Tag: coxswain

What to wear: Sunglasses

By readyallrow February 20, 2013

Previously: What to wear: Coxswains (women) || What to wear: Coxswains (men) || What to wear: Rowers

Whether you get a cheap pair or splurge on some Oakley M-frames (#freespeed), sunglasses are a worthwhile investment. A great reason to get a cheap pair of sunglasses is so that if they got knocked into the water, it’s not like you just lost a few hundred dollars.

One thing that I’ve seen a lot people, particularly coxswains, wear with their glasses are Chums or Croakies. Croakies actually have little floater things you can attach to your glasses too so that if you do somehow manage to drop them in the water, they’ll at least float until you (or your coxswain) can grab them. If you splurged on a pair of glasses that can make the extra $10 (or less, most of the time) worth it.

Regardless of what glasses you decide to get, two features you’ll want to look for are polarized and hydrophobic lenses. Polarization protects your eyes from the sun’s glare (which we all know can be downright killer on the water) and the hydrophobic feature allows water to bead up and slide off the lens instead of just sitting there and blurring your vision.

For regular rowers, I’d say these are great extras but not necessarily “must-haves” unless you really want them. For scullers and coxswains, who heavily rely on being able to see what’s in front or behind them, definitely look into getting a pair of shades that have those features. Pro tip, your steering will be a lot more effective if you can actually see where you’re going.

Image via // @row_360

Coxing Novice Q&A

Question of the Day

By readyallrow February 17, 2013

Is it unusual to change from rowing to coxing? I’m nearing the end of my novice season and feel like I could be a good cox in the future. I love rowing and am getting decent results but at 5’4 (shorter than one of my coxswains) and 120lbs (female) I have to work crazy hard to keep up with all the bigger girls. I’ll be sticking with the sport either way but it just seems like such a cool component of the boat to be.

Definitely not! It’s way more unusual to go from coxing to rowing and the only people that tend to do that are high school guys who are too tall to cox after their freshman year. I would definitely propose the idea to your coach and get their input. They’ll probably be more receptive to the idea if your team is actually in need of coxswains vs. already having a surplus but it never hurts to ask. If you have a genuine interest in it and aren’t looking to switch just because you’re not willing to put the effort in to become a better rower, I doubt your coaches will have a problem with you wanting to try something new.

If you’re part of or near a rowing club that hosts learn to row camps over the summer, I’d go to those and volunteer to be a coxswain. That way you can get experience in the boat, get a feel for what it’s like, and start picking up some of the skills you’ll need (like steering) before the fall season starts. That way, if you coach needs you to, you’ll be ready to hop into the boat without being too far behind the learning curve.

Coxing Q&A Recordings Teammates & Coaches

Question of the Day

By readyallrow February 16, 2013

I had a (required) meeting with my coach yesterday. She suggested that I record myself and that’s what I did today. Do you think I should email her to set up another meeting where she can listen and critique? Or does that sound like I’m “sucking up?”

That’s definitely not sucking up. If a coxswain emailed me and asked me to critique their recording, I’d be thrilled. Even if I told them to record themselves, the fact that they’re asking for feedback shows that not only did they listen to my suggestion but now they want to know what they can do to improve. That’s huge in my opinion and really indicates to me that you’re someone I should be considering for my top boats.

I would email her your recording and ask her if she’d mind listening to it this weekend and then find a time next week to sit down and meet with you to discuss it. You should also listen to it this weekend and critique yourself, that way you can go into your meeting with some notes of your own. If she asks you why you made this call or decided to make that move during the piece, you’ll know exactly what she’s talking about and can explain your thought process.

Personally I wouldn’t want to be there when my coach is listening to my recording for the first time. I’m very critical of my coxing and always seem to find a million and twelve things that I’d do differently as soon as another person listens to it. I’d rather us listen to it separately, then compare notes and if necessary, listen to bits and pieces together during our meeting. If you’re comfortable being there while she listens to it, go for it. I think that giving her the weekend to listen to it though will give her more time to gather her thoughts, which means she’ll be able to give you a more thorough critique when you meet up.

Coxing Q&A Technique

Question of the Day

By readyallrow February 16, 2013

How do you call a ratio shift to control and stop the rush without lowering the SR? Is it even possible?

