Tag: college

College Coxing Q&A

Question of the Day

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I really want to continue rowing in college but I am 5’3″ and my erg scores are not great. Do you think it would be possible for me to cox in college (maybe as a walk on?) even though I have never done it before? If so, how would I go about expressing interest in it?

Definitely! Coxing as a walk-on is pretty much going to be your only option at this point since coaches aren’t going to recruit someone who doesn’t have any experience. Plus, if you’re a senior right now, I think the recruiting period might be coming to an end so it’d be too late to go that route anyways. If you know that’s what you want to do though you might talk to your current coach(es) and see if you can switch to coxing permanently starting this season. If you’re a junior right now that’d give you roughly three seasons of water time, assuming your team has a fall season, which would put you in a really good position if you decide to walk on wherever you go to school. (I’ve gotten the impression that experienced walk-on coxswains are like gold to freshman coaches because it’s one less person they have to teach and it lets them focus on the rowers rather than worrying about teaching the coxswain how to cox while also trying to teach kids how to row.) You could keep rowing if you wanted and walk-on to a team with no coxing experience but I think that if you already know you might want to cox in college, it just makes more sense to switch now and get that year and a half of experience in before college starts.

As far as expressing interest, all you have to do is show up to the boathouse whenever the team hosts their walk-on tryouts. You’ll likely seen signs posted throughout campus and/or you’ll see the team out recruiting during the first few days of school. If your university holds some kind of student involvement fair where all the groups, clubs, athletic teams, etc. show up to promote their stuff, you can seek out the crew team’s table and get put on their general interest sign-up sheet. Someone from the team will then send out an email with details on when/where to show up. You could also send the coach an email once you arrive and say that you’re interested in walking on.

College High School Novice Q&A Teammates & Coaches

Question of the Day

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My team is going to start a big/little program between the varsity girls and novice girls this spring. When we do the big/little reveal, we want to give gifts to our littles! Obviously this isn’t a sorority, so we’re not giving them paddles or anything like that, but do you have any suggestions for things we could put into gift baskets? Thanks!!!

That’s awesome!! We didn’t do this when I was in crew but we did when I was in band and it was so much fun. The big brothers/sisters would always write notes to our littles at band camp and before all our competitions, basically saying we were proud of them, making sure to touch on any big hurdles they’d overcome or major improvements they’d made, etc. It was one of the best traditions we had. I actually just found all the notes I got from my big sister from my freshman year and it was so fun going back and reading them and remembering all the silly inside jokes we had.

That could be something that all the varsity girls do for the novices – each varsity girl writes something for each novice and then you can compile them into individual book-like-things for each girl, that way they’ve got 10-15 (or however many) letters just for them. Keep it short, simple, sweet, and fun – let them know you’re excited to have them on the team, note something that you hope to see happen this year, recall a similar experience that you went through so she knows that she’s not the only one experiencing this issue, remind them that teamwork makes the dream work (or whatever other silly cliche phrase you wanna throw out there), etc. Bonus points for brightly colored construction paper, markers, stickers, and glitter. Bitches love stickers and glitter.

The other thing that we did that has been a tradition for like, 30+ years I think, is each new member of the band would get a brick. Our band was pretty big and with each member standing side by side we could nearly reach end zone to end zone during our shows. This resulted in our band being nicknamed “The Wall of Sound” (from Phil Spector’s wall of sound, if you know anything about music production/engineering) because when everyone would line up like that and then march forward it was a literal wall of sound coming towards you. Now, from that comes the bricks. Each member was considered a brick in the wall (a nod to Pink Floyd) in that without one of the bricks, the wall would crumble. So, during the summer after we’d started rehearsals, the upperclassmen would get together with a load of bricks, one for each freshman, and they’d stack them up on top of each other to create a wall-like formation. On one side they’d spray paint the band’s logo across all the bricks and then on the other side they’d paint each person’s name on an individual brick. We were then given our bricks by our big brother/sister and were “officially” considered to be part of The Wall. I still have my brick and consider it to be just as important as all the medals I’ve won from crew.

My point with that story is that you could also include something that shows them that they’re “officially” a part of the team. For us, it really drove home the message of how it’s about the bigger picture and how that bigger picture can’t be achieved without the contributions, dedication, and passion of each person. It’s the same with crew.

