Tag: how to

How to protect your voice

By readyallrow March 10, 2013

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

We’re getting closer and closer to racing season so you want to make sure you’re taking the necessary steps now to ensure your voice is in working order on race day. Similar to other athletes, you can do everything right and still injure yourself – in the case of a coxswain, you can still lose your voice regardless of the preventative measures you take. I’ve learned that many times. Most people don’t realize that it’s about prevention first and not just dealing with the after effects. It’s different for everyone so no guarantees but here are some of my tried and true ways to protect your voice when you’re out on the water.

Stay hydrated

Drink lots of water throughout practice (and before and after too). I’m guilty of not doing this and there are definitely times when I regret it, most often when it’s cold outside. I end up feeling like I’m swallowing needles, which is not pleasant. You know when you go to sleep in the winter and you wake up with your nose and/or mouth really dry because there’s no humidity in the air? Take that feeling, get in a boat, and talk at a loud volume for two hours … you can imagine the damage you’re doing to your throat. Your vocal cords essentially become two pieces of sandpaper rubbing together. Water acts as a lubrication to keep things sliding off each other the way they’re supposed to, so when you remind the rowers to get a drink make sure you do too.

If you have allergies or a sore throat and are taking any kind of medicine, make sure you’re drinking lots of water to counteract the decongestants. I had to take a lot of allergy meds in high school because I was allergic to the pollen, mold, etc. that was down by the boathouse and my doctor, who knew I was a coxswain, told me to drink a lot because when the tissues in your throat dry out it reverts back to the whole sandpaper feeling.

Stay relaxed

The more tense I was, both mentally and physically (with my upper body), the scratchier my throat got when I was doing intense pieces. Make sure you’re breathing correctly when you’re calling races and talking a lot. You should be breathing from your core, not your shoulders. Breathing from your shoulders creates tension which eventually leads to your vocal cords cramping up. If this happens too often you can get nodules which will really suck because they’re essentially blisters on your vocal cords. These are our version of the blisters rowers get on their hands. If they’re bad enough they might require surgery to fix.

Take it easy

If you have a cold or sore throat, switch with another coxswain for the day and ride in the launch or ask your coach if you can stick to drills and stuff that don’t involve the usual loudness during practice.Your coach and boat can survive without you for a day if it means you’ll be 100% on race day. A sore throat alone is not a reason to skip practice though. If you have a cold, the flu, etc. duh, stay home but if you just have a sore throat but are otherwise fine, ride in the launch and take video of your crew or something.

The type of injuries coxswains suffer are different than rowers which tends to lead everyone to think they aren’t “real” or as serious because they see rowers with shoulder injuries, back injuries, etc. Our overuse injuries are internal where they can’t be see so it’s up to you to be your own advocate and speak up when there’s an issue. Personally, I think that if you’ve got a sore throat and you continually go to practice and don’t do anything about the issue, your coach and boat have every reason to be pissed at you when you can’t cox on race day. Just like with the rowers, it’s irresponsible to not take time off when it’s needed because in addition to yourself, there are now four or eight other people affected by your choices.

Minimize how much you’re coughing

This sounds hard to do but when your throat is dry and you’ve got that scratchy tickle in there, but get something to drink instead of trying to hack up a lung. Dry coughs are the worst because not only can they hurt like hell and give you a killer headache (been there, done that more times than I can count), but they can also damage your vocal cords. Coughing regularly isn’t so much a problem, it’s when it becomes a repetitive habit that you can start to get the overuse damage to your throat. Before inducing a coughing fit to get the tickle out of your throat, try to drink something to lubricate the tissues.

Limit the amount of pop you drink

Before you go out and after you come in, try not to have a lot of caffeinated drinks. The caffeine in pop dehydrates you in general but it can also irritate your throat, especially if it’s already sore. When I was in high school I played the clarinet and we were always told to not drink any pop before playing because the caffeine swells your tongue (it’s not usually visibly noticeable) and makes it harder to enunciate the music, especially at a fast tempo. I did it anyways but … do as I say, not as I do. If you’re drinking a lot of pop and getting that swelling in your tongue, it actually can have an effect on your speech and your ability to rattle things off during a race. If you’re thirsty, try to always drink water.

