Tag: coxswain

Question of the Day

By readyallrow June 8, 2014

Hi there!! So I am a junior school (Under 14′s) cox and we have moved into using bow loader quads, instead of the usual stern loaders we used to use. We have been racing in an oct for awhile so I am a bit out of practice with the quads. Anyways, in the bow loader, I obviously have a very restricted field of vision, so I was wondering if you had any tips on “reading” or “feeling” the boat, to pick up on faults e.t.c ? Also I sometimes feel like I stay quiet for too long, during steady state if there are no obvious technical calls, rate calls, or rhythm calls. Is there anything that I can say to make it a bit less silent and awkward for the rowers?

Don’t underestimate the power of not talking. I think there are plenty of rowers who will agree with me in saying that if you don’t have anything constructive to say, especially during steady state, it’s best to just not say anything. When we’re doing long pieces I’ll actually tell the rowers that for the next 2, 3, 5, etc. minutes, I’m not gonna talk and that they should focus on X, Y, and Z. During that time I focus first on steering and second on feeling the boat. If I’m weak in any area as a coxswain, it’s definitely steering. I mean, I’m pretty proficient at it but if I had to grade myself I’d definitely give myself a lower grade there compared to my other skills. When I get the chance to go off auto-pilot and actually focus on the adjustments I’m making, I take the opportunity. You can read about all that and the technique “game” I play during steady state pieces in a bit more detail in the post linked below.

When it comes to feeling the boat, the best thing you can do for yourself is listen painfully hard when the coach is going though a technical practice with the crew. I hate technical practices because they’re boring as hell and there’s hardly ever anything for coxswains to actually do but I appreciate them to an extent because it helps me continue developing my sense of boat feel, regardless of whether I’m coxing an eight or a four. What you want to do is focus on how the boat feels while the rowers are doing the drill and how it feels after the coach gives them an instruction or feedback (i.e.”pull in higher”, “good adjustment with the hands”, etc.). For the most part, I gauge the “feel” of the boat by averaging the last three strokes. How did the last three strokes feel as a whole after an adjustment was made vs. pre-adjustment?

You can’t judge how the boat’s moving or what the rowers are doing if you look at it stroke by stroke – or at least, I don’t think you can. You’ve gotta base it off of what’s consistently happening. If the boat is set for ten strokes, dips to starboard for one, and then goes back to being set for several strokes, do you really need to say something about handle heights? On the flip side, when you would say something is if it’s down to one side for several strokes then setting up for one before going back to being offset because then you know that someone (or multiple someones) is consistently doing something that’s affecting the set (whereas before it might have been one person trying to readjust themselves on the seat or something).

Anyways, the point is is that if you use your time wisely during technical practices then when you’re doing steady state you can test yourself regarding technique and how that makes the boat feel. If the boat is doing this then you know either X or Y must be happening. X is caused by this, Y is caused by that. The factors causing X aren’t something your crew typically has an issue with but you know that factors B and C (that cause problem Y) are two things that your 3-seat has been working on a lot lately. Keeping that in mind, whenever you start talking again you can make a call for that or when you stop you can say to your coach “It felt like Y was happening and I know Dan has been working on B and C lately but I couldn’t tell if that was what was actually causing the problem. Did you see anything?” and then go from there.

Coxing Ergs

Winter training tips for coxswains

By readyallrow June 3, 2014

…because we all know there’s no worse time to be a coxswain than during the winter.

The winter months are a great time for coxswains to work on two main skills: your ability to spot and diagnose technical proficiencies/deficiencies and polish up some of your calls. One of the best things you can do for yourself is talk to your coach and ask them to let you run a practice (or multiple practices) under their supervision. As thrilling as taking the rowers through a body circuit is, doing that for 3+ months is not going to make you a better coxswain.

One of my coaches overheard a friend and I whining about taking our respective eights through circuits our sophomore year (pretty sure the gist of our conversation was “this is so stupid, I’m so bored, I could be doing my homework right now (lol), etc.”) so the next practice he had us stay upstairs and alternate taking the rowers through warmups and different drills. It was good for us because at that point after a year of experience we knew how things should be called, we just needed to fine-tune how we did it.