Another idea is if you’ve got a parent who knows their way around a wood shop or you’ve got some artistically inclined rowers, you could make each rower their own mini replica blade, sort of like this. If someone can make a bunch of plain ones from wood then the varsity girls can paint them with your team’s colors and then present them to the novices. Alternatively, you can make them out of modeling clay too. (I’ve done it, it’s super easy). Just draw out a template, roll out the clay, use a X-Acto knife to cut it out, and then bake it.

You could include something that you wouldn’t have survived without when you were a novice. I remember talking about this with my friends once. One wouldn’t have survived without a really thick, warm pair of wool socks, another wouldn’t have survived without the granola bars her mom had waiting in the car for her after practice (because she was always starving), another said DVDs for the 5+ hour bus rides we took every week when we’d travel … stuff like that. I’d have probably given my little a bunch of Hot Hands and an ear warmer. If someone has a coxswain for their little sister, get them a notebook and a pack of pencils. (Hint hint nudge nudge, this is a great present for novice coxswains.) If you’ve got stickers or car decals with your team’s logo on them, throw some of those in there too. Another thing you could get if you could find them relatively cheap enough is water bottles, that way everyone always has one and you can minimize waste by not having plastic ones lying around the boathouse. Don’t count out the practical stuff either, like rubber bands for their hair, band-aids, cough drops, etc.

Last idea: a blanket! My warmest, most favorite blanket that I own is one that I got from crew. It’s fleece and is orange on one side and black on the other (our school colors). They are literally the easiest things to make in the world and don’t require any sewing abilities whatsoever. I’m actually shocked that mine is still completely in tact considering it went to every regatta, then to college, and then everywhere else I’ve gone over the last twelve years.

College Coxing Q&A

Question of the Day

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Hi. I’ve been rowing on my high school team for four years now and I’ve been considering continuing crew in college. However, my times aren’t good enough to be recruited and I’ve always wanted to cox. People have told me I would be good at coxing but my coach wants me to row for him. But my weight is an issue. I’m 5’3″ and weigh around 140. I don’t know if I can healthily get down to a weight to cox, so is it possible for me to cox men? Thanks!

Depends on where you go to school. If you go to a school with a club program you could probably row or cox because they’re typically more lax about the height/weight requirements since a lot of the people on the team are new to rowing or haven’t participated in sports before (thus they don’t have the typical rower’s build). I would agree with you that getting down to a healthy weight range to cox women is probably going to be tough so unless you’re at a club program where that’s not as big of an issue, I personally wouldn’t consider it an option.

As far as coxing men goes (at all IRA schools and probably 99% of the competitive clubs (men aren’t NCAA, remember)) , that’s also tough because like women’s teams, they typically want their coxswains to be as close to racing weight as possible for reasons I’ve discussed before (basically, no one wants to carry around more dead weight than they have to, which is understandable). If you’re 140lbs now, that’s 13-15lbs you’d have to lose. I can’t tell you if that’s healthy for you or not because I don’t know you but assuming you’re a senior now and start college in the fall … yea, you’ve got plenty of time if you wanted to go that route. It’s a lot of lifestyle changes though so make sure you take that into consideration.

(Quick edit because I forgot to include this before I posted this.) If you want to cox the guys this season, as in three months from now, I’d say it’s still possible but you’re giving yourself a bit more of a time limit, which can be some people’s downfall. If you want to cox in college you could always still row this season and then walk on to the team in the fall and say “I want to cox”. You don’t have to cox this season but the practice certainly wouldn’t hurt. If you’re not trying to be recruited though (that period is pretty much over now anyways, I think) then it doesn’t really matter what you choose to do. Just remember that if you try to cox the guys you’re giving yourself a very small window to get in the racing weight range.

As a general note to everyone reading, I want to throw out a clarification on coxswain weights and who you’re coxing for. I know I’ve said many times that if being or staying at 110lbs to cox for women is not feasible for you then coxing men is always an option because their minimum is 125lbs. I’m not backing down from that because I do think it’s a reasonable option. I don’t, however, want people to get the impression that you can just jump right into coxing men regardless of your weight because their minimum is higher than the women’s. Their minimum is higher because they’ve got to accommodate male coxswains who probably haven’t been 110lbs since 7th grade. That’s it.

