Tag: coxswain

Coxing High School Q&A Teammates & Coaches

Question of the Day

By readyallrow October 29, 2015

I am a girl and I recently joined a new club team that has a very small group of girls and a very large group of guys. I started out coxing the novice guys so I know them pretty well and we work well together but recently I was switched to coxing the for girls. I feel like I work better with the guys and would like to go back to coxing for them. How do I approach my coach about this without sounding like I am complaining or being a team player?

I would first talk with the guys coach to see if there’s even a spot available for another coxswain on the team before you talk with your coach. (Even if you think there is, don’t assume anything until you’ve heard confirmation from the coach.) It’s like looking for a job – you shouldn’t quit your original job until you’ve landed another one otherwise you’re probably gonna get screwed. Same general principle applies here … at least in my opinion. You don’t have to go into all the details but I’d say something along the lines of you enjoyed being on the guys team, felt you worked well with him (the coach) and the rowers, and wanted to know if you were to switch back to the men’s team in the spring season (not mid-season, because that’s a shitty thing to do and not indicative of a “team player”), would there be a spot open for you and would you be able to compete right away for whatever boat it is you want. I’d let them know that you haven’t talked to your coach about this yet either but plan to do so within the next few days, just so they don’t end up saying something to them that puts you in an awkward position by giving your coach the impression that you’re going behind his/your team’s back.

If the men’s coach says there’d be a spot for you then the next step is talking with your coach. I would ask to meet with them one-on-one before or after practice and just lay out that when you started with the club you coxed with the men’s team and really enjoyed it because of XYZ. Explain to them your reasons for wanting to switch back to coxing them and try to avoid throwing anyone on your current team under the bus or saying something that implies you just like the other people better. Doing that is just going to come off wrong and won’t do you any favors. You don’t want to burn any bridges in the process of switching teams so you have to be as professional as possible about it and frame everything so that your reasons are about how/why you’ll thrive and have the kind of success you want with the other team and not about just liking a certain group of people more than another.

If the men’s coach says there isn’t a spot for you, accept that and figure out a way to work with your current teammates. Try talking with some of the varsity coxswains to see if they have any advice or if there’s something more serious going on, talk about it with your coach and ask them what advice they have for developing a better working relationship with the girls in your boat. Figuring out how to work well with people that you don’t necessarily get along or see eye-to-eye with is a solid life skill and this is a good opportunity to figure out some strategies for how to do that. (I always felt it came in handy in high school and college when working on group projects since group projects, you know, suck…)

I’ve always been of the opinion that a coach can’t tell you that you’re not allowed to switch teams – I just don’t think it’s within their power to do that – so talking with them is more of a courtesy thing to let them know what’s going on more than anything else. I do think they have the right to be a little annoyed though but that shouldn’t really stop you from doing what you think is best for you/your rowing career. Like I said, you don’t want to burn any bridges but I also think you need to stick to your guns in situations like this. Coaches have a tendency to guilt trip people into staying on their current team and I personally don’t think that’s fair, for coxswains in particular since how well we work with the people in our boat can literally be the make-or-break factor in determining how well that crew does. Whatever you decide to do, be mature about how you approach things and you should be fine.

College Recruiting Teammates & Coaches

College Recruiting: Highlight videos + the worst recruiting emails

By readyallrow October 27, 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 have become a big thing in the last couple of years but they’re mainly geared towards teams or specific crews to highlight their season, training trips, or specific regattas (Henley, for example…). They can also be useful during the recruiting process too if you take the time to compile some good footage of yourself. All it takes is asking your coach to shoot some video from the launch (of you specifically, meaning the camera is focused on you and you can’t see anyone else other than the rowers directly in front of and behind you) or if you can’t get some on-the-water video, setting your laptop up to record yourself while you row on the erg. Each clip only needs to be about 15-20 seconds long and the video itself doesn’t need to be more than 90 seconds to 2 minutes max.