When it comes to working on your technical calls, you should limit this to two occasions: warmups/drills and group workouts where everyone is rowing at the same pace (rate pyramids are an ideal workout for this). Basically anytime the rowers are all doing the same thing, go for it, otherwise, be a silent observer. In cases like this, you’re not really focusing on the individual so the rowers who don’t like being coxed on the erg won’t have much to complain about. This is more for you than it is for them anyways.

One of the main things you should focus on is how you call the transitions between rates, pressure, starts and settles, etc. Remember that just because you’re not on the water doesn’t mean you can start monologue-ing with your calls. Everything should still be simple and concise. I’ve used this analogy before but for those who haven’t heard it, if you can’t tweet whatever call you’re trying to make (aka it’s longer than the length of one tweet, which is 140 characters), it’s too long. Take out the unnecessary words so only the really important ones (the ones that are critical in conveying your message) remain. This would also be a good opportunity to practice the difference between “over” and “on” in terms of when to do something.

If the workout is going to have a technical focus, particularly if you’re in the tanks, determine what the focus is ahead of time (catches, finishes, sequencing, etc.) so you can create a “word bank” comprised of 10-12 calls that you can then incorporate into your vocabulary while you’re coxing. The more you practice them off the water the more natural they’ll sound on the water (and the less effort you’ll have to go through trying to come up with something to say). If you’re an experienced coxswain, don’t fall back on the same general calls that you’re used to using. Get creative and come up with some new ones by listening to recordings, talking with the rowers, etc. This is your time to figure out what works and what doesn’t before you get on the water so don’t waste the opportunity by being lazy.

When incorporating these technical filler calls, also make sure that your tone matches the overall intensity of the piece. The goal in coxing these pieces on land is to mimic how you would do it on the water during practice or in some cases, like you would on race day. (Side note, I think practicing race-day warmups, starts and settles, etc. are all GREAT to do on the ergs, especially if you give yourself a time limit to have it all done by.) If the rowers are doing low-rate steady state pieces with a focus on controlled and in-sync leg drives, don’t cox them like they’re bow ball to bow ball with Brown and Harvard in the grand final at IRAs and you’re trying to nose your boat out in front with a five for legs.

The second thing that you should do when not working on your calls is sharpening up your “technical eye”. Being on land gives you the opportunity to look at the rowers in a way that you don’t normally get to – from the side. This should be your “go to” thing to do if/when you aren’t given anything else to do. I personally don’t like calling drills or whatever while trying to observe the rowers because then my focus is split between the two and I end up not being wholly focused on either. One consistently distracts from the other and if I’m not losing track of what stroke we’re on, how much time is left, etc. then I just end up looking at the rowers without really seeing anything.

Related: The coxswain in winter

When observing the rowers, you should have a picture in your head of what the “ideal” rower’s form looks like. I used to always pick the best rower on our team and compare everyone’s form to her. This is after actually confirming with our coach that she had the best form on the team and would be a good example for others to follow. From there you can compare what you’re seeing in front of you to what you’re visualizing in your head and note what’s different between the two. The details aren’t what’s important here, rather you should be looking at the building-block kind of things – mainly leg drive, the transitions through the body sequence (legs → back → arms and back up), posture, etc.

From there, you can either make the correction directly to the rower or make a note of it in your notebook (which you should absolutely have on you) to address at another time. Something that I’d recommend doing is writing down what the issue was and what correction you made so that you can reference it later (as in days, weeks, or months later). Additionally, if something looks off but you aren’t sure what specifically the problem is, ask an experienced coxswain or your coach if they could look at the rower and explain what they’re seeing, what the correction needs to be, why that specific correction is needed, and what a good on-the-water call for that would be.

I also do a lot of walking when I’m observing the rowers on the ergs. Very rarely do I stand in the same place for more than a minute or two, unless I’m standing at the front of the room and observing everyone as a group. I like to stand in front of each individual for three to five strokes and look at them like I would in the boat. From there I try to figure out what’s good/bad about their form and what they might look like with an oar in their hands. As I mentioned in the post linked above, it’s a game I play with myself. It involves a lot of educated guesswork but ultimately it’s a great way to teach yourself about technique and form in general. And, as I’ve said thousands of times before, if you learn the tendencies of the rowers and what calls to make to address them while you’re still on land then you’ll be one step ahead of the game once you get out on the water.