Well, with ratio shifts you’re not actually doing anything to the stroke rate even though it feels like the stroke rate is going down. All a ratio shift does (or is supposed to do) is shift the ratio from being something like 1:2 (recovery : drive) back to 2:1. What you have to communicate to the crew and help them understand, particularly if you’re coxing a younger crew, is that all you’re doing on a ratio shift is slowing down the recovery and powering through more on the drive.

If the boat feels rushed, what does that mean? It means that less time is being spent on the recovery than the drive and there’s no slide control, so you and the stroke need to communicate and determine if a ratio shift is necessary. If it is and it’s not something your crew has done before or they’re not used to doing them, explain that the amount of time that they’re spending on the recovery is too short so they need to lengthen out and slow the slides down with the stroke while keeping the drive solid and quick through the water. To help them understand, give them the numbers – standard ratio is either 2:1 or 3:1. If you’re rushing, the numbers will be reversed. Call for the shift “in two, that’s one … and two, on this one.” Remind them to swing out of bow together, start the wheels together, roll into the catch at the same controlled speed, and maintain a powerful push on the drive.

When I call for a shift, I use my voice to help them sense the ratio. Right after a shift to ensure the power doesn’t drop, I always tell them to make that first stroke the most powerful stroke we take so that’s usually when I’ll throw in a “BOOM” call at the catch. The “boom” reminds them not only to have a strong catch but to make the drive powerful. If the drive is powerful, the blade has to move fast through the water. In order for the boat to benefit from that powerful stroke the recovery has to be controlled, regardless of the stroke rate.

If we’re drilling or doing steady state and it feels rushed, I’ll call the shift and say “Let’s take a ratio shift in two, that’s one … and two now, catch looong.” The “catch” part stays aggressive and direct but the “long” call is drawn out to the help guide them through the recovery – basically I want them to match the length of the recoveries to the length of time that I’m holding out the call. I’ll also use my voice to enunciate what I want if I’m coxing novices and counting out the timing. “One – two – three – catch, push. Controlllll – two – three – catch. Move together and send. Let’s keep this run – hook through, smoooth now on the slides.” Recovery calls are drawn out, catch calls are short and staccato, and drive calls are aggressive.

The experience of your crew will also play a factor into how little the stroke rate changes when you call for a shift. The majority of the crews I’ve coxed in the last several years have been experienced enough that when I call a ratio shift, regardless of whether we’re at an 18 or a 30, the stroke rate hardly ever changes. It’s something that comes with concentration, experience, and practice.

Coxing Novice Q&A

Question of the Day

By readyallrow February 15, 2013

Best advice you have for a novice cox seat racing aiming for a varsity boat?

Focus. Be determined. Keep your nerves in check. Make your calls strong and your actions aggressive. Be smart. Be safe. Do what you’ve practiced and what you know how to do. ACT like how you think a varsity coxswain should act. Conduct yourself accordingly on the water. Be a good sport, win or lose. Give feedback and accept it in return. Be confident in your decisions and commit to executing them.

Coxing Q&A

Question of the Day

By readyallrow February 15, 2013

Part of coxswain selections are how safe you are and if you can keep the boat safe in different situations. How would coaches determine your safety-ness?

In no particular order, I’d look at:

Whether or not you follow the traffic patterns (and before that, if you know what the traffic patterns are)

What your steering is like (are you a straight shooter or a drunk driver?)

How you handle high-volume days on the water when there’s a lot of traffic (i.e. on any given day you’ll encounter numerous other crews, launches, sailboats, tour boats, duck boats, kayakers, SUP-ers, etc.)

Are you calm in stressful situations or do you easily lose your composure

Do you follow instructions (this is huge)

Are you trustworthy (can I send you off by yourself for a few minutes without supervision and trust that you’ll execute practice accordingly, keep the crew safe, etc.)

Are you careful with the equipment

How well you handle inclement weather situations

Whether or not you used basic common sense

The last one is big for me personally and is probably the number one thing I would like at if I were evaluating how safe a coxswain is. Being aware of potentially dangerous, unsafe, or atypical situations and doing everything you can to avoid putting your crew in harm’s way is one of, if not the most, important responsibility of a coxswain. Common sense can and will keep you and your crew safe 98% of the time but being able to master everything I listed above will be of great use to you. Better safe than sorry, every time, all the time.

