Tag: college

Question of the Day

By readyallrow August 13, 2015

This was an email I got two weeks ago that I wanted to share because it’s a pretty good question and something I know I haven’t talked about on here. The school this coxswain attends as well as their coach’s name were mentioned in here so those have been [removed] for privacy.

I’m not sure if you remember me but my name is [removed] and I cox at [an Ivy League program]. I was fortunate enough to find a team to practice with this summer and a couple weeks ago, I went to a regatta with them. During my race, I made a recording that I want to send to my head coach to show that I have improved and that I really want to be on this team. That being said, the recording had some flaws that I felt were out of my control (cox box fell out of holder so I couldn’t get a rate last two minutes of the three minute race and we caught a crab and went into another team’s lane because only 3/4 were rowing so I was like “let me get out of their lane”).

In my email to [the head coach], I’m not sure how to approach this… I have a couple of different questions:

1- Should I send an email like, “Can you do me a favor and listen?” and see if he says yes first? Or should I just send the recording to him with my commentary?

2- Should I send my commentary at all? I know in one of your blog posts you said you like when people send commentary but part of me feels like some of the stuff I’m saying might come off as making excuses. For example, I said “One of the weak points was not calling out rate” but go on to explain why I didn’t do it. My intention in explaining these things is to make sure I get “new” feedback.

3- How long is too long for my own commentary? I have three paragraphs built into the email but I’m wondering if I should put it in a separate word document. Thoughts?

I know I’m probably overthinking it too much, and I’m wondering if, with all the problems, I should send the recording at all. I don’t think [the head coach] has ever seen/ heard me cox before so I feel like I need to give him some baseline to know where I’m at but at the same time I don’t want to make myself look bad.

If I were in a similar situation this is what I’d say:

“Hi [Coach]! I had the opportunity to race at [X regatta] a few weeks ago with [Y team] and was able to get a recording of myself coxing our [heat, semi, final, etc.]. I wanted to see if you could listen to it when you have some time available and possibly give me two or three pieces of feedback based on what you hear. I know I still have things to work on but I’d love to hear your thoughts so I can prioritize what I should focus on as we get closer to the start of the season. Thanks!”

That’s LIT.ER.ALLY all I’d say. I personally like when coxswains send their commentary simply because I find it interesting/insightful and because I judge them on it, mainly on whether or not they’re self-aware enough to know what they did well and what they need to work on before I or someone else points it out to them. Coaches though (who have never coxed and more importantly have a limited amount of time available) tend to get turned off by that because that’s just another long string of words that they have to read in addition to all the other shit they’ve gotta do. When emailing coaches always keep it short and sweet unless they specifically ask for something more. If he emails you back and says “here’s what I thought, what did YOU think…” then you can email him two or three of your critiques. Again though, keep it short and to the point. I wouldn’t say more than two sentences per critique – one saying what you did and the other saying how you’ll tweak that action to be more effective or what you’ll do instead.

As far as feeling like you’re making excuses, that’s something I struggle with ALL the time, not just within rowing but in general too. The things I say/do are almost always very deliberate so I have to tread lightly when explaining myself in order to not come off as defensive or like I’m making an excuse. I still haven’t figured out the perfect way to do this but my advice for this situation would be to just make note of all the things you feel you need to work on, why you did them the way you did, and what changes you could make in the future in order to have a better outcome. That isn’t something that needs to be shared necessarily either. If your coach does ask “why did you do this” though then you can say “my goal was to have X happen but looking back I don’t think I executed it properly so next time I’m going to try Y and see if that works better”. This shows self-awareness in your actions without being defensive of how things played out.

College Coxing Q&A Recruiting

Question of the Day

By readyallrow July 23, 2015

Do US universities (Ivy League in particular) offer scholarships/ part-scholarships for coxes (similar to the rowing scholarships), if that makes any sense? Would selection for national team representation make a scholarship more realistic or likely? I’m from the UK and would LOVE to come study at a US university if I was able to get a scholarship of some sort. Also, have you heard of any universities that have previously offered scholarships to coxes?

