Tag: coxswain

Question of the Day

By readyallrow December 10, 2015

I have noticed sometimes when coxing that some of my rowers tend to sort of bang the gate with their oar (not sure how to fully describe it) and was wondering what are they doing wrong in the stroke and appropriate calls to fix it?

If I’m picturing this correctly, what I think you’re saying is that the rowers are pulling the oar away from the oarlock and the “banging” is when the collar comes in contact with it again. I see novices do this a lot, mostly because they don’t fully grasp that you have to apply consistent pressure against the pin to prevent that from happening. Something that helps with this is making sure you have the right grip on the oar. If your hands are really far apart and/or your outside hand is a few inches away from the end of the oar then you’re much more likely to pull the oar away from the oarlock. Hands shoulder-width apart, outside pinky resting on the edge of the handle – that’s what your grip should look like.

Technique-wise though, the simplest way of explaining it is that you want to be exerting pressure in the direction that the blade is moving rather than the direction your legs are moving (keep in mind those two things are moving in the opposite direction). If you’re applying pressure towards the front or back of the oarlock (depending on whether you’re on the drive or recovery) rather than flat against the whole oarlock, you’re more likely to pull the oar away from it at either the catch or finish and when you begin moving in the other direction, that’s when you’ll get that “bang” that occurs, like I said before, when the collar comes in contact with it again. As far as calls go, keep it simple and just remind them to keep pressure against the pin and that the collar should always be in contact with the oarlock (which means they need to be applying force in that direction).

I’d really recommend talking about this with your coach though because they’ll be able to address the technical aspects of it with everyone and then once the rowers understand what’s actually happening, whatever calls you make will be a lot more effective. A huge, huge pet peeve of mine is when coxswains see an issue like this and think that all it takes to fix it is a couple magical calls (which don’t exist, by the way). Not that that’s what you’re implying (because this is a really good question so I’m glad you asked it), I just that I think that’s what a lot of coxswains expect when they ask questions like this. This is something that has to be coached so tell your coach what you’re seeing so they can address it, otherwise whatever calls you make (which may or may not even be correct) won’t make a difference since no one will understand what you’re talking about. I know it’s said a lot that coxswains are “the coach in the boat” but coaching the rowers isn’t your job. Now that you (hopefully) understand a bit better what’s happening you’ll have an easier time following your coach’s explanation so listen to how they explain it to your boat and reiterate the key points they make using the same language and terminology they use … that is how you fix a technical problem. What I said up above (and pretty much everything I say on here), it all equates to doing the assigned reading before your next class so you’re not staring wide-eyed at your professor as he flies through the lecture. Ultimately my goal is to hit the high points so you can follow along while your coach fills in all the little details.

Coxing Q&A

Question of the Day

By readyallrow December 10, 2015

Hi – Our rowing club in LA is having all sorts of coxbox/wiring issues lately. Weird thing is it’s in different boats and different boxes so I’m wondering if it could be something global like weather. Now, we don’t get that cold compared to other regions but we do row all year and last 3 weeks its been in the upper 40’s/lower 50’s in the early morning. The main symptoms are very low volume throughout the boat or intermittency – all speakers cutting out in middle of row. We did try at least two microphones in one boat this morning. Any ideas??

40s-50s is not cold … I mean, maybe by LA standards but that’s not the issue here. By the sounds of it, I’m going to go out on a limb and say you row in salt water, in which case that’s your problem. When the salt comes in contact with the wires it can cause corrosion which in turn can/will effect the sound quality, transmission, etc. That’s one of the main reasons why you have to wash the equipment (which includes cox boxes!!) off regularly, tedious as it might be, otherwise eventually it’ll catch up with you and you end up with problems like this.

Assuming you do row in salt water I imagine that you’re washing your boats every day after practice so while the rowers are doing that I’d grab a washcloth or something and wipe off the cox box, the wires, the connectors inside the boat, etc. With the newer cox boxes I think you can probably get away with doing this 2-3x a week since most of the important stuff has the rubber casing around it but with the older cox boxes where the mic connector is metal, the prongs on the connector inside the boat are a little more exposed, and the wires are more likely to be frayed due to age, I would probably wipe them down every day.

