Tag: how to

Question of the Day

By readyallrow January 21, 2014

Hi! In a race, when you call a power 10, do you call it two strokes ahead (Power 10 in two, that’s one, two,) or do you just call it?

I say it’s up to you, what you’re comfortable with, and what you see. With younger, less experienced crews you almost always call it in two because they need that “warning”/prep period a little more than an advanced or elite level crew would but as you start working with advanced high school crews, college crews, etc. you can almost always call it “on this one” if you choose to.

I tend to go back and forth with how I call it. If I can see another crew making a move or we’re running out of water to make our move, regain seats, walk away, etc. then I’ll say “on this one” because I don’t feel like I can afford to waste those two strokes where you’d normally say “one, two”. If we’re in a good position and I want to keep building on that then I’ll say “in two” or something similar because I think that it helps to maintain the pace that is (hopefully) already working for you and it doesn’t give that sense of immediate urgency that “on this one” does.

College Coxing How To Novice Q&A Teammates & Coaches

Question of the Day

By readyallrow December 11, 2013

Hi. I am a newly converted college coxswain. I have been researching like crazy about how best to motivate my rowers and I was wondering what you thoughts on this are. I have seen several videos and articles (probably some on here even) that say its on a boat-to-boat basis, but would you possibly have any bits of generic advice on how best to motivate my boats?

Interacting with the boats you cox is very similar to how you interact with your different social circles – you follow the same basic principles but you tweak it to fit the individuals you’re with. Once you start rowing with a boat on a regular basis and get to know the rowers better, you can start asking them what they want/need to hear during a piece. My default is to get one general thing from each person, something like a boat-wide or an individual technique issue (aka something easily addressed) and one personal, specific thing. Make sure you’ve got a notebook so you can write down and look back on what they tell you otherwise you’ll never remember.

My generic advice is less about the calls you make and more about you.

Be present, physically (obviously) and mentally. If you’re invested, they will be too. Even if you’re doing drills and are bored out of your mind (which you will be at some point), stay engaged and don’t let your tone convey anything else.

Be honest. If something isn’t going the way it should be, tell them. Don’t gloss over it in lieu of not hurting their feelings. They’re big kids, they’ll survive. If you see them doing something good, point it out. If it’s something that you’ve been working on for awhile and they finally got it, get hyped. Your enthusiasm will translate to them (just like your lack of enthusiasm will too). If something isn’t going right, point it out and tell them what they need to do to fix it while also throwing in a casual compliment on something that they’ve consistently been doing well. (You know the phrase “compliment sandwich”? Similar to that but less cliche.)

Don’t assume that you have to be the sole thing motivating eight individuals. You don’t. I tell every coxswain this but you cannot motivate someone who is not inherently motivated themselves. If they’re not already motivated by something internal to show up everyday and strive to succeed at the highest level, it’s going to be extremely difficult for you to help them out. If someone seems unmotivated to you, that should be your cue to take them aside and say “dude, what’s up” instead of doing the opposite and thinking “Well, if some motivation is good, cheerleader-level of motivation must be great! I’ll do that!”. The more you try to motivate them without finding out why they’re unmotivated in the first place, the more it’s going to backfire in your face. Each crew’s motivation is different so if you’re coxing multiple boats, make sure you’re not coxing your JV8+ the same way you’re coxing your V4+. One crew can find demoralizing what another finds encouraging so it’s important to recognize that motivation in general isn’t a one-size-fits-all thing.

Tone of voice is everything. I alluded to that in the first bullet point but it really is one of the most important aspects of coxing. How you say something is just as important as what you say. Know what tone is appropriate for what you’re doing at the moment and adjust as necessary. Do not be a monotone robot.

Always tell them what’s happening around them. Ideally they’re not looking around trying to figure out where they’re at, where the other crews are, how far they are from the line, etc., so in race or practice-piece situations, they’re relying on you for that information. It might not seem like it’s that motivating to hear their location and stuff but when done properly, it is. If you say “100m down, 1900m to go” you better hope your legs move fast once you get back on land because they will eat. you. alive. Something like “We’re crossing 750m now, this is where we dig in to make our move and take back that seat from FIT. I’ve got bowball on two seat, gimme their bow man…” would be more appropriate. Never underestimate the power of these kind of calls to motivate your crew. They are an essential part of your repertoire.

Other than that, the last generic tip I can offer is to not force anything and don’t try to do everything right away. Learning how to best motivate your crews, even in the general sense, takes a bit of time. Listen to some of the recordings I’ve posted and read what I’ve said about them (click the individual “parts” at the top to see this) too. I typically try to note what I think is motivating, what doesn’t, how it could be done better/differently, etc. so that should help you come up with some calls to try the next time you go out.

Coxing How To Q&A Rowing

Question of the Day

By readyallrow November 12, 2013

Do you have any tips on making super tight turns?

If it’s sharp enough that you can’t get around using just your rudder, then you’ll have to tell one side of the boat to row light for a couple strokes while the other side increases the pressure. Anticipate the turn ahead of time and start turning before you actually get there, that way you’re already well into before you need to ask for the rowers to adjust their pressure. I’d say that at least 75% of the work should come from you and the last 25% from the rowers.

If you try to take the turn completely on the rudder, you’ll end up going way wide and if you try to go around having one side row at 110% while the other side is still rowing at 100%, you’re not gonna go anywhere. As you go around the turn, make sure you tell the rowers you’re on the rudder (and have them adjust their handle heights accordingly, if necessary). When you need them to “add in”, tell one side to go light for however many strokes (make sure you specify but try to make it five or less) while having the other side pound it out for the same number of strokes.

That’s really the secret to navigating tight turns – one side rowing lighter, not one side rowing harder.

Coxing How To Novice Q&A

Question of the Day

By readyallrow October 29, 2013

Hi. I walked on half a year ago as a coxswain knowing absolutely nothing, and this blog was such a godsend for me. Thank you! I was the absolute worst when I started – steering all over the place and almost dead silent during practices because I was so nervous about what to say. I’ve come a long way since then. My steering is much more consistent and I feel pretty confident about the things I’m saying in the boat but I feel like I’ve plateaued in my progress because I don’t know how to bring personality into the boat. I can rattle off canned phrases and words, but I don’t know how to really MOTIVATE the boat and get the rowers riled up. I’ve been told that I’m “too nice” when I’ve asked for criticisms from the rowers. I am not an inherently sassy person – I am actually pretty calm and mellow and I’m not sure how to address an issue like temperament. Is this something I can fix or was I just not meant to be a coxswain in the first place? All of the successful coxswains I know are so outspoken and I feel like I have a more quiet intensity that I try to bring into the boat. Thanks!

