Tag: qotd

Q&A Teammates & Coaches

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I have a question bouncing off of one you answered about losing the passion to row. I’m finishing my second year of college and I’m completely miserable. I loved rowing and I know this is what I want to do but rowing, school, and life are getting to be too much. I feel like I’m drowning. I talked to my mom how I feel and she suggested taking a semester off of school and rowing. I kind of want to but I’m afraid of what my coaches and teammates will think. I’ve never given up on anything before and I’m afraid to start now. I don’t want to be seen as weak or a quitter. I don’t even know how to start the conversation with my coach. Do you have any advice?

 If you’re genuinely miserable and have felt that way for awhile (as in you’ve felt like this for a few months, not just for a week or two because of general stress…) then taking time off might be the smart thing to do. I’ve said this a thousand times on here and I’ll say it again – at the end of the day you have to do what’s best for you. You can love rowing, love your coaches, love your teammates, etc. but if something’s going on that’s making you not enjoy what you’re doing, the smart thing to do would be to take a step back and work out whatever those issues are (either on your own or with help) so you can get back to having fun and enjoying rowing/life.

As far as your coaches and teammates go, they don’t have to like your decision but they should at least respect it. If they don’t and instead give you shit for it, well, that should answer your question as to whether staying on the team is worthwhile or not. I don’t want to say coaches should be used to having conversations like this with their rowers but they should expect it from time to time so the best thing you can do, for you and them, is to just be honest about how you’re feeling, why you think taking some time off will be beneficial, and then set up a time to talk at some point in the future … either in a month, when you get back to campus, etc. If you do end up deciding to take a break then the sooner you let your coaches know the better, simply because this will presumably have some kind of impact on their fall plans. Don’t wait until the last minute and beat around the bush though because that’s just annoying and frustrating.

You’re not really “giving up” so don’t look at it that way. If you made no effort to work on yourself and/or work out your issues before deciding to quit, yea that’s giving up. It doesn’t sound like that’s what you’re doing though so don’t put that kind of unnecessary pressure on yourself. Like I’ve said, do what you need to do for yourself but talk with your coaches and keep them up to date with what you ultimately decide to do. It’s only fair and if they’re like the coaches I work with and most of the ones I’ve had in the past, they’ll support you either way.

Coxing Q&A Racing

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Hello! I finished my last race of the season yesterday and my coach and I were talking about what I can do to benefit the rowers more next season. She said that I need to have a couple of calls that come from my deep belly of coxing abilities, that the crews recognize as “shit gets done” calls. She gave the example of “hit the last nail into their coffin” and said that that was too extreme for my team, but that I needed something equivalent to that to finish out close races with. Do you have any favorites? or any good recordings I should listen to? thanks so much!!!

A call that I and most coxswains I know have used at least once in our careers is “stick the knife in” or “twist the knife”. It’s kind of along the same line as the coffin call you mentioned but they’re good calls that can be super effective when called at the right moment and in the right situation. I remember calling something similar with 100m or so left to go in a race once when we were even with another crew and by the time we got to our last few strokes we were up by just enough that “twist the knife” was the only thing I needed to say to get them across the line. One of my friends in college had this call where he’d say “light the fire” at the start of their sprint (instead of actually calling the sprint as a way to fake out other crews) and then with 15-20 strokes left he’d say “throw some gas on it” which would get them to bring the rate up another beat or two and just haul ass to the finish line. For situations like this though I think the best calls (and the ones your crew connects the best with) are the ones that come to you in the moment because then they don’t sound forced or scripted (which is how stuff like this can come off most of the time).

I do agree with your coach that it’s always good to have some calls in your back pocket that, when you use them, your crew knows it’s time to shift gears and get shit done. That doesn’t necessarily mean you’ve gotta come up with super special buzzwords or phrases though – sometimes just the way you say things will convey that message. I always love listening to coxswains, especially collegiate ones, say “NOW” when they want their crew to do something because even though it’s a really simple instruction, just the tone and raw power in their voice lets you know that they aren’t messing around.

I know I’ve pointed out calls I like for situations like this before (I’ve heard a lot of good calls so it’s tough to remember them all) so when you’ve got time definitely read through the recordings posts and listen to some of the recordings to hear how the calls actually sound. All of them can be found here.

Q&A

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Hi, your blog is really helpful! I have a kind of strange question, but should female rowers wear anything under their uni/trou? Thank you so much!