Some examples of clips that coaches said they like to see are:

Ones shot from the side you row (duh/obviously – i.e. if you’re a port, video shot from the port side)

From directly behind the coxswain so you can see all eight blades (this lets them look at your catch angle and finishes)

Clips of drills (there were no specific drills mentioned but ones like cut-the-cake, top 6 inches, etc. are always good go-to’s)

Slow-motion footage that shows you/your blade going through one full stroke-cycle

By no means is that a complete list either, those are just the ones I remember being specifically mentioned. Additionally, if you participate in any kind of lifting program, getting footage of you doing cleans, deadlifts, etc. are also good because it gives the coaches another opportunity to observe your form. If you don’t know how to do these lifts or don’t do them on a regular basis though, don’t worry about this.

Something else to consider is asking the coach if they would like some video of you rowing and when they would like it. (This also applies to coxswains who want to send along recordings.) I thought this was a good point to bring up because there’s a convenient time to get video and an inconvenient time and giving the coach the opportunity to say “yea, I’d love to see some video but I’m swamped right now while we prep for HOCR – can you send it to me sometime next week?” just shows a good sense of awareness and respect for their time.

For coxswains wanting to compile a highlight video, I’d consider doing something like this (below).

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

Coxswain highlight reels weren’t brought up during the discussion with the coaches but it’s definitely something I’d encourage you to do in lieu of just sending one or two race recordings. Not only does it let you segment out the parts of each recording that you think showcase you at your best but it also lets you include more footage, thus giving the coaches a more complete idea of who you are as a coxswain. If I were putting something like this together I’d include…

Three to four race clips, 90sec long max (one from the body of a head race, one from the start + first 500m of a sprint race, one from the middle 500m of a different sprint race, and one from the last 500m of another different sprint race)

One or two clips (no more than 90sec max each) of you going through a warmup or drill (preferably both but if I had to choose I’d go with a drill, particularly one that shows off your ability to actually call the drill while providing good, effective feedback at the same time)

One or two clips of practice footage, be it a race piece, steady state, etc.

The video I linked above was almost 10 minutes long which should be fine as long as you’re varying what you include (hence why I posted the examples of clips I’d include). I would also include a “stats” page at the beginning and end like the coxswain in that video did, as well as putting in the description box the times that each new recording starts.

If you don’t have a GoPro then regular recordings are fine but if you do have a GoPro, definitely include some of that footage in there. When I’m watching GoPro video I’m always looking to see if the coxswains are making calls for the things I’m seeing with timing, blade work, set, ratio, positioning on other crews if you’re doing pieces/racing, etc. so whatever footage you use, make sure it shows you doing all of this. Don’t put it in there just because it’s from a GoPro and everyone would rather see actual video over traditional recordings set against a montage of pictures. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that … it’s just that video from your point of view gives a better indication of how technically sound you are, something that is obviously an important part of being a good coxswain.)

The second part of today’s post is about the worst recruiting emails the coaches have received from prospective recruits. I’ve heard so many good stories about the awful, awful, awful emails kids send but since one of the #1 rules of coaching is “stories told on the launch and/or after hours at the bar stay on the launch/in the bar”, I can’t share them. Suffice it to say though that kids say some dumb shit and yes, you are endlessly mocked for it … in one case, six years later … so just keep that in mind as you start reaching out to coaches. Spell check, proofreading, humility, and common fucking sense are your friends.

Also keep in mind that coaches talk (a lot) so there’s a reasonably good chance that if you’re looking at a certain school and that coach sees the coach of another school that you might also be looking at (think the Ivies or other grouped schools like that), they might say “Hey, have you heard from a kid named ____? Let me tell you about the email he/she sent me last week…”. You’ve been warned.

Ivy League, top-3 men’s lightweight program

The email started off “I’m writing on behalf of my grandson…”. If your parents emailing coaches on your behalf is bad, getting your grandparents to do it (or them doing it on their own) is even worse. I can’t remember how this coach said he responded but it was something to the effect of “please have your grandson email us if he’s interested in our program” and that was it.

Email sent to several Ivy League men’s coaches with ALL THE COACHES included on the email

This email, which was the first email any of these coaches had received from this person, began with “Hello coaches, this time next year I will be rowing for one of your programs…”. I think the coach who brought this one up said this came from a female coxswain, which almost doesn’t surprise me. Almost. Yea, it takes a certain amount of balls to be a female coxswain on a top men’s collegiate team but including 5+ coaches on the same email and then starting it off like that is pretty damn presumptuous and definitely doesn’t convey whatever “confident” tone/message that person probably thought it did. The coach said this was a huge turn-off and needless to say, they didn’t pursue her to join their team.