Coxing Q&A

Question of the Day

By readyallrow February 15, 2013

What do you mean by “calling things with a purpose?” I took it to mean call things you know will be effective to the speed of the boat. Is that what you meant? I’m still confused about what to say during race calls.

Basically what I mean is that everything you say to your crew should be said with the goal of achieving some kind of result in return. You shouldn’t be talking just to talk because you assume that’s what a coxswain’s job is. You want to make calls that are going to get something out of your crew.

Think about when you’re writing a paper. There’s two ways to write it. The first is when you know nothing about the topic or it’s something that you’re completely uninterested in but you’ve got to find some way to meet that five page minimum. What do you end up doing? Rambling, dragging things out, and sounding like you have no clue what is even coming out of your mouth. The second way is when you understand the topic you’re writing about. Your sentences are clear and concise, your arguments are well thought out, and the delivery is confident and assertive. You sound like you know what you’re talking about. That’s how coxing should be.

Everyone can interpret it how they want but in essence you’re correct in that part of making purposeful calls is to say things that will help the boat move. “10 to walk two seats…” has more meaning that “power 10” because you’re attaching a specific, tangible goal to it. “I want to see us move on that crew” means absolutely nothing if you don’t tell them how you want to see them move. “Set the boat” is another one. Set the boat … how? Why is it unset? Where is it unset? What side is it leaning to? Who needs to do what? The bottom line is this: the more vague you are, the less you’re helping your crew. The more specific you are with what you want, the more of an asset you are to them.

Coxing Novice Q&A

Question of the Day

By readyallrow February 14, 2013

Hey I’m a novice coxswain but I have learned very fast and all the guys on varsity want me to be a varsity coxswain and I’m a really good motivator. But the varsity coxswain right now is a girl who has been coxing the same amount of time as me and who isn’t really good at all and it’s only cause she is a senior. How can I really prove myself to my coach? I am a junior. I’ve already showed him my recording and he said just to work on more technical stuff. What’s your opinion?

I think if you have a good grasp on everything else, I’d take his advice and start honing your technical skills. Ask him specifically what you need to work on – is it technical stuff like steering or is it being able to spot issues with the bladework and give technical feedback to the rowers? Take note of what he says and then make a concerted effort to work on those things. When you go out, tell your rowers that you’re trying to work on this or that or whatever and then get feedback from them after practice on how you did. With stuff like steering you can’t really do that but in terms of making technical calls, you can improve a lot by talking to your rowers and finding out what calls worked or didn’t work. If your coach sees you making the effort to improve and at the same time sees your crew getting better as a result of that, that’ll be a huge notch in the win column for you.

Another thing you could do is propose the idea of coxswain evaluations. This will allow the rowers to evaluate both coxswains and provide some useful information to your coach, potentially stuff he wasn’t aware of beforehand. It can also help him make decisions on who gets what boat since he’ll have more tangible info in front of him other than seniority and what he’s observed on the water. It’s also good stuff for the coxswains too, obviously.

You have to assume though she did get the varsity boat for a reason other than the fact that she’s a senior. A great way to ensure you never get the boat you want though is to accuse your coach, no matter how innocently you put it, of doing something like this and then saying “well, I’m the better coxswain and they like me more anyways, so I should have that boat.” Instead, find out what her skills are. What is she good at? Ask her for advice. If she’s really good at steering, ask her how she navigates a tricky turn in the river or how she always manages to dock perfectly on the first try. Learn from each other. As a coach, I’d be much more willing to consider someone for a varsity spot if I saw them working with all of their teammates and not just ignoring the ones they didn’t think were very good or deserving of their spots.

College Coxing Racing Recordings

Coxswain Recordings, pt. 5

By readyallrow February 14, 2013

Rochester Institute of Technology Liberty Leagues 2012

Right off the bat, I love her “get us out ahead” call. Obviously that’s always the goal but making this call right at the start gives the crew an immediate objective.

At 1:20 when she says “they’re probably at our four seat”, you want to tell them where the other crew is but you don’t want to say “probably”, “maybe”, “might be”, etc. That gives the rowers the opportunity to look out and see if the other crew actually is where you think they are. Even if you’re not 100% positive, act like you are. Instead of “probably at our 4 seat” just say “they’re sitting on 4 seat”.

