the big things I talked about with our coxswain when we were going over this on the way home was that she’d make calls like “even”, “a deck up”, “they’re sagging”, “pulling ahead”, etc. but not say on who. If it’s just you and another crew up on the rest of the field then calls like that are fine but when you’re still within the pack, you can’t assume that the crew knows who you’re talking about. Similarly with regards to “specifics”, there were several times where the margins she called were way off. That’s one of the things that you’ve got to be accurate about if you’re gonna make calls for it, which you should be. If your crew is the one that’s up, you make the call based on where you – the coxswain – are. If your crew is down, you make the call based on where your bowball is. The latter is obviously tougher to gauge than just looking straight across to the other boat but it’s not that difficult if you possess even the slightest amount of depth perception. Being up a length means the crews are bow to stern – the bow of the crew that’s behind is on the stern deck of the crew that’s ahead. Being up a length of open means there’s a full boat length of open water between the crew that’s up and the one that’s down.

At 1:28 you hear the stroke say “down” because the stroke rate was too high and the crew didn’t lengthen out as much as they needed/were supposed to. From personal experience I’ve found that this is almost always because I called the settle poorly. When I’ve been sharper with the calls and given the rowers more prep time to get ready for them, they tend to be smoother and more “on” in terms of getting the stroke rate where we want it in the fewest strokes possible. Sometimes it’s because of tendencies that individuals have (i.e. rushing) but I also kinda take the blame for that sometimes because there’s almost always something I could be saying to address that. In this case, better preparation for the settle(s) and sharper calls would have helped.

At 2:03 the coxswain says “competition’s New Trier”, which we already knew going into the race so I’m not sure why she made that call but regardless, you’ve established who your main competition is, now use that to do something. This would have been the perfect spot (especially after that call and the fact that it was right at the 500m mark) to take a ten to regain the two seats they just took in the last 100m or so. Between 2:21 and 3:21 though New Trier walks nearly a full length on us. As a coxswain you’ve got to recognize that that’s happening and make a call to counter it. It’s fine to be “in the zone” but you can’t be so in the zone that you ignore everything that’s happening outside the small confines of the coxswain’s seat.

5:58 was the only part of the race that really pissed me off. She calls “20 to go” and then the crew took three strokes. Three strokes after the coxswain called last 20. This was another thing I talked about with the girls and later with our head coach – when you’re racing, you’re giving 97, 98, 99% every stroke. When your coxswain calls “last however many to the line” that’s kinda when you re-negotiate with yourself about how much you’re hurting and say “OK, there’s 20 strokes left … I can go little bit harder over these next 20 to make sure I finish on completely empty”. You prepare to kill your body just a little bit more because your coxswain’s told you there’s a finite amount of strokes left – it’s balls to the wall, lights out for the next 20.

When you over exaggerate the amount of strokes left by seventeen there’s a good possibility that you just robbed your crew a few tenths of a second. It’s not about the rowers pacing themselves for the end or anything like that, it’s just them digging deeper within themselves to make sure they use up every last drop of energy they’ve got. There is a big difference between the two; one’s physical and one is mental. When they cross the line after only three strokes, there’s a possibility that they’re gonna think “Wait … what? I’m 99% empty, I’ve still got 1% left”. If five, six, seven people think that, how many tenths of a second do you think that amounts to? In this race a few tenths of a second wouldn’t have made a difference but who’s to say it won’t at nationals? When I coxed the lightweight 8+ there our semi-final had like, two seconds between 1st through 5th place. That margin between the individual crews was small. In situations like that, tenths of a second matter. When medals and championships are on the line, tenths of a second matter.

University of Delaware 2013 Dad Vail Lightweight 8+ Grand Final

Right out of the gate, the way she calls the start and high strokes is great. Her tone, how she’s annunciating the calls, etc. all vibes right with the strokes and just flows perfectly. This goes a long way in helping establishing the crew’s rhythm off the line.

I really loved how coming into Strawberry Mansion (which is about 750m in, I think) she says “as soon as we’re straight we’re gonna light it the fuck up“. I think her calls immediately after the bridge were a little lackluster though. Everything felt rushed and not as on point as most of the other calls up to this point. After a call as a strong as that “light it up” one I expected a little more fire when she called the move at the thousand.