You seem really self-aware which is a great quality for a coxswain. It’s a good thing to be able to recognize where you started, where you’re at, what you could work on, etc.

You don’t have to have an inherently sassy personality to be a coxswain, although I don’t think anyone would deny that a little sass now and then never hurt. It’s not even sass either, it’s just knowing when to be assertive to get something done. I actually think having a quiet intensity and a less “in your face” approach to coxing is better because it makes your race-day aggressiveness more genuine. I actually talked about this in one of the first questions I ever answered on the blog last year (linked below). It’s sort of the opposite issue that you’re experiencing but there might be a nugget or two of advice in there that resonates with you.

This is quickly becoming my go-to piece of advice but talk to your rowers. One of the best ways to figure out how to motivate them is to find out what they find motivating. Why are they there, what drives them, what do they want to accomplish, etc. If you find out stuff like this, then you can make calls specifically for that during pieces and races. For example, if Brad says that he’s been trying to hold onto his finishes and can feel that his strokes are stronger because of it, use that during the race to kick off a burst and motivate Brad/the crew at the same time. Bonus points if you involve the crew(s) you’re racing against. In a situation like this I’d say something like: “Columbia’s washing out on their finishes, let’s take 5 to squeeze it in and take a seat. Lead it Brad … on this one … now … go!”

Another thing you can do is take a five or ten or whatever number applies to rattle off your competition. Instead of saying “1…2…3…etc.” you’d say “Georgetown … Princeton … Navy … Wisco … Harvard … Penn … Cornell … Dartmouth … Yale … “. Hearing the names of the people they’re racing that are trying just as hard to beat you as your boat is trying to beat them will make them dig deep (literally and figuratively) and crank out some killer strokes. This is best used towards the end of the race, maybe right before the sprint or so.

Motivating your crew is not all about the rah-rah-sis-boom-bah calls. Stuff like what I said above is motivating because you’re capitalizing on something that the rower(s) have spent hours working on at practice. The best way to get them to reap the full benefits of their efforts is to remind them of what they’ve accomplished during the 6-7 minutes when it matters most. To really get under their skin and push them your tone of voice has to be there too. I took out one of our freshman eights the other day and did some 20s with them racing me in the launch. The coxswain is a freshman walk-on who is still learning the ropes and finding her voice. The first few 20s they did were good but something was lacking. At one point when the guys were getting a drink I told her to get aggressive. I literally didn’t even care if it was over-the-top yelling, I just wanted her to get in their faces and push them. It’s really hard to explain what I mean in situations like that … you sort of just have to “get it” and do it. She made some great changes in her tone which resulted in the next several 20s just being balls-to-the-wall on. Once we stopped to spin I asked her how it felt and she said “better” and “really good”, to which I replied with “why?”. She said a couple things about technique but I said that I thought it was because of the change she made in her voice, which the guys all agreed with. At some point you have to just let go and do something you haven’t done before.

Don’t ask for criticism from the rowers, ask for feedback. Try to keep track of what they say (write it down) and make an effort to pick out one or two things to work on each day. Similarly to the rowers, most likely the changes you make are going to feel weird, uncomfortable, or silly but you’re definitely paying way more attention to that kind of stuff than the rowers are. Also work on becoming more confident in your role. Typically your coxing voice gets stronger as you become more confident with yourself. Forget about being “sassy”. Listen to some recordings to get a feel for what other coxswains sound like and use that to help you get a feel for you can do with your boats. When you’re at practice, try to keep everything but the hard pieces fairly conversational (like I talked about in the first post I linked to) but maintain that “quiet intensity” you talked about earlier. You’ll know the right time to bring the aggression based on what your coach has you doing.

How To Rowing

How to strap a boat down

By readyallrow October 22, 2013

You really only need two things to strap boats down – boat straps and common sense. If you lack the latter I recommend leaving the boat strapping process to someone else.

These two videos do a good job of showing and explaining the process.

Some (common sense) advice:

Pay attention to the condition of your straps

If they’re frayed or ripped, set them aside, tell your coaches/boatmen, and don’t use them. It’s way cheaper to spend $100 on a new set of straps ($100 = 15 straps, which is enough for five eights) than $40,000 on a new boat.

Don’t be obnoxious about how tightly you pull the straps

Similarly to how rigger nuts and bolts only need to be finger tight, straps are the same way. They obviously need to be tight to keep the boat in place but over-tightening the straps can actually warp the hull so be aware of that when you’re tying the boats down.

Don’t throw the buckle end of the strap over the boat or let it sit on the hull while traveling

Letting metal clunk around on the fiberglass can dent or put small holes in it. Letting the buckle sit tightly against the hull can also put dents or holes in the shell from the pressure of being pulled tightly. If you can, try to have the buckle sitting as close to trailer rack as possible.

Learn how to strap the boats down if you don’t know how

If you’re a varsity coxswain and your coach or boatmen is preoccupied with something else, take the initiative to show the new coxswains/rowers how to do it.

Small boats = 2 straps, eights = 3 straps

If you’re going on a long road trip (like cross-country for IRAs or something), consider double-strapping the boats for extra security.

Don’t tie knots in the straps

It weakens them and it’s a pain in the ass trying to get them out.

This is what happens when your boats are tied down improperly.

Yes, it’s funny in a “dude, that sucks” kinda way but think about what could have happened in this situation if the trailer was in the left lane and beside another car or if there was a car traveling behind the trailer. It goes from being a really irritating situation to being a potentially fatal one. If for nothing else, at least take the time to strap your boats down properly so that everyone else on the road is safe when they’re driving near your trailer.

Image via //@lucerneregatta

Coxing How To Q&A Racing

How to Pass Crews During a Head Race

By readyallrow September 24, 2013

Previously: Steer an eight/four || Call a pick drill and reverse pick drill || Avoid getting sick || Make improvement as a novice || Protect your voice

I don’t know if I’ve ever talked about this at any great length but I figured it’d be a good topic to get out there since we’re starting to get into head race season. Passing another crew requires you to be a bit of a maverick, depending on the situation. It’s not something you should be figuring out how to do as you do it though because deciding what the best course of action is requires a lot of decision making in a very short period of time. When your mind is going a mile a minute you don’t want to be trying to figure out all this stuff in the middle of the race.

The first thing you’ve got to do before passing a crew is assess the situation and figure out how many crews are ahead of you and how close you are to bridges or any other kind of potential obstruction. If there is a lot of traffic up ahead or there’s a chance you won’t have completed your pass before you reach the bridge, it might be best to hold off until crews spread out or you’re through the bridge. It sounds counter-intuitive but from a safety perspective, holding back is always preferable to a collision. No coach who has their priorities straight will tell you otherwise.