The Ivy League as a conference doesn’t offer any scholarships to athletes, male or female, regardless of sport. Here’s the exact wording as seen on the Ivy League’s website:

Ivy League schools provide financial aid to students, including athletes, only on the basis of financial need as determined by each institution’s Financial Aid Office. There are no academic or athletic scholarships in theIvy League. A coach may assist a prospective student-athlete to obtain an estimated financial aid award, however only the Financial Aid Office has the authority to determine financial aid awards and to notify students officially of their actual or estimated awards.

Coxing for your country’s junior national team might make you a more competitive candidate but how it impacts your chances of being offered a scholarship (at the schools that offer them) I can’t really speak to. Coxswains getting scholarships as freshmen isn’t really a thing because most coaches want to use that money to bring in rowers but it is possible to earn one later on in your career. It’s something worth asking the coaches you’re talking to about because everyone distributes the scholarships they have available a little differently. Some will take the 20 full scholarships you’re allotted (at Division 1 and Division 2 schools) and break them down into 40 partial scholarships, some will put all their seniors or everyone in the 1V on full scholarship and everyone else on partial scholarship … it really depends on the program. Those are just two examples that I’ve heard some coaches do.

I don’t know the specifics of who offers scholarships to coxswains and who doesn’t because stuff like that is usually kept pretty guarded – not because it needs to be kept a secret or anything, I think it’s just because since it’s related to financials and what not it’s just not appropriate to put out there. I do think it would be beneficial to know just in a general sense what programs have scholarship opportunities available to coxswains but at this point a lot of that info is just based on rumors.

College Coxing High School Racing

Coxswain recordings, pt. 31

By readyallrow July 21, 2015

7k row to the basin

A high school coxswain emailed me this recording a couple weeks ago so below is the email I sent her with some feedback. In her initial email she also included her own comments on what she thought of her coxing (PS I love when you guys do that because it helps me narrow in on what you think you need to work on), which included things like “my coxing started very calm but in the middle it was similar to how I would have coxed a sprint race”, “I never mentioned the time and pointed out only some of the landmarks I should have”, “I have lots and lots of calls about the legs”, “Some of the focus 10s were not for anything in particular and were just moves”, “10 in 2 would be more effective than 10 here in some (most) cases”, etc.

Here’s what I said:

“I agree that your intensity level did rise throughout the piece but I think that’s fairly natural. I do the same thing when I’m coxing long pieces like this, as do other coxswains that I know. I think as long as you’re not super obnoxious about the changes in your tone or volume it’s not a big deal. I thought this was fine though.

I like the “reel ’em in” call too. It’s a good way to say “get after these guys” without actually saying that. Regarding the “10 in 2 vs. 10 here”, I agree that it’s more effective, especially in long pieces like this where it’s easier for them to zone out, to give them a bit of a warning and either say “on this one”, “in two”, or whatever so that at the very least they’ve got one stroke or so to get ready to execute whatever you’re calling for.

If you notice the intensity starting to fall off, at the very least make sure they’re still rowing well. Focus purely on their technique for 20-30 strokes if you have to but make sure that even if the pressure is falling a bit that they’re still rowing at a high level. Sometimes I notice that when I back off the typical power calls and just focus on technique, the power gradually starts to come up a bit on its own … not necessarily to where it was before but enough that I notice it and can then say “Yea, there we go! You see how we’re starting to push those puddles away again? That’s just from adjusting our posture and making sure our body prep is set early. Let’s take five now to really emphasize the swing and get the shoulders set. Ready … go!”

I like doing 5s for each pair or 5s for each four during longer pieces like this. It’s something different and gives you a chance to focus on the individuals a little more than you otherwise would. Plus it gives them a little bit of personal responsibility for those five strokes. You executed this very though so good job. I liked your tone, the calls you made, etc. I’d do it exactly like that during a race if you decide to incorporate that as a move of some kind.