As they’re coming into the last 500 she starts getting pretty shout-y and cheerleader-y and also maybe a little too cocky because even though they were up, they definitely didn’t have it 100% in the bag yet. That’s an important thing to keep in mind, you’ve gotta cox the whole race, not just the first 1750m and then cheer the rest of the way. Overall though I’d say this was pretty solid … especially considering this girl was a walk-on who only started coxing eight months before this race.

You can find and listen to more recordings by checking out the “Coxswain Recordings” page.

College Coxing Q&A

Question of the Day

By readyallrow May 5, 2014

Hi Kayleigh! I’m a sophomore rower and at the moment I’m 5’7″ and around 130 pounds. I know I’m on the tall side, but I think that I could get to 120/125 pounds and still be healthy. While I do love rowing, my real interest and passion is in coxing, so I was wondering if you think coxing men in college is a viable option for me, and if it is, what I can do to get there. Thanks!

Check out the post linked below. That person was also a sophomore and I think what I said to her would also apply to you – at 15/16 years old, you’ve gotta assume you’re not done growing yet so it’s tough to say whether you’ll be the same size or not by the time you get to college.

My gut feeling is to say stick with rowing and then when you get to college, reevaluate and go from there if doing crew is still something you’re interested in pursuing. The school you go to will also dictate the likelihood of you being able to cox – the schools that are super competitive tend to be very strict about their coxswains being as close to racing weight as possible and two years from now it may or may not be viable for you to lose 5-10lbs and still be healthy. Your height isn’t as big of a deal even though you might feel kinda cramped at times depending on what brand of boat you’re in. Every body is different though so that’s something you would have to judge on your own. Club programs and the like are usually less strict about people having the natural rower or coxswain build so I would say if you really wanted to cox, you’d probably have a better shot with a program like that.

If you do eventually decide that’s what you want to do, you’ve got two options – show up whenever they have walk on tryouts and say you want to be a coxswain or email the coach before you arrive on campus and say you’ve got X number of years of rowing experience but you’re interested in walking on as a coxswain, at [height]/[weight] what’s the likelihood that you would be a good fit (literally and figuratively) for their program?

College Coxing Q&A

Question of the Day

By readyallrow April 28, 2014

Hi. I’ve been coxing for my high school rowing team for about a year now and unfortunately I’m 5’8″ and 134lb but I fit in the coxing area easily. I’m very scared though because I really love coxing and I want to continue to do it in college but I’m afraid I won’t be able to get very far with it due to my weight and height. I’m a sophomore in high school and I just want to know if there was a way I could still competitively cox in college or should I give up because my size stops me?

Honest answer? I don’t think you’re going to be able to cox in college when you’re already about the same size as a lightweight rower. Plus you’ve got to assume you’re not done growing yet either. If doing crew in college is really something you’re interested in pursuing then I’d say you should probably start rowing this summer or next year so you’ll have at least two years under your belt before you graduate.

College Coxing Racing Recordings

Coxswain Recordings, pt. 19

By readyallrow April 22, 2014

Drexel University 2014 Kerr Cup Men’s Varsity 8+

The biggest thing that I noticed in this recording was that he used a lot of basic calls but never actually said anything to the rowers (except on like, two occasions) or made a call about their position on other crews. It was mostly a good example of how some coxswains go out with this “tunnel vision” mindset where they execute the race plan and kinda ignore/forget about everything that’s happening within their own gunnels or in the lanes around them. He also did a lot of counting and counting down to things that didn’t really need countdowns. I like the “in 2 … in 1…” countdown but is that really necessary just to note the 500m mark? It wasn’t a bad piece overall though – how he said his calls almost made up for the fact that he was saying a lot without saying much at all. The best part of the race by far though was that turn through Strawberry Mansion. If you’re a Philly coxswain, definitely take note of that execution.