From there, when you do go to make your pass, and sticking with the idea of what is safer in the long run, you’ve got to decide if taking a slightly wider course off the better line is preferable to taking the better line and potentially being involved in a collision that could cost you even more time. This is where having studied the course beforehand can work in your favor. If you’re on a river with a lot of curves – the Charles, for example – it’s less about how you come out of the turns and more about how you go in. Even if the faster line around a turn to port is to hug the buoys, if you’re passing someone and know that the next turn is to starboard, it would be advisable, if it’s safe, to pass the crew on the outside, that way you’ll be on the buoys around the next turn.

One thing to remember if you decide to pass on the inside is that if the next turn is fairly sharp and in close proximity to the last one, you’ll either have to be really good at steering or you’ll have to have the crew adjust their power to bring you around, which has the potential to add seconds to your time. 60ft long boats don’t turn on a dime, which is something a lot of novices don’t realize, so knowing the best way to move your shell around a tight turn is something you should have figured out before you race. That way if such a situation arises where you’re going around a tight turn, either because you chose it or were forced into it, you’ll know how to do it smoothly and with as little added time as possible.

The last thing you’ve got to consider is whether you want to increase the stroke rate to get by the other crew or if you want to keep it the same. You can take it up a beat or so if you want but it’s not usually necessary and if you’re constantly changing your speed you run the risk of running out of gas and not having enough energy to maintain your pace through the end of the race. If you’re passing someone, your strokes are already more powerful and your boat is generating more speed so all you need to do is find an open lane to glide into.

If there’s a crew behind you that’s threatening to pass, increasing the stroke rate might be a good idea if you think your crew can sustain it. If there are crews that are packed together in front of the one you’re trying to pass, you might want to pass them at your base pace and then settle in where you can, either with or behind the pack in front. If you think you can pass another crew, that’s a calculated risk you’ll have to make a decision on as it’s happening based on the information you have on hand. You should also be watching the crew you’re passing to see if and how they counter your move. They might take the stroke rate up to hold you off, which might mean that instead of cruising by them, you might need to take the rate up for a couple strokes too.

Another thing you’ve got to factor in is whether or not the crew in front of you is a rival. A normal crew will do their best to hold you off but a rival will make it their mission to make sure that your bowball doesn’t get past theirs. Be prepared for this and know how to counter it.

General passing rules – these should be announced by the regatta official(s) at the coaches and coxswains meeting so don’t skip that. Different regattas have different rules, especially at head races. Some might allow you to pass under a bridge, others might penalize you for doing it. You won’t know unless you go. I’d also recommend not assuming you know the rules just because you’ve been there before. You never know when they might change them.

When passing, your bow must be pointed towards the side you intend to pass on by the time you are within at least one length of open water on the crew you’re passing. The crew that’s being passed should be fully out of the way by the time the passing crew is within half a length of open.

When you are passing, you should yell out “coxswain, move to starboard/port” to the crew in front of you. Most coxswains will acknowledge you (do this by raising your hand, like normal) and immediately move over but some will be less accommodating. This can be attributed to two things: a) they can’t hear you, which is sometimes understandable or b) they’re purposely doing that because they think it’ll make you give up on trying to pass them. All you have to do in situations like this is yell again to move over. Your bow (wo)men can help you out here by yelling at them to move too. People in bow, don’t wait for your coxswain to tell you to do this. If you can hear them repeatedly telling someone to move, just look over and repeat what they’re saying. If you have to tell at them again to move, threaten them with a penalty. They will get penalized for not moving out of the way because it’s considered unsportsmanlike conduct. At HOCR it’s a 60 second penalty the first time, 2 minutes the second time, and an automatic DQ for the third time.

If you are being passed, move. Communicate with your stroke before the race (or bow if you’re in a 4+) and tell them that if there’s a crew coming up on you, they must tell you. It doesn’t need to be some big long conversation between the two of you either. That’s part of the reason why I think a lot of the rowers don’t tell their coxswain what’s going on behind the because they think they need to say “hey, there’s a boat passing us on starboard” and they don’t want to waste that much energy or oxygen, but in reality all they need to do is say “starboard” or “port”. I know your lungs are on fire but I think you can manage to squeak out a one or two syllable word. Help your coxswain out. If your crew gets penalized for not yielding, it’s just as much your fault as it is the coxswain’s.

Try to avoid passing under bridges when you can. Know the rules as to what bridges you’re allowed to pass under and which ones you aren’t if there are multiple ones along the course. Don’t be that coxswain that thinks it’s a good idea to go three wide under Weeks (shout out to the coxswain who messed up my turn last year by being that person…ya jerk).

I’ll try to find more videos of this if I can but I came across this one while writing this and thought it was a good example of a coxswain telling a crew to move repeatedly (Michigan) and the crew being passed not moving (Dartmouth), leading to a collision before Eliot. Michigan was able to recover quickly but you can see it really stalled Dartmouth. If you’ve got time, definitely check out the whole video but the part I’m referring to starts around 20:00 and the collision around 21:45.

One other quick thing to note, you can hear somebody say “you had room!”, someone else say “fuck you”, and someone else say “fucking” something (it’s kinda hard to hear). I get that situations like that are irritating but you’ve got to be careful about spouting off on other crews like that because you can also get an unsportsmanlike penalty even if steering-wise you did everything correct. I’m lucky I didn’t get a penalty last year for yelling “are you fucking kidding me” to the coxswain who thought going three-wide under Weeks was do-able because there were three officials standing on Weeks watching the whole thing unfold. (I was the only one of the three crews to not be penalized so yay for that.) In the heat of the moment it’s understandable but ask yourself if it’s worth a penalty if an official hears you.

Coxing How To Q&A Racing

Question of the Day

By readyallrow September 16, 2013

Hi! Since fall season hit, I’ve been trying to improve my steering. The problem is, my team has a limited number a boats and we’re taking a Resolute to a head race. The steering essentially forces me to go straight and I find it impossible to make it around big turns! I was wondering, how can I steer a head race in a Resolute?

Whenever I’m in Resolutes I feel like I’m steering a bathtub or something. I don’t know if they’re all like that or just the ones I’ve been in but it was really frustrating. I think one of the boats we used at Penn AC was a Resolute too and I remember the coxswains had a lot of problems steering around the turn right after the finish line on the Schuylkill, probably because we had the same racing rudder that you have.