Emails from parents

Nearly every coach at both NRC and Sparks (meaning men’s and women’s programs from both D1 and D3) said that they’ve had numerous parents email them over the years to talk about how great their kid is, what a great fit they’d be for their program, how much they love the school, etc. That’s cool … except if your kid really did love the school and really did want to row there they’d probably be taking the initiative to contact the coaches themselves. All this communicates to the coaches is that your parents want you to go to that school, you’re not interested enough to reach out on your own, or both. Do not ask or let your parents email coaches on your behalf. It’s lazy and you’re basically a freaking adult. Do the work yourself and show some interest in the process.

D1 men’s heavyweight program and D1 men’s lightweight program

This apparently is not an uncommon occurrence since I heard one of these stories at Sparks and the other this past spring when I was talking to a coach at IRAs. Basically it goes like this. Kid is looking at Team #1 and Team #2. Kid emails Team #1 and begins the email with “Dear Coach [of Team #2]” and includes mentions of several things related to Team #2 … despite sending the email to the coach of Team #1. Coach of Team #1 forwards email to coach of Team #2 and says “I think this was supposed to go to you”. Coach of Team #2 says “lol delete“. Kid does not get pursued by Team #1 coach or Team #2 coach.

I wish I had some examples of bad emails sent to women’s coaches but luckily for us/unfortunately for the guys, I haven’t heard any … yet. That one from the coxswain though just made me cringe so hard when I heard it so as far as I’m concerned everybody’s even.

Next week: Official and unofficial visits

Coxing Racing Video of the Week

Video of the Week: River tour of the Head of the Schuylkill course

By readyallrow October 19, 2015

If you’re new to the Schuylkill, check out this video that goes through the course and points out all the relevant landmarks and points along the race.

Also check out the post linked above that I did last year that gives some additional insight into the river, bridges, etc.

Coxing Racing

HOCR: Weeks, Lowell House, and “The Turning Tree”

By readyallrow October 8, 2015

Previously: Getting to the starting line || Steering through the bridges || Landmarks along the course || Steering around the turns || Race plans || My general race plan || Yaz Farooq’s coxswain clinic || Race plan “hacks” || The course in meters

You can’t talk about Weeks without talking about the Powerhouse Stretch or Lowell House because how you’re positioned relative to both will have a pretty big impact on how efficient your turn through the bridge is.

If you’re unfamiliar with Harvard’s campus, Lowell House is an undergrad dorm that is frequently used as an HOCR landmark due it’s tall steeple and bright blue dome that stands out above the tree line along the Cambridge shore. When someone says “point at the blue dome”, this is what they’re talking about. In the picture below they are just to the right of center.

As you come up the Powerhouse Stretch, ideally you’ll be coming through the center arches of the River St. and Western Ave. bridges. You can use the Cambridge arches (the ones on the far right) but the center arches are “standard procedure”. Going through the Powerhouse your point is going to be on the center of the center arches (again, ideally) but as you come out of Western the next big landmark you should be aiming for is Lowell. (There is a “mini”-landmark that you can check yourself on immediately out of the bridge and that’s your position relative to the buoy line – you want to be pointed at the outermost buoy as it begins to turn around Weeks. This should take half a second to spot-check before you shift your focus to Lowell.) If you’re in a good spot then you won’t really need to adjust your point much but if you come out pointing at something else (the bridge, the Cambridge shore, etc.) you’ll have to do a little steering to set yourself up for Weeks.

As you get closer to the bridge you’ll start to see the dome disappear behind the horizon. This is normal and is supposed to happen. Too many coxswains freak out because they lose sight of Lowell, which I don’t really get because … what else did you think was going to happen? As it goes behind the trees, your focus should shift to “the turning tree”. If you go to Yaz’s clinic then you’ll probably hear her talk about this.

Related: Yaz Farooq’s HOCR Clinic

The turning tree is in the photo up above (in the center of the picture on the very far right hand side), although because the leaves haven’t changed yet it still blends in with the shoreline. Usually by HOCR it’s the only tree along that whole stretch of shore that has changed colors (usually to a bright yellow) so it’s pretty easily identifiable. It’s not hard to pick out regardless of what color it is though just because it sticks out over the water a bit, as you can see in the picture.