Related: Navigating the Schuylkill

At 1:11 when he says “back it in”, make sure you’re not making catch-specific calls like that midway through the drive of that stroke. You don’t have to say each stroke number when you’re counting out a five or a ten so if you call your strokes at the catch (like you’re supposed to) but have a catch-specific call to make, just replace that number with your call. You could also say “back it in, one … back it in, two“, etc. and say the number of the stroke you’re on at the finish. Point being though, don’t make catch-specific calls at any point other than the catch, otherwise the effectiveness of that call is lost. Same applies to finish-specific calls.

Other calls I liked:

“At the wire, you’re bringin’ the fire…”

George Washington University vs. Holy Cross 2014 GW Invite MV8+

At the start you hear Connor say “when they say our name, bury ’em…” with regards to getting the blades fully buried before the start. Watching crews lock on and lock in right at that moment is pretty cool. The point of doing this, regardless of whether you do it when you hear your name or when they call attention, is that it helps ensure everyone’s blades are in the water and in the best position to allow them to take a powerful first stroke. It’s something worth practicing though because sometimes people get a little too aggressive with it and jerk their hands up, which throws the boat off, causes them to dig too deep at the start, etc. This is also why I like that “sharp and shallow” call he makes because it’s a good reminder to keep the catches on point without lifting the hands too much.

Listen to the slide speed during the starting 20 between 0:40 and 1:10, then listen to it right at they transition into their settle at 1:11. You can actually hear the slides lengthen out. Between that and the sharpness of the catches throughout the piece, this race is so satisfying to listen to. A few strokes later at 1:39 he says “about half a seat down, no worries…” in the most chill tone, which is exactly how you should tell your crew you’re down, particularly at the beginning of the race.

I’m a huge fan of how he makes that “long, rhythm…” call at 1:45. Rhythm in rowing means that the crew is relaxed, they’ve got good swing, they’re getting good run, and they’ve just got a smooth, consistent flow going. One of the best ways to tell if your crew has a solid rhythm is to feel the boat and then look at the stroke rate. Does it feel like you’re rowing at the rate your cox box displays? If it feels like you’re rowing lower than the displayed rate, that’s usually a good sign that your crew’s got a good rhythm.

Another thing you can do to gauge your crew’s rhythm is to watch the shoreline. (This is best done during practice.) If the crew is moving well together and not rushing then you should notice that on the recovery you stay in relatively the same place in relation to something on shore. You only surge forward on the drive. If you ever get a chance to ride in the launch, pick a rower and watch for this. If you’re feeling like the boat is being rushed or like there’s no consistency in motion between the rowers, a call like “long, rhythm…” (spoken in the same way Connor said it) is a simple and to the point call to make. It’d also be a good call to make coming out of the start and into your settle as a way to help establish the rhythm following the frenzy of your high strokes. In order for a call like this to actually get the message across, it’s important that during practice or off the water you communicate with them what rhythm actually is so that they know the “deeper meaning” behind the call you just made. Practice is the time to do the explaining and clue them in to what your calls mean, that way during races you can be short and to the point in order to keep them engaged and sharp.

At 2:36, I like how he jumped on the opportunity to move and made that “now we walk” call. Whenever you’re down on another crew, if you take a five or ten for something you should always be watching to see if that burst resulted in you walking on the other crew, even if that wasn’t your original intention. If you do gain on them, capitalize on that and immediately say “even”, “gained a seat”, etc. followed by something like what he said here: “now we walk”. These opportunities are rare and fleeting over the course of a 5-7 minute race so when they come up, don’t miss out on them.

“They came out too hard, now we punish them” – this is another opportunity that you can capitalize on if you’re paying attention. If you notice a crew go out hard and fast, you’ve gotta make a judgement call: do you push your crew to keep up and risk burning them out too early or do you wait for the other crew to crash and burn so you can (hopefully) walk through them with a strong finishing 500? If you wait and see the other crew starting to fall off pace, jump on it immediately. They made a mistake, now’s your chance to burn them. Bonus points if you lock eyes with someone in the other boat when you tell your crew they came out too hard – trust me, it’s a whole new level of (twisted) joy you have to experience to understand.