Coxing Drills How To Q&A

Question of the Day

By readyallrow May 31, 2014

Really quick question. How do you call switches between pairs/fours when you’re doing a pause drill. I find myself saying, “in two stern pair out, 5 and 6 in… uhm… I mean… just switch here” when they hit a pause and it’s awkward for me and my rowers. I don’t know what else to do though. Ideas?

Great question! I typically do one of two things:

The first is I’ll call for the switch while the rowers are on the pause. No “in two” or anything like that, I’ll just hold that pause a second longer and say “stern pair drop out, 5 and 6 in on this one … and row“. This is the quickest, simplest option and the one I do most often.

The second is really difficult to explain in writing without video or something to show you what I mean so hopefully this makes sense. For this one, I’ll do the usual “in two” thing and have the rowers switch on the pause. It’s essentially the same as the first option except you’re counting it out and giving them a bit more prep time to come in. This is usually how I call it:

“OK, let’s go two more pauses and we’ll have stern pair out and 5 and 6 in.
[Stroke]
[Pause hands away]
Row, that’s one… (said during the rest of the recovery)
[Stroke]
[Pause hands away]
Row, that’s two, on this next pause
[Stroke] stern pair out, 5/6 in (said on the drive)
[Pause] stern pair out…
Ready … row.”

The second one isn’t nearly as tough to call as it looks/sounds, it’s just tricky to explain without a visual. Since I’ve prepped them beforehand I very rarely have to tell them to switch on the last pause (where it says “stern pair out”) – they just do it because they know that’s when they’re supposed to come in/go out. Sometimes I’ll say this pair in or this pair out as a quick reminder but I never repeat the whole “X pair in, Y pair out” again because it takes too much time and, to be honest, I’ve already said it twice and adequately prepped you to come in. If you mess it up, it’s on you for not paying attention. After that switch on the pause though I will say “ready…” before continuing on with the drill, just to give the pair coming in an extra second to get situated.

You probably know this already but for those who don’t, one thing that is really important to establish early on is how you’re going to call the switches and when the rowers should come in. This can be something you determine with your coach (on land) or on your own but it needs to be communicated to the rowers so they know what’s going on. I pretty much called it how I wanted and adjusted as necessary when my coaches wanted to switch things up – their main concern was the rowers coming in on time and doing the drill properly so how I called the transitions wasn’t an issue as long as it was clear and easily understood by the rowers. When I was first starting out if it looked/sounded like things were getting a bit confusing they’d stop me and say “maybe try calling it this way and see if that makes it easier…”. I did that a couple of times until I figured out what worked best for me.

Anyways, if I know we’re doing pause drills that day then I’ll say something after we finish the warmup or right before we start the drill about how I’m going to call it, usually something like “OK so when we do the pause drills, this is how I’m going to call the switches. [Briefly summarize…] If you’re switching in then you should come in on the pause and then pause with everyone before I call ‘row’. (Basically you’re starting and ending the drill on the pause, regardless of whether you’re coming in or out – you don’t have to say this but sometimes it clarifies it if there’s still someone who doesn’t understand.) Everybody good?”. I usually only explain it in that much detail at the beginning of the season or if I’m with a boat I’m not used to coxing. Otherwise I’ll say something simple like “remember to switch on the pauses, listen for the call…”. Just make sure that whatever you do, you’re consistent. Don’t change things up mid-drill because that can/will confuse people.

College Coxing Q&A Rowing

Question of the Day

By readyallrow May 28, 2014

I’m a junior in high school and I am starting to look at colleges. I am 5’3 and around 125 pounds. I currently row and would like to continue into college. Is it more realistic for me to try to row lightweight or maybe cox for a men’s team? Thanks!

This is one of the rare cases where one option isn’t necessarily more realistic than the other. They’re both equal in that respect but my initial thought is to say look into coxing because I think you’d have more opportunities (and options) if you pursued that over rowing (and you’re the perfect size for it). I spent some time though going through the roster lists of a couple of the lightweight programs across the country and just based on that small sample size, you could probably row lightweight if you wanted since your height matches (or in some cases, is taller than…) some of the rowers already on the team.

If the schools you’re interested in have a lightweight program or have at least fielded a lightweight 8+ in the last 2-3 years (with decent results), contact the coach. Same goes for men’s programs as well. Like I said, I think you’ll have more options if you choose to cox for a men’s team but you could easily do both depending on what the schools you’re looking at offer.