However, if you’re thinking about coxing you have to understand that weight is an important and dare I say critical component of being a coxswain. It’s not the most important thing but it’s something that needs to be given the proper attention by everyone who’s considering coxing. There’s really no easy way to say this but please don’t just assume you can jump right into coxing guys if your normal body weight is 10, 15, 20+lbs over 125lbs. You’re going to be gently nudged or sometimes flat out told to lose weight depending on who you cox for. If you really want to cox that badly but are more than like, 130lbs, you need to start thinking about making some serious changes in order to get down to racing weight (in a healthy way) by the time the season rolls around.

College Q&A Teammates & Coaches

Question of the Day

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A coach reached out to me a couple months ago and we emailed and talked on the phone for a couple of weeks. I sent him an email about a week ago just to check in, give him an update, and reassure interest. How long should I wait for a reply? When we spoke before it was no longer than two days between emails so I didn’t know if it was weird that things were moving slower or if most seasons are just starting to pick up now.

Right now most teams are returning from winter break/training camp and getting back into the swing of things with school and stuff. I wouldn’t worry too much right now about not hearing back from him right away. Plus, if you didn’t include anything that he thought warranted a reply (i.e. you didn’t ask any questions or anything) then he might have just looked at your email, said “great!”, and filed it away for later. If you did ask him a question, especially if it’s time-sensitive, maybe give it another week or so and send a short follow up with the original email attached below the new one and just say “Hi Coach, just wanted to follow up on the email I sent last week. I know you’re probably busy with XYZ but I wanted to get your opinion/some advice/some insight on _____. Looking forward to hearing from you!” and leave it at that.

Even if you don’t hear back from him, I’d continue to send emails (maybe once a month at most) to update him on any progress you’ve made with the university (such as being accepted, deciding on a major and wondering if anyone else on the team has also majored in it/what their experiences were/how tough was it to handle the academic requirements of said major while on the team, etc.), your plans to come visit campus, any PR milestones erg wise (especially if you’re planning on going to CRASH-Bs next month or participating in any of their satellite events), as well as your race results once the season rolls around.

Moral of the story is don’t take it personally and don’t worry too much about it. Keep him updated on your progress and go from there. If you have a question or something you want to know about, CC the assistant coach (almost always also listed as the recruiting coordinator) on the email if that’s not who you’ve already been talking with. It tends to be their responsibility to deal with the incoming freshmen and all their questions so you might get a quicker response from them than you would from the head coach.

College Q&A Recruiting

Question of the Day

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Hello! I am attending a “business casual” open house this weekend at a college that I am strongly considering. I want to make a strong impression, I was just wondering, as a coach, what do you think would be appropriate to wear? I want to look nice without looking silly or too glitzy. Thanks in advance!

Long after you’re gone, the coaches are going to be remembering you, not your outfit. Looking nice is obviously a given but don’t forget that what’s going to leave the strongest impression is your personality, interest in the school, and what you feel you can bring to the program.

Pro tip though, don’t overthink what you’re gonna wear. The key is to pick something you’ll be comfortable in since that’ll help you project confidence in whatever situation you’re in.

I usually wear similar iterations of what’s above to job interviews or other business casual-ish events (rowing related and otherwise) and dress it up or down as necessary, either by swapping the top for a blouse and jacket or the shoes for a more casual pair of flats or sandals. I’d probably dress up a little more for schools like Harvard than I would for somewhere like Miami but it’s your call based on the environment you’ve seen when you’ve visited previously.

For shoes, stick to flats or, if the weather’s wet, snowy, etc., a pair of tall boots. If you wear any jewelry, try to keep it simple and not too flashy, noisy, or in your face. If you wear any perfume, try to keep it toned down too. You don’t want that to be what announces you when you walk in a room.

For guys, you really can’t go wrong with a button down and a nice pair of slacks or chinos. I wouldn’t completely rule out jeans as long as they’re a darker wash – anything lighter looks way too chill for something billed as “business casual”. If nicer shoes are deemed appropriate, just go for a pair of dress shoes or boots. Do not wear tennis shoes and don’t forget a belt.