Another call that I thought was smart/good was the “internal now” call. If you’ve been making several calls in a row about other crews, following them up with something “internal” helps bring the focus back to you guys. He makes a similar one a little bit later where he says “focus on me, not on them”, which is particularly useful if/when you see rowers looking out of the boat. (That should be a cue though that if they’re looking out of the boat they’re probably trying to see where the other crews are so you should give them a position update if you haven’t done so in awhile.) Also with regards to internal calls, with the “one bad stroke, get it back” call, regardless of why it was a bad stroke, move on. Make this call to keep the rower(s) present and focused on the strokes ahead, not the ones (s)he’s already taken.

Last thing – at 3:28 he says “we gotta keep moving”, which I think is one of those calls that sometimes we know we need to make but aren’t sure if we can or should make because it’s demanding and coxswains don’t always feel comforting demanding their rowers do something. Your job though is to execute the race plan and strategize in real time what the crew has to do to finish ahead. If you find you’re just sitting on a crew (not giving anything up but not taking anything either), get aggressive and make a call to recommit, get the catches in, and drive the legs. Don’t let the crew settle for anything because you never know when the other ones are going to make a move and surge ahead.

Other calls I liked:

“Sharp and shallow…”

“Ready … steady … now!”

“They’re fucking toast!”

You can find and listen to more recordings by checking out the “Coxswain Recordings” page.

College Coxing Q&A Rowing

Question of the Day

By readyallrow April 19, 2014

Hi!! I’m a high school junior, and recently I’ve been looking at colleges. At my high school, I’m a mid-pack rower, but the colleges I’m applying to are for academic reasons, and most of them are D1 and way too competitive for me as a rower. I’m 5 foot 8 and 123 lbs, and I’m considering becoming a men’s cox. Do you think that it’s a good idea? I’m already familiar with rowing, but due to my size and lack of experience, would it be a better idea to try as a rower? I really love the sport and want to participate during college, so whatever you think is best!

Hi! I’m assuming by too competitive you mean that your times wouldn’t stand up against the other rowers, not that the sport itself is too competitive in terms of the commitments, etc? If it’s the former then I’d say look for local clubs around the university and see if you can start training there. If you want to keep racing you could pick up sculling and go to regattas like Club Nationals, Canadian Henley, Independence Day Regatta, etc. over the summer. That way there’s no conflicts with school and you would set your own training schedule. I personally don’t know that much about sculling but from everything that I’ve heard from friends and other coaches, it helps your sweep rowing a ton.

As far as becoming a coxswain for a men’s team, it’s worth looking into if you’re really interested in it. You’re a little taller than most coxswains but in the grand scheme of things it’s weight that matters, not height. Plus, the men’s minimum is 120lbs so you’re good with that given your current weight. You can walk on to the team with no coxing experience – plenty of people do it – so it’s really your choice, just don’t expect to get recruited as a coxswain since you don’t have any experience with it.

I think based on what you said about looking at colleges for academic reasons (priorities, man – good for you!) finding a local club that you can row out of on your own schedule would be your best bet. I think most clubs have lower fees for college students, although I’m not sure if that applies year round or just in the summer. Another thing worth looking into though!

College Coxing Q&A Teammates & Coaches

Question of the Day

By readyallrow April 15, 2014

I’m a novice coxswain for a men’s team, and I have absolutely no idea what to say to fix an issue. It’s been at least four months with me as a coxswain and we’re nearing the end of racing season. I have no idea what the source of an issue is, and am just grasping at straws. It occurred to me I’m simply repeating the same exact things every practice. Our biggest issues is the rest of the boat rushing up on stroke pair, and occasional issues of set that extend beyond just lower or raising blades and handles. My team has lost all patience with me and have no trust in me whatsoever. I want to quit, but have no replacement.

I guess to add on to this, I forgot to mention that at the end of December, basically all of our novice coxswains quit. We had four, and all of them left until I was the only left. I stayed because I didn’t want to leave my guys hanging. There is this one spare coxswain on the team, let’s call her C. She…doesn’t really do anything. I believe she is the women’s novice coxswain, but they only have one boat, so she just does…nothing. She’s there every morning though. I passed along the idea of quitting to my coach and her, and she basically said she “couldn’t” be the novice men’s coxswain because she wasn’t “allowed” to. I learned from my coach that she wanted to stay a novice coxswain for next year, and by competing she would have to be varsity. First off, I feel like I should be allowed to be a little annoyed at this. Part of me just wants to walk up to the coach and hand over my position, pay my fees, and leave. I never really wanted to be a coxswain in the first place. I joined rowing to row, but I didn’t have the athletic ability to do it. Thinking about it now, I don’t know why I stayed on the team. I don’t know what to do. We have two races left, one on Saturday and WIRA.