My next suggestion would be to check the wiring throughout the boat and make sure the speakers haven’t come unplugged anywhere. Sometimes that happens if the wires are exposed and accidentally get pulled or caught on something. Since this is happening across multiple boats with multiple boxes though I think salt water corrosion is your culprit.

Coxing Drills Rowing Technique

Top 20 Terms Coxswains Should Know: Quarter Feather

By readyallrow December 9, 2015

Previously: Rush(ing) || Body angle || Pick drill || Suspension || Skying the blade

What part of the stroke/stroke cycle does it refer to?

The recovery.

What does it mean/refer to?

Rowing on the quarter-feather is a drill, similar to square-blade rowing. Instead of the blades being fully feathered on the recovery, the rowers are just barely rotating the handles so that they’re just a few degrees past perpendicular to the water before squaring them back up at their usual spot before the catch.

Relevant calls

There aren’t many specific calls to be made here outside of reminding the rowers to not cheat and rotate the handle past the quarter-feather position. Most of the calls you’d make would be the same ones you’d make if you were rowing on the square or feather … clean finishes, even and consistent handle heights, etc. Understanding the purpose of the drill and the effects it has on the boat (discussed down below) will help you tailor your calls accordingly.

A coach I worked with last summer told the rowers to match the quarter-feather to their layback (in terms of degrees past perpendicular) and this helped everyone (mostly younger rowers) figure out where exactly “quarter” feather is, so if your crew is having similar issues you might make a similar call if you see some blades more or less feathered than others. Try not to get too caught up in the aesthetics though, it’s not that big of a deal.

What to look for

Watch the two videos down below to see what the blades should look like. The first is a compilation video of the junior national team four (I think), one of Princeton’s women’s eights, and the US men’s four. The second video is a quick clip of Cornell’s heavyweight eight from a few years ago.

Effect(s) on the boat

This is mentioned a bit in the first video up above so watch and listen to it, particularly the beginning when Nick D’Antoni is talking.. Quarter-feather rowing is about blade control – as it says in the video, it improves the finish by slowing down the feather, similarly to the delayed-feather drill where the focus is on clean extraction of the blade before the handle is rotated. Having the blade come out square reduces the likelihood of feathering it under the water, which can lead to catching a crab, throwing a lot of water towards the stern at the finish, etc.

Like rowing on the square, it can also help the crew to figure out their handle heights on the recovery without having to worry about the blades smacking the water if the boat goes even a millimeter off set. Stability isn’t always perfect on the quarter-feather (you can kinda see this in the Cornell video) but it does make it a little easier to work on consistent handle heights in the boat, particularly when the conditions aren’t favorable (i.e. wind).

College Recruiting: The process of being recruited as a coxswain, pt. 1

By readyallrow December 8, 2015

Previously: Intro || The recruiting timeline + what to consider || What do coaches look at? || Contacting coaches, pt. 1 || Contacting coaches, pt. 2 || Contacting coaches, pt. 3 || Contacting coaches, pt. 4 || Highlight videos + the worst recruiting emails || Official/unofficial visits + recruiting rules recap || When scholarships aren’t an option || Managing your time as a student-athlete + narrowing down your list of schools || Interest from coaches + coming from a small program || How much weight do coaches have with admissions + what to do if there are no spots left

Most of you have probably been wondering if/when I was ever going to talk specifically about coxswains and that’s what this week and next week’s posts are about.

One of the counselors at Northeast this past summer is currently a coxswain on the women’s team at Brown (who I also met three years ago at Penn AC) and she talked a bit about what the process was like for her, with the biggest point of emphasis being that being recruited as a coxswain is about letting coaches know who you are as a person. Obviously things are a bit different for us than they are for rowers because we don’t have an objective 2k time on our resumes but having accomplishments within your team (being named captain, most improved, etc.), having won races (actual races, not duals and scrimmages), the boats you’ve coxed, etc. … that’s about as objective as it gets for us.

Reading that, a lot of you are probably thinking that that puts you at an automatic disadvantage because your team isn’t very competitive or by the time you start looking into recruiting you’ve only coxed the novice and JV crews and … yea, obviously, that is going to put you at a bit of a disadvantage compared with other coxswains who might have the 1V or 2V and won Youth Nats, HOCR, etc. but as discussed previously, coaches take that kind of stuff into consideration when looking at where you’re coming from. (You should still be working hard from Day 1 though to work your way up the ladder so you can compete for the strongest boats on your team.)