Your best option is going to be using the rowers to help you turn. In some races, like HOCR, this is a necessity anyways on some of the turns. You should still use the rudder and turn it in the direction you want to go but to fully get around the turn, you’ll want to have the rowers adjust their power so that one side powers down while the other side brings it around. Having one side row at 100% and then telling the other side to “pull harder” just does. not. work. It doesn’t! I don’t know why coxswains do this. If you’re turning to port, you want the port rowers to go down to maybe 75% (I never go less than 50% on any turn) and then have your starboards go balls out to bring you around. It’s gotta be coordinated well so that everyone still stays in time, knows when to adjust their power, and when to even it out again. I typically say something like “ports down, starboards up in 2…in 1…now, starboards GO”. This tells everyone what to do in as few words as possible. We also practiced doing this a lot before HOCR last year so they had plenty of opportunities to get used to how I was planning on calling it.

College High School How To

How to raise money for your club team

By readyallrow August 29, 2013

Most club teams will say that their least favorite part of being a club rower is the fundraising. It takes a lot of time and you seem to be doing it constantly. That’s one of the evils of not being a varsity program or needing to find ways to defray the costs for the athletes though. If fundraising is something you want/need to do, be ready to put a lot of time and effort into it – the only successful fundraisers are the ones where everyone contributes to make things happen.

Crowdfunding

By now I’m sure everyone knows what crowdfunding is but if you don’t, it’s basically a group of individuals who pool their money to support another person or group’s project, platform, research, relief efforts, etc. Kickstarter and Indiegogo are the two most well-known sites, in addition to others like GoFundMe and Make A Champ (which is specifically for athletes).

Getting started is really simple and pretty self-explanatory for most sites like this. You’ll need to:

Write a “bio” or introduction explaining your cause, what you’re raising money for, and why (you can also include a video – perfect for those of you who have already made one for recruiting)

Decide how many “levels” you’ll have in terms of how much people can donate (the most common amounts I’ve seen are $1, $5, $10, $20, $50, $100, and $250)

Come up with creative “rewards” for each dollar amount ($1 = a thank you email, $50 = your name included in the end-of-season video, $100 = 5 one-hour long private erg sessions, $250 = your name on the boat trailer, etc.)

Determine the length of your funding period (I think 30 days is the max on most sites.)

Set a goal of how much you want to raise – be realistic. Make sure you read the rules on pricing and funding too (i.e. Indiegogo’s flexible vs. fixed funding)

The other important thing is to read the guidelines for each site to make sure your campaign follows the rules. Kickstarter only funds “projects”, so if you wanted to go the route of the Naked Rowers and do a calendar, you could raise funds on here. A new boathouse, new docks, etc. are other ideas. To see an example of a successful campaign created by a crew team on Make A Champ, check out McGill University‘s page.

Last thing – make sure you promote yourself! Don’t just set up your campaign and let it sit there hoping for money to roll in. Have everyone post the links on their Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, etc. and don’t forget to email it to your family and relatives too. Just make sure you don’t spam people or their feeds by posting the link 405 times a day.

Naming rights

If you have any unnamed shells basically it goes like this. If you donate $3k, $5k, $7k, or whatever number the team decides on, you can have this shell named after you or give it whatever name you want. For stuff like this, go after alumni of the program. I guarantee you they’d love nothing more than to have a boat named after them. You can also reach out to an entire class or a particularly successful past crew, solicit donations from them, and then name the boat “Class of 2006” or something like that.

Another thing you can do is have people “endow” seats. In the past I’ve seen seats go for anywhere from $250 to $700+ so be realistic with what you ask but don’t sell yourself short. Also take into account the condition of the shell. If it’s brand new or has raced in national championships, obviously it’s going to be worth a little more than an older shell.

The last thing you can do is have people buy “inches” in the boat. For example, for $10 an inch, from bow to stern right below the gunnel line, you can have your name or a message painted into the boat. Obviously the writing needs to be tiny so don’t trust the writing of names to anyone that has less than amazing handwriting.

Like I said, this is the one to bring up to alumni of the program. Remember, any amount helps! You don’t have to be Rich Uncle Pennybags in order to get your name on a boat. This is something to really stress to your college-aged alums as they sit in their bare bones apartments eating ramen noodles and sobbing over their minimal job prospects and impending student loan payments.

Ergathon

This is the least original idea on here because at some point or another everyone does it. If you put the time and effort into planning this though it could be a huge moneymaker for you. It works the same as any other “-thon” out there – you erg and get people to donate X amount of dollars for every set amount of meters or chunk of time you row. For example, say for every 2k meters you do, someone will donate $10, another will donate $20, and someone else will donate $50.

Here’s some organizational tips:

Find places to set up your ergs around town

Obviously the boathouse would be a good place (preferably outside for increased visibility, weather permitting) but other good options might be a local park or outside the grocery store. Make sure you get permission to set up outside businesses first though.

Create incentives for the rowers

Yea, raising money for the team is great and if you want to be that person that says that should be their incentive then fine, but you’re asking them to do a lot of work so having something to strive for might be nice. I would have prizes for the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place teams in terms of who raised the most amount of money overall and then one individual prize for the rower on each team who raised the most money individually. A good prize for the first place finishers could be 50% (or all, if that’s possible) of his/her dues for the season are covered by the team. Try to make the prizes worth something to the rowers. Gift cards to Starbucks are great but for something like this, try to be a bit more creative.

Advertise

Let other people know about it besides just your parents. The more people that know, the more awareness you’ll bring to the team/sport and the more support you’ll receive from the community. Make fliers, distribute them around town, post them at school, at the library, on community bulletin boards, etc. Bonus points for getting it on the local news and/or radio.

Let people donate what they want instead of having predetermined dollar amounts listed. If someone wants to donate 50 cents for every 500m, let them. Any amount helps.

Use this opportunity to have an open house at the boathouse and give people a tour of the facilities if they’re unfamiliar with the team. Display your medals, trophies, plaques, etc. where they can be seen, have refreshments available, and be ready to provide information on how people can join the team if they’re interested. If you’re part of a larger club, have stuff available that talks about the other things your club offers, such as learn to row classes for adults and middle schoolers, sculling classes, fitness classes on the ergs, etc. This is also a great chance to get some recruiting done so make sure the boathouse looks presentable.

And some logistical ones:

Get the contact info (name, address, phone number, and email) of everyone who signs up to donate

They don’t need to give you any money up front unless they want to make a straight donation to the team. If they sign up to donate X amount per a set of time or meters, write it down and tell them you’ll contact them within the next two to three days to let them know the final amount.

Try to make sure every rower has an even number of backers…

…that way you don’t have your superstar with the 6:40 2k being backed by ten people and someone else being backed by only two. If someone says they specifically want to back this person, that’s fine, but if someone doesn’t specify put them with the next rower on the list and so on.