OK, let me ask you a question. What have you done to educate yourself on the different issues your crews are having? By educate yourself I mean how often did you bring the issue up with your coach(es) and ask them what causes this, what do the rowers need to be doing, what calls should/could I be making, etc., in addition to doing your own research outside of practice by Googling or YouTubing the issues your crew is having, looking up technique, drills, etc. or talking with your rowers to find out what you could be doing to help the crew? How often did you try to video your crew or have someone on the launch video them so you could go over it as a crew with your coach? Your coaches have a responsibility to teach you about this stuff but you have a responsibility to teach yourself as well. The loss in patience and trust from your teammates is usually exacerbated when they get the impression (or know) that you’re not doing anything on your own to make yourself a better/stronger coxswain.

Personally I don’t think you should be “allowed” to be annoyed that another coxswain doesn’t want to or doesn’t feel ready to race yet. That’s a judgement call on her end and if she wants to continue as a novice next year to gain more experience and enhance her skills before she begins racing, you have to respect that whether you agree with it or not . I’d much rather have a coxswain do that than jump straight into a competitive crew that’s preparing to race when they’re not ready to do so.

If you’re having issues with rush and slide control, try doing some two-part pause drills pausing at hands away and half slide. I did those with my crew a couple weeks ago and they helped a lot.

It really sounds like you aren’t enjoying crew at all though and (correct me if I’m wrong) don’t have much invested it in other than the fees and the time you spend at practice. If you’ve only got WIRA’s left now then I would at least stick it out through that and then you can give your coach your fees and leave.

College High School Q&A

Question of the Day

By readyallrow April 10, 2014

Hello, so going into the spring racing season, I knew that I wanted to improve as much as possible etc etc (coming off an unsuccessful fall) but then I also knew that there are things that I need to do as a junior (such as college touring). There’s a fair sized regatta at the end of my April break, but that’s also the only time I’ll have until August to college tour. Also what if I get asked by college coaches why I’m not racing? I know this is mostly my decision, but could you help me out?

Ooh, that’s tough. Between crew, marching band, SATs/ACTs, and all the other stuff I had going on, I didn’t have time to start going on college visits until the late fall (read: November) of my senior year. I had already narrowed down the schools I wanted to visit to three so that made it easier but I didn’t go visit any of them until pretty late in the game. I would have liked to have started the process earlier but I don’t think it hurt in any way going when I did. If you end up having to wait until August I honestly don’t think you’ll be too far behind the curve as long as you’re not trying to look at like, eight or nine schools. There were several kids that came in the fall to look at Cornell who were in similar positions as you so if you end up having to wait til then I wouldn’t stress about it – there are plenty of other people doing the same thing.

If you decide to go at the end of April then it can easily be explained to any coaches that ask that this was the only available opportunity that you had to look at colleges until August and looking ahead to the fall you didn’t want to try to juggle the start of your senior year, getting back into the swing of training, filling out applications, etc. with trying to travel all over the country to look at schools. As long as the regatta you’d be missing isn’t a championship of some kind, I don’t think they’d look that closely at it. You have to weigh the pros/cons though and decide if this is a race that you can afford to miss. Obviously that’s something only you and your coach would know but it does require some thought and consideration.

Ultimately you should do whatever you think will make the whole process as smooth and stress-free as possible for you. Don’t try to balance traveling to visit schools with a million other things because you’ll just end up overwhelmed and distracted, which will take your focus off of why you’re really there.

College Coxing Q&A

Question of the Day

By readyallrow March 18, 2014

This might be a tough one: I’m a coxswain on my college team. After years, I’m finally coxing our first varsity boat. That’s the good news. The bad news is I’m dealing with a lot right now – I’ve been suffering from anxiety and depression as well as dealing with losing a best friend to suicide roughly a year ago. My anxiety is generally much worse during spring season because races where I have to weigh in freak me out. I am about 110, 5’4″ but a lot of our coxswains barely come up to my shoulders and I worry my coach will replace me if they weigh less than I do!