Coxing Novice Q&A

Question of the Day

By readyallrow May 21, 2014

Hi! I’m a sophomore girl who just finished her novice year as first boat coxswain. I began fall as a rower and started coxing half way through winter (after Crash-Bs). Due to several strokes (haha) of luck (for me) I quickly moved up from being my teams third and least experienced coxswain to my teams only, most experienced, and favored coxswain. We eventually gained two more coxswains but I remained my coach’s and rower’s favorite.

Point of this is that coxing novice first 8+ and first 4+ through several gold medals this season had given me a lot of confidence and I thought I’d be ready for varsity and that I might even be able to beat out some of their current coxswains. But, a couple weeks ago, I broke two riggers and and an oar on our best boat during practice in an accident that left the boat itself and my rowers in tact and ever since then I’m pretty sure the varsity coach–my future coach–hates me a little and no longer trusts me like he seemed to before hand. I apologized and took full responsibility for breaking the boat, the riggers and oar were replaced without too much hassle, and me and my rowers went on to place a close 2nd at Midwest in that boat.

The overall point of this whole story are my questions: do you have any tips on how to improve my coxing over the summer (during which I’m not doing any sort of summer rowing programs)? And, are there any specific things you think I should do to help gain the varsity coach’s trust back? I want to prove to him that I’m good enough for second boat or for the lightweight V8 even as a junior with only a year of experience because I really think I’m not that bad of a coxswain now and that any sort of improvement could boost that. Anyway, thank you so much for this blog and for whatever answer or advice you can give!

I’ll be totally honest with you, if I was your coach I’d probably be a little apprehensive of your coxing abilities for awhile too but at the same time, I’d probably chalk part of whatever happened up to you being a novice. I highly doubt your coach hates you though. Adults don’t really experience the same levels of satisfaction that come with blatantly disliking someone the way we did when we were teenagers so it’s likely that you’re just misinterpreting his frustration with the overall situation as something it’s not. I think you’ll agree with me when I say that he definitely has a right to be frustrated too. I don’t think you need to do anything specific to try and win back his trust and truthfully, I’d advise against trying to apologize again or make some grand gesture because it’s like … whatever, it happened, move on already.

That applies to anyone in similar situations too – two times max is really quite enough when it comes to apologies. Once when it happens and again (privately) after practice. After that I just don’t care anymore and will probably get annoyed with you, as I think most coaches would. Saying you’re sorry umpteen hundred times doesn’t actually mean you’re sorry or prove that you’ve learned anything from what happened. Doing something different at practice and upping your game is a much better way to prove you’ve moved on and have become a better coxswain thanks to the situation you were put in. That would do a lot more for restoring my trust in you than probably anything else you could do.

As far as improving over the summer, if you’re not going to be doing anything rowing related I’d recommend listening to the occasional recording or two when you’ve got some free time (long car rides or flights are perfect for this), doing some research on anything you didn’t fully understand or want to learn more about, etc. Otherwise just take the summer off. There’s nothing wrong with that. If there are rowing programs near you, even if you’re not participating in them see if you can get in contact with one of the coaches and ask to ride in the launch with them for a practice or two. I always liked doing this when I could in Boston because every coach is so unique with their approach that I’d ultimately come off the water having an entirely new perspective on something that I thought I understood pretty well already.

Coxing Novice Q&A Rowing Technique

Question of the Day

By readyallrow May 20, 2014

I’m brand spanking new at coxing. I’m an indoor rower instructor, where correcting form and giving cues is based on having a good view of body position. As a cox, I don’t have the body cues of my crew to help me (beyond my stern seat.) I know paddle height and timing should be telling me what I need, but I’m having a hard time interpreting what I’m seeing into form correction. Any thoughts you could share are appreciated!

Kayakers use paddles, rowers use oars. “Stern seat” is called “stroke”.

As a coxswain, in general you should be less concerned with correcting the bodies and more focused on the things you can see like bladework, timing, puddles, etc. Anything specific regarding the bodies will most likely be individual in nature and come straight from the coach since they have an easier time seeing those kinds of things. You should pay attention to what they’re saying to the rowers or crew as a whole so you can make “reminder” calls as necessary but the majority of your “body calls” are going to come from things you’ve heard the coach say, observations you’ve made on land, etc. and less so from direct observations while you’re coxing.