To follow up on that last point, while I’m on the vein of what not to drink, if you’re one of those hot water-honey-and-lemon people, eliminate the lemon. The acidity from the citric acid combined with already dry, potentially damaged tissues can just irritate them more. Lemon is really only beneficial for sore throats when you have a lot of mucous and stuff because the acidity cuts through it and helps eliminate any lingering bacteria.

A good alternative to water or water and honey is chocolate milk. It’s a little denser than regular milk so it coats and soothes your throat. I have a constant tickle in my throat so I am always clearing it and I know up front that I wouldn’t be able to tolerate something coating it because it’d just make me cough more. If you’re like that, stick to the regular remedies but if you can stand it definitely try the chocolate milk.

The best, most foolproof way to prevent losing your voice is to just be smart. Coxswains are typically talkative and social people so it can be hard to “rest” your voice when you’re always around other people but it’s a small sacrifice to make. Resting doesn’t necessarily mean taking a vow of silence either. Resting by just lowering your usual talking volume can be a good thing. For naturally loud people this can be tough but I promise you, it’s an effort worth making.

Image via // @fergybill

Coxing Novice Rowing

An Introduction to Rigging: How to rig and de-rig a boat

By readyallrow March 5, 2013

Previously: Intro to rigging, spread, and span || Oar length, inboard, and blade profile || Pitch || Rigger height and work through

Rigging is one of those things where I feel like you can just look at the boat and see that “Oh, there are nuts and bolts holding the riggers on … so to de-rig all I need to do is take the nuts and bolts off, sit them somewhere where they won’t be lost, and then put them back on when the rigger is off.” You’d be surprised how many times that has not been the case.

Some coaches put their coxswains in charge of rigging the boats themselves, others go through at the end and quickly make sure everything is tightened up, others just walk around with their wrenches in case anyone needs one. All are fine for you to do but all still require you to still know how to rig the boat, which wrenches to use on which bolts, etc.

How to rig a boat

Check out the video above to see how the riggers are connected to the hull.

Before you get started, make sure that you know the parts of the rigger and what the front stay and back stay are before you rig your boat. Knowing this can help you avoid putting all the riggers on backwards.

Something very important to remember is to not tighten the bolts too much. If you tighten the bolts too much you can crack the ribs that make up the frame of the hull. My coaches have always had the rowers tighten them to finger-tight (as tight as you can get them using just your fingers) and then the coxswains would go around and two-finger tighten them with the wrenches (as tight as you can get them with only your index and middle finger leveraging the wrench). Then they’d go around and make any final adjustments.

Don’t forget to check the top nut on the oarlock either. These need to be locked on pretty tightly (more than two-finger tight) so make sure you go over them when you’re tightening everything else.

How to de-rig a boat

When you take the nuts and bolts off, put them in the shoes or in the tracks. Do not try and hold them in your hand because you’ll probably drop them. If you drop one, obviously look for it but if you can’t find it tell your coach and/or coxswain so they can bring you a spare. The rigger needs all of the nuts and bolts so if you think your coach will be pissed that you dropped one nut and/or bolt, wait until you see him when your entire rigger has come off in the middle of practice and you tell him you knew it was missing one of the pieces.

Last thing, just as a general reminder – when you’re rigging a boat, you’re usually headed out to practice or race immediately after and when you’re de-rigging you probably just got home from a regatta or you’re heading home after practice. Regardless, there’s always somewhere you have to be and you want to get there as quickly as possible. Don’t rush the rigging process to the point where things aren’t done properly but don’t move at a glacial pace either. Rigging an eight should take no more than 10-15 minutes, TOPS. De-rigging should be even quicker.

Once you’re done rigging your seat either help the person beside you or go somewhere else. Personally I like for rowers to go away when they’re done, that way I can see who’s left and how much still needs to be done. If there’s seven people all standing around the boat or one seat or whatever it just makes it hard to maneuver around the boat to check everything. You can help speed up the process by moving out of the way when you’re done so the coxswains and/or coaches can finish up.