I’ve been seriously considering taking this season off to get my head together, but every time I decide to do it, I become convinced my coach will question my competency or tell me not to come back. As a side detail – I really love crew I’ve been part of the sport since eighth grade, I rowed up until college. I really want to coach high school or juniors rowing after I graduate and I’d hate to do anything to undermine my position on the team and I’m afraid to let my teammates down! Any ideas? Thanks!

At the start of this school year my brother, who is a sophomore in college, also lost a good friend to suicide. It took him quite awhile to get over the initial pang of guilt, anger, and sadness that he felt and while I can’t presume to know what that feels like, from the outside looking in I know that it was a really rough situation for him, as I imagine it is for you. One of the things that helped him through it was talking to one of the counselors in the student health center as his school. Everybody deals with stuff like this in their own way but it’s something I’d recommend looking into, even if you’re a little weary about it at first. He wasn’t too keen on the idea when I initially brought it up but it ended up being a good thing for him to do. Even if you only go one time, you never know … it might help.

Same goes for dealing with anxiety, depression, etc. I think everyone, myself included, feels one of three things when it comes to stuff like that: a) if you ignore it eventually you won’t “feel” it anymore and you won’t have to worry about it, b) you have to hide it from other people to avoid being judged, pitied, mocked, ridiculed, diminished, or brushed off, or c) we’re old enough that we should be able to figure out how to deal with it on our own without outside help.

Regardless of which of those three categories you fall into, everyone can probably agree that no one ever comes out better on the other side as a result of following one of those paths. Most, if not all, colleges and universities have mental health services (or just student health services in general) already factored into your tuition, meaning that you’ve essentially already paid for X number of sessions with a counselor simply by being enrolled. I’d look into that and see what it’s like for your school. If that’s the case, take advantage of it.

As far as your weight goes … this is such an unbelievably infuriating topic. For starters, weighing in should never cause anyone any kind of anxiety. Sure, if you gorged on burgers and mozzarella sticks the night before you might wake up feeling a little nervous but that’s a lot different than experiencing an all out panic attack over it. You’re 110lbs, which is the minimum for coxswains. If you’re under that you have to carry weight in the boat with you anyways so that you meet the minimum, THUS your coach replacing you with someone lighter than you is completely redundant because they’re just gonna have to fill up a sandbag so the scale reads 110lbs when they get on it.

Height has nothing to do it with it. Yea, pocket-sized coxswains are the norm because you don’t normally see tall women rocking a 110lb frame and it’s hard/uncomfortable to contort your body to fit in a seat made for someone several inches shorter than you. Tall coxswains do exist though because the more important variable is your weight (i.e. your ability to be as close to racing weight as possible on race day), not your height. I know saying “don’t worry about it” doesn’t mean much but on your list of things that you should be concerning yourself with, this really shouldn’t even be on there. Besides, weight isn’t a measure of how skilled a coxswain is, which is where the real focus should lie.

Here’s the thing about coaches: they’re supposed to assume that you are competent and capable rather than assuming the opposite. They’re supposed to be there for you outside of practice to be someone to talk to or offer advice if you’re having problems. They’re not supposed to be some hard-nosed person that you can only see for 15-20 hours a week and are afraid to talk to because you think their immediate reaction is going to be scoffing at your question or telling you to leave and not come back. I hate that there are coaches out there that act like that but what I hate even more are the coaches that tell other coaches that’s how they should act. It sets a bad precedent and frankly, it’s bullshit. I refuse to coach like that.

Everybody goes through things in life that cause you to have to make certain choices … take time off, walk away from an opportunity, etc. In this context, your coach (and teammates) should be supportive of your decision, even if he’s not happy about it or it messes with his lineups, because presumably he wants the best for you. If he questioned how competent of a coxswain you are or told you not to bother coming back after you said everything you said in your original question, I don’t know why you’d want to row for someone like that.