Just to clarify, I consider “body calls” to be about 99% related to posture and nothing else. Things such as handle heights, for example, are straight technique calls for me because I don’t need to see the body to know what the hands are doing since I can see the oars right in front of me. If something relating to posture is resulting in poor handle heights then I’d normally rely on the coach to make that call before I start postulating from several seats away what the exact issue is.

Now that I’ve been coxing for awhile I can typically make those calls on my own and be right or at least in the ballpark the majority of the time but when I was a novice I’d wait for my coach to make the call and then eventually incorporate the things he said into my own calls during practice, pieces, races, etc. once I had a solid understanding of the issue. Usually he’d go over with me after practice what he saw, why he said what he said, why this is the correction he had them make, etc. and then give me a day or so to process everything before asking me (spur of the moment) to explain it all back to him.

Most of the time it’d be on the water and he’d say “Kayleigh, if you were me, what would you say to Abby in order to correct the problem she’s having with missing water at the catch?” or something along those lines. When I could explain it back to him on the spot, in detail, and in front of my teammates proficiently enough, that is when he’d allow me to start making calls and corrections relating to that issue on my own. This demonstrated to him (and to an extent, my teammates) that I wasn’t just wildly guessing at what might be causing the problem, rather I was making a fairly certain educated guess on what was happening based on what I knew about the stroke, what I knew the rower’s tendencies were, and what the typical corrections were for that or similar issues. When making any kind of calls for the body, having the memory of an elephant helps a ton.

Poor timing is less about body position and more about just being too slow or too fast on the recovery. It can be because of other things but those are the more common reasons. Oar height is related to handle heights. If the blade is up in the air (known as “skying”) then the hands are too close to the legs on the recovery and/or feet at the catch. If the blade is barely off or dragging on the water then the rower most likely didn’t tap his hands down at the finish, meaning the hands are too high. The collection point for the finish is around the belly button/bottom rib so pulling in to this point should give you a solid couple of inches to tap the blade out. When they come away on the recovery the blade should be about six inches off the water to allow for a direct catch with little to no missed water. (If you have more specific questions – i.e. you’re seeing this, what does it mean, how should it be corrected, etc. – feel free to email me.)

Have your coach take a camera out on the water with him and try to get some video of the crew rowing if you want to learn more about what the rowers bodies look like and the corrections they need to make. Also ask if you can ride in the launch one day if you’ve got another coxswain who can switch in for you. I would say though that if you’re just coxing recreationally or as part of a learn-to-row program and not as part of a competitive team, don’t over-think things and try to find a solution to every problem right off the bat or think that every technique error is strictly related to something going wrong with the bodies. (I wouldn’t recommend doing that even if you are coxing competitively…) Just go out, have fun, and steer the boat. Let your coach do the coaching and just listen to what he/she is saying until you become proficient enough to make the calls yourself.

I went out a couple times with some of the adult classes when I coached at CRI and there were few things more irritating than trying to coach a boat with this one rower who knew pretty much nothing about rowing but thought they knew everything because they’d just recently been certified as an indoor instructor. Whenever they’d get in the coxswain’s seat they’d try to make all these grand observations and corrections but all it did was confuse the other rowers, waste time, and piss the coaches off. Input and communication between the coach and coxswain is great and pretty crucial but when you’re just starting out, the best thing you can do is just listen and develop a better understanding for the stroke before trying to make corrections on your own. One of my coaches used to say “you coach the blades and I’ll coach the bodies” and that worked well for us because I coached what I could easily see and he did the same without either of us interfering with the other. We’d both listen to what the other was saying and factor that into the calls we were making but for the most part, I was responsible for coaching/correcting the bladework and he focused on coaching and correcting the body positions.

Coxing How To Racing Rowing

How to Manage Your Race Day Warmups

By readyallrow May 20, 2014

The warmup that you do when heading to the starting line shouldn’t be that different from the regular routine you take your crew through during practice, rather it should just be a condensed version of what you typically do. I love long warmups but time restrictions and space constraints tend to make that pretty impossible, especially when you’re at a large regatta (like nationals, for example).

One of the things I learned early on is just because you’re launching 45 minutes before your scheduled race time does not mean that you’ll have enough time to go through your typical routine. I remember thinking before one of my first races as a freshman that I totally had time to do what I’d been doing at practice before eventually realizing that because we did so many arms, arms and body, and half-slide strokes, in addition to having to stop a couple times for the races coming down and crews stopped in front of us, that we hadn’t actually moved the boat that far up the course.