So where do recordings come into the picture? They’re a lot more subjective than any of the things I just mentioned because every coach has different preferences in what they like and look for but they’re still an important factor when it comes to getting noticed. I’ll talk about this next week though so check back for more on that.

Another important part of the coxswain recruiting process was being aware of the intangibles – things like being on top of completing paperwork (i.e. your applications, NCAA Clearinghouse stuff, etc.), responding to emails, submitting test scores, etc. Those things are huge for coxswains because tiny details like that are our bread and butter. It’s automatically expected of us to be meticulous and detail-oriented so if you’re lazy when it comes to communicating with coaches or you miss deadlines (or cut it unnecessarily close), coaches notice that and it can hurt you. Maybe not a lot but at the very least, it certainly doesn’t make the best impression or give the coaches confidence in your ability to stay on top of tasks (a skill that’s obviously very important when we’re on the water). The intangibles let the coaches see your personality, your ability to execute, etc. so don’t overlook this opportunity.

If you’re a junior or senior who attended the Sparks camp then you’ll probably remember Marcus’s talk on recruiting. He made mention of the fact that coxswains typically need to email coaches twice because some use that initial email as a test to see how interested you really are (i.e. are you interested enough in that school/program to reach out again if you don’t hear back from them). Granted, that’s kind of frustrating and personally I hate games like that but if it didn’t help coaches weed out those who are just throwing shit at the wall to see what sticks, they wouldn’t do it.

Coach Lindberg made the point that developing a relationship early on with the coach(es) is a critical part of the process for coxswains. They’re who you’ll be communicating with on a daily basis and both parties have to feel like you can work together. This is why it’s especially important for coxswains to ask questions (both to the coach and the athletes on the team) about their communication style, are weekly check-ins a thing/something that’s encouraged, how is feedback exchanged, etc.

To use current events as an example too (without delving too deep into the drama), asking how they approach the issue of weight would also be very beneficial to know, regardless of whether you’re male or female or where you currently are in relation to the minimums. Weight fluctuates, as most college freshmen can attest to, so while it’s something you obviously need to be aware of before it’s brought up by someone else, you should also know how and in what style it’s handled if the coaches feel it needs to be addressed. Also knowing what weight, give or take, you’re expected to be around throughout the year would also be good to know, particularly if you’re a coxswain that isn’t naturally at or below racing weight.

Anyways, going back to developing relationships, on the coach’s end they’ll learn about your communication style through their interactions with you but also through letters of recommendations from and conversations with your high school coaches. More so than with rowers, college coaches rely heavily on insight from your high school coaches because they were the ones (theoretically) working the closest with you and can speak to your abilities the best. As tough as it may be sometimes, this is another reason why having a good working relationship with your coach is important … college coaches can and do ask how well you work with the coaching staff and you don’t want your high school coach to give a “meh” response when asked about how well you worked together.

One last thing – if you’re a girl who is 115lbs or under, you should first and foremost be looking at coxing women’s programs because there are way more scholarships and opportunities for you there than there are on the men’s side. This was mentioned by Marcus during his recruiting talk but also echoed by several of the coaches at NRC so even if you coxed men in high school, don’t automatically rule out coxing women’s programs in the future.

Next week: Audio vs. GoPro

Image via // Deutschland Achter

Coxing Rowing Technique

Top 20 Terms Coxswains Should Know: Skying the Blade

By readyallrow December 2, 2015

Previously: Rush(ing) || Body angle || Pick drill || Suspension

What part of the stroke/stroke cycle does it refer to

Any point during the recovery but primarily the top quarter of the slide as you prepare for the catch.

What does it mean/refer to

Skying the blade refers to the blade being too high above the water, either consistently throughout the recovery or right before/at the catch. It’s caused by two main things: one, not carrying the hands at a consistent height throughout the recovery (i.e. either immediately out of the release or by lowering/dropping the hands at the catch) and two, by lowering the upper body (usually as a result of lunging) and forcing the hands down towards the feet at the catch. (The latter in my experience tends to be the more common of the two.)