College Coxing High School Q&A Recruiting

Question of the Day

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Hi there! So long story short I’ve been rowing for my high school team for the past 3 years (I’m a junior this year) and my novice year we needed a coxswain for one of the novice boats, so I both rowed and coxed that year. My coach that year told me I was a natural coxswain and I was really passionate about it. Unfortunately, I’m a little on the tall side for a coxswain (I’m 5’5″) so when I got to varsity under a new coach she found other coxswains that were smaller and so I just became a rower full time. Fast forward to today and unfortunately my erging times have not gotten as fast as I would like them to be :(. However, I really want to row/cox in college and it’s looking unlikely that I could row for any of the schools I want to go to. I would be interested in coxing again for either men or women in college though. My current coach just doesn’t see me as a coxswain for some reason, and won’t let me start coxing again even though I’m one of the slowest rowers on varsity and our men’s team is in need of a cox. Last year, one of our rowers on the girls team got injured and became a cox for the guys, so I just don’t see why I couldn’t at least try coxing again. Anyways, do you have any suggestions on how I could convince her to let me cox? Also, would it be too weird for me to email college coaches from schools I’m interested in and tell them I’m interested in coxing for them even though I haven’t coxed very much since freshman year?

I would say that if the guys are in need of a cox then you should talk to their coach and see what you can work out. Explain to him that you’re interested in rowing in college but with your times and being on the shorter side (for a rower), you feel like you’d be a bigger asset to the team as a coxswain. You don’t need your current coach’s permission in this case (at least in my opinion you don’t…) and if she’s already said she’s not going to let you cox, it’s probably not worth it on your end to try forcing the issue.

I don’t think it’d be weird. You have rowing experience so you’re not inexperienced with the sport itself, just the coxing aspect of it. I wouldn’t try to be recruited though. Walking on is your best option in this case. I’d say what I said above in regards to talking to the men’s coach of your current team. Start by saying that you’ve been involved with crew for three years, started out as a coxswain before transitioning to a rower, and now that you’re looking at colleges you’re interested in coxing again. You don’t have to say anything about your height, erg scores, etc. since that’s all fairly irrelevant at this point. Plus, you don’t want to bring up something “negative” when you’re trying to highlight your positives, if that makes sense.

College Quotes Racing Rowing Training & Nutrition Video of the Week

Video of the Week: Yale Men’s 8+ at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics

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Wouldn’t it be cool if collegiate crews still represented the USA at international regattas like this? This video talks about Yale’s eight that competed in Melbourne and the tough competition they faced, mainly in the Australian crew, on their way to winning the gold medal over 2nd place Canada and 3rd place Australia.

There were a couple things I took from this video but the biggest one is what is said at 6:20 – “he has the phenomenal ability to pace himself so that the last stroke he has to row is the last stroke he can row”. Ponder that thought the next time you’re on the water or on the erg. Condition your body so that the last stroke you have to row is the last stroke you can row.

College Coxing Q&A Teammates & Coaches

Question of the Day

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My transition from novice to varsity has been a nightmare. I was the top novice cox, but my coaches told me the highest they’d boat me was 3V b/c I’m a senior and they want to ‘invest’ in training younger coxes. My rowers from last year are on V8/JV8 & I never get to see them. I had a panic attack 2 weeks ago from being switched into the worst boat. There are too many coxes on the team & I feel like it doesn’t matter if I’m there or not. Is it time to quit? How should I tell my coaches/team?

Aw man, that sucks, I’m sorry. To an extent I guess I can understand the coaches wanting to “invest” in training the coxswains that will be able to race at the varsity level for more than one season but I don’t think that means you should just write off another coxswain just because they’re older. You should invest equal amounts of time in training all your coxswains, regardless of what year they’re in, and then decide what boat they’ll cox the same way you would any other time – evaluations, observations, etc. It’s really frustrating when it doesn’t work out that way. It doesn’t exactly put forth the message that “you’re a valuable part of the team”…instead it says “great, now that we’ve got somebody to throw in that boat we don’t really care about we won’t have to worry about putting any of our good coxswains in there”. Everybody needs to cox the 3V at some point, regardless of how good of a coxswain they are. It teaches humility and punches down the ego a bit, which is something that coxswains tend to need every so often.