It’s definitely a personal preference. I know some women that do just because a) hygiene and b) they find it to be more comfortable but I also know some that don’t because they think it’s uncomfortable and/or awkward to be walking around with very obvious VPL. Under Armour, C9 at Target, etc. sell great athletic underwear (or at the very least have solid seamless options) if you want to wear something but don’t want it to be super obvious. Don’t forget Amazon too – you can find plenty of options on there for pretty solid prices. Thongs are definitely the way to go because then you don’t have to worry about everything getting all bunched up (hence the uncomfortable-ness) but you should go with whatever’s most comfortable for you.

Q&A Rowing

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How can I get back my passion for rowing? It used to be my life and there was nothing else I wanted to do. At 15/16 I wanted nothing more than to be in the position I’m in now. Recently though I’ve been finding myself falling out of love with it, I even thought the other day I can’t wait for the season to be over. I don’t know if it’s the negativity on my team becoming contagious or what but I hate myself for it.

This has been a recurring theme in a lot of  the emails I’ve been getting lately. I want to believe these types of feelings are all temporary simply because of the time of year with school winding down and championship season heating up but there are some people I’ve talked to who just sound seeeriously burnt out on rowing. This is why I tend to caution people from being all “crew crew crew” 100% of the time because eventually you are going to get sick of it. Like everything else in life, there has to be a balance. I wouldn’t hate yourself for feeling like this though – even on teams without rampant negativity issues, this is a pretty common thing to experience at some point or another.

Taking time off is always a good way to get perspective on situations like this. Sometimes that means taking a day or two off from practice, taking a week off before starting your summer workouts, or taking the entire summer off and not thinking about or doing anything rowing-related. You’ve gotta decide which one is best for you and then talk it over with your coaches so they can be kept in the loop with what’s going on. If you aren’t sure you want to talk to your coaches just yet (you should eventually though…), try talking with one of your team captains. You’re your best advocate though so if there’s something going on with a teammate or just on the team in general that’s contributing to you feeling like this, it’s up to you to speak up to the appropriate people and make them aware of what’s going on so the issue can be addressed. Same goes if you need to take time off. You have to get over the idea that somebody might be mad that you want to sit out a practice or are contemplating not returning next year – you have to do what’s right for you in the long run.

When I’ve felt this way about crew I usually find that it’s not actually the sport or my teammates that’s pissing me off, it’s something else that’s causing me to experience a lot of stress which is in turn being exacerbated by everything going on at practice. Things that wouldn’t normally be a big deal (like missing the stroke you’re supposed to come in on or having a brain fart during a piece and flubbing a call) end up making you feel like shit because you’re hyper-aware of all the stressors around you. Even though crew itself might not be the problem it’s an easy target to pin everything on just because the environment in general, expectations we have for ourselves, etc. always have us a little tense and on our toes. On its own most of us have figured out how to manage that but when you combine all that with other external factors things can get pretty overwhelming and you end up feeling how you’re feeling right now. Zeroing in on the root cause of the problem is a good way to figure out if crew really is the issue though or if it’s something else that you can work on fixing or learning to manage better. This combined with taking some time off is usually the best way to get back in the swing of things, at least in my experience (with what I’ve seen from friends/people I’ve coached and how I felt when I quit crew for awhile).

Coxing High School Novice Q&A

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Hi! First off, your blog is so helpful! I’m finishing off my novice year as a rower this spring, but I am switching to coxing full time for the fall season. Do I get another novice year as a coxswain too? Second, my coach told me to only touch the rudder when the blades are in the water, and I understand that. But does that mean that I touch it for the drive, put it to straight on the recovery, and then touch it again on the drive? Or should I only touch it once on the drive and that should be enough? Thanks!

It’d be best to ask your coach because I feel like most teams do “novice” a little differently, at least based on the questions and stuff I’ve been asked through the blog. On my high school team if you were a rower you could “repeat” your novice year if you were only able to complete X% of the spring season. I can’t remember the amount specifically but I think it was like, if you only raced once or twice and/or had something that prevented you from participating for more than half the season (grades, medical issues, etc.) then you were allowed to be a novice again the following year. As a coxswain though, it never mattered if we were novices or not when we had that boat. In addition to the other boats I had, I coxed the novice 8+ my freshman year, my senior year, and once or twice my sophomore year when their regular coxswain was out. It’s kind of like masters rowing – there’s different age categories for each class but the coxswain’s age doesn’t count. We viewed coxing novices the same way and there was never an issue at the regattas we attended. In your case, my guess is that since you’ve already rowed for a year but have never coxed that you’ll probably be with the novices simply because you’ll all be “new” in the sense that they’ve never rowed and you’ve never coxed (full-time), even though you have a year of rowing experience under your belt. Talk with your coach(es) though, they’ll be able to tell you for sure.