Relevant calls

Many of the relevant calls for skying the blade aren’t necessarily for the skying itself, they’re for things like maintaining level hands on the recovery, setting the body angle early and maintaining it to avoid throwing the body forward at the catch, maintaining good posture, not rowing in a circle, keeping the eyes up/forward (because the hands do follow the eyes, regardless of whether they believe you when you say that or not … which they likely won’t but watch the hands of any rower who is looking down and you’ll see what I mean), etc.

If I see someone’s blade in the air, how I approach it will depend on who I’m coxing. If I’m coxing an experienced crew that doesn’t really need everything spelled out for them then I’ll just make a quick “Sam, watch the hands, you’re skying…” call and that will almost always fix the problem. Usually calls like this are made towards the end of a hard workout and are more reflective of the rower(s) just being tired and getting a little lazy with their bodies rather than it being an actual technical issue. This has been the case with the majority of the intermediate and masters crews that I’ve coxed.

If I know that a rower has a tendency to, for example, slump over when they get tired or they have poor posture in general then I’ll substitute “watch the hands”, which is pretty broad, with something specific to them, like “stay tall with the body, hold the hands up into the catch” or “keep the shoulders and hands up at the front end”. In instances like this I try not to say anything about what the blade is doing since it’s a secondary issue rather than a primary one but if the skying persists after a couple strokes then I’ll say something, usually like “Sam, gotta hold the hands level here on the recovery, you’re skying your blade nearly every stroke…”.

In high school I’d have to go into a lot more detail to fix the problem which was occasionally frustrating because I’d get caught up with trying to think through the process in my head of what was causing it, how it should look vs. what it looked like then, what I needed to address first, etc. and that would cause me to ignore a lot of other things that were going on (including how I was steering). What this taught me was not only the snowball effect that one issue can have on the rest of the stroke but also how to think fast in order to diagnose what I was seeing (and how important it was to learn about this stuff off the water so I wasn’t trying to learn it in the moment).

What this has to do with calls relevant to skying the blade (or any issue, really) is that because I had to know what calls to make for the issues preceding the rower skying their blade, once I had developed a good understanding of technique and how the stroke should look I was able to make more precise calls and make them say, one stroke after noticing the problem rather than three or four strokes after. Basically the better I understood what caused them to do X, the more accurate and efficient I was able to be in making calls to address that and in turn, problem Y was fixed in the process.

What to look for

This is one of the easiest things for coxswains to see so there’s never an excuse to not point it out when you notice it. It’s usually much easier to point this out with experienced crews because when the handle heights are more consistent across the board the outlier will stand out more and you’ll immediately notice it, whereas with novice/younger crews there can be a lot of different things happening and unless the skying is really egregious it might not be the first thing you notice.

From the launch it’s easy to see when a rower’s hands are dipping down or their posture is collapsing at the front end but when you’re coxing you have to rely entirely on the bladework to alert you of these two things. As previously mentioned, you’ll either see the blade high off the water consistently throughout the recovery or you’ll see the blade make a really extravagant swooping motion at the catch. (I usually refer to this as “flourishing the blade”.) If you could see an illustrated path of the hands it would probably look something like the Nike swoosh, starting from the right side and moving left.

Another thing to look for is the square timing. If when they square corresponds to when the blade skies then that rower is likely squaring down (i.e. pushing down with the hands as their inside hand rotates the handle) instead of maintaining a level, horizontal angle between the release and catch as they square.

Ideally you want the blade to be carried about 6″ off the water (give or take) and if the rowers are carrying the blade too low to begin with (i.e. it’s dragging on the water or it’s just barely above the surface) then that can also cause them to sky the blade. In order to give them room to square it up and prepare for the catch they’ll drop their hands, resulting in the blade going up in the air. Here you should be looking at the distance between the blade when it’s feathered and the surface of the water – if you can’t see any daylight between the two, remind the rowers of where the blade needs to be and the adjustments they should make with their hands.

The key here is that skying the blade is always the result of something else (that in turn has it’s own set of results stemming from it) so when you see someone doing it, you have to take a step back and focus less on the aesthetics (simply getting their blade to match everyone else’s) and instead address the actual issue that’s causing the blade to sky. This means inferring a lot of things about the hands and body based on what you currently see the blade doing but if you have a good understanding of what the “ideal” recovery looks like, both technically and with regards to body positioning, it shouldn’t be hard to call for a correction that addresses more than one issue at a time.