If you think that taking time off would be the right decision for you then try approaching it with your assistant coach first (with an agreement ahead of time that whatever you discuss stays between the two of you). Give your coaches the benefit of the doubt that they will be supportive and will welcome you back in the fall. When I was in school I was surprised at how many student-athletes would take time off to study abroad, deal with personal issues, focus on school if they were taking particularly hard classes that semester, etc. It’s not a ton of people but it’s more than you think. If that is what you’re planning on doing though you’ve gotta let your coaches know ASAP. The only time I would truly justify a coach getting upset over something like this is if you told him/her at the last second, right before or after racing season started. I wouldn’t let that affect your decision but just know that they might be initially annoyed that you waited so long to say something.

With coaching after graduation, I’ve found that I get more shit from other coaches (not all of them, just a few) about having not coxed the entire way through college than I do from the people I’m coaching. No one I’ve coached has ever thought it was a big deal or detracted from my ability to teach them how to row or cox. As long as you make an effort to relate to them, treat them with respect, don’t act like you’re superior to them in every conceivable way, and are able to communicate what you know, they will most likely embrace you as their coach. I try really hard to learn about the stuff I’m not as familiar with and think I do a pretty good job of conveying what I do know.

I’ve had other coaches make really snarky comments towards me, treat me like I’m completely new to the sport, or blatantly parade the fact that they’re a “four year varsity athlete at such and such school” every time the topic comes up but honestly, I’ve gotten to the point where I’m starting to just not care. If you think you’re so much better than me or any other coach because you’ve got a few years of racing on us then so be it. I’ve also worked with coaches who couldn’t care less that I didn’t cox all four years. Someone I met last year started rowing when he was a junior in college and only had two years of experience in the sport before he started coaching. I can totally understand wanting to hire someone with X number of years of experience but I think as long as you can demonstrate that you know what you’re talking about, you’ll be fine.

College Coxing Racing Recordings

Coxswain recordings, pt. 18

By readyallrow March 18, 2014

Australia 2011 Rowing World Championships A-Final Lightweight M8+

This is a style of coxing that is so completely unlike what I’m used to that I don’t think I can give a good critique of it. The calls are a lot choppier than the “American” style and he’s so much more silent during the actual race, primarily during the first 500. There’s definitely a time and place to be quiet but I don’t think during a 2k is it. You can hear his tone and energy ramp up as the race goes on, although he does get a little shout-y as they come into the last 250m. You can justify that to an extent because they’re so tight with the Italians but that serves as a good reminder that even in the high-energy parts of the race, it’s important to maintain your composure.

Other calls I liked:

“Breathe in our rhythm…”

“Transition legs to bodies … this one, now…”

MIT Lightweight 8+ 1997 Eastern Sprints Heat

They start polling the crews around 3:00 into this recording. Instead of saying “Attention, go!” like we’re used to though they do the countdown start and follow it up with “Are you ready? Go!”, which I’ve never actually heard at the start before.

This is probably one of the most straightforward races I’ve ever listened to. It’s a good example of the whole “do everything right, no one will notice, do something wrong, everyone will notice” thing that is one the main tenets of coxing. Nothing really stands out because he just does his job and says/does everything he needs to do … which honestly, is exactly what you want. We always listen to these recordings and point out the great, the good, the meh, the bad, etc. and I’d say this definitely falls under “good” but in the most unobtrusive way, which is totally fine. Basically what I’m saying is that not every recording has to have some amazing call or move or thing that we point to and use as the defining feature of what makes that audio good. Sometimes they can just be “good” because the coxswain executed the race plan for the full 2000 meters with good energy, good tone, and good awareness of what was happening around him.

You can find and listen to more recordings by checking out the “Coxswain Recordings” page.

College Q&A Training & Nutrition

Question of the Day

By readyallrow March 3, 2014

This winter I got injured. I’ve tried different treatments but haven’t had success. I tried cortisone shots but that made my pain worse. From what I’ve been told it seems like my next step is surgery. Though it’s arthroscopic the recovery time is 4-6 weeks. I’m terrified of the surgery and upset over maybe missing my first college spring season. Do you have any words of wisdom to help me through this? Also if I competed in the fall would I be able to redshirt or would I have had to be out in the fall?