Create posters for everyone who’s erging and write their backers down on there and how much they’re being backed for

Display these on the ground behind their ergs (lay plastic wrap over the paper and then duct tape it to the ground). Have a goal for how many meters you want to erg or how long you want to erg for, and write it at the top so people can get an idea of how much they might potentially be donating. You don’t want someone to say “yea, I’ll donate $100 for every 2k you do” and then you go bang out 20,000 meters. The phone call saying “now you owe us $1000” might be a little shocking for them.

Give the rowers a minimum amount of time to commit to erging but obviously don’t give them a maximum. If they can only stay for two hours, that’s fine. Let them decide if they want to raise money per chunk of time or per a certain amount of meters.

Have everyone on the team be responsible for getting at least three backers (or whatever you decide) before the ergathon. This is a great opportunity to hit up your parents, grandparents, other relatives, teachers, etc. It’s also good for the team because if you can have these early backers already written down on everyone’s poster, the people that walk up at the grocery store or wherever you set up will see that people are already supporting you, which can give them a positive impression of the program and entice them to support you too.

And just some general guidelines:

Put together an ergathon committee that delegates responsibilities to everyone else on the team

This should include at least one of your coaches, a parent or two (if you’re in high school), and at least one representative from each class. For the big things, like advertising, finding corporate sponsors (local businesses, etc.), finding locations to set up, and putting together the prizes for the teams/rowers, give each class a responsibility. Freshman rowers are on this, sophomores are on that, juniors on this, seniors on that. Make sure you give the higher-responsibility tasks to the upperclassmen and the easier tasks to the underclassmen. The parents can be in charge of all the financial stuff – collecting money, tallying totals, reimbursing people for expenses, etc. – and your coach(es) can be in charge of generally overseeing everything and giving help when and where it’s needed. For the little things like cleaning the boathouse, everyone can (and should) help with that the day beforehand. For refreshments, put the coxswains in charge of that. (I made so many cookies and treats for my boats in high school, and so did my friends who were coxswains, so to me it just makes sense that we’d be in charge of refreshments.)

Your reputation precedes you

If your team is known for being a top notch group of kids who have had successful seasons in the past, you shouldn’t have any problem getting support from the community. If you’re known as a bunch of assholes who screw around, you’re probably going to have a tough time. Think about that before asking people for money.

Your team = your responsibility

This is primarily aimed at high schoolers but your parents are not in charge of putting this thing together from scratch. I. am. not. kidding. when I say that they and the coach(es) should be doing the least amount of work compared to everything you guys are doing. If you’re not willing to do at least 75% of the work necessary to get this thing rolling, why are you even bothering to do it in the first place? This is where pride for your team comes in. Do not be lazy and put your responsibilities on other people.

In that same vein, don’t let your parents take over just because they’re the adults and they think they have to. Make it clear that you guys want to be the ones in charge of most of it (because it’s your team) but that you want/need them there to help with certain things. Delegate responsibilities to them the same way you do to your teammates. In order to do this, you need to be the ones to go to the parent booster meetings, present the idea, and give them all the details that show you’ve thought about this ahead of time and are committed to making it happen. Be prepared to answer questions or find out the answers and be ready to report back at the next meeting. Obviously you’re in high school and there are certain things that are over your head so it’s fine to have the help you out but you (you as in “the team”) should be taking charge and doing the lion’s share of the work.

Write thank you notes

You want to give people a positive impression of the team and let them know you appreciated their donation so that hopefully they’ll continue to support you in the future. Take the time to send them a quick email or write them a thank you card, either from the individual rower or the entire team.

Sell stuff

I have no idea who came up with the ideas for the stuff we sold in high school but one year we sold Florida oranges, another we sold candles, and then for a couple years we sold candy bars. While I was in band we sold pizzas, cookie dough, and whatever else Joe Corbi’s had (that name still makes my friends and I cringe a little), in addition to selling poinsettias at Christmas time. We hooked up with a local greenery so if you have one of those near you I definitely recommend seeing if doing something like this during the holidays is a possibility. Pro tip, coming from the person who, every year for seven years, sold the most poinsettias out of anyone else in the band, go to every bank in your town and ask the if they’re interested in decorating for the holidays. Of course they’re interested. They’ll buy the biggest poinsettias for the entryways and then tons of smaller ones for the counters and side tables in the lobby area.

The most successful thing we did for band in the fall was these things call Band Bucks. They’ve been around for decades and are practically a staple in my town. What they are are these cards for tons of businesses around town that offer discounts on food at restaurants and coffee shops, as well as the local fast food places, oil changes and other car related maintenance, hair cuts, florists, photography services … the list goes on and on. The cards cost $10 and are the size of a business card, so they fit right in your wallet. It would definitely be worth going around town and seeing if local businesses, restaurants, etc. are interested in participating. As far as printing up the cards, if you don’t have a local place in town that you can do it I highly recommend MOO.

Rent-a-Rower

Rowers are known for being in shape and strong so it makes sense that people would want to hire them to do stuff, including helping to pack up a house to prep for a move, mowing lawns, raking leaves, shoveling snow, painting houses, helping with construction projects, babysitting, house sitting, pet sitting, catering events, etc.

For high schoolers, doing something like this might not be feasible unless you do it on the weekends or during the summer when you’re not at school. College kids have a little more control over their time, plus they typically have cars, so this might be better suited for them.

Some general guidelines on how to set this up:

Set up a Google Form or a page on your team’s website where people can see the necessary information (i.e. max number of hours per job, your rates, etc.) and then “hire you” from there. If you’re in high school, have one of the coaches or parents be the contact person.

Have rules, especially if you’re in high school. Require parent supervision or no less than two people at a job in order to keep things safe. Obviously bad things can still happen regardless of the number of people there but in certain situations there is safety in numbers.

Make sure the client knows to keep in mind the scope of the job the athletes are being asked to do so that no one’s health, ability to compete, etc. is jeopardized. If they’re being asked to use any kind of equipment, have the client go over how to use them before anyone gets started just as a precaution.

Make your prices fair and known from the start. Offer discounts to friends of the team or if someone is hiring multiple people for multiple hours. Also make sure the hours of availability are posted and/or that you at least say you’re student-athletes, so some consideration has to be given to your academic/work schedule. Don’t blow off class or work to go do a job for someone. Don’t forget to also block out the weekends you have regattas so people know you’re unavailable.

Sponsorships

Everyone that has a Vespoli, Resolute, Concept 2, JL, etc. sticker on their water bottle is giving those companies free advertising any time someone sees their logo. Why not step it up and ask local businesses to sponsor you in exchange for having their logo or bumper sticker added to your teams boat trailer? Another thing I’ve seen is having all the sponsor’s logos printed onto a big magnet that is put on the side of the truck that’s towing the trailer. This would be a good opportunity to spread the word about the team amongst people in the community and get their support in exchange for some advertising space.