As you’re rowing towards Lowell you want to stay straight until you get even with the tree and then begin your turn to port to go through Weeks. Some coxswains go when their bow is even with the tree, some go when they are even the tree. I’ve personally found my turns to be more effective when I wait until I’m even with the tree but I think a large part of that has to do with how well your boat responds to the rudder. The start of the turn is pretty easy (AKA it should all be done on the rudder) so you shouldn’t be using pressure from the rowers quite yet but if you wait too long to turn (like until you’re past the tree) then you’ll need to use a lot more pressure from your starboard side to get you through cleanly.

Below is some video I took during practice last week of our two coxswains going around the turn during our most recent “5k Friday” piece. Both did a pretty good job steering through here so this should give you a good idea of how the turn should look.

Image via // @nathanaelleomusic

Coxing Rowing Technique

The Four Defaults

By readyallrow October 1, 2015

When there are so many different things happening in a such a short amount of time it can be tough knowing what exactly to look at or make calls for, particularly if you’re a novice and have’t fully grasped all the technical nuances yet. The four things listed below are the “defaults” that you should always be paying attention to (every day at practice and as necessary during races) since they are what tend to have the biggest impacts on boat speed (slowing it down when adjustments are needed and increasing it when adjustments are made).

Related: So, what did you see?

Timing at the catch and finish

This should be the most obvious. Are the blades going in and coming out together? If you notice that the timing is off at one (or both) end(s) of the stroke then you should immediately be making a call, either to a specific person, pair, or the entire crew, to get them back into rhythm with the stroke and following the cadence they’re setting.

Related: Timing at the catch

Ratio

This should be the second most obvious. Standard ratio is 2:1, meaning the recovery should be twice as long as the drive – 2 (recovery) to 1 (drive). Rush during the second half of the recovery (starting from the bodies over position) can kill boat speed so it’s important to call a ratio-shift when you feel this happening to get the crew back on track. Communication with the stroke can be a big help here since they’re usually more aware of when rush is happening than you are (unless it’s really bad).

Related: Ratio

Blade coverage

There should be no missed water at the catch and no washing out at the finish – the blade stays fully buried all the way through from beginning to end. If you’re coxing novices or less-experienced rowers, make sure that you communicate what the proper depth is (there’s usually tape on the oar shaft down near the blade – they shouldn’t be buried past that point).

Related: An Intro to Rigging, pt. 3: Pitch (Quick note: adjusting the rigging should never be your “go to” solution. Fix your technique first then see if any alterations can be made to the rigging to complement the changes you’ve made with your rowing.)

Jump at the catch

This is also referred to as the “impulse”. It’s a result of getting a strong, committed, and deliberate push off the foot boards as the blade enters the water and the slide changes direction. The further into practice/the race you are, the more likely it’s going to be that you need to make a call for this since it relies heavily on maximum engagement from the legs.

Related: Boat feel

Keep in mind that this is something you can feel more easily than you can see. If the the rowers are missing water at the catch then that’s a visual indication that the “impulse” isn’t happening but if you’re experienced enough to have a good sense of boat feel then the boat feeling sluggish, heavy, etc. should be another indication that you need to spend some time focusing on reigniting that impulse at the front end.

Image via // @j.bluff

Coxing Novice Q&A Teammates & Coaches

Question of the Day

By readyallrow September 27, 2015

Hi! This is my second year as a coxswain on a girls’ high school team. We just had some novices come in so they’re relatively new to the sport. I’m worried that I may be too mean/harsh with the rowers. Earlier today I was coxing a quad back to slings to wash it. It is difficult to move the boat from the dock to the slings – there are quite a few poles on the dock and around the slings area. I’d already told the rowers not to move and the next thing I hear, one end of the boat had come in contact with a pole (not exactly a crash but the boat had hit the pole). While the sound wasn’t too loud I immediately yelled, “I said, DON’T MOVE until I give a command!” I feel like I may have been too mean but at the time my only concern was to not wreck the boat. What is your opinion and how should I effectively take control calmly in this situation?