Regarding redshirting, here’s a copy and paste of what it says in the NCAA Rulebook. I’ve bolded the important parts to make it easier to understand. If you want to look it up yourself it’s Bylaw 14.2.4, “Hardship Waiver”, but it’d be in your best interest to go talk to your compliance officer about it since they know the rule book and logistics surrounding everything far better than I do.

“A student-athlete may be granted an additional year of competition by the conference or the Committee on Student-Athlete Reinstatement for reasons of “hardship.” Hardship is defined as an incapacity resulting from an injury or illness that has occurred under all of the following conditions:

(a) The incapacitating injury or illness occurs in one of the four seasons of intercollegiate competition at any two-year or four-year collegiate institutions or occurs after the first day of classes in the student-athlete’s senior year in high school;

(b) The injury or illness occurs prior to the first competition of the second half of the playing season that concludes with the NCAA championship in that sport (see Bylaw 14.2.4.3.4) and results in incapacity to compete for the remainder of that playing season;

(c) In team sports, the injury or illness occurs when the student-athlete has not participated in more than three contests or dates of competition (whichever is applicable to that sport) or 30 percent (whichever number is greater) of the institution’s scheduled or completed contests or dates of competition in his or her sport. Only scheduled or completed competition against outside participants during the playing season that concludes with the NCAA championship, or, if so designated, during the official NCAA championship playing season in that sport (e.g., spring baseball, fall soccer), shall be countable under this limitation in calculating both the number of contests or dates of competition in which the student-athlete has participated and the number of scheduled or completed contests or dates of competition during that season in the sport.

Dates of competition that are exempted (e.g., alumni contests, foreign team in the United States) from the maximum permissible number of contests or dates of competition shall count toward the number of contests or dates in which the student-athlete has participated and the number of scheduled or completed contests or dates of competition in the season, except for scrimmages and exhibition contests that are specifically identified as such in the sport’s Bylaw 17 playing and practice season regulations. Scrimmages and exhibition contests that are not exempted from the maximum permissible number of contests or dates of competition may be excluded from the calculation only if they are identified as such in the sport’s Bylaw 17 playing and practice season regulations.

(There’s a part “d” but it applies to individual sports, which rowing is not, so I didn’t include it.)

If you raced in the fall I don’t think that matters since part “b” says the injury has to happen before the first competition of the second half of the season that ends with the NCAA championships. Talk to your compliance person to be sure though. All that being said, you have to be able to provide proof (aka medical documentation from the athletic trainers and your doctors/surgeons) that the injury is season-ending. I’m not saying yours isn’t or couldn’t be considered that but an arthroscopic surgery with a recovery time of 4-6 weeks might make the rules committee question its severity.

Be realistic too, do you really want to stay in school any longer than necessary just to say you raced all four seasons? This is just my opinion obviously but there’s no way I’d shell out an extra semester or year’s worth of tuition just to row for another season. If I was a football or basketball player with serious NFL/NBA potential, I’d probably consider it (then again, I’d also probably be on scholarship which would make it an easier decision) but for rowing, I don’t think so.

If none of the therapies you’ve tried so far have worked and the doctors are saying the next step is surgery then you should probably have the surgery. Admittedly I’m a terrible person to ask about things like this because if I’m injured I’m just gonna do whatever I’ve gotta do to get back on the water. Being scared of having the surgery is a totally foreign concept to me because I tend to take a very pragmatic approach to these kinds of situations. I’d rather get knocked out for a few hours and be in some pain for a few days afterwards but know that the problem is fixed than be in a consistent amount of pain for weeks, months, or years on end because I’m afraid of the scalpel or whatever. Anyways, that’s just my point of view. If you look up any college roster you’ll probably see at least two or three rowers with “sat out their sophomore season due to medical hardship” or “redshirted their freshman year” in their bios. It’s not uncommon.

My advice? Schedule the surgery ASAP, get it done, and be extremely diligent with your rehab. You could conceivably be back before the end of the season if you had the surgery soon and while you might not be in the best boat, you could probably still vie for a spot in a boat. Something is better than nothing, right? Don’t rush anything though. If the doctors say you need to take the season off, do it.