General guidelines for how to initiate this:

Don’t show up to these businesses that you’re trying to get money from looking like you just came from practice. You can still wear jeans and tshirt but make it a nice pair of jeans and a nice tshirt.

Be prepared to answer questions about the team, such as why you’re raising money, what the money will go towards, why/how sponsoring you would be good for business (what are they getting out of this), etc. Also be prepared to give them an idea as to where their logo would be on the trailer. They want maximum exposure to get their name out there so make sure all the spaces you’re offering are clearly visible and not obstructed by the boats in anyway.

Have a plan. Think about it ahead of time and plot out the places you want to go. Don’t just aimlessly wander around town and say “oh, that looks like a good spot, let’s go there!”. Research them a bit if you aren’t familiar with them too. Think of this sort of like a job interview – don’t go somewhere completely unprepared, not knowing what it is they do.

If you want to create levels of sponsorship, like “gold”, “silver”, and “bronze”, have perks to go with each one in addition to just having their name on the trailer. 10 hours of free labor, acknowledgment in the season video, naming rights, their logo added to the team website, social media shout outs, etc. For the higher levels of sponsorship, their logos should be bigger and more prominent than those in the lower levels.

Go in groups of two or three and/or bring along a parent to help you out with explaining the logistics and to answer any questions the company might have.

Write thank you notes or send a follow up email thanking them for their support and include a picture of where their logo is located on your trailer.

Create and sell team gear

Everybody loves/wants/needs team gear, right? And everybody needs to do fundraising, right? TeeSpring is a site that lets you do both. The process itself is a piece of cake – upload your design, choose the kind of shirt you want, set a “sales goal” and a price per shirt, and then fill out the “campaign info” (basically the same information that I talked about earlier with Indiegogo and Kickstarter).

The way you make money is by taking the difference in how much you choose to sell the shirts for and how much the shirts cost to produce. Say you printed your design on the white Hanes Tagless Tees, which are shown as having a base cost of $8.25 per shirt for 50 shirts. The next step, determining your sales goal, can change the cost per shirt. The more you order, the cheaper the individual cost. If you had a goal of selling 250 that would lower the cost to $6.81 per shirt. If you decided to sell your shirts for $15 each you would net a profit of $8.19 per shirt, totaling $2047 for all 250. The only “catch”, if you want to call it that, is that you have to get 250 orders (or whatever number you set your sales goal to) in the allotted time (anywhere from 7-21 days) before they’ll be printed. If you don’t reach your sales goal, the shirts won’t be printed and you won’t make any money.

Car wash

Self-explanatory (I hope). These are great to do during the spring and summer when everyone’s cars are covered in pollen but no one actually wants to go through the effort of washing their own car.

Raffles or silent auctions

Similarly to car washes, this is pretty self explanatory. You could sell tickets at your home regattas and the winner could win something like 3 free hours of rent-a-rower help or something like that. Alumni banquets would also be a great time to do a silent auction.

Bake sale

Super simple to do on a regular basis and you can set up pretty much anywhere. Regattas, on campus, dining halls/cafeterias, etc. are all places where you’d encounter people willing to spend $2 for some homemade desserts.

What has your team done in the past to raise money for the club? Feel free to comment with anything I might have missed!

Image via // @wvlytle

Coxing How To Q&A Teammates & Coaches

Question of the Day

By readyallrow August 1, 2013

Okay. I know you have gotten questions like this before but how do I get people to respect me as a coxswain? I mean I’m fairly knowledgeable, I know how to correct people’s technique and how to work with them to improve. I do most of the workouts with the team but I feel like there is something about me that makes them not respect me. I’m a camp counselor over the summer and I feel like the campers don’t really respect my authority either.

There are two ways to approach this. Do you think they don’t respect you because you’re not authoritative at the right times or do you think they don’t respect you because your attitude rubs them the wrong way?

Making an effort to get to know the rowers, being friendly with them, etc. is a good thing but it can end up hurting you a bit if you are too friendly with them because they’ll see you more as “one of them” instead of someone in a leadership role. I’m not saying you can’t be friends (or even best friends) with your rowers but you have to be able to separate yourself from those friendships when practice rolls around. If the rowers see you as their friend all the time it’ll be harder for them to take you seriously when you’re telling them what to do.

The flip side is if you’re too authoritative all the time and try to throw your weight around just because you’re in a position that has some degree of power, all in an attempt to make the rowers respect you. One of the things that can be tough to master with coxing is telling someone what to do without being bossy or bitchy. This is where your tone of voice comes into play. Think of how you say things and then put yourself in the shoes of the rowers. If someone was saying to you what you’re saying to the rowers in the same way you’re saying it, how would you interpret it? Would you take it as someone who knows what they’re doing and is trying to help you improve or as someone who is trying too hard to get people to respect her, overstepping her authority, and not being an effective communicator?

I don’t have the secret to earning someone’s respect. It’s going to be different with every person you meet and every crew you cox because there are different personalities to contend with. The first step towards gaining the respect of your teammates though is to make an effort to figure out why they don’t respect you. I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt since I obviously don’t know the entirety of your situation and say that it’s possible that they don’t disrespect you but they don’t fully respect either because they don’t know you that well. Make an effort to get to know them, figure out why they’re there, what their goals are, what they need from you, etc. and use all of that to not only work on the respect thing but to also improve yourself and your boat.

Definitely check out the “respect” tag too, there are tons of questions in there that you should be able to pull some good advice from.

College Coxing High School How To Novice Q&A

TED Talks, body language, and … coxing?

By readyallrow July 23, 2013

I was going through Reddit the other night and came across this talk from last October given by Amy Cuddy, a social psychologist who currently teaches at Harvard Business School. It’s really interesting and a lot of what she says can easily be related to coxing.

I’ve gotten a lot of questions asking “how to do I become more confident”, “will I be a good coxswain even though I’m shy and quiet”, etc. and that made me realize how big of an issue this is for those who are new to the sport (and for some experienced coxswains as well). I get asked a lot how I developed my confidence as a coxswain and I don’t ever really know how to answer that other than to say “I just am/was”. Good coaching, support from my family and friends, and my natural personality all play(ed) into it but it was never something I had to teach myself to be.