Below are two videos that illustrate what skying actually looks like. If you compare it to “normal” rowing, such as in this video where the blades are relatively level throughout, you might be able to see the difference a little easier.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWx4mcUuXCE

In this video, pay attention to stern pair. It’s a little tough to see three see but you really don’t even need to see his catch to know he’s skying, simply based on the trajectory of his hands and what you can see from the first part of the recovery. Stroke seat becomes a little more obvious with his skying towards the end of the video and the amount of water he’s missing is a lot more apparent.

Effect(s) on the boat

To name a few: poor catch timing (you’ll almost always be late), missed water at the catch, no suspension, decreased boat speed/increased check since you’ll likely be starting the drive without the blade in the water, and poor set due to hands dipping down into the catch instead of rising into it.

Question of the Day

By readyallrow November 30, 2015

Just wondering , what do you say to your crew after a training session and they say “Thanks cox”?

Alright, this probably sounds really dumb and I really hope I’m not the only one that has this problem … but I never know how to respond to this! I mean, I typically will just say “no problem, you guys did good today” but there’s definitely a nanosecond period beforehand where I’m like “shit, do I say ‘you’re welcome’, no that sounds douchey, do I say XYZ…” before I just reply with “no prob”. If I’m coxing a new crew then I’ll usually say “no prob, thanks for inviting me out with you guys” or something to that effect but if it’s my usual crew then I just go with what I said before or keep it simple with a smile and a fist bump. I also think it’s good to take that opportunity to talk about something that went well that day (i.e. “no prob … we found our groove on that last piece, it just looked and felt a lot more composed than yesterday…”) so that’s another thing I’ll do. If they say something like “thanks, your calls were on point today” or “nice job managing all that traffic today” then I think it’s good to acknowledge the compliment and say thanks back. If it’s something you’ve been working on, say “thanks, I really appreciate that because I’ve been trying to work on my race calls…”.

What amuses me about this is it’s such a simple exchange but it’s one that you can easily overthink to the point where it’s beyond ridiculous that you’re putting so much effort into thinking about how to reply to someone saying “thank you”. That’s literally the first thing that goes through my head as we’re walking the boat up after practice … like, ” was it really that hard to just say ‘no prob’ or ‘thanks’ in return?”. Ugh…

How do you guys respond when your crews thank you after a race or practice?

Coxing Q&A Training & Nutrition

Question of the Day

By readyallrow November 30, 2015

Hi! I have been told by a collegiate rower that I’m good friends with, that if I want to cox in college I will probably have to lose about 10 to 12 pounds. And I was told I probably won’t be able to row in college unless I grow because I am only 5 foot three. As of now I weigh between 125 and 130 depending on the day and I know it’s not really a problem for me to lose weight. I know I can do it healthily without becoming too thin or anything. Do you have any suggestions on workouts I can do and ways to start eating healthier?

Workouts = Run, bike, or swim for at least 45 minutes 3-4x a week at pace that’s hard enough to get your HR up but still allows you to hold a conversation. If you don’t consistently workout already maybe start with three days a week for 30 minutes and work your way up from there.

Eating healthier = Just make smart(er) decisions about what you put into your body. Eat breakfast every day, even if it’s something small (Chobani + 1/3 cup of granola is my go-to) and make sure you’re drinking a decent amount of water each day too. I have a 32oz Nalgene that I try to empty by the end of the day so you could do something similar if you aren’t normally a big water drinker (like me). Don’t overload your plate, eat appropriate servings of veggies, fruits, etc. and be mindful of your sweet tooth, if you have one. You don’t have to cut anything out but you do have to keep your goals in mind and exert some self-control (which admittedly will be hard over the next month).

Coxing Technique

Top 20 Terms Coxswains Should Know: Suspension

By readyallrow November 25, 2015

Previously: Rush(ing) || Body angle || Pick drill

What part of the stroke/stroke cycle does it refer to

Suspension on the handle occurs during the drive. It begins during the top quarter of the slide and is at it’s peak (force wise) when the oar is perpendicular to the hull (aka halfway through the drive).

What does it mean/refer to

Suspension, also referred to as “hang”, is all about using your body weight in the most effective way possible to move the boat. Moving the boat efficiently requires the isolation of the two strongest muscle groups – the legs and the lats – which means using your upper body strength to hold the weight off the seat and redistribute it to the handle.