I’ve been dealing with similar stuff all week so I totally get where you’re coming from. I have a really hard time understanding how someone can be told to follow this instruction or not do something or whatever and then they go and do literally the exact opposite. Especially if we tell you to do something, directly ask you if you understand, and you say YES, indicating to us that you comprehend what we said and will do whatever we said to do/not do whatever we said not to do.

Admittedly, I’m a pretty impatient person in general and when instructions (not requests … instructions) not being followed leads or has the potential to lead to a dangerous situation (like, oh I donno, rowing against the traffic pattern in the basin in a Tubby or rowing 500m away from the launch to the point where we can’t see you after we specifically said “stick with the other Tubbies”), I become very tense and on edge. I know that as soon as that happens anything I say is going to reflect the “WTF ARE YOU DOING” feelings going through my head and I do question sometimes if I’m going to come off as being too harsh as a result. I care but at the same time I don’t because it all comes back to if you had just followed the REALLY, REALLY, REALLY STRAIGHTFORWARD AND SIMPLE INSTRUCTIONS that I gave you in the first place, we wouldn’t be in this position. I’m guessing you probably felt the same way. A lot of people say “you can’t get too mad, they’re just novices…” but I think that’s bullshit because you don’t need to be a varsity rower to be able to follow an instruction as simple as “don’t move”.

I don’t think that getting frustrated in situations like this means you’re being too harsh or mean with the rowers. Others might disagree, which is fine, but that’s my opinion. Safety is your number one priority and protecting the equipment falls under that umbrella so as long as you’re not actually yelling at them and calling them a bunch of idiots (out loud), I don’t think you have anything to worry about.

After your next practice, I’d recommend taking them aside and apologizing if you came across overly aggressive but make it clear that as a coxswain safety is your top priority and it’s very frustrating when people don’t listen and jeopardize the safety of the equipment, other teammates, etc. Traffic patterns, how to stay safe in the boat, etc. are not suggestions, they’re rules and protocols that are in place for. a. reason. Going out and blatantly ignoring what we said after previously indicating they understood puts them and anyone else on the river in danger.

Explain to them why you said don’t move and point out the poles you have to navigate around so they can see why it’s important that they listen to you. Also say that you try to make sure your voice is heard (which hopefully you do) but you know that when there’s a lot going on around you it can be harder to hear so you’ll make more of an effort in the future to talk loud and make sure everyone on the boat hears what you’re saying so there’s no confusion on what you want/need them to do.

Hopefully that explanation will clear things up and you won’t have this problem again but if you do, ask one of the varsity coxswains or team captains to address them. If the issue persists after that, talk to your coach and let them know that you and the other coxswains/captains have already addressed this several times but the message doesn’t seem to be getting through. If it gets to that point it’s best for you to take a step back, not say anything, and let your coach address it because if this is a regular thing you’ve been dealing with you’ll probably be pretty pissed off and that’s when you’re more likely to say something that is too mean/harsh.

Coxing Q&A

Question of the Day

By readyallrow September 27, 2015

This is my second season coxing and I have realized that last season I did not focus that much on the technical aspect throughout practice except for the occasional timing calls. In efforts to improve myself as a coxswain, I’ve been researching on reading puddles and technical calls to make, however it is hard for me to relate to my rowers on the boat. This is especially due to myself never rowing before yesterday. After being placed in sixth seat for a mere ten minutes for the remainder of practice, I learned so much more than I had learned the past few weeks – especially actually understanding the calls I make. I would love to do this again, however I do not know how to express this to my coaches. A lot of emphasis is placed on the rowers, not the coxswains, and I’m worried that the coaches will see it as a waste of a seat in the boat, especially since our water days are limited if I were to row one day. Any tips on how to approach my coaches with this?

Oh, and thanks so much for taking the time to write this blog! It’s helped me a lot, especially as a novice coxswain.

I’d tell them that you got a lot out of being switched into 6-seat and it really helped you to understand the calls you’re making since you were able to actually process and execute the action(s) the calls ask for, which in turn helped you with XYZ (whatever that may be). Ask them if it’s possible for the coxswains to go out in a four together once a week for 15-20 minutes at the end of practice (my coaches did this with us and it was great) or if you could switch spots again with one of the rowers on the way back to the dock. Neither of those would interfere with your actual practice since it’d be after the fact or at the end of the day when the rowers are just paddling it in anyways.