Next week: Tools for rigging

Image via // @brianrenesorensen

Coxing How To Q&A

Question of the Day

By readyallrow March 1, 2013

When we’re getting lined up, I get scared to be close to other boats. I can get even, but I’m always kind of far away. Can you do a diagram on which rowers you would use to get closer? [whether left or right more?] Thank you!

Sure. Here I just assumed that the other crews are lined up on your port side but if they’re lined up on starboard, you’d still do everything the same way, you’d just flip who you’re giving instructions to.

When I first started coxing I was always a little nervous to get close to other crews too but as I got more comfortable with it I was able to better judge what the proper distance was to have between boats, which made lining up a lot easier.

If there are more than two crews and you’re on a narrow stretch of river, you might be forced to have a short distance between each boat so you’ll have to get comfortable pretty quickly with being closer together. If you watch college crews practice you’ll see that they keep the spacing between crews pretty tight too – it just makes things easier for the coaches and it desensitizes the rowers to having other crews right beside them.

Coxing Novice Racing

Race skills: Pre-race prep

By readyallrow February 22, 2013

We’re getting closer to the start of the spring racing season, which means I’m getting a lot of questions on racing starts – what they are, how to do them, what it’s like at the starting line, etc. The simple explanation is that it’s tense … super tense. It’s also exciting, nerve wracking, intense, incredible, and terrifying all in one. The bigger the regatta, the better the feeling. The trick (and honestly, a sign of total badass-ness) is the ability to reel in the emotions and stay completely pokerfaced while you’re getting staged.

I always thought of it like a slingshot. As we’re being backing into the stake boats and I’m getting my point, it’s being pulled back farther and farther until the official finally says “GO” and that’s when the slingshot releases and all the pent-up energy goes into coxing the race. For me, there are few places I enjoy being more than the starting line of a sprint race.

Getting to the line

The hardest part of the start isn’t even part of the start. Getting there is the hardest part, for a number of reasons. It is imperative that you know what time your race is set to begin. At most major regattas, you have to be locked onto the stake boats no less than 2 minutes before the start of your race. If you’re not there, they will not wait for you. Ideally you would know the race schedule before you even leave to go to the regatta but worst case scenario is you find out the morning of at the coxswain meeting. Commit your race time to memory and then determine how much time you’ll need to get everyone together, get the boat down to the dock, and get up to the starting line.

Our band director in high school used to say “to be early is to be on time and to be on time is to be late” all the time and it’s something I carried over to rowing as well. When in doubt, always be early. I used to tell my crews that we would have hands on the boat 35-45 minutes before the start of our race and preferably we’d meet an hour before our race, spend fifteen minutes stretching and having a quick meeting with our coach before getting hands on and making our way down to the dock. You never know if the dock is going to be backed up, so getting down there with a little bit of time to spare is always a plus.

Once we’d get out, we’d do our warm-up and get up to the line as quickly as possible without rushing through anything. It’s important to still get a good warmup in and go through everything you want to do while still moving at a good pace. It doesn’t need to be frantic but your job is to keep things moving.

Staging

Depending on the regatta, staging will either involve stake boats or they won’t. Smaller regattas typically don’t use stake boats and instead do what is called a “floating start”. Floating starts mean that all the crews gather about 200m or so above the starting line and then paddle down together. As I paddle down, I like to go by 4s unless I’m told to go by 6s or all eight. Usually I’ll end up doing what everyone else is doing but if I’m the front boat I’ll row down by 4s. Whatever pairing you choose to row by, don’t switch in the middle (i.e. don’t go from stern four to middle four to bow four).

When you get to about 100m before the starting line, the starting marshal will typically have you go down to 4s (if you’re currently at 6s or all eight) or bow pair to row it up closer to the line. They’ll be off to the side so they can see where everyone’s bows are. It’s important that you and your crew (especially your crew) are quiet so you can hear what they’re saying. Sometimes they’ll talk directly to you, other times they’ll talk to whatever pair you have rowing. You don’t need to repeat their instructions to your crew and personally, I think it’s best if you don’t. Tell them before you launch to listen to the instructions of the marshal and immediately respond to what they say.