I also noticed that you made a lot of leg calls but I think as long as you’re diversifying them and not making the same leg call over and over then it’s OK. One thing I would practice the next time you’re out though is making calls for other parts of the stroke. To kinda force yourself into doing this, I would try something like this: for one entire practice, anytime you want to make a call for the legs, pause for a second and come up with a call for something else. The calls could be for puddles, sharp catches, smooth finishes, posture, body prep, long recoveries, bending the oars, blade height, getting max reach, etc. The goal is to not make ANY calls for the legs and instead make calls for everything else. The legs are a really easy thing to make calls for and are what a lot of coxswains default to (myself included) so every so often you’ve gotta take yourself out of that comfort zone and force yourself to do something different so that on race day you’ve got a wealth of calls built up that you can pull from. You actually already do a great job of calling for a variety of things so just consider this as a new challenge to continue building your skills in that area…

When you call for focus 10s, I would instead call for focus 5s. 10 strokes is too long to “focus”, especially during hard pieces like this, and 5 usually ends up being more effective anyways.

You do a great job of consistently giving the rowers information (and you already know what you need to give them more of – i.e. time, landmarks, etc.) and your overall tone is fantastic. Like I said earlier, don’t worry too much if there’s a gradual shift in intensity as the piece progresses. Something else that I really appreciate as a fellow coxswain is your self-awareness. I like that you listed out your own comments on your audio because that shows that you’re actually invested in what you’re doing and are keeping yourself accountable. Another thing I liked was how you clearly and concisely yelled at the other coxswains to tell them where you were as you got close to them. That’ll come in verrrrrrry handy if you’re racing at HOCR.”

University of Delaware 2015 Dad Vail Men’s Varsity 8+ Petite Finals

Jake, the coxswain of Delaware’s heavyweight 8+, sent me this recording after Dad Vails and it really blew me away. Easily one of the best recordings I heard all season – actually, I think this is the best I heard all season. Here’s what I said in my email to him with a few additional bullet points below that.

“This is really good – your intensity, tone, calls, etc. are on point. I feel like I’m nitpicking just trying to find stuff to critique. The one piece of advice I have is when you make a call like “walk away, walk away”, “it’s time to go”, “time to break off UNC” (great call btw), etc., immediately follow that up with a 5 or 10-stroke push just to carry over the momentum from your call. When I make a call like that I want the rowers to immediately think “yea, let’s go!” and since I know they tend to get a burst of energy from that I want to capitalize on it by immediately following up with a 5 or 10-stroke move to do whatever I just said to do, be that to walk away from the field, put away another crew, etc. If you say “it’s time to go” and then there’s crickets after that then it’s like “OK … I’m ready to go … tell me what to do …” and you kinda lose the opportunity to make something happen. You also run the risk of another coxswain hearing you say “walk away!” and them thinking you’re calling a 10 so they call their own 10 to counter the move they think you’re making. That can backfire on you if they end up getting a seat or two out of it. (The only reason why I say that is because I’ve done this to other coxswains before and if you’re down a seat or two and do it at just the right point in the race you can pretty much kill their momentum and take the race from them.)”

In addition to everything I said up above, I really like the simple “assault” calls he makes throughout the race. This is something I think a lot of younger coxswains have to learn/remember – every call you make doesn’t need to be a full sentence long and every call doesn’t have to be “a call”. More often times than not you can easily get away with saying something simple like “assault” and that will convey the same exact message as “OK guys, this is where we get after it and start taking back some seats”.

Another thing I really liked was the build up into the sprint starting with the “10 at base” at 4:55. I like how he calls the first five of that ten, says “assault”, then starts the next five with “next five, bow ball”. THAT is what I mean when I say to simplify your calls and cut out all the excess. You know exactly what he wants and how many strokes you have to do it and it only took four words to communicate that. Now, what I really liked about the sprint was how he transitioned into it. At 5:12 he says “shifting up to a 38 over two … shift one, shift two …” and then they hit it. I like the simplicity. If you’re trying to figure out how to get your crew to shift up at the end without doing a big build or anything (or alternatively, you’re only going up two beats and don’t need five to build into it) then I’d definitely suggest trying the shift over two and seeing how that works. (PS If you haven’t read this post on “in” vs. “over” vs. “on” check it out so you understand the difference between all three and make sure you explain it to your crew too. In, on, and over do not mean the same things!!)