I think if you phrase it in a way that makes it evident that you took something away from the experience and want to continue doing it for that reason they’ll be more open to the idea. I can understand why coaches are hesitant to take coxswains out, especially if they don’t come off that serious about coxing in the first place, but if you feel like it helped you and would be beneficial to do again or on a regular basis, tell them that and see if they can make it happen.

Coxing Rowing Technique

Coxswain Skills: Boat Feel

By readyallrow September 24, 2015

Previously: Steering, pt. 1 || Steering, pt. 2

“Boat feel” is something that you’ve gotta understand regardless of who/what you’re coxing. It most often comes up when we’re talking about bow loaders since instead of seeing what’s happening you’ve gotta feel it but everything below is applicable to any boat you’ll ever be in.

The way my coach approached it and how some of the best coaches I’ve worked with lately have approached it is that you should ideally spend your first season learning the basics of rowing, meaning you focus on just the bodies and blades. The following season, that’s when you start to really tie in the associations between what’s happening with the bodies + blades and what your body is feeling. That’s not to say that you can’t think about what boat feel is/means your first season but like they say, you can’t construct a building on a weak foundation. Plus, if you’re in boats with novice crews it’s pretty likely that nothing is going to feel good to the point where you’ll really be able to develop any sense of real boat feel anyways.

Once you’ve developed a fairly solid understanding of the basic mechanics of the stroke, then you should start asking yourself how your body reacts to these three things: the movements of the boat, changes in the stroke, and technical adjustments made by the rowers. That (the italicized) is boat feel if you were to define it.

The first thing you should do to give yourself a baseline to go off of is figure out what your body is doing when the boat is running well and things feel good. What that means is consciously thinking about how every part of your body that is in contact with the shell feels (i.e. feet, legs, hips, core/back, hands, etc.). I like to think about all of this when we’re doing steady state because I have more time to focus on each of the three things I mentioned before. I think about it when we’re doing drills and stuff too but it’s a mid-level priority since my main priority is actually executing whatever we’re doing. I also like to force myself to think about it when we’re doing high rate stuff (30 stroke pieces are great for this) so I can get used to feeling how the boat moves in racing situations and managing doing that while my brain is trying to process fifteen other things at the same time. (This helps a lot when you’re actually racing because it takes less effort to do once you’ve practiced it a lot.)

Once you know how your body reacts to the boat moving well (which basically means it’s balanced, you’re getting good run, and the rowers are taking effective strokes) it’ll be easier for you to pinpoint when something is off. From there you can address the issue by reinforcing whatever your coach has been teaching lately or by making the call for the appropriate technical adjustment (hence why you need to have a good base understanding of the bodies + blades).

Once you’ve done that, give the rower(s) a couple strokes to make a change. During this time you should be feeling the boat again and asking yourself if and why it feels different, i.e. did the rower(s) make a positive change or a negative change. If it doesn’t feel any different or it feels worse then maybe the call you made didn’t fully address the problem or the rower was unsure of how to implement the change. This is something to bring up to your coach the next time you stop. If the boat feels good, meaning your body’s hit that baseline feeling again, then reinforce the change by giving the rower(s) some positive feedback.

Developing boat feel requires two main things – time and focus. The more time you spend in a boat consciously working on this, the better you’ll get at developing it. Same with focus, the more time you spend processing what you’re feeling instead of just spitting it back out at the rowers, the better you’ll be at understanding the relationship between what they’re doing and how the shell responds.

Image via // @henryfieldman

Coxing How To Novice

Coxswain Skills: Steering, pt. 2

By readyallrow September 17, 2015

Previously: Steering, pt. 1 (Oversteering)

Depending on who you talk to when you first start coxing, you’ll either be told that you should always be steering or that you shouldn’t be steering at all. Both of those are correct-ish but are still pretty vague and can be interpreted a couple different ways, which leads to either some aggressive oversteering or watching a coxswain steer directly into a boat in front of them because you said not to steer. Obviously that’s not what you meant but to a novice who doesn’t know any better, they’re going to take you literally even when common sense dictates that maybe they should steer to port to avoid the boat that’s directly in front of them.