That isn’t the case for a lot of coxswains out there though and is really more of a “pick two” situation. You can have two of the above but not the other one and what sucks is that the one you don’t have tends to affect you more than the two you do have. When you’re just starting out in something new, especially something as feedback-based as rowing, that can be the make-or-break thing that helps you decide whether to stick with it or not. I’ve said multiple times that to be a good coxswain you have to be confident in your skills, your decisions, and yourself as an individual and I stand by that wholeheartedly, but how do you teach yourself to become that, especially when there’s no one telling you the process step by step?

One of the things that Amy talks about in the beginning of her talk is how your level of confidence is communicated in your posture, what your body language is communicating to other people, and what your body language is communicating to yourself. If you think about how you approach any given situation, what do you think your body language/non-verbals say about you? If you’re a coxswain, think about yourself when you’re at practice. Do your non-verbals give off an air of “I know what I’m doing” or, as Amy said, “I’m not supposed to be here”? Do you stand up front by the coaches, hands on your hips, waiting to be told what to do or do stand near the back or in the middle of the rowers playing with your cox box hoping no one notices you’re there? What about when you’re on the water? How do your coxing non-verbals make you look? Think about that for a second and honestly ask yourself how you think your non-verbals have affected you so far, either positively or negatively.

A little bit further on she talks about how there’s a grade gap in business schools between men and women and they can’t figure it out because coming in, they’re all on equal footing so you’d think that gap wouldn’t exist. What they attribute part of it to is one’s level of participation in class. Based on personal experience I know that in classes and situations where I’m confident in what I know, I’m a willing, avid participant in whatever’s going on. I’m one of those people that “spreads out”, has their hand high in the air, etc. When I’m not confident (i.e. every math class I’ve taken since elementary school) I don’t say a word and tend to make myself smaller in the chair I’m sitting in with what I can only assume is a “I’m not supposed to be here” look on my face.

When I started thinking about this, we do this at crew too. We all come in on equal footing, not knowing anything about the sport, but the ones who participate more by engaging themselves in the beginning during winter training, talking to the coaches, interacting with the rowers, learning about the sport on their own time, etc. are the ones that (initially) succeed. Those that stand around not doing much, are nervous or afraid to talk to the coaches, are intimidated by the rowers, and don’t do anything to engage themselves other than show up tend to get looked over in favor of those who are displaying more positive non-verbals. That all has to do with confidence. The more confident you are, the more risks you’re willing to take at the beginning to put yourself out there in an unfamiliar situation. That confidence is an inherent thing too that has nothing to do with how much you know or don’t know about crew or coxing. So, how do you become more confident and project those positive non-verbals?

The next minute or two of her talk really justified something I’ve felt and been saying for awhile now. “Is it possible that we could get people to fake it and would it lead people to participate more? … Can you experience a behavioral outcome that makes you seem more powerful?” You all know that one of the things I’ve consistently said, especially to novices, is “fake it ’til you make it” because the more you fake it, the more you start to actually become it. But, as she goes on to say, do the non-verbals govern how we think and feel about ourselves? I say definitely. If you’re awkwardly standing somewhere in a “powerless” position, chances are you aren’t feeling so great about yourself whereas if you’re standing somewhere with your chin up, shoulders back, etc. you probably feel pretty confident … or do you? Maybe you’re faking it. Who knows! That’s the beauty of it. “When you pretend to be powerful you are more likely to actually feel powerful.”

This transitioned into what she was saying about how powerful and effective leaders have high testosterone and low cortisol levels, testosterone relating to dominance and cortisol relating to stress. As she says, when you think about power you tend to think more about testosterone and less about cortisol but the thing with power is that it’s not all about how dominant you are over a situation or group of people, it’s also about how you handle and react to the stress of being in that position. Tell me that isn’t exactly like coxing. As she goes on to say, think about the kind of leader you want to be — do you want to be a dominant leader who is also very reactive to stress or a leader who is dominant and not very reactive to stress? I know there are a fair number of rowers out there cringing as you recall situations where your coxswain was freaking out about something on the water and you spent the next several minutes wondering if he/she was gonna have their shit together at any point during practice. That’s not the kind of coxswain you want to be. You want to be the kind that manages stress effectively by figuring out a solution to the problem rather than outwardly reacting to it. Why? Because the non-verbals you display in situations like that let your rowers know you’ve got things under control and their confidence in you ultimately translates into confidence in yourself. See how that works? (On the flip side though, the exact opposite can also happen…)

Moving on to “primate hierarchies”, think about when your coach decides to make a change by randomly and all of a sudden taking you out of your novice 4+ and putting you in the varsity 8+. You’re probably nervous, questioning your abilities, and thinking “oh shit, what if I mess up”, right? You’re replacing an “alpha” coxswain -someone who is most likely more confident, more experienced, and more skilled that you. But, after a few practices with the boat you realize it’s just like coxing any other crew with only minor differences. You start to worry less about how you’re doing as you settle into your groove and become more comfortable with the rowers. This demonstrates what she’s saying about your testosterone going up and cortisol coming down. As you continue working with them you gradually become more and more confident with yourself, which is what she’s saying about how role changes can shape the mind. On that same line, the more confident you become, the more positive your body language becomes, which in turn circles back around and increases your confidence. Body shaping the mind. Bam. Science.

Hopefully by this point you get how big of a role your body language plays in that. The trick is to do it in small doses like she says (starting around 10:19). For two minutes stand in a “high power pose” like one of the ones from her PowerPoint. Obviously you don’t have to do this somewhere where people can see you if you’re worried about looking silly. Do that and see how it makes you feel. Do this every day before you go to school, before you go to practice, etc. and after a week or two, see if you notice a difference with yourself. If what she says is right, the more you do it the more confident you’ll feel and see yourself becoming.

I have a great story to tell about “having the opportunity to gamble”. So, about two weeks or so before I left for Penn AC I was basically in the midst of a full-on quarter-life crisis. Fellow millennials will probably know the feeling – messy personal life, feeling stuck in our jobs, and freaking out about our (lack of) finances. I went out to breakfast one morning with one of the women in my boat and she said to me, dead serious, “you look like you’re going through life like you’re in the middle of surgery with no anesthesia”. That was a serious wake-up call because I knew how shitty I felt and I had been trying really hard to keep it to myself but apparently I was failing (miserably). What had given it away was how I was carrying myself. I wasn’t carrying myself confidently like I normally did; instead I just looked defeated all the time, including when I was on the water, which had never happened before. Ever since I started coxing this boat they’ve all consistently said to me, with wondrous amazement, that I’m a completely different person on the water. I’m a much more reserved and quiet person than I used to be but when I’m on the water, my true personality really comes through. I’m the person on the water that I wish I still was on land. How they knew something was “off” though was by how I was acting whenever we’d go out for practice. Up to this point I was always 100% in command, 100% focused, and never once questioned myself. Now though, I just wasn’t into practice, I couldn’t concentrate, and my mind was always on other things. They didn’t know any of that but they read it all through my body language, which was giving them the sense through my non-verbals that I didn’t have an ounce of confidence in my body.

