Tag: novice

Question of the Day

By readyallrow November 19, 2013

Hi! I just started coxing this fall, and towards the end of the season my rowers told me that the calls I was making during our race pieces were good but that I should work on being more controlled with my voice. I think it’s because I’m nervous about being silent for too long so I rush everything out but then I also run out of things to say. I also think I need to work on being less repetitive and have a little more intensity to my calls. However, we went off the water right after that. Is there any way I can work on this over the winter? I really want to work on these things and I’m bummed I won’t really have a good opportunity the whole winter. I cox the guys on the ergs but it’s very different than being in the boat. Right now I’m just listening to tapes when I have spare time and taking notes, but is there any way to actually practice this before spring?

One thing you can do in the winter to increase the variety of your calls is get together with some other coxswains, listen to some recordings (including each others), and start creating a list of calls for … everything. Catches, finishes, drive, recovery, making a move, sprinting, etc. Everything. Google Sheets is a good way to keep it all organized. With each call you write down, make sure you understand where it should be called (meaning where during the stroke and if necessary, where during a race or piece), what its purpose is, and how it should be said (tone of voice, intonation, etc.) – all good things to write down next to each call.

Another thing you can do is get some video of crews on YouTube (or your own crew, if you have some) and watch it with no sound while practicing your calls. The coxswain’s view of races would be a good way to practice this. This allows you to practice making the calls at the correct spot in the stroke, as well as work on your intensity, tone, control, etc. during the more “frantic” parts of the race. It’ll also help you work on your pacing so you don’t use all your calls up right at the start of the race. I’d recommend doing this with the other coxswains so that you can critique each other and get feedback on everything.

When you’re coxing the guys on the erg, make sure you’re coxing everyone and not each individual, if that makes sense. Normally when you think of coxing people on the erg you think about standing behind them giving them power 10s. What I’m talking about is talking to the entire group of rowers and making calls similarly to how you would in the boat. Make individual calls if/when necessary but the majority of what you’re saying should be directed towards everyone. Forget about the 5s, 10s, etc. and focus more on making general reminders about the bodies and helping them visualize being on the water with an oar in their hand. Take calls from the list you’ve been creating and try to incorporate 3-5 into your vernacular every few days until they become a regular part of your vocabulary.

It’s great that you’re going into the next few months knowing exactly what you need to work on. It can be tough working on the audible part of coxing in the winter but it’s definitely possible if you get creative.

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.

Ergs Novice Q&A

Question of the Day

By readyallrow October 28, 2013

Hiya, I just started rowing recently and have to do some ergs with 18, 20 & 22 m/s but I don’t quite understand how this works. Does it really just depend on my speed or do I also have to change the resistance level to get those results?

I think you mean “strokes per minute” (SPM), not m/s, which is “meters per second”. The resistance has nothing to do with stroke rates, distance covered, etc. It’s essentially like the gears on a bike – higher damper settings require you to work harder to spin the fan on the next stroke whereas lower settings require less work to spin it. It affects how erging feels more than it affects the resistance you’re working against. The dampers are usually set at 4 or 5 so I would leave it there.

Novice Q&A

Question of the Day

By readyallrow October 21, 2013

Do you think it’s possible that rowing isn’t “my” sport ? I started late summer but I have been erging for a few months with a friend who is a rower too. Anyway, I feel like everyone is getting better (even the fall novices are almost better than I am and they have been rowing not even 2 months. I feel like my technique/strength/endurance is on a plateau and I feel shitty. I won’t even talk about the 3 awful races I had in the last weeks. IDK, i feel hopeless. How do i know if I’m a bad rower?

It’s totally possible that rowing’s not your sport. It’s not for everyone and there truthfully isn’t anything wrong with that. To be honest though, just reading your question, it sounds like what’s hampering your progress is more of a mental thing than anything physical. In rowing it’s really, really easy to compare yourself to other people (and let’s face it, it’s a huge part of the sport) but you’ve really gotta stop doing that. Focus on yourself, your seat, your improvements, etc. and let the coaches worry about making comparisons. Not everyone learns or picks things up at the same speed, which is fine, but my sympathy as a coach/coxswain ends when you start throwing pity parties for yourself. When you become what’s holding you back, I feel like there’s not much I can say to you other than sit down, figure out why you’re here, if you even want to be here, and come find me when you’ve figured out what you want.

If you feel like you’re plateauing, talk to your coach about your workouts and see what you can do to kickstart things again. Figure out specifically what needs working on and commit to working on it. Forget about how well everyone else is doing because I promise you they aren’t thinking about you or anyone else at all – they’re thinking about what they need to do in order to get the seat they want in the boat they want to be in.