Relevant calls

“Suspend the weight, light on the seat…”

“Stand on it…”, “Stand up…“

On the recovery we always tell the rowers that they shouldn’t feel any weight on the feet, that the feet should feel light, etc. During the last quarter of the recovery, that’s when they should be shifting their body weight forward and on to their feet, which will give them that “standing up” feeling. Being light on the seat is the corresponding action to standing on the feet so if you make a call for one, the rowers should know that they should also be doing the other because it all corresponds to good suspension on the drive.

“Suuuspend send…”, “Haaaang send“

You want the rowers to suspend/hang their weight for as long as possible so drawing out the call as you say it helps reflect that. It’s similar to drawing out “lengthen” when you want them to slow down the slides.

“Skeletal hang…”, “Hang the skeletons off the handle…”

Graham Willoughby, the assistant men’s coach at Brown, said this a lot at NRC this summer. It’s basically just another way of saying “hang all your weight off the handle”.

At HOCR I heard a men’s coxswain during the Champ 8+ make a call for “legs and lats” and followed it up immediately with this really long, low, aggressive “suuuuuuuspennnnd” call. I wish I’d been able to get video of it because as soon as he called it you could just see everybody in the boat sit up and hang off the handle for a second or so longer than they were before. This was right around the 2-mile mark by Newell so I assume he made the call because they were starting to feel the fatigue and he wanted them to feel the boat pick up going into the last mile.

Either way, it was a great call that left nothing open to interpretation and was punctuated by how he said it. If 50% of the success of that call was just the pure simplicity of it, the other 50% was the calm intensity in his tone of voice.

What to look for

This is another thing that, like body angle, is more easily seen outside the boat than in it. Body position is key here, as is connection with the foot stretchers, because any discrepancy in the two won’t allow you to suspend your weight properly.

Keeping the core fully engaged helps control your body weight as well as maintain your center of mass between your hips. Moving upward and outward from there, the shoulders should stay down and relaxed (you don’t want any tension in the upper body), your forearms (and by extension your wrists) should stay parallel to your legs (breaking them early reduces your ability to hang), and your elbows should stay pointed out, not down. All of this allows you to stay centered and stable which translates to being able to hang more of your weight off the handle.

Pushing with the legs = pulling with the oar, meaning when the hips drive out of the catch the hands must move in sync with them. If you’re shooting your slide then your back will collapse forward because the hips are moving without the hands. If you open the back too early (hands before the hips) then you’ll be relying on the smaller (therefore, less efficient) shoulder and back muscles to pick up the weight of the boat instead of engaging the larger leg and lat muscles. All of this factors into having a coordinated drive, which relies on being connected at the front end and following the correct sequence through the stroke.

Since I can’t see the rowers suspending off the handle when I’m coxing, I rely on two main things to help me know if/when to make a call for this. (It’s something I try to make regular reminder calls for but I’m also always looking to see if it’s something that actually needs to be corrected too.)

Related: Coxswain skills: Boat feel

The first is boat feel. If I can’t feel that impulse at the catch when they start driving, I know they’re probably not getting connected and thus not hanging their weight off the handle (or at the very least, they’re not as connected as they could be and not hanging their weight as efficiently as they could be).

Related: The Four Defaults

To correct this I’ll make a connection call, evaluate it via boat feel, then follow up with a few suspension calls. I think initially focusing on the body position helps a lot here rather than just jumping straight into “suspend send” calls (although that is what I finish with). This (and what’s down below) is a good example of how prevalent the snowball effect is in rowing. If one thing is off at any point in the stroke it can/will have an effect on everything that comes after that.

The second thing I rely on and look for is timing at the catch, specifically if they’re rowing it in. If they’re rowing it in then they’re limiting the amount of overlap there is between time spent on the leg drive and how long the blade is in the water. The less overlap there is the less time they have to hang on the handle … and hanging on the handle pretty much requires your catch timing/drive initiation to be precise so it’s not hard to deduce that they’re not getting any effective amount of hang if they’re rowing the blade in. If this is what’s happening then I’ll address getting the blade in before the leg drive (unweight the hands as you roll into the catch, etc.) before transitioning to getting them to hang their weight once they’ve established some resistance to actually hang against.