Steering on the drive is the standard rule of thumb but every boat is a little different so you’ve gotta find what works for you. When you’re racing or doing pieces you should definitely only be steering on the drive since you want to minimize how much you’re disrupting the set but during practice, it’s really not that big of a deal if you steer on the drive and recovery as long as you tell the rowers so they can adjust their handle heights to compensate. (I briefly mentioned that in the post linked below too.)

Related: How to steer an eight or four

As far as how to steer on the drive, yes, you typically touch it on the drive, go back to straight on the recovery, and then touch it again as necessary on the subsequent drives. This is also known as pulse-steering. Personally I think it’s annoying and tedious which is why I don’t do it. Unless I’m racing I’d rather just hold the cable through the drive and recovery of one full stroke rather than pulse steer for two or three. Like I said though, find what works for you and stick with it. Some boats are a little more touchy so pulse steering works fine but for others, like our Empacher, you basically have to hold the cable as far up as you can through the full drive and recovery (and occasionally say a few Hail Mary’s) if you want to make any of the turns without ending up in the middle of the river.

High School Q&A

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Hey! Our eight boat leaks really badly but there are no recognizable holes or scratches so the bottom of the boat fills up with about three inches of water at the end of every practice, making it really heavy and hard to get out of the water. Also it’s a really old boat so it is really heavy as it is. The group that rows in that boat is made up of entirely high school freshmen girls who are new to the sport of rowing either during the fall season or even as soon as three weeks ago. Our coach really wants us to learn how to carry the boat with only 8 people but it is nearly impossible, even for the varsity girls. Is it justified for us to ask for a couple more people to help lift and carry it? And is there any way to fix a boat where nothing seems to be wrong? Thanks!

I totally get why your coach wants you to be able to carry the boat with just eight people but I see your point too. When I was coaching my high school team last year (and when I was on the team) we would use this hilarious old wooden four  during practice that was so heavy and such a pain in the ass to lift, especially when the women using it were all 110lb novices. For the first few weeks we’d always have a couple extra people help them out with carrying it but eventually they were able to do it themselves.

Ultimately though it comes down to one really simple yes or no question – can you lift and carry the boat with eight people without risking the integrity of the equipment and/or the safety of the rowers? If not then you should either ask to use a different boat until you can figure out what’s wrong with this one or ask a few other people to help you carry it. By a few other people I mean like two at most, simply because you do have to get used to carrying it without the extra help and it’s harder to do that when you’ve got four or six additional people on there.

I don’t know nearly enough about boat building or repair to know what could be causing the leaking issues, let alone how to fix something like that. The only thing that comes to mind is the vent caps not being closed (or at the very least not being closed all the way) and water getting in through there but I feel like that’s a really simple/obvious issue that someone probably would have noticed by now. If anyone has any ideas or has dealt with something similar, please leave a comment! Your best bet though (and by “your” I mean your coach since that’s his/her responsibility) would probably be to contact whoever the manufacturer is and get their opinion/advice. It might come down to the boat’s age being the issue but if it’s something that can be fixed then the boat reps would definitely be able to tell you what needs to be done.

Coxing Q&A

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I am in my second year of coxing and I am really looking to improve my tone. I am not sure how I should be speaking, I like to stay calm but I don’t think I’m being confident enough. Thanks!

This is hard to communicate over the internet since it’s tough to describe tones and sounds when you’re not actually talking in person but the best way I can describe it is to be very clear and deliberate with what you’re saying. Staying calm is obviously a good thing but what tends to happen, at least in my experience, is coxswains become too passive with their calls and they lack the “oomph” that makes them effective.

Related: I coxed a race last weekend and was told that while my coxing was good, it sounded more like a piece than an actual race. Can you give some tips on how to really up the intensity while coxing a race? I thought I was communicating a sense of urgency pretty well through my tone, but I’m not sure if it came across as well as I had hoped. Thanks! Your blog has been an absolute godsend since this is my first year coxing.

When I’m coxing during practice I keep what I’m saying pretty short and to the point but I talk in a mostly conversational tone, just like how I talk when I’m having a normal conversation, and then whenever I interject a call (like “catch send“, for example…) then I sharpen up the words and talk more from my core.