Bottom line, don’t be discouraged by everyone getting better (or appearing to get better). Be motivated to work harder so you can make the coach’s job as hard as possible when it comes time to decide who’s going to be in the top boats. Until you’ve tried as hard as you can and failed, you haven’t failed yet. It’s been what, 2-3 months since you started rowing? That’s not even enough time to get started, let alone get started and fail. Figure out what you need to do differently (mentally and physically) and then do it. You might find that you start seeing physical improvements once your mental outlook changes.

Novice Q&A Racing

Question of the Day

By readyallrow October 16, 2013

Hi, I’m going to HOCR this weekend and unlike everyone, I am not excited, only extremely nervous. Basically, I don’t deserve to be in my boat. The other 3 girls are way better and have years of experience and I started only this spring and I didn’t row during the summer. I’m only in the boat because our club is so small that we are only 5 girls and one has been injured since August. My technique isn’t good either. Any advice to how to row with people better than you? I’m so scared I will mess everything up…

Attitude is everything. If you think you’re gonna have a good time, you’re gonna have a good time. If you think you’re gonna have a shitty time, you’re gonna have a shitty time. This is a situation where “control the controllables” couldn’t be more applicable. You can’t control the size of your team, you can’t control the fact that one of your teammates is injured, and you can’t control the fact that you’ve rowed for less time than everyone else but you can control your attitude and how well you row those 3.2 miles. You only started rowing what, six months ago? Your technique isn’t going to be perfect but if you put the effort in and focus on taking one good stroke at a time, you’ll do fine.

Related: Words

If you’re that person in the boat that spends the next three days focusing on all the “bad” things though, your teammates are gonna get pretty pissed at you really fast. Don’t do that. When you go out for practice, try to do something a little bit better than you did the day before and build up some confidence in your stroke (and yourself). When you race, row the best race you can and come off the water knowing you couldn’t have done any better.

Coxing Novice Q&A

Question of the Day

By readyallrow October 15, 2013

Do you have any advice for a novice coxswain who just crashed for the first time? It really shook me up and I know I won’t be able to get back in the boat for a few days (due to our walk-on coxswain rotation) but I want to get over it.

How did it happen? Was it serious or minor? Was another crew involved? Were there any injuries? Was any equipment damaged? Did it happen because you didn’t know how to get yourself out of a situation or because you weren’t paying attention to your surroundings? On a scale of 1-10 (this being 1, this being 5, and this being 10), how pissed was your coach?

Shit happens. Obviously shit happening is more likely to be forgiven when you’re a novice vs. when you’ve got some experience under your belt but most coaches will let it go if you a) take responsibility, even if it wasn’t your fault because regardless, it was still your fault, b) if you talk to them once you’re off the water instead of avoiding them/the issue, and c) if you understand how you got yourself in that situation, what you did wrong, and what you could/should do differently next time to avoid crashing again (hint: there should never be a “next time”). If there was any kind of damage to the boat, ask your coach if you can help fix it or at the very least, watch while he/she fixes it. I think this is good for two reason. One, you learn how to repair boats, which is a pretty valuable skill. Two, you learn the value of the equipment you’re responsible for and how much time, money, and effort goes into repairing them when something happens.

Whatever you do though, please, please, please do not react to crashing the boat (or any other adverse situation) with a Kanye shrug because I can promise you, that will piss your coach (and crew) off more than anything else. Not taking the situation seriously or recognizing the fact that you potentially just caused serious damage to the shell and/or endangered yourself and your crew is not a laughing matter. It really irritates me when I see novice coxswains try to laugh situations like this off. No. Don’t do that. Your cute baby face and witty charm will not get you out of your coach’s line of fire and will probably keep you out of the boat longer than if you’d just taken the situation seriously from the beginning.

College Coxing Novice Q&A Recruiting

Question of the Day

By readyallrow October 9, 2013

Do colleges ever recruit novice coxswains? By the time recruiting happens I won’t have done any races so is it still possible to get recruited?

Nooo. Being recruited is something that only those who have been at it for at least 3-4 years should consider. Two, maybe, if your erg scores are off the charts but for coxswains, definitely 3-4. It is very, very unlikely that those with two years or less of experience will be recruited, although there are some anomalies (pretty much all of whom are rowers). No coach though is going to consider someone that doesn’t have race experience, since that’s obviously one of the best, easiest, and most available ways to gauge someone’s skill level. Plus, coxing at the collegiate level is tough – way tougher than high school. You really need those three or four years of learning about the sport and gaining the technical knowledge and leadership experience in order to get off on the right foot in college. There’s a lot of pressure because the coaches have extremely high expectations of you, especially and even more so if you’re a recruit. They’re not unattainable, just very high. It’s rare enough for coxswains to be recruited as it is because the coaches want to save the scholarship money they have for the rowers.