Effect(s) on the boat

When I’m coxing the most obvious effect on the boat that I notice is how much more “send” there is when we’re suspending our weight. The meaty part of the stroke is when the handle is moving between your shins and shorts (that’s another great call that I learned this summer – “shins to shorts”) and if you’re really hanging your weight through this section, the finishes tend to have more weight behind them (literally) which allows you to clear the puddles by a few extra inches.

Additionally, suspending your weight off the handle instead of keeping it sitting directly on top of the seat gives a lightness to the boat that lets the rowers pick it up and leverage it through the water more easily.

Video of the Week: Pete Cipollone Podcast

By readyallrow November 23, 2015

I’ve been meaning to listen to this for like, a week now and finally had some time to do it yesterday. It’s about 40 minutes long and well worth the time.

Pete talks about his coxing career (how/why he got started as a coxswain, not getting selected in ’96, the 2000 and 2004 Olympic cycles, etc.) as well as how he used a lot of the skills he picked up in rowing through his career(s) in the “real world”. There’s a lot of really solid advice in here regardless of the stage you’re at in your rowing career so definitely check it out when you’ve got some time.

Coxing Drills Technique

Top 20 Terms Coxswains Should Know: Pick Drill (Normal + Reverse)

By readyallrow November 18, 2015

Previously: Rush(ing) || Body angle

What part of the stroke/stroke cycle does it refer to

The pick drill targets the sequence of movements on the recovery whereas the reverse pick drill targets the sequence of movements on the drive.

The normal pick drill goes like this.

Arms only → arms + body (→ quarter slide) → half slide (→ three-quarter slide) → full slide

The reverse pick drill is equally as simple and goes like this:

Legs only (→ top quarter/”first six inches”) (→ top half) → legs + back → legs + back + arms

In both of those, the parts of the stroke in parentheses can be included but typically aren’t part of the default drill (which includes the parts not in parentheses).

What does it mean/refer to

The pick drill is one of the most used and basic drills that you’ll call. It’s purpose is to break the stroke into its various components and build upon each one until you’re taking normal strokes at full slide. Even though it does a good job of walking you through the stroke sequence (which makes it great when you’re first teaching novices how to row), it’s more commonly used as a warmup on the water than an actual “drill”.

We tend to think of drills as having a specific technical focus and that’s where the reverse pick drill comes in. It’s purpose is to focus on the drive sequence and is typically used when you have rowers who are shooting their slides or opening their backs too early. Since it isolates each part of the drive (legs –> back –> arms) there’s a lot of emphasis on making sure you’re going through the sequence in the proper order, i.e. not opening the backs before you start the legs or breaking the arms while you’re still on the drive.

Whether you do the drill on the square or feather is up to you/your coach and can be dependent on the conditions or skill level of the crew. When given the choice I rarely do the entire drill on the feather and instead go through it entirely on the square before adding the feather in during the full-slide strokes. Occasionally I’ll do arms and arms + body on the square and the rest on the feather but that doesn’t happen too often. I don’t think I’ve ever seen the reverse pick drill done on the feather so I would stick with staying on the square when you do this one.

Relevant calls

Calling these two drills is literally – LITERALLY – the simplest thing you will ever do as a coxswain. Can you count to 10? Congrats, you can call the pick drill. You can read all about how to do both in the post linked below. It goes into plenty of detail which is why I’m linking it instead of writing it all out again.

Outside of a few calls here or there I don’t talk much during the pick drill. I’ll talk marginally more during the reverse pick drill but with both drills I feel like the rowers need to concentrate more on what they’re doing without the distraction of me talking in the background.

Most of the calls I make have to do with pivot and timing (as necessary). Right after adding the bodies I’ll remind the rowers to “lead with the hands”, “pivot from the hips”, “keep the bodies tall”, “swing through”, etc. to remind them to get the bodies over before they catch.

With timing, I tend to notice more issues pop up once the slides are added since everyone has a different sense for where quarter, half, and three-quarter slide is (more so with younger crews than experienced ones) and that can affect when they catch. In that case I’ll watch the blade angles (as I mention below) and tell them to adjust their position based on how sharp/shallow the angle is to the boat (“Ryan, your blade angle is a little too sharp for quarter-slide. Shorten up the slide a bit on this next one…”). That usually fixes the timing issue without me even having to mention it but if it persists then I’ll just tell them they’re early/late and make any additional calls related to that as needed.