Related: My rowers told me after practice today that I should focus on the tone of my voice and not be so “intense” during our practices. I don’t really know how to fix that actually. Like I don’t think I am so “intense” but rather just firm and trying to be concise with the command I give out. They said that they really like how I cox during a race piece because my intensity level fits the circumstances. But they also said that if I cox in a similar tone to race pieces, they can’t take me seriously during the races. But my problem when I first started coxing was not being firm enough and getting complaints about how I should be more direct on my commands. Now when I am, my rowers say this. I don’t really know what is the happy medium. Like I listen to coxing recordings and I feel like I am doing fairly similar tones.

For examples on how you should sound when you’re coxing, check out all the recordings I’ve posted. If you read through some of the individual posts then you’ll see where I point out the ones that have good intensity, tone, etc. Also check out the recordings of our coxswains that are on my YouTube channel. The Princeton-Harvard race and the basin shots from last week are two good examples for racing and the pick drill/warmup video from Florida is a good example for practice. (That one isn’t a GoPro video but you can still mostly hear what our coxswain is saying and how he says it.)

Related: Is it ideal to sound like a “scary coxswain”?

As far as confidence goes, that’s definitely something that comes with time and experience but it’s also something you need to figure out sooner rather than later. The thing I always tell people (including our three varsity coxswains) is that if you’re not confident about something, fake it and act like you are.

Related: TED Talks, body language, and … coxing?

If you’re constantly questioning your decisions or what you’re saying though then that will definitely come across in your tone of voice and can set you back in terms of overall progress in that area. If there’s stuff you’re not sure of or things you don’t know how to do/call, ask someone to explain it to you. That tends to be where a lot of confidence issues arise, just from simply not knowing something. Once you’ve got it figured out and have worked through it a couple times (i.e. calling a drill, communicating technical feedback, etc.) then the confidence thing will usually work itself out (provided there aren’t underlying things contributing to you not feeling confident).

Coxing Q&A Rowing Technique

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I was just wondering if there is a way to control the stroke rate when coxing. Usually the crew is too fast. Are there certain things that I should say? Thanks.

It sounds less like a stroke rate problem and more like you’re coxing rowers (novices, if I had to guess) who are having a problem with rushing . Just because your butt is on wheels doesn’t mean you can just fly uncontrollably up the slide but that’s a hard concept to get when you’re first starting out. Check out the posts in the “rush” tag, there are lots of questions and answers in there that should help you out in terms of coming up with things to say.

If it’s an issue with hitting the right rates, make sure you’re communicating with your stroke about what rates you need to be at and then stay on them until they hit it. This is especially important if you’re a less experienced crew because the sooner everyone (especially your stroke) learns what each rate feels like, the quicker they’ll be able to hit it when you say where they should be. The key with this though is to not be annoying and nagging about it. For example, don’t say the rate on every single stroke of a 5 minute piece or get super nitpicky if they go +/- one beat from where they’re supposed to be. If they’re consistently too fast then tell them (both when they’re not rowing and when they are) to be more controlled/slower/relaxed/composed/etc. on the slides as they come into the front end. Match their hands to the boat speed as they come away at the finish, get the bodies set early, stay light on the feet (aka don’t pull yourself up) and move with your stern pair. Follow the pace they set instead of, as I said earlier, uncontrollably flying into the catch.

Coxing High School Q&A Training & Nutrition

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Hey! I love your blog. I have a couple of quick questions.

1) I have been rowing bow (port) in our starboard stroked bow-loader four boat. When ever we start to row and get to the drive part of the stroke my left ankle keeps cramping up and I was wondering if you had any way to stop this from happening?

2) Like I said before, I row bow and because our coxswain doesn’t have a cox box, nobody but me can hear her when she is facing forward (the way she is supposed to be looking) so she often turns towards us and the coach keeps telling her to turn around, but then the problem is that nobody can hear her. The girl who coxed this boat last season was really good at projecting her voice but the new cox is not. Do you have any advice for her?

3) I was looking at your what to wear blog posts and I was wondering what you think rowers should wear in the rain?

4) I hate running, I always cramp up two steps in and can’t breathe by the thirty second mark. My coach is really into running and running stairs. I don’t want to be that person who doesn’t run with everybody else because I don’t like it, but do you have any advice about making running less painful?

5) What is a good snack to have right before practice if it starts at 3 or 4 and goes till 6, but lunch is at 11:30? I always get so hungry right in the middle of pieces!

Sorry this is so long! Thanks!