For the first time in a long time I questioned myself in the middle of a race piece. I haven’t done that since I was a novice and didn’t know any better. Looking back at my non-verbals I know I was giving off the “I don’t belong here” vibe because in that moment that was exactly how I felt. We were doing race pieces with another boat and we were coming up on the last 400m or so. It was close between the two of us and I wanted to call a move to put us ahead once and for all going into the final sprint. I was already not 100% mentally into practice, in addition to being nervous about how close we were to the other crew. I debated for too long about whether or not to make the move, whether it would hurt our speed during the sprint, etc. and missed the opportunity. We lost the race by about two seats. I was furious with myself, which then made me feel even less confident and more defeated. It also just went to show how irrational I was being because it was just a practice piece — there was literally nothing riding on it whatsoever and my boat was happy because it was a good piece. My coach asked me afterwards what was up because he’d never seen me like that in the boat before. He said his first clue that something was off was as soon as we crossed the finish line I buried my head in hands and started crying, which is really unlike me, especially on the water.

Fast forward about three weeks to Penn AC. The guys were doing 4x2ks and I ended up coxing the last one. Up to that point I’d been having a great week so I was feeling pretty good all around. Seeing how well the guys had been doing up to this point just sent my enthusiasm levels through the roof and having the guy at stroke say to me “let’s go fuck this other boat up” before the start just totally did it for me. Thinking back on it, I was willing to take the risk I did because I was feeling good about myself and the boat, which was translated to my body language (I was in a “high power” stance, or as close as you can get in the boat), which then translated how I felt to those that were watching us. Compared to the piece I did with my own eight, my testosterone and cortisol levels were probably the exact opposite of what they were before. I felt completely in control and wasn’t stressed because I knew that no matter what I said the guys were gonna go with me.

I called for a move with 750m to go that took the other crew by complete surprise and helped us get even with them after being about a length or so down — something we should not have been able to do given the difference in size and experience between the two boats. It was a risk and as one of the coaches later said, a ballsy one at that. It could have backfired and killed the momentum we’d built up but in the moment that wasn’t even something I was thinking about. Later on I ended up talking with another coach about that piece and they said that they had a feeling that I was going to do something “crazy” just based on my body language. He said that he told the rower that was riding with him to watch our boat because “she’s gonna do something … I don’t know what or when but she’s gonna do something and they’re gonna move.”

That definitely ranked in the top 5 compliments I’ve gotten on my coxing and it really boosted my confidence even though I had no real reason to need a confidence boost. It’s not like I needed any kind of validation on my coxing skills (but when has something like that ever hurt…). Put yourself in that situation though or go back to a time when something similar happened to you — how awesome would/did you feel immediately afterwards? What would/did that do for your confidence? And now think that it has nothing to do with your coxing, it all came straight from what your body language was communicating.

There are a lot of different connections to be made here which can get confusing trying to put all the pieces together, so, to recap:

Non-verbals communicate to other people as well as to ourselves

Positive non-verbals = “happy” feelings; negative non-verbals = “sad” feelings

Happy/sad = confident/not confident

“Fake it ’til you make it” = mind shaping the body

Confident/not confident = dominant/powerless, indicated through testosterone and cortisol levels

Feelings of confidence or lack thereof displayed through “high power”/”low power” body stances

“High power”/”low power” stances = higher/lower risk tolerance, higher/lower testosterone, lower/higher cortisol

Non-verbals govern how we think/feel about ourselves

Bodies change our mind

This video from the Harvard Business Review also gives a good, quick overview in simple terms of what’s been talked about so far.

Back to the Ted Talk, fast forward to 13:50 where she’s talking about what you’re doing before a job interview. Translate this to race day or right before your first practice of the season on the water with a group of people you’ve never coxed before. Instead of making yourself small and finding ways to distract yourself from “the big moment”, you should be making yourself big by spending two minutes in one of your power poses.

Fast forward again to 15:10. It’s not about what you’re saying, it’s about your presence. This is something I really want the novice coxswains to pay attention to. You can listen to as many recordings as you want and borrow as many calls as you want from all the great coxswains out there but if you lack presence, what you say isn’t going to matter. What you say is not what makes you seem more confident or like you know what you’re doing, it’s how. you. say. it. and the vibe you’re giving off as you do it.

When she’s talking about her car accident, going to Princeton, and feeling like she didn’t belong, that’s intense stuff but it’s something that in one way or another we can relate to because we’ve all felt that way at some point. Some of you have said that you don’t feel like you belong at crew because you’re just not confident enough, you don’t think you’ll ever have the personality for coxing, etc. and that you want to quit. I’m going to say to you what her professor said to her:

You’re not quitting. You’re gonna stay and this is what you’re gonna do. You’re gonna fake it. You’re gonna cox every boat you ever get asked to cox, you’re gonna do it and do it and do it, even if you’re terrified and paralyzed and having an out of body experience until you have this moment where you say “Oh my gosh, I’m doing it. I have become this. I am actually doing this.”

Don’t fake it ’til you make it, fake it ’til you become it. There’s a saying that says “don’t practice until you do it right, practice until you don’t do it wrong” that is along the same lines. Don’t fake it and practice your skills until you’re confident in yourself for one practice, practice until you’re confident in your skills every practice and you don’t have to fake that confidence anymore because you’ve actually become confident.

Do I have all the answers for how to become a more confident coxswain? No, but what I do have is a way that you can become more confident as a person which will hopefully translate to you becoming more confident as a coxswain. Win-win, right? And don’t gimme that bullshit of “oh, *scoffs* that’s lame, that’s silly, it won’t work, I’ll look pretentious, this is just smart people talk about smart people stuff that only smart people do, etc.” Don’t knock it before you try it. I fully admit that I am one of those people that definitely thought stuff like this was ridiculous until a time came when I needed stuff like this just to make it through the day. Try it for a week and then tell me you don’t feel just a little bit better about yourself and that your coxing isn’t improved by your new-found positive attitude towards yourself.

As she says at the end of her talk, try the power posing and share the science. I shared it with all of you so now I want you to share it with someone else. Forward the link to a coxswain on your team that you see struggling with his/her confidence because like she said, those without resources and power are the ones who need it most. Novice coxswains tend to lack both. This also goes for coxswains who are moving up to varsity. Hopefully they’ve found a few resources that have helped them learn the ins-and-outs of coxing but they might still be lacking when it comes to power so share this with them too.