This meant that in order to get to the starting line on time and not miss our race, we had to haul ass for about 1000m, which probably took a bit of the edge off the rowers (for the sake of proving my point, let’s pretend it did) in addition to causing them to use more energy than they should have since we needed to row at a higher rate and pressure to get up there.

Here’s a couple things to remember about your warmup on race day:

Be mindful of the weather

This will definitely have an effect on what you can and can’t do. If it’s cold, raining, snowing, etc. you’ll want to make sure you’re keeping as many people moving as possible without letting them sit out for too long to avoid anyone getting too cold or stiff. This might mean rowing by all eight instead of sixes or cycling through the sixes every 10 strokes instead of every 20 before going to all eight. If you’re experiencing a crosswind or a strong headwind, rowing by anything less than sixes isn’t going to get you anywhere and will only end up slowing you down.

If it’s really hot out (particularly with minimal cloud cover), try to row up in the part of the warmup lane that is the most shaded. This will keep them out of the sun and in a slightly cooler area until it’s time to race. If there’s not a lot of shade, make sure you’re giving each pair a couple strokes out so they can get a drink or at least take a break since the sun can/will quickly deplete their energy and dehydrate them. You also don’t want to sit for too long in the staging area for those same reasons.

Keep the stroke rates reasonable

Something that I noticed about our lightweight 8+ today as I was watching their warmup was that it looked rushed. Not in terms of slide control but just in general – they were flying through each part of their warmup and it didn’t look like they were actually warming up. Instead it looked like they were just taking strokes to take strokes and that was it. When I take out a boat I very rarely let the stroke rate creep over 20spm at the beginning of practice, let alone on race day. The point is to get your muscles warmed up and get the crew in the swing of things, not to exert 1/4 of your energy reserves right off the bat. Unless you’re doing starts, keep the stroke rate around 18-20spm, 22spm at the highest if you must. And no, the excuse of “my stroke just can’t get it down that low” doesn’t fly because if you wanna be able to row fast, you’ve gotta be able to row slow. Figure it out.

Be aware of how much space you have

The warmup lanes are typically not that big. You might get lucky on some courses but the majority of the ones I’ve been on have about a lane and a half to two lanes worth of water for you to row in to get to the starting line. This usually isn’t that big of a deal because there’s always room to pass someone if you’re coming up on them but where it messes with your plans a bit is when you’re trying to get some starts in. If you’ve got a fair amount of open water between you and the crew in front of you then go for it, otherwise hold off until you’ve got at least two lengths of open to work with. Never do a start when you’re right beside someone or have little to no open water between the two of you.

If there’s a crew coming up behind you, ask their coxswain if they’d mind moving to [whichever side you want them to move to] once they pass you because you want to practice a start. I’ve done this plenty of times and have found that as long as you’re nice and communicate with them, you won’t have a problem. Unless you’re on one of those courses where the warmup area is huge, don’t try to do more than a start and five. You shouldn’t do more than that anyways because again, that’s energy and power you want to save for the race.

Be efficient

Don’t take more hard strokes or total strokes than you have to. Take as many strokes as you need to complete your warmup before going to all eight at a steady pace to get you the rest of the way to the staging area.

Pay attention to the time and manage it properly

Know how long your race warmup usually takes (this means run through it at practice a few times…), add in 3-5 minutes to account for having to stop for other crews, races that are coming down, quick water breaks, etc. and then subtract that time from the number of minutes you’re launching ahead of your race. This will give you an idea of how much time you have to play around with so that if you find you’re running ahead of or behind schedule, you can tweak things as necessary.

So, if you know your warmup usually takes around 11 minutes, you factor in about 4 minutes of “stoppage” time, plus the 5ish minutes that you’ll need for staging (getting lined up, locked on to the stake boats 2 minutes before the start, etc.), that adds up to around 20 minutes. If you launch on first call, which is usually 35- 40 minutes before your scheduled race time, that’ll leave you with about 15 minutes. Once your warmup is done, you can row by all eight the rest of the way to the starting line (let’s assume that takes 5-7 minutes) and then hang out up there with the other crews for the final few minutes before they call you up to the line for staging.