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 July 14, 2015

Okay I’m a lightweight rower and I’m also a coxswain and I love doing both. But I know that lightweight in college is super slim and it doesn’t help that I’m 5’2 and naturally under 132. So what should I do about college, should I become a full time cox or a lightweight rower? Also do you know any good lightweight colleges? I have as much experience rowing and coxing since I row and cox during the same season.

Schools with good lightweight women’s programs – Radcliffe, Stanford, BU, Princeton, and Wisco are probably the top five (not necessarily in that order) in any given year. If you’re thinking of rowing then I’d start off by looking at those schools if you’ve got the academics and erg scores (or email the coaches and say you’re interested in walking on…).

As far as coxing, if you wanted to do that then I’d look into pretty much any men’s program (since your weight is closer to men’s racing weight than women’s). Like you said, there aren’t a ton of schools with lightweight teams so if you coxed full-time you might have more/better opportunities to contend for a good boat.

College Coxing High School Racing Recordings Rowing

Coxswain recordings, pt. 30

By readyallrow June 25, 2015

MIT 2015 IRA Men’s Varsity 4+ Repechage

I haven’t posted any of our recordings on here (they’re all on YouTube if you wanna listen to them) but I wanted to post this one because I think it was our varsity coxswain’s best recording of the season and I’m really damn proud of that for more reasons that I can count. I wish I could remember everything I pointed out to him when we initially watched this after the race but that was a month ago so below is a recap of what I assume I told him.

The whole starting sequence – start, high 20, transition to base – was really well executed. He started off the year/season drawing his calls out to really annoying and unnecessary lengths so to finish the season really crisp like this is a huge improvement. I also really like how we started doing the shifts down to base. I honestly don’t remember if this is something we talked about or if he just started doing it on his own but adding in that second shift really helped clean up that transition and make it a lot smoother.

It still annoys me (in the most minor of ways) that he calls a “ten to establish (the rhythm)” right after the start but if you’re going to take a ten for something at that spot, calling it for rhythm isn’t the worst thing to choose. (As long as it’s not for power – you have no idea how much this makes me rage.) One of the things we/I really harped on this season was not relying on 5s and 10s to get across whatever you wanted them to do. Instead of calling numerous 5s for catches, finishes, legs, etc. just make the call for a few strokes and then move on. You don’t need to take a burst just to get them to do something. My point there is that instead of calling a 10 to establish the rhythm I would have just gone straight into “legs long, legs loose” for a couple of strokes because just counting out the strokes doesn’t establish the rhythm, you’ve gotta actually back it up with legit calls.

Prepping the crew for an oncoming wind gust is always smart so I like that he saw the gust coming at 1:16 and said “wind gust on this one”. This is probably the best footage I’ll be able to get from a coxswain’s POV of what the wind looks like so if you’re still trying to figure out how to read the wind, look at the ripples in the water immediately before, during, and after he makes that call. The wind had been picking up throughout the reps (there were three total) but it stayed pretty much a cross-head the entire time. You can tell it’s a headwind because the boat is going into it (vs. a tailwind where you’re going with it) and the diagonal pattern of the ripples indicates that it’s a slight crosswind, meaning that the wind is going perpendicular-ish to the course instead of straight with the lanes (in which case it’d just be a direct head or tailwind).

A couple strokes later you can hear BU’s coxswain say “I’ve got bow ball”, which could easily have been disastrous for us (and if it was earlier in the season it probably would have been). I like how he handled it though. He’ll probably say that he didn’t hear her or wasn’t paying attention, thus what I’m about to say is totally irrelevant but I like that he just said where they were on BU, that they were walking, and to stay relaxed and poised. From there he makes the call to get the boat set (the crosswind wasn’t helping us there) and they immediately took a seat back on BU. The calmness in his voice throughout that segment is not something I would have thought was possible a few months ago, or at least not something that could be executed that well, so I’m really, really proud of how he handled that. (But like I said, he’ll probably say he had no idea what BU’s coxswain was doing so I’ll just pretend that what I said was his plan all along.)