If you don’t feel like you’re going to have any opportunities to compete for the V8+ or  JV8+ and that your time isn’t being well spent while you’re at practice then I would say you have a good reason to talk to your coaches. If you think those reasons are good enough reasons to walk away from the sport, then that’s your choice. I’d think about the next few months, getting ready for college, all that fun stuff, and ask yourself if crew is going to be “good stress” on top of all of that or if it’s going to be something that causes “bad stress”. You don’t have to say anything to the “team” if you don’t want to. If you just want to tell your friends that you don’t feel like crew is working out for you, then do that. I’d save all your actual reasons for your coach(es) and tell them the same thing, although maybe elaborate a little more so that they understand that you have legitimate reasons for quitting and that you’re not just throwing a temper tantrum because you’re not getting the boat you want.

College Coxing How To Novice Q&A Teammates & Coaches

Question of the Day

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Hi. I am a newly converted college coxswain. I have been researching like crazy about how best to motivate my rowers and I was wondering what you thoughts on this are. I have seen several videos and articles (probably some on here even) that say its on a boat-to-boat basis, but would you possibly have any bits of generic advice on how best to motivate my boats?

Interacting with the boats you cox is very similar to how you interact with your different social circles – you follow the same basic principles but you tweak it to fit the individuals you’re with. Once you start rowing with a boat on a regular basis and get to know the rowers better, you can start asking them what they want/need to hear during a piece. My default is to get one general thing from each person, something like a boat-wide or an individual technique issue (aka something easily addressed) and one personal, specific thing. Make sure you’ve got a notebook so you can write down and look back on what they tell you otherwise you’ll never remember.

My generic advice is less about the calls you make and more about you.

Be present, physically (obviously) and mentally. If you’re invested, they will be too. Even if you’re doing drills and are bored out of your mind (which you will be at some point), stay engaged and don’t let your tone convey anything else.

Be honest. If something isn’t going the way it should be, tell them. Don’t gloss over it in lieu of not hurting their feelings. They’re big kids, they’ll survive. If you see them doing something good, point it out. If it’s something that you’ve been working on for awhile and they finally got it, get hyped. Your enthusiasm will translate to them (just like your lack of enthusiasm will too). If something isn’t going right, point it out and tell them what they need to do to fix it while also throwing in a casual compliment on something that they’ve consistently been doing well. (You know the phrase “compliment sandwich”? Similar to that but less cliche.)

Don’t assume that you have to be the sole thing motivating eight individuals. You don’t. I tell every coxswain this but you cannot motivate someone who is not inherently motivated themselves. If they’re not already motivated by something internal to show up everyday and strive to succeed at the highest level, it’s going to be extremely difficult for you to help them out. If someone seems unmotivated to you, that should be your cue to take them aside and say “dude, what’s up” instead of doing the opposite and thinking “Well, if some motivation is good, cheerleader-level of motivation must be great! I’ll do that!”. The more you try to motivate them without finding out why they’re unmotivated in the first place, the more it’s going to backfire in your face. Each crew’s motivation is different so if you’re coxing multiple boats, make sure you’re not coxing your JV8+ the same way you’re coxing your V4+. One crew can find demoralizing what another finds encouraging so it’s important to recognize that motivation in general isn’t a one-size-fits-all thing.

Tone of voice is everything. I alluded to that in the first bullet point but it really is one of the most important aspects of coxing. How you say something is just as important as what you say. Know what tone is appropriate for what you’re doing at the moment and adjust as necessary. Do not be a monotone robot.

Always tell them what’s happening around them. Ideally they’re not looking around trying to figure out where they’re at, where the other crews are, how far they are from the line, etc., so in race or practice-piece situations, they’re relying on you for that information. It might not seem like it’s that motivating to hear their location and stuff but when done properly, it is. If you say “100m down, 1900m to go” you better hope your legs move fast once you get back on land because they will eat. you. alive. Something like “We’re crossing 750m now, this is where we dig in to make our move and take back that seat from FIT. I’ve got bowball on two seat, gimme their bow man…” would be more appropriate. Never underestimate the power of these kind of calls to motivate your crew. They are an essential part of your repertoire.

Other than that, the last generic tip I can offer is to not force anything and don’t try to do everything right away. Learning how to best motivate your crews, even in the general sense, takes a bit of time. Listen to some of the recordings I’ve posted and read what I’ve said about them (click the individual “parts” at the top to see this) too. I typically try to note what I think is motivating, what doesn’t, how it could be done better/differently, etc. so that should help you come up with some calls to try the next time you go out.