Make sure you have a watch (or your phone) with you so you can keep an eye on the time – do not be that coxswain that is asking their rowers, the officials, other coxswains, etc. what time it is or gets their crew to the start late. You look unprofessional and ultimately it’s disrespectful to the competition and officials. I don’t care if you’re a novice or a college varsity coxswain – get a watch. On the flip side, don’t be that crew that feels the need to be first to the starting area. You don’t get a prize for that and it more than likely means your rowers will spend more time sitting stationary than they should be, which can lead to them getting cold, tense, etc.

I usually start with a simple drill, like the pick drill by 6s on the square, and rotate through before picking it up all eight at steady state-ish pressure at 18-20spm-ish. My coaches liked to have us do quarter feather for awhile when we were rowing all eight but I only did that about half the time. (I’m not a fan.) Another thing I’ll do if we don’t have the time or room to do starts is I’ll do some quick builders while we’re rowing by all eight. Usually I’ll do one ten (with 3 to build) at roughly our starting SPM and another at base pace with about 10-15 strokes in between. I’ll also try to throw in 15 strokes at our sprinting pace, going “up 2 in 2” every 5 strokes. I’ll usually only do this after stopping for a quick break and asking the rowers how they feel and if they want to do this one. If we didn’t get much time to practice our sprint during the week we’ll do it, otherwise most of the time we’ll just pick it up all eight at a steady pace the rest of the way to the starting area.

One thing you have to remember is that you’ve got – GOT – to be flexible. Sometimes you’re not gonna have time to do part of your warmup and other times you’re going to have tons of time and/or space. Not having a lot of time doesn’t mean that you should rush, rush, rush through everything though because that accomplishes nothing – all it does is communicate a sense of frantic-ness that you don’t want the crew to be experiencing.

It’s your responsibility to keep them (and yourself, obviously) calm, cool, and relaxed. If you find yourself short on time for whatever reason, calmly communicate that to them as you’re coming out of the launching area and say “Alright guys, we’re not gonna have time to go through our usual routine so let’s go ahead and pick it up by all eight at an 18 on the quarter feather. This’ll be our warmup so let’s make sure we’re taking smooth strokes together and getting long at both ends to warmup the muscles.” It’s much smarter to eliminate things than to fly through them just for the sake of being able to say you did them.

This is where paying attention to the time is very important too. If you find yourself far enough up the course with a bit of time on your side now, go ahead and drop down to sixes for 10-15ish strokes each to give each pair a chance to make any necessary adjustments, grab a quick drink, etc. If you find yourself to still be behind schedule a bit, have the crew add just a bit of pressure to their strokes. I wouldn’t recommend having them row any more than 3/4 pressure max because, again, that’s energy they should/could be using during the race. (If you have to row all eight, full pressure to the starting line somebody somewhere screwed up big time.)

If you find yourself out there with tons of time, lengthen out your strokes a bit or throw in an extra 30 second break. If you normally row at an 18, row at 16 or row by 6s a little longer than you otherwise would. The goal here is to make sure you don’t go through your warmup at a normal pace and then find yourself sitting up at the starting line for 20 minutes instead of your usual 5-10. Resting for too long is just as bad as not resting for long enough because as I mentioned before, the rowers can get cold, stiff, dehydrated, fatigued, etc. depending on the conditions. I’m always jittery going to the starting line so getting there earlier than I needed to would only end up exacerbating my nerves and making me imagine every possible way that I could fail at getting into the stake boats (or something equally as dumb since backing into stake boats is pretty freakin’ easy after the first time or two).

To summarize, have a race day warmup plan that is a condensed version of your usual day-to-day warmup, be flexible and able to tweak things at a moments notice if/when necessary, and pay attention to the elements and know how to adjust if the conditions don’t allow you to follow your usual plan. Also, have a watch or timepiece of some kind so you don’t have to rely on your rowers or anyone else on the water to tell you what time it is.

Image via // @deutschlandachter

Coxing Drills Q&A Rowing Technique

Question of the Day

By readyallrow May 17, 2014

What checks the boats run? Recently in our octo the run of the boat is checked but I don’t know how to prevent it and what to call to make it better. Thanks love this blog, so helpful! 🙂

For those that don’t know, an octuple is an eight rigged with sculling riggers so that each rower has two oars instead of one. They’re raced very infrequently in the US because they have the ability to move way too fast to be considered safe.