As they come into 750m and he says “let’s walk up and pass, I’m on 2-seat, get me bow man…”, that’s a perfect way to call that and is another good example of what I mean by simplifying your calls. All you’ve gotta do is tell them where you are and where you wanna be and that’s it. The only thing I wish he would have done after that five was to tell them whether the move worked or not (by either saying “got the bow man” or “they held their margin” or something easy like that).

At 1000m I like the shift in his tone. I was getting a little worried initially when I listened to this that his usual fire during the body of the race wasn’t going to be there but it came out here and stuck for the rest of the race, which was good. All his calls through this section are great, especially the “now keep the attack” that he finished off with. I also, obviously, love the “that’s bow ballll” call. That 20 plus the small moves for each pair that he followed up with are, I’m convinced, what secured our position for the rest of the race. Couldn’t have asked for better execution here.

The “five for each pair” move is something we’d been working on throughout the season and it was getting to the point where I was so frustrated with it that I almost told him to just stop doing it because he could just not go from pair to pair without freaking monologuing between each one. It was driving me nuts. (You can hear this in the Sprints recording I think.) He did a great job calling it here though. I love the transition from stern pair into all four with the “establish dominance, 5 strokes for open” call. (400ish meters ago we were down two seats and now we’re going for open … can’t ask for much more than that.)

The ten for length at the 500 was kinda the only thing that I wasn’t super happy with, only because his calls didn’t match up with what he was asking for. Taking a ten for length there is a great idea and something we definitely needed but if you’re gonna call it for length your calls have to match that and his were a little all over the place. I liked his tone and everything, just not the words themselves.

When he made that “drop them” call at 5:31, this aggression was what I was waiting for and he brought it out at just the right time. The end of the race always makes me a little nervous because he’s not the most reliable at calling the finish – sometimes he nails it, other times he’s way off (ahem … Princeton) – but he did fine here. In any other situation casually calling the extra two like that probably wouldn’t have worked, especially if the race was close, but we were ahead by enough that it didn’t make a difference. We were in a position to advance by open water so whatever. Not something I’d recommend though – if you’re gonna call last five or last ten, make sure it’s actually the last five or last ten. Practice this whenever you do pieces so you can get used to gauging the distance between when you make the call and when you cross the line, that way there’s no question on race day that you’re calling the correct number of strokes to the line.

Kent School Boat Club Women’s Varsity 8+ at st. andrews

This coxswain sent me her audio a few weeks ago so below is part of my reply to her. This is one of the better recordings I’ve listened to from this past season so definitely check it out.

“Tone, volume, intensity, calls, etc. throughout the entire race were solid. I wouldn’t change a thing. You got a little repetitive with the “twist” call but I think you had a good enough variety otherwise that it doesn’t matter too much. In the future you might consider incorporating in some alternatives to “twist” (“rotate” is one that I use a lot), that way you’re still communicating the same thing just with a different word so as to not get too monotonous or repetitive.

Another thing is it seemed like you stuttered over the names of the crews a couple times when you were giving the girls your position – if you’re not 110% sure of who is in each lane then just say their lane number. When I race I only call the name of the top one or two crews that we consider our biggest competition and everyone else I just refer to by their lane #s, that way I don’t risk tripping myself up in the middle of a call if I can’t remember who is where. I feel like when you’re in a groove of coxing and then you stutter over something like a crew’s name it can throw off the momentum a bit (or at the very least knock you our of your zone) so that’s always something I try to avoid.”

At 2:56, I love how she called “No mercy one, no mercy two…“. The intensity is great (there’s nothing like a good “no mercy” call to really stick the knife in) but I like that she sandwiched them between counting out the ten. Making simple but occasionally deadly (for the other crews…) calls like this are a great way to get just a liiiiittle bit of extra punch on each stroke.

Other calls I liked:

“I just lit the fuse…”

“You don’t mess with us ’cause we’re the best…” (Cocky? Hell yes. A great call? Oh hell yes.)