When you’re told that you “shouldn’t be steering” what that actually means is that you shouldn’t be overcorrecting (aka making more adjustments/corrections than are necessary). The ultimate goal when it comes to steering is to do it just enough that the boat responds but not so much that the rowers can sense that it’s happening. Outside of steering around long bends or sharp turns, they shouldn’t be able to tell (by the boat going off-set or seeing the zig-zag trail in the water behind you) when adjustments are being made. This is where knowing how your shell responds to the rudder and how far you have to move the strings before the rudder moves can come in handy.

Another important thing to remember is that “small adjustments” doesn’t relate to how far forward you’re moving the strings, it has to do with much the rudder moves. You’d think the two would be one in the same (and in most cases they are) but I’ve been in boats where the steering cables are really loose and I have to move my hand forward a few inches (aka not a small amount) just to get the rudder to move a quarter of an inch. If you know this is the case with certain boats then make sure you let the other coxswains know, especially if they’re new to the team and/or haven’t coxed that particular boat before.

If someone says that you should always be steering that doesn’t mean that you should constantly be moving the rudder back and forth, rather it means that you should always be anticipating what adjustments need to be made based on what the boat is doing, what’s happening up ahead, the wind/water conditions, etc. Hearing “you should always be steering” tends to lead to the oversteering problems I talked about last week though so a better way of saying that would be that you should always be thinking about steering in the context of the things I just mentioned but only actually doing it when you need to.

The experienced coxswains out there will know that the more proficient you get with steering the more it becomes an “auto-pilot” skill. For me, I tend to only consciously think about steering a few times per practice and it’s usually only when there’s a lot of traffic around me. If there’s minimal traffic, conditions are good, and we’re rowing well I might come off having not thought about it at all. Part of it is knowing the river and part of it is just knowing based on sight/feel when I need to make an adjustment vs. having to actually think about and process what needs to happen.

It’s a little tough to explain but you’ll eventually get to the point where you’ll get off the water and your coach will say “nice course today!” and you’ll think “… uh … I don’t even remember steering, let alone what course I took”. This isn’t something that’s just naturally going to happen though. If you aren’t consistently practicing your steering skills then “eventually” could be a couple seasons (or years) away, whereas if you’re regularly focused on all the things I’ve talked about previously that go into steering an effective course, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t be fully confident in your steering abilities within two seasons or so after you start coxing.

Image via // @grimey_grim

Coxing Q&A

Question of the Day

By readyallrow September 12, 2015

Hey! Was it like ‘bro day’ (my coaches words) on the Charles today because there were a bunch of stupid college freshmen guys in singles just basically rowing very badly. Some college must have sent out their novices in unmarked singles. What was happening was a whole bunch of guys in singles rowing steady state from about the Elliot Bridge to the Cambridge Street bridge when we spun and went back down the river. There were two singles who were especially annoying because they were going at the exact same pace as my coxed 4+ and THEY WERE PASSING ON THE INSIDE. I ended up steering us more towards the middle of the river, but still on the right side. I couldn’t get back to the right because one boat’s stern was close to my bow ball and at the other end of my boat it was the same except in reverse. They then proceeded to row AT EXACTLY THE SAME PACE AS US. The first time I saw them was during the hard right after Elliot bridge when the first guy was attempting to pass me on shore side. I had to yell to him because he was going to crash into me with his bow. (TBH it made me feel really good to yell to him…) I had brought us through the bridge badly so I had my 2 seat drop out (it was a starboard stroked boat) so yeah that was interesting. Also another time I was trying to go under some bridge and the guy on my tail wanted to go through at the exact same time. But I was like ‘hell no, I’m going for this’ and we both made it through with out crashing. I had to be a tad creative with my steering but you know whatever. The only good thing was that my coach praised me for handling the situation well and not freaking out. Oh and I got some great steering experience. This isn’t really a question I just wanted to rant. How would you have handled the situation? Or just tell me a story that’s kinda similar maybe? Or do you know if it was ‘bro day’ and WHOSE ‘bro day’ it was?

Ha. “Bro day.” I don’t want to throw any of the other men’s teams under the bus because I honestly don’t know who it could have been but your coach certainly could have asked them who they row for if it was THAT big of a deal and they wanted to mention it to that team’s coach.