When she says “they’re dying, we got ’em” at 3:51, that would have been a great spot to make a move and really break that other crew.

At 4:24 she says “gotta go right here and now, comin’ up on 500m … gonna be close … you can see it, you can taste it”. That’s a great call to get them pumped for the sprint and let them know it’s going to be a close fight. Immediately after that would have been a great opportunity to take a 10 or 20 to make a move and really hammer the message home (to her crew and the rest of the field).

Other calls I liked:

“They know we’re out for blood…”

“You want that fucking banner? Let’s see you get it now.”

“Punch it, let’s move…”

“Fuck them, let’s GO!” Definitely – definitely – a call I would make. Reminds the crew to focus on themselves and, well, fuck that other boat.

UCLA 15 on, 15 off

This is bordering on a little angry with her tone of voice but overall the intensity is good. The only thing that could have made this better (and maybe justified her almost-angry tone of voice) is if she’d been sharper with the counting instead of drawing out each number. This is a good example though of why it’s important to project your voice rather than yell – it’s easier to stay sharp with the calls when you’re using your core to make yourself loud vs. just yelling from your throat, which doesn’t give you same amount of control.

UCLA W4+ Drills + steady state

Between 1:28 and 1:31 she did a great job of changing her tone to reiterate what she was saying about hooking the blade in. She also does a really good job of connecting the puddles to the crew at 2:12 and using that as a visual cue to get the crew to lengthen out and get the spacing back to three inches of open. Another thing she does well throughout the recording is calling out the rowers for individual corrections.

Other calls I liked:

“Swing and run…” Great call to make during cut the cake.

University of Washington V8+ 2012 IRAs Grand Final

This isn’t actually a recording, it’s a video montage of some of the footage from IRA’s last year overlaid with some of Sam Ojserkis’s audio. I can’t embed it here so you’ll have to watch it over on Vimeo. Since Washington is easily one of the top programs in the country, I thought it was worth sharing. “No one’s going to hold our pace” – that’s confidence. I like the definitive “OVER!” at the end too.

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

Coxing Novice Q&A Teammates & Coaches

Question of the Day

By readyallrow February 14, 2013

What would you say differently if this post was asked by a varsity coxswain?

I’d still bring it to the coach’s attention but as the more experienced coxswain (thus a team leader by default) I’d also take the coxswain(s) aside and ask/say something along these lines.

Why did you join crew? Did they actually want to do it or were they forced to find an extracurricular to partake in?

You lack of enthusiasm has become quite noticeable to the rowers in your boat – did you know that?

It’s been noted that you don’t enjoy going out on the water. It’s kind of a big part of coxing so if you don’t enjoy being out there, I’d say it’s time to start reevaluating if rowing is the sport for you.

Regardless of whether you enjoy it or not, if you’re going to be here you need to take it seriously because coxswains who are flippant about safety or not paying attention because they’re uninterested can quickly become some of the biggest hazards on the river.

Are you aware of the responsibilities of a coxswain? If yes, any particular reason why they’re not doing them? If no, explain what they are (general responsibilities and any specific ones that your club has).

Can you handle the responsibilities? If yes, good. Come back tomorrow prepared to do better. If not, again, time to start reevaluating things.

Explain the team dynamic to them – what’s the philosophy, what are the team’s goals for the season, why are the coxswains important in helping achieve those goals, etc.

Let them know that you and the other varsity coxswains (and rowers) are there to help (and that you want to help) but they can only help you if you’re willing to listen and learn. A blasé attitude is not going to be accepted by anyone who chooses to be a member of the team.

That is all assuming you’re talking to a novice. If you’re talking to a fellow varsity coxswain, this is what I’d say:

Seriously, you’ve been already been doing this for 2, 3, 4 years. Underclassmen look up to you and you’re expected to set the example. Get your shit together.

Things are a little different when you’re a varsity coxswain because you’ve got more experience and an assumed leadership role on your side. You should however, like I said, alert the coach to the issue but let them know that you’ve talked to the person and this was what was said. This makes them aware of the situation and gives them an opportunity to quietly observe the person to see if any improvements can be seen.

If after a week or so things are starting to look better, let the issue rest for the time being. If not, then it’s time for the coach to step in and talk to the athlete and really lay down the law of shape up or get out.