Check out the post linked above – it’s definitely the most “in depth” one I’ve written in regards to check, what it is, and what drills you can do that help the crew work towards eliminating it. It’s not something you can directly prevent – the best thing you can do is explain the concept of ratio, why it’s important, etc. since it seems like the lack of ratio is your biggest contributing issue right now. As far as calls go, simple/obvious ones like control, relaxed, long, etc. that really focus on and emphasize slide control on the recovery would be good to incorporate while you’re working to figure out what the underlying technique issues are.

I’d also have your coach watch from the launch to see if he/she can pinpoint any individual issues that are contributing to the boat feeling checked, as well as who specifically is rushing the slides or whatever so that you can direct some of your calls directly towards them. Talk with your coach after practice and have them go over in a bit more depth what they saw so that you can understand what you should be on the lookout for (individually and with the whole crew), in addition to having them go over some drills that you can do with the rowers either on the warmup or when you’re just sitting by yourselves that can help the rowers (either as individuals, pairs, etc.) work towards gaining a little more control on the recovery.

We had this issue earlier this season with one of my boats so we did some double-pause drills one day during practice, which seemed to help a lot. (I talked about this a bit in the post linked above in the “rush on the last 1/3 of the slide” section.) I would try incorporating that drill into your warmup (when rowing by 4s or 6s) and really emphasize slow slides coming into the catch on the last part of the recovery. Another thing is making sure the rowers have got their full body prep by the time they reach bodies over (there’s a reason why that stage of the stroke is called bodies. over.) since not having the bodies prepped can lead to them throwing their chests forward on the last inch or two of the slide to get all the length that they should have had half a stroke sooner. The “throwing forward” of the body weight also contributes a lot to the boat feeling rushed and checked, especially if you’ve got more than one person doing it.

College Coxing Q&A

Question of the Day

By readyallrow May 15, 2014

Hi! Your blog has been so helpful to me and my team – thank you so so much! I am approaching my 6th year of coxing. I did 4 years in high school for my men’s team plus I began coxing my college’s men’s team. Next year, we have a new cox stepping up to varsity. He rowed for 4 year in high school and he is coxing now and I feel he is LIGHTYEARS better than me, only because he has had the rower perspective that I haven’t had. I also feel that I’ve been in a funk – using the same calls for years and they get me results – I just feel on autopilot. I’ve gone to coxing camps and everything, I just wanted to know if you have any suggestions to help me get my groove back? Thanks!

I think people put way too much importance on rowing before coxing, to be honest. Sure it can help but it’s not the be all, end all to what makes a coxswain good. Regardless of his experience as a rower, you’ve still got at least five years on him with coxing – he’s got a lot to learn and all the skills he’s gotta pick up are not trumped by the fact that he’s rowed. Just because he knows what that feels like and has listened to coxswains for the last four years doesn’t mean that he has any idea what it’s like to actually cox. (It’s the same way for coxswains who are switching to rowing – just because you tell the rowers how to row and what to do and everything else doesn’t mean you have the faintest idea how to do it when the oar is in your hands).

As far as being in a funk, been there, felt that. I’ve kinda felt like that since August actually since I haven’t been coxing as actively as I was in Boston. I take some of the boats out here once in awhile but there are definitely times when I get in there and just say what works instead of actually coxing them. Other times I’ll cox them during a piece or something and my brain will totally blank on what to say so I end up just saying really “vanilla” stuff. It’s very frustrating. Usually I come home and listen to a couple recordings (either mine or other people’s…), jot down some of the things I like, and then incorporate those calls into my usual ones the next time I go out.

Another thing I liked to do when I was in school was go out on the launch every once in awhile to get some new perspective on the boat and the rowers. You see things completely different from out there, plus you can talk to your coach too and get some ideas from him/her on ways to up your coxing game. Don’t forget to take your notebook out with you too. Taking a few days or weeks off from coxing/crew in general can also really help. It’s possible that the “autopilot” feeling is just the faint signs of burnout peeking through, so taking some time off could be a good thing for you. With summer almost here, this is pretty much the perfect time too.

College Coxing High School Racing Recordings

Coxswain recordings, pt. 20

By readyallrow May 13, 2014

Marietta Tiger Navy Lightweight 8+ 2014 Midwest Championships Grand Final

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

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

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

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

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

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

University of Delaware 2013 Dad Vail Lightweight 8+ Grand Final

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

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

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

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