The only thing that I can think of that could be causing this is the position of your foot stretchers. If the angle is too steep or too shallow then that could be putting a weird amount of stress on your tendons, causing your ankle to cramp up. I’d mention it to your coach and see if he can look at the stretchers to see if that’s the problem. If it’s not then it’s probably a flexibility issue. You should be stretching before practice for at least 10 minutes so if you’re not I’d start doing that, even if it means doing it on your own. Ankle pushes are a stretch our guys do that might help – it’s basically a mini-squat where you stand on one leg and bend your knee about 30 degrees or so until you feel a stretch up through your Achilles before pushing back up. (If you don’t have very good balance you can find a wall to put your hand(s) on to help keep you stable.)

Your coxswain needs a cox box. Obviously it’s not your responsibility to make that happen but seriously, I really don’t understand how coaches can send coxswains out without one and think they’re going to have a worthwhile and effective practice, let alone a safe one. Telling everyone to just listen is all well and good until you factor in the noise from the oarlocks, the boat moving through the water, the slides, the launch, the wind, car traffic, etc. Being in a bowloader also presents the issue of the coxswain’s voice not going straight at the rowers (like it does in an eight) which makes it even harder for them to hear what they’re saying. Even a perfectly silent crew would have a hard time hearing their coxswain in that situation. It’s not safe being out without one, plain and simple. To answer your question, the only advice I have is to find a cox box. I know that’s not the most helpful answer but that’s really the only solution to the problem.

When you’re rowing in the rain you’ve basically gotta accept that you and your clothes are going to get wet no matter what (which really isn’t that much different than a normal day on the water…). As long as you’re not wearing cotton, which is pretty much the worst thing you can wear while rowing regardless of the weather, you can pretty much wear exactly what you’d wear on an otherwise “dry” day. If you’ve got a splash jacket that you can throw on to at least keep your core warm and mostly dry(ish) then that’s a good thing to do if you know it’s going to be raining during practice. Like I said though, unless it’s just sprinkling it’s not a matter of if you’ll get wet but when.

It sounds like you’re just out of shape. (I only say that because I know I’m out of shape and that’s how I feel too.) It’s just like steady state on the erg though, the better developed your cardio system gets the “easier” it is. You’ve just gotta push through it and keep going. Feeling winded is obviously a natural side effect of being out of shape (even people who are incredibly fit get winded at the start if they haven’t worked out for a week or two) but it could also be a result of asthma (speaking from experience, this is the worst…). Even if this isn’t something you’ve been diagnosed with before it’s worth checking in with your doctor just to be sure you haven’t developed it. I had several friends in high school who were all incredible athletes but all developed some form of asthma that wasn’t diagnosed by their doctors until they started training for crew.

I used to always leave a box of granola bars in my car that I could grab before practice so if you’re a fan of Clif bars then I’d definitely recommend buying a box or two and stashing them in your car, your locker, etc. so you can grab one before you leave school or on your way to practice. Bananas, PB + apples, a bagel, yogurt + fruit + granola, etc. are all tasty options too.

Coxing High School Q&A Teammates & Coaches

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Okay so I just need someone else’s opinion other than my coaches and rowers. So I am a dude coxswain for a girls boat for all 4 years of high school, but now I feel like they don’t respect me anymore. They don’t listen when I say hands on or they complain and talk back. We did awful in our first race and now I don’t know what to do. The guys are begging me to cox them and they are winning races. Do I stick with the girls and finish off my high school career or go for the gold with the guys?

Being a guy that’s coxing girls is tough no matter how long you’ve been doing it. I’m curious why things have suddenly changed in your last season together though. I assume you’ve tried talking with them one-on-one or as a boat to figure out what’s going on … ? If not I’d get on that. You need to figure out what the actual problem is, the part you’re playing in all this, etc. and start fixing it like, ASAP. The problem you’ve got is that with a month and a half (give or take) until the end of the year it would look kinda shitty if you suddenly jumped ship and left them for the guys team. On the flip side though, it’s not worth it for you to keep coxing them if the relationship is beyond repair, so to speak, and you (potentially) have a better shot at having a good season by switching over. (Obviously it’s not fair to the rowers either if things aren’t working out – they deserve a chance at a good season too.)

One thing you have to be careful with (and something that might be alienating you from the women, which is why they’re not listening to you) is getting too caught up in the “grass is greener on the other side” mentality and making it super obvious through your attitude that even though your body is in their boat, you’re not really all there because you’d rather be with the guys. If they hear the guys “begging” you to cox them and you not saying “sorry, I’ve already got a boat” that’s gonna make them question your loyalty and in turn become less loyal towards you.

This is definitely a tough decision but I think the deciding factor is going to come down to you having a conversation with your boat and figuring out whether or not you can all work together to finish out the season. Hopefully everyone is just stressed and there isn