Oxford Brookes vs. Brown University 2014 Henley Royal Regatta Temple Challenge Cup Final

I got an email about this recording a couple weeks ago asking my thoughts and it said: “Both my crew and coach love the coxing here, but the other cox at my club, who’s very experienced and has coxed the [redacted the very prominent team name] eight, doesn’t think the coxing is great – he reckoned they would have won regardless. I wondered what your take on it is?” This was my reply:

“Personally I do like this recording. I think the other one (the Abingdon – BH one) is better but this is still in the upper echelon of recordings that are out there. Something I’ve heard a lot of people say is that he was a little over the top and should’ve acted like he’d been there before, which I definitely see and agree with (to an extent). At this level I think having a coxswain like him can only add speed to your boat so regardless of whether they would have won or not, I don’t think that should really change how he’s coxing them. The only real thing that I didn’t like was he was a little repetitive for me, although I think that’s just a general difference in style between the UK and the US.”

Now, make no mistake, I love this recording. Our V8+ coxswain even borrowed some calls from it this season. The main thing I hear people have spirited discussions about is how over the top he gets and like I said, I get that and can see how it might annoy people but to me it’s not the kind of “over the top” that is offensive or asshole-ish. There are PLENTY of recordings I’ve posted on here where you can argue that the coxswain is being “over the top” during the race but sometimes that’s just part of coxing. As long as you’re not being unsportsmanlike, does it really matter how into it you are as long as you’re still steering straight and communicating clearly?

The takeaway for coxswains from this recording is the Beyonce levels of flawlessness in the execution of the race plan. They grab the lead right from the very beginning and just pile it on from there. The bladework at the start is excellent and the gradual build in volume he has as he’s calling “legs loose” really sets the tone early. You can tell they have a plan going into this because the moves and his calls just flow really well throughout the race. It doesn’t feel like anything he’s saying is being come up with on the spot, which is rare since you’re not usually in a position (at this level, let alone at this regatta) where you’re far enough ahead of the other crew(s) that you don’t have to worry about deviating from your race plan.

He makes a lot of rhythm calls (and announces them too…), in addition to encouraging the rhythm by the way he makes the calls so if that’s something you’re looking to work on definitely listen to this. There are lots of spots throughout the recording where he does this and they’re very easy to identify. (Plus, you should be able to pick this stuff out on your own anyways without someone else pointing it out to you.)

I like how he said “Take it all in, feed off of it…” as they’re coming through the spectator area at 6:56. This is a great call for those regattas where you can feel the energy from the spectators and you can hear them screaming as you approach them. Never underestimate the power of the crowd to give your crew an extra surge at the end. Bring that energy into the boat and make it work for you.

Last thing is that “end them now” call at 7:45. I love this but what really seals the deal is the finger point he does as he says it. I did this once and my coach told me it was the most demoralizing thing he’d ever seen a coxswain do to the rest of the field so I’ve always had an affinity for psychological fuckery like this. Wisco’s V8+ coxswain did this to our eight when we raced them back in May and when they came up to collect their shirts I told him in front of our coxswain how much I respect coxswains that have the balls to make moves like that. Luckily our cox knows me well enough to know that it wasn’t a dig against him so it was cool. Laughs were had later.

To me, stuff like this is the ultimate sign of confidence. Some people probably/definitely think it’s cocky and it absolutely is but it does waiver between being the good kind of cocky and “you look like a dick”. Being cocky is fine (and necessary) to an extent but at some point it crosses the line from being legit to being compensatory and it’s always obvious when you’re compensating for something (usually a lack of confidence more than anything else). No coxswain would ever do the “shut them the fuck down now” finger point if they weren’t 10000% sure that their crew was executing everything exactly the way it needed to be done and that their position in the race was unquestionably secure. This isn’t one of those things that you can do every race though. This is one of the ones that you do once, maybe twice in your career. The moment’s gotta be right otherwise you do just look like an asshole.