The takeaway from this is that you want whatever calls you make to be relevant to the drill you’re doing. If I noticed someone’s timing was off while doing the pick drill it wouldn’t be very effective for me to just say “you’re early/late” because that doesn’t address the root cause of the problem. If they’re late, watching the blade angles and making sure they’re at half-slide and not three-quarter slide (which makes their recovery longer than everyone else’s –> catching later than everyone else) does address the problem.

What to look for

Some of this is touched on in the “how to” post linked up above but what you’re looking for has less to do with what the rowers’ bodies look like (that’s a secondary concern) and more to do with whether or not they’re completing each part of the stroke in the proper order.

In the boat it can be tough to see what they’re doing since this isn’t a bladework drill so it would be useful to watch them go through this sequence from the launch or while they’re on the ergs/in the tanks so you can see what exactly it should look like. This also means that you have to go off of blade angles to determine if someone is too far up/too far back at each position. The sharper the angle of the oar relative to the boat the closer they are to full slide and the shallower the angle the closer they are to the finish/their seat is to bow.

Arms

You are only using your arms. Don’t cheat and incorporate the shoulders/upper back. Start by sitting at the finish, blades fully buried, bodies stable and in the layback position. The hands will press down and come away with the handle and then when the arms are fully extended you’ll “catch” and “drive” using just the arms to pull the blade through the water.

Arms + body

From the finish, the hands lead with the bodies following by pivoting from the hips while the legs stay flat. You should feel a slight pull in the hamstrings as you swing forward (more or less so depending on how flexible you are). This “pivot from the hips” is important because that’s where your swing comes from, not from the low back. Back and shoulders stay flat here, chin stays up. Once the arms + body are fully extended (again, this will be dependent on how flexible you are), you’ll catch, swing back with the bodies, and finish with the arms.

Quarter/half/three-quarter slide

These are much easier to visualize than they are to explain over the internet so check out these videos of the national team to get an idea for what each slide position should look like. Try to spend time on the erg in front of the mirror so you can see/feel for yourself where each one is too. (None of these videos are actually of the pick drill, they’re just to give you an idea of what each position looks like.)

In the first video, note the difference in how far the knees come up when they transition down from full-slide. Same in the third one, look at how they’re just barely NOT at full-slide. There’s still another inch or two left for the wheels to come up.

Full slide

This is where it all comes together and you’re just taking normal strokes. Here the focus should be on maintaining the sequencing from the earlier parts of the drill. Timing, as a byproduct of proper sequencing, is something you should also watch for.

During the reverse pick drill you start with “legs only” so the arms stay extended and the bodies stay pivoted forward as the legs come down. You can see what that looks like in the video below. (There’s also video of what the drill looks like start to finish in the “how to” post.)

There’s a tendency when doing this drill, as you can see in that video, to finish “legs only” sitting up straighter than you should be, as well as to finish “legs and bodies” by just barely breaking the arms. Neither of these are that big of a deal so unless they’re really obviously opening the backs or breaking the arms, it’s not something you need to call out. And again, it’s not something you’re likely going to be able to see anyways unless you’re watching the drill from the side.

Effect(s) on the boat

If the sequencing on both sides of the stroke is correct it will help you establish a sense of timing and rhythm within the boat.

S	M	T	W	T	F	S
					1	2
3	4	5	6	7	8	9
10	11	12	13	14	15	16
17	18	19	20	21	22	23
24	25	26	27	28	29	30

What part of the stroke/stroke cycle does it refer to?

What does it mean/refer to?

Relevant calls

What to look for

Effect(s) on the boat

Related posts/questions

Image via // @juhi._._

Image via // Deutschland Achter

What part of the stroke/stroke cycle does it refer to

What does it mean/refer to

Relevant calls

What to look for

Effect(s) on the boat

Related posts/questions

Image via // Sofia Donnecke

What part of the stroke/stroke cycle does it refer to

What does it mean/refer to

Relevant calls

What to look for

Effect(s) on the boat

Related posts/questions

What part of the stroke/stroke cycle does it refer to

What does it mean/refer to

Relevant calls

What to look for

Arms

Arms + body

Quarter/half/three-quarter slide

Full slide

Effect(s) on the boat

Related posts/questions

Image via // @rowingcelebration