If coxing in college is something you’re thinking about, you should consider walking on, which anyone can do. Typically walk-ons make up at least half of the overall team and can be people who rowed/coxed in high school but didn’t go through the recruiting process or people who had never touched an oar before coming to college. Once you’ve been accepted and everything you can email the coach and say you’ve been coxing for a year or however long it’s been and that you’re interested in joining the team once you get to campus. They’ll give you some information and let you know when to show up at the boathouse.

Novice Q&A Technique

Question of the Day

By readyallrow October 3, 2013

Hey! I am a novice and today our cox said to check our “hand height” … what does it mean? Is it at the catch or on the recovery? Thank you.

He/she was referring to your handle heights, which is the height above the gunnels that your hands and oar handle are. This applies to the entire stroke but where discrepancies are felt the most is on the recovery when the blades are out of the water. Your handle heights, for the most part, are what help to stabilize (aka “set”) the boat. If the handle heights of the rowers are all the same, the boat will sit perfectly level. If one side’s hands are up high (between your shoulders and mid-rib cage) and the other side’s hands are down low (between their belly button and hips), the boat will be offset.

When you pull through the drive, the handle should be hitting you somewhere between your mid-rib cage and belly button at the finish. For girls, a good reference is about where your bra line is. That might seem high when you’re just sitting normally but when you factor in the layback, it’s just about the right spot. At the finish it’s important to remember to tap down to get your blade out of the water before moving the hands away, which you should do in over smooth, level movement. The best way to think about it is like you’re gliding your hands across a flat surface. You don’t want your hands bobbing all over the place because that’s going to decrease the stability of the boat. If your coxswain says to check your handle heights or set the boat you should think about where your hands are (too high, too low, or just right) and then make any necessary adjustments at the finish (never in the middle) of the stroke.

Novice Q&A Rowing Technique

Question of the Day

By readyallrow September 6, 2013

Hi! I’m a novice and I have a problem with my oar. My coach said that it doesn’t square early enough. I square just before the drive but he said I need to square earlier. I don’t understand how I can do this ? I feel like I will catch a crab if I square too early (which I did twice today). Do you have any solutions or a way to know how to square at the right time? Is my oar too close to the water on the recovery? Thank you, your blog is the best btw!!

When you say “just before the drive” I assume you mean just before the catch. You do need to square earlier than that, so your coach is correct. Ideally, you’d be squaring or starting to square over your knees, meaning that when you reach the bodies over position of the recovery your blade would be squared or starting to square. I usually like to have the people I’m coaching start squaring over their knees and be completely squared by 3/4 slide, that way all they have to do when they reach the catch is unweight the handle and drop the blade in. If you wait longer than that and start to square around 3/4 slide (this is know as a “quick catch”) you run the risk of going in the water late. (This is more so the case with younger rowers, not so much experienced ones.)

If you’re catching crabs trying to square your blade then yes, your blade is probably too close to the water. That’s probably partially because of the boat being unset and down to your side and your hands being too high. Both of those things seem counter-intuitive but it only takes one person to offset the boat, so it is possible.

Next time you go out I would focus really hard on keeping your hands level coming out of the finish (imagine gliding them across a table top) and starting to square as soon as your hands are over your knees. It’s going to feel awkward and uncomfortable but that’s how most changes in rowing feel. I promise it’ll help a lot though. Just think to yourself “hands away, square, place, push”.

College Novice Q&A Rowing Technique

Question of the Day

By readyallrow September 6, 2013

Hi! I started rowing last spring for my college and I was sculling basically all the time. (I swept like twice I think, the first 2 learn-to-row things). However, this year, my coach wants me in a four. We had our first practice yesterday evening and it was awful. I couldn’t do anything right and I was a pain in the ass for the others. Do you have any general advice for a rower that goes from sculling to sweeping ? (I was rushing my slide and couldn’t get the blade in correctly either). Thanks!

If it was your first day in the four and only third time sweeping, there’s only so much fault they can put on you for practice sucking. I mean, if you’re used to sculling it might take a couple days to get used to sweeping. That’s fairly natural, I think. I would talk to your coach about the issues you’re having and ask her to maybe work with you a bit if you’ve got a dock rower or to maybe lengthen out the warmup a bit and watch/correct your form as you go along before you get into the day’s workout.

With regards to rushing, just … relax. Get used to following another person and taking your time on the recovery. Keep your eyes forward and watch their body move. Anticipate their movements and move with them. Focus on the sequence (arms – back – legs coming out of the finish) and matching your sequence to the person in front of you.

With getting the blade in right, there’s a million things that could be. It all starts at the finish though. If your recovery is poor you’re not going to have a good catch. Work out those issues and getting the blade in will start to become a little easier and feel a bit more natural. Get to the catch, place the blade, then push. Repeat that to yourself – place, push. Place, push.