Other calls I liked:

“Legs loose…”, mainly the way he says it

“Stay relaxed as we hit the gust … stay loose … stay loose …”

“Keep moving in this rhythm, in your rhythm…”

“10 months, every erg, every session, together, for this one fucking moment…”

“Drop the knees…” Good alternative to most “legs” calls.

“200 remaining, ready … steady … go for the Temple win!“

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

College Video of the Week

Video of the Week: If there’s no wind, row

By readyallrow April 6, 2015

By now pretty much everyone knows the story of “the boys in the boat” but I came across this video the other day and thought it did a good job of summarizing UW’s story and highlighting what was going on in the world in the lead up to the 1936 games (specifically as a result of the depression in the US and as the Nazis began rising to power in Germany).

Fun fact: Bob Moch, the coxswain, was the head coach at MIT for five years in the 40s while he was going to Harvard Law School.

College Q&A Recruiting Rowing

Question of the Day

By readyallrow March 12, 2015

Hey! I’m currently a sophomore in high school and I really want to get recruited into a D1 or D2 college rowing program. I’ve been rowing for 3 years and the only problem is my height. I’m 5’3-5’4. My best 2k time is 7:44.2 and I plan on dropping about 14 seconds by senior year. My coach said that I have really long reach. How much is my height going to hinder me from getting recruited? Will I be better off switching to coxing?

I’d look into lightweight programs since you could definitely get some looks with that 2k time, even more probably if you go below 7:40. If that’s the route you go then I don’t think your height will really be that much of an issue. Just thinking about the lightweight women on our team, I feel like the ones I see most often around the boathouse are in the 5’3″ to 5’6″ish range. Obviously your height can be a disadvantage (especially if you’re rowing in a heavy/openweight program as a shorter person) but since lightweights are naturally shorter than heavyweights it’s not as big a deal to be a few inches shorter. I definitely wouldn’t switch to coxing though since you’ve already got a really good 2k and could potentially make for a good lightweight recruit.

College Coxing High School Novice

Some things to know as a novice coxswain

By readyallrow March 3, 2015

One of the most frequent emails I get from novice coxswains is some form of “I’m new, tell me everything I need to know, kthxbyeee“. Well, first of all, I can’t do that because everything you need to know isn’t always (or ever, really) at the tip of my tongue and even if I could, you’d remember maaaybe 5% of it. Second of all, stop it, it’s really hard to help you if you ask super general questions like that. Like, I understand that you’re clueless about this stuff but you’ve gotta narrow down your cluelessness to a few specific things at a time.

About a year ago someone posted a thread on Reddit asking “what are some things a novice coxswain should know” and then specified by saying “what are some things that I should learn, bring, and do to carry out my job better?”. I initially wasn’t going to reply because, as you can probably tell, generalized questions really irritate me but I liked the follow-up question so I responded with the following three pieces of advice:

Learn

The drills the coaches like to do before you get in the boat. This means asking them directly what the drills are, what their purpose is, what you should be focusing on when you do them, etc. Talk to the experienced coxswains about how to call them. Bring a notebook and write it all down because you. will. not. remember it if you don’t and then you’ll have wasted everyone’s time.

The names of the people in your boat and what seat they’re in. This might change day to day but it’s your responsibility to know who is where before you get on the water. Calling people by their seat number kinda gives off the impression that you don’t really care enough to learn their names or who’s in what seat.

How to keep your personal relationships with the rowers off the water and outside of practice. (Elaborated a bit on that here.) On the water and at practice you’re not their friend or enemy, you’re their coxswain. That means that you need to learn how to treat everyone equally regardless of your relationship with them (positive or negative).

Bring

A positive, “let’s get shit done” attitude every day, even on the days when you feel like shit.

A recorder every single day you’re on the water. Listening to yourself and getting feedback from others is how you improve.

One more layer (for top and bottom) than you think you’ll need and a waterproof jacket and pair of pants to put over everything. You’re stationary for pretty much the entire duration of practice which means you’re going to get colder faster than everyone else. You can always take layers off if you get too hot but you can’t put on what you don’t have. The waterproof stuff is great even when it’s not raining because inevitably there will be some splashing, waves if it’s windy, etc. In May when it’s warmer it’s not such a big deal but you don’t want to be sitting in the coxswain’s seat, not moving, with wet clothes on.