I probably would have been annoyed too but I also would’ve handled it completely differently. First, there’s no point in getting competitive with them and trying to go through the bridge at the same time because you don’t know what could happen. That’s like, safety and common sense 101. Personally, I would have been pissed at you if I was your coach in this situation. If you don’t trust their steering why would you put yourself in a situation where you’re going under a bridge together? The smarter solution would have been to yell over and say “hey, do you mind waiting or throwing in a pause so we can get through the bridge and get some separation between us?”. If he was behind you and you couldn’t directly say something to him then you could have told your stroke to yell up at him to wait. You made it through without crashing this time. At the Sparks camp I was at this summer, Marcus (McElhenney) said something to one of the coxswains that applies perfectly here. The coxswain had screwed something up and said “…but it worked so whatever” and Marcus said “No, your bow seat saved your ass. It didn’t “work”.” I’ll say the same thing to you. What you did didn’t “work”, you just got lucky.

If you did say something to them about going through one at a time and they straight up ignored you (and you know that there was no way that they didn’t hear you or your stroke say something), then you can get pissed at them. You still have to maintain some sense of decorum though. My usual response to something like this is to look at the coxswain or rower if it’s a straight boat and say “Dude, really?” or I just look at them and raise my hands in such a way that you know I’m directing a really irritated “WTF” your way.

Second, they’re in singles, you’re in a four. If the singles being rowed by novices (assuming they actually were novices) are rowing at the same pace as a four of what I’m assuming are experienced rowers, that is WAY more your issue than it is theirs. YOU need to up your pressure, up your rate, row by all four, etc. to get ahead of them or stop, throw in some pause drills, etc. to let them get far enough ahead that their presence isn’t going to interfere with your practice. If your coach isn’t telling you to do one of those things then you have to make a judgement call and either just do it or ask your coach if you can modify whatever you’re currently doing. If you’re getting pissed because another crew is constantly near you and/or in your way, take the initiative and figure out how to create some separation. When you’re on the highway and get stuck near a slow moving car, do you continue to sit there and bitch because they’re not going the speed limit? No, you switch lanes, hit the gas, and move away from them. The same exact thing applies here. Coxswains get zero sympathy from me in situations like this because you’re the one with the power to tell your crew to get you away from them.

Third, if they were novices, what are the chances that they know the “don’t pass on the inside” rule? Even if it was something their coach told them, it probably wasn’t something they were thinking about while they were out there. That doesn’t excuse their behavior obviously but if they looked like they didn’t know what they were doing, what does yelling at them accomplish? I get how it can be kinda cathartic to yell at someone when you’re pissed at them but you missed an opportunity to just say “hey, not sure if you know this or not but on the Charles there’s a rule that when passing someone you always pass on the left”. I’ve said that to people before in a pretty visibly annoyed way (including to masters rowers from CBC who I know know the rules because they’ve been rowing for like forty years) but yelling at them wouldn’t have done anything except make me and my team look like assholes.

If I had to be near those guys though (i.e. we were doing drills or low rate/pressure stuff) I probably would have told them what I just said but let them stay on the inside (and moved out closer to the middle) just because I think it’s a lot more dangerous to have a bunch of errant singles out in the middle of the river, especially going downstream after Eliot, than it is to have them in between the shore and me. I’d rather risk the equipment getting dinged up than risk them or another crew getting seriously injured because they were out in the middle of the river and possibly/most likely going on the wrong side of the traffic pattern. Again though, to preface that whole situation I would have either asked them to wait for us to get ahead of them and then told my crew to pick up the rate/pressure for 10-20 strokes or had them go ahead and taken a 2-3 minute water break while we waited.

So … I guess my point is that while your coach said you handled it well, from an outsider’s perspective with only one side of the story I think there are definitely improvements you could make if you find yourself in a similar situation in the future. There’s a lot of new people on the river right now which means the rest of us have to exercise a good amount of patience when it comes to interacting with them, at least for the next few weeks. It also means that you need to COMMUNICATE WITH THEM just like you would another coxswain on your team. It honestly confuses the hell out of me when coxswains look at basic communication (especially with coxswains or scullers not on their team) as their fifth option or something instead of something they should be doing automatically all the time.

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