All the crews will row up to about 20ish meters before the start before they’ll have you weigh enough and hold water. At this point, everyone should sit at the ready position with their blades buried, holding water, while the marshal finishes lining up the crews. As he lines them up, you’ll hear him say “Dartmouth, tap it one stroke. Harvard, hold water. Princeton, two strokes.” When your crews take these strokes, they should be LIGHT. I am known to make the biggest “WTF” face when I see a crew take a full slide, full pressure stroke (or two) when they’re being lined up. It throws everything off, really pisses off the marshals, and really pisses off the other coxswains. Strokes shouldn’t be more than 1/2 pressure at most. Make sure your crew is aware of that, especially if you’re coxing a men’s boat (they tend to use more pressure than is necessary).

When the marshal sees that the boats are lined up evenly, he’ll call the start. If you’re doing a floating start, it’s pretty likely that you’re not on a buoyed course so make sure that as you’ve rowed down you’ve spaced an equal distance away from the crews on either side of you to avoid a collision or clashing of oars right off the line.

Stake boats

The other staging scenario is when you’re using stake boats. It takes a little effort and skill to get into them quickly and correctly but compared to the potential hassles of a floating start, they’re worth the extra time.

Stake boats, if you’re unaware of what they are, are anchored docks or boats that run perpendicular to the crews. A stake boat holder lies on their stomach and holds on to the stern of your boat and is responsible for moving it in or out to ensure the crews are aligned. Some examples of various stake boats can be seen here, here, and here. The ones from the Olympics this year are similar to the most common ones I’ve backed into. A long diving board-like platform extends from the main dock and that is where the stake boat holder lies.

Getting into stake boats is admittedly not easy for novices. It’s best to practice it with your coach before you get to the regatta (you can do this by either backing into the launch or into the dock) but not all coaches will think of this as something to practice with their coxswains so I’d suggest proposing the idea to them yourself.

Similar to how crews stage for a floating start, boats will row up behind or beside the starting platform and wait to be called in. Typically they’ll call you in in the order of your lanes, so pay attention to the crews you’re near and be prepared to move out of their way if necessary. As they call you in, you’ll row across the lanes (which are almost always marked with buoys), spin, and then back up to the starting platform. It sounds tricky but it’s really not that hard once you’ve done it a few times. The two biggest things to remember are:

Don’t be an unnecessary distance away from the platform when you spin. You want to be as close as you can get to it when you spin so that you don’t have to spend a ton of time (and energy) back rowing. 50m away from the platform is more than enough.

When you back, only back by stern pair or stern 4 if necessary. Don’t use your bow 4 to back because it’ll be harder for you to control the boat’s direction than if you were using the rowers in the stern. Backing should be done at 1/2 – 3/4 pressure at most. Make sure you’re looking behind you and lining yourself up with the platform too. I find it easiest to keep the rudder straight and use the rowers to guide you in vs. trying to steer yourself. When your stern is a couple of feet away from the platform, weigh enough and let it drift in. If you come in too fast the holder can’t grab you and you can end up breaking your stern by getting it caught under the platform. I’ve seen it happen before, so go in slowly. Better safe than sorry.

To line the crews up, the marshal will talk directly to the stake boat holders and will usually say “Lane 1, in 6 inches. Lane 4, out one foot. Lane 5, in 2 inches.” As soon as my crew gets locked on I like to have them sit ready, blades flat on the water until we’re finished getting lined up. When they’re done aligning us that’s when I’ll have them square up.

Below I’ve posted some videos that do a great job of demonstrating how to get into the starting blocks. The first video is by far the best one I’ve been able to find in terms of explaining how it’s done. The second one also does a good job of showing the do’s and don’ts. (Shout out to my high school team from senior year at 1:01.) The third video let’s you see the boats back in the last few strokes and hear the announcer telling the holder how much to move each crew and the fourth video is a stake holder’s view of the start.

Image via // @rowingcelebration

Coxing How To Novice Q&A Racing

Question of the Day

By readyallrow February 21, 2013

One of the varsity rowers told me about a certain race move/call-10 for pairs? Like having all 8 take a 10, but emphasis for specific pairs. I’m not sure how to call that, can you help me out? I was thinking maybe ” Alright, we’re all 8 we’re going to take a 10 by pairs.. in two… in ONE.. on THIS one, stern pair let’s see what you got! That’s one… two… 5 and 6 right here 3… 4..” and so on..” I don’t know if that’s how you call it…

Yup, I know exactly what you’re talking about. I use this frequently with my boats, usually in the second thousand of a sprint race or during the final 30ish strokes of a head race. I like to do 5 “hard” strokes per pair + an all eight power 10 so that I’m not making the crew do a straight power 40 or something. I usually say something like: “OK, coming into the last 30 strokes, let’s feel it – stern pair 5 … give it to me, on this one… (5, 4, 3, 2, 1) … 5 + 6, now, (repeat down to bow pair) … and all eight, 10 to bring it home, on this one…”.

I like to use each pair’s five strokes as “focus” strokes to get them to maximize the stuff they’ve been working on … like, they’re obviously still power strokes but I’ll usually say something like “grab those catches, bow pair”, “5 + 6, let’s see that jump!”, “squeeze the finishes 3 + 4!”, “Stern pair, work that rhythm now...”, etc. At the end when I call the final ten I’ll say something about driving across the line just to remind them how close we are to the finish and to give that last little bit of “oomph” to get us over.

Coxing How To Novice

How to Make Improvements as a Novice Coxswain

By readyallrow February 21, 2013

Previously: Steer an eight/four || Call a pick drill and reverse pick drill || Avoid getting sick

How a novice coxswain improves is really the same as how any level of coxswain improves – it’s all about goal setting and purposefully reflecting on those goals throughout the season.

I’ve talked about setting goals before but in addition to outlining some objectives for your season, here are a few other tips on how to continually improve your coxing prowess.

Be a student of the sport.

The thing with sports (or any hobby) is that you first have to learn their nuances before you get good at whatever it is. With crew, the best way to learn is to become a student of the sport. Listen to your coach (intently, purposefully, and diligently), learn the techniques they’re teaching (how they’re executed, their purpose, etc.), and get on the erg and practice. One of my biggest pet peeves with rowing is coxswains who don’t know how to row and worse, won’t make the effort to learn. In my opinion, you should be one of the most technically proficient people in your boat. Why? Because if you’re telling the rowers what to do and critiquing every minuscule movement they make you should be able to replicate what you’re telling them to do and do it pretty damn well

When you’re in school, you expect to learn from the best, right? What’s the point in learning differential equations or organic chemistry from someone who can explain it but can’t solve the equations or create the reactions themselves? I’ve had professors like that and my confidence in their abilities to teach me was pretty nonexistent. I and my classmates really suffered for it too. You don’t want your rowers to feel that way about you so developing a thorough understanding of the stroke, the drills, how things should feel, what it should look like, etc. will help you get better at communicating with your crew and invoke a sense of confidence in you from them.

Improvement #1: Instead of just “showing up”, learn everything you can about the sport – the more you do outside of practice, the more you’ll benefit during practice.

How to do it: Study. Look online for examples of things you don’t understand. Talk to your coaches. Listen to them when they’re coaching. Ask questions. Practice the drills you call on the water. Figure out what makes sense, what doesn’t, and how you can explain it better.

Exude confidence.

I’ve talked about this more times than I can count – at least in 75% of the questions I get related to coxing I say something about confidence – so to avoid belaboring the point, I’ll just say this: a confident coxswain is a trustworthy coxswain. There’s a big difference between being confident and cocky though so don’t get the two confused.

In talking with numerous novice coxswains, confidence is their biggest concern. Your boat has to believe you know what you’re doing, as do you. Establishing control the moment you step in the boat allows the rowers to focus solely on rowing without having to worry about whether or not you know what you’re doing. Your only option is to step up and rise to the occasion.

Improvement #2: Be confident.

How to do it: Regardless of how good you actually are (or aren’t), go out every day and cox your boat like you’re the baddest bitch on the water. Speak up and provide input to your coach or crew on a regular basis. Accept your responsibilities. Tell yourself you can do this and then do it. Congratulate yourself on a job well done and let mistakes go (but commit to learning from them).

Open and maintain lines of communication.

Communication is one of the many things that fall under the “#1 Responsibility” category. It’s important that you develop a relationship between not only you and your crew but also with you and your coach(es) and you and the other coxswains. The more communication there is between you and each of those groups of people, the better and smoother your practices will run, which results in greater efficiency all around. It also just makes the team environment a lot more tolerable for everyone when the coaches and coxswains aren’t pissed at each other for something that could have easily been cleared up if some had just said something.

One of the most satisfying things for me as a coxswain is when I tell my boat something during a drill or piece that I know our coach would say and then the next time we stop, our coach says exactly that. It’s great for you in terms of building your confidence but it’s also great for the boat because they hear you and your coach reiterating each other’s points, which means you’re both on the same page, which means the rowers don’t ever have to “choose” who they’re going to listen to.

Improvement #3: Communicate.

How to do it: Talk to your coach every single day. Find out what they expect of you, how they want you to do things, how they do things, why they do things a certain way, etc. Also talk to the other coxswains about where you’re meeting up if you’re going out together, where your points are when you’re doing pieces, how practice went that day, etc.

Record everything.

In school, we take notes and record our lectures so that when we’re studying for exams, we can go back and refresh ourselves on everything we’ve learned up to that point. We see the mistakes we’ve made on math problems and learn how to not make those mistakes again. We read about what strategies worked and didn’t work during times of war in our history classes. We study and study and study so that when the time comes, we’ve made the necessary tweaks and prepared ourselves to execute everything perfectly.

This is why coxswains (should) record everything. You have a recorder so you can hear the calls you make and the drills you do and you’ve got a notebook so you can write down lineups, the practice plan, what worked, what didn’t, etc. Combine the two and you have everything you need to make your crew the best one on the water.

Listening to your recordings gives you the opportunity to be your own best critic. It allows you the chance to hear yourself and then go out the next day and experiment with something new while continuing to do what you know works. Experimentation with your calls is critical; if you don’t practice it, you can’t execute it, and if you can’t execute it, what’s the point? Keeping a notebook gives you space to elaborate on what your thoughts were during practice and lets you go back and study what you’ve done in the past to determine what needs to be done to fix things in the future.

Improvement #4: Get a recorder and keep a notebook.

How to do it: Go to the store and buy one. Keep them in your coxswain bag and bring them with you to every practice/race. While on the water, make quick notes of things that are or aren’t going well by talking to the recorder and then once you’re off the water, spend some time elaborating on the details in your notebook. Share your recordings and notes with your coach on a regular basis. Get their feedback on your recordings and advice on how to deal with any issues you’ve made note of in your notebooks.

At the end of the day it’s up to you to identify the areas where you can improve (either through your own objective observations or through conversations with your coach) and then actually take the steps to get better. It’s one thing to say you want to get better, it’s another to actually commit and do it. Talk the talk, walk the walk, etc.

Image via // @david_herren

Coxing How To Novice Q&A

Question of the Day

By readyallrow February 7, 2013

How long did it take you to learn how to dock correctly? It’s taken me this whole month, still trying to learn and it’s always a 50-50 whether or not someone on the dock has to pull our boat in.

It took me about 2-3 weeks to feel comfortable doing it as a novice (with our coach on the dock to pull us in and give hints on what to do if I needed it) and maybe a week or so after that (when it was just us with no one to catch us) before I felt like “OK, I got this”. My coaches were great because they’d have us dock, push off, row up a few hundred meters, turn around, dock again, and repeat the whole process until we’d gotten it right a couple times (like, at least five times) before the end of practice.

The trickiest part was coming in at the right angle. We practiced this in all kinds of weather – wind, rain, snow, etc. – so that I could practice coming in when I’ve got something working against me. Doing it over and over and over really helped me pick it up fast. The rowers were always super patient too (or at the very least they never let on how bored/annoyed they were), which was actually one of the most helpful parts of learning to dock.

One thing I realized pretty quickly is that you don’t need someone on the dock to catch you. Sure, it’s convenient when they’re there but it’s not at all necessary. What I would do is point my bow as close to the dock as I could and then when we landed, I’d have my bowman hop out and grab 6’s oar to get the stern of the boat in. Or, I’d just hop out and pull the boat in myself. Once the boat has stopped, for the most part, it’s not hard for the coxswain to stand up and step over on to the dock; you’ve just gotta be aware that it’s probably a foot to a foot and a half (if you docked right) of water you’re stepping over. I’m experienced enough with it now that I tend to bound right out of the seat while we’re still moving and think nothing of it.

It’s helpful to have someone on the dock but it’s really not necessary and definitely not something you should rely on. I think it’s way better for you to learn how to dock with no one there than it is to only learn how to dock when you’ve got someone to pull you in. I guess the only time I’d say it’s really necessary is if you’ve got a strong crosswind that’s hitting you from the dock-side and making it hard to get as close as you normally would. In those situations though, hopefully it would be common sense for the people on land to come down and help the boats that are coming in.

The key is to have control of the situation and to not get visibly frustrated. There were many, many times when I got frustrated but even when it failed miserably my rowers and coach always said that I seemed pretty calm. If you get frustrated and it’s obvious that you don’t know what to do or something’s not going the way you want, your rowers will be less likely to listen to your instructions and more likely to start telling you what to do. Stay calm, assess the situation, take your time, and be smart about it.

How To Teammates & Coaches Training & Nutrition

How to Avoid Getting Sick

By readyallrow February 7, 2013

Previously: Steer an eight/four || Call a pick drill and reverse pick drill

I’ve had a really bad cold for about two weeks now and while I didn’t get it at crew, it got me thinking about all the times I have gotten sick while participating in sports or marching band or other activities. It’s not fun and puts a wrench in training and rehearsals but 20/20 hindsight reminds me that it’s almost always preventable.

Clean the equipment

Common sense, right? After a rower ergs, the first thing they should do is clean if off – the tracks, the slide, the monitor, and most importantly, the handle. Most boathouses will have a bottle of antibacterial spray lying around for this exact purpose. The handle should be obvious why it needs to be cleaned, but you should also clean the rest of the erg because sweating, coughing, bleeding, hacking up a lung, etc. can all lead to bodily fluids being spewed all over the place.

Don’t forget about the oars either, especially if you bled on them. You can easily clean these off after practice using water and bleach.

Minimize high-fiving

After a hard work out or an erg test there’s usually some high fives going around and I’m all for it but in the winter, especially post-erg, I’m all about the air-five … followed up with a generous amount of hand sanitizer.

Wear the appropriate clothing

There were numerous times in high school where one of my parents would say “you are not leaving the house wearing that!” in response to me wearing shorts and a t-shirt in late fall to marching band rehearsals or leaving without a coat in the middle of January (while it was snowing) to head to the boathouse. I rolled my eyes every single time because I knew I was either going to be inside the majority of the time (crew) or I’d get hot while on the field (with band) and end up shedding the extra layers anyways but regardless of what activity you’re doing, whether you’ll be inside or out, you have to wear the right stuff if you want to avoid getting sick.

Related: What to wear

If you’re inside and you want to wear your uni while you erg or lift, go for it but make sure you’re wearing something over it so you don’t freeze when you leave. The guys I rowed with in college would frequently wear their unis, a hoodie, and nothing else when going to and from the weight room and if you know Syracuse weather, you know that’s a bold choice between November and March. Similarly, if you’re going for a run during practice, wear the right stuff so your body stays warm. You’re more likely to catch a cold from being indoors where germs can fester more easily but keeping your hands, ears, neck, feet, and extremities warm will go a long way in preventing you from picking something up while outdoors.

Stay at home if you’re sick

Seriously, if you’re sick just stay home. If you didn’t go to school that day or you went home early, definitely do not go to practice. If anything, stay home out of respect to your teammates. No one wants a walking cesspool of germs walking around coughing, sneezing, and hacking on everything. Literally no one will appreciate you “toughing it out” and coming to practice if they end up getting sick as a result. If your body is fighting a cold, do you really think it’s in any position to do a 2k or lift weights? It needs time to rest and ultimately it’s better to miss an erg test and make it up when you’re at 100% than to do it when you’re at 50% and potentially screw yourself.

If you miss a few days of practice from being sick, yea, it sucks but your teammates will appreciate you keeping your germs to yourself and just getting over whatever you’ve got. Stay home, catch up on Netflix, eat your chicken noodle soup, and get healthy before you return to practice. Also, go to the doctor. Don’t prolong your illness (and waste valuable time) by not going.

All of this is common sense but it’s easy to get caught up in the rigor of training and forget or ignore these little details. The more diligent you are tough about keeping the equipment clean and taking care of yourself, the better off you and your teammates will be.

Image via // @jdcsss

Coxing How To Q&A Rowing

Question of the Day

By readyallrow February 6, 2013

If the wind pushes the boat into the grassy reeds, how do you get out of it without being pulled out by a coach? Do you have the side that’s not stuck back? Thanks!

First things first is to tell your boat to be quiet. Everyone is going to have an opinion on the best way to get out of there and there’s a good chance that someone or everyone will be annoyed at the situation. It’s your job to tell them to listen to your instructions because the more at-attention they are, the faster and easier it’ll be for you to get out of there.

The biggest thing here is making sure your skeg doesn’t get broken or bent. If it’s shallow or the weather’s been bad lately (and there’s a lot of debris in the water), you’ll need to listen for any bumps or noises that indicate you might have hit a log. Sometimes they can get caught up in the reeds too which makes it hard to avoid them. Make sure you don’t push it straight down because it’ll just pop right back up and do more damage (possibly catching your fingers in between it and the skeg, which would probably result in some form of bloodshed). If you don’t here any bumps or anything but still find it hard to steer with the strings, you might have to stick your arm under the boat and pull off anything that’s gotten caught around the skeg and the rudder.

As far as actually getting out of the reeds, if you’ve been blown in from the port side, for example, would require some backing mainly from the port rowers. You can have the starboard side assist but it could be hard for them to row if their oar is in the reeds. As soon as rowers (starting from bow pair) start getting clear though, have them row.

To clear your the blades if you’re really stuck in there, I’d feather the blade and just hack back and forth a bit to cut the reeds down a little. I saw a crew do this at a regatta once on the way to the start line and they were out of there in about two minutes. Unless the wind is really bad and negating anything you try and do, I wouldn’t do more than arms and body rowing. This is to avoid swinging the boat to quickly and sharply, which could cause damage to it if you hit something under the surface.

I’d start out with 6 and stroke backing to get your bow pointed towards open water and then have bow and 3 row to swing the bow out. Once your bow pair or bow four are clear of any visible reeds, have them row full slide to get the rest of the boat free. Once you’re clear, quickly put your arm back in to pull off any lingering reeds on your skeg/rudder, get your point, and row on. I can’t count the number of times I’ve seen a crew get out of a situation like that only to sit idle once they’re clear and then get blown right back into the reeds. You have to get away from them if you want to avoid getting stuck again, so row up a few hundred meters to a spot where it’s clear and then stop if you need to.

Coxing How To Q&A

Question of the Day

By readyallrow January 30, 2013

I still have trouble judging distances [m] any tips?

I used to have trouble with that too. Practice and racing have been what’s helped me the most in gauging how far I am from something. Nearly every race I did in high school was on a buoyed course and the last 250m were always red buoys so comparing where the start of the red buoys were and where the finish line buoys were helped me learn to gauge what 250m looked like on the river when we were practicing. A lot of it is just carefully calculated guesswork though.

I also try and study the river that I’m on to get an idea of how far apart the major landmarks are from each other and then I convert the distance in miles to meters. On the Charles there are a ton of things you can use for landmarks but on your home course it can vary. My coach in high school, who was also a coxswain, taught me that trick and while it’s time consuming, it helped a lot. As I got used to what 50m, 400m, 1000m, etc. felt like it almost became like muscle memory to me so it’s gotten a lot easier to judge distances the more experienced I’ve become.

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