Carry (in something like this, this, or this)

A notebook (and writing implement of your choice). Before you go out, write down the lineup and get the workout (or at the very least, the warmup) from the coach. Ask questions and take notes on anything you don’t know/understand once they give it to you. After practice is over, write a quick summary on how it went, what you did, what did you specifically work on (calls, steering, etc.), etc. When you get home, go through it again and fill in any details that you didn’t write down before. Refer back to this frequently so you can see the trends with your boat(s), keep track of any technique issues that individual rowers have problems with (and how/what to say to fix them), etc.

A 7/16 wrench because you never know when a nut and/or bolt will need to be tightened.

Spare band-aids, alcohol swabs, Neosporin, and athletic tape because when rowers get a blister they rival toddlers in their ability to whine incessantly so having stuff on hand to take care of them will just make your life easier.

Something else that someone said that I think is especially important to learn and internalize early on in your career is that yelling as loud as you can is not the same as having authority or being a leader. You’re not automatically a “leader” just because you’re named a coxswain – it’s something you have to embrace and grow, nay mature, into and negatively embracing the Napoleon complex mindset is only going to hurt you.

In that same vein, don’t be that coxswain (or rower) that tries to rally your teammates against the coach because you think after three or four weeks you suddenly know more than us. Everyone has their own leadership style that they grow into with time and experience so don’t dig yourself into a hole right off the bat by assuming that everyone will look up to you just because you yell loud and tell them what to do.

That pretty much covers the basics but if you want to know more, check out these posts.

Making improvements as a novice coxswain

Body language, coxing, etc.

Steering and docking

Earning respect and how not to piss off your rowers

Basic gear for novice coxswains

Image via // @rowingrelated

College Coxing Q&A Recruiting

Question of the Day

By readyallrow February 16, 2015

I’m a junior that’s looking to cox in college. I started as a freshman rower and have had an increasingly difficult time as my team has gotten stronger. I’m regarded as the cox on the team (we race 95% sculls) and want to switch clubs but it just isn’t feasible. If I could switch, I wouldn’t be in the top boat to get recruited. I’m not looking forward to another season as a weak rower this spring, I genuinely love to cox. Would walking on work well for me even if I want to go to a d1 school?

You don’t have to be in the top boat to get recruited, it’s just one of those things that helps because in most cases it’s an indicator of a lot of the qualities and skills that coaches want to see in their coxswains. It’s not a necessity though.

It doesn’t really sound like you’re enjoying it very much so I guess I gotta ask, why are you still doing it? You’re primarily a sculling team, you’re not a strong rower, you’re not trying to be recruited, you’ll probably be a walk-on in college … it just doesn’t seem like there’s really anything keeping you on the team right now. If you’re doing it just to be able to say to a college coach that you did it for four years, don’t. Quality over quantity.

Just a thought but it might be worth considering how important it is for you to stay on a team that doesn’t seem to be able to really use you (at least in the way you want to be used) when you could spend your time in other ways, be it doing another sport or just working on your grades, studying for the SAT/ACTs, etc. There’s pretty much no reason why walking on wouldn’t be an option for you though, regardless of how many years of experience you have. Most D1 programs have good walk-on programs (at least the ones I’ve seen do) so it’s obviously something to consider doing if you know you want to keep rowing/coxing when you’re in college.

College Q&A Recruiting

Question of the Day

By readyallrow January 29, 2015

I am currently a senior in high school and have been rowing for a while. If I am interested in walking on to a team in the fall, should I fill out the questionnaire on the website?

It couldn’t hurt. I would follow up by sending a quick email to the recruiting coordinator (usually the assistant coach) as well saying that you’re interested in walking on to the team but you filled out the recruiting questionnaire anyways just so they would have your info and stats on file. In most cases if you walk on to the team as an experienced rower/coxswain (after previously contacting with the coaches while you’re still in high school) you’ll likely get lumped in with the recruits anyways so having an idea of where you stack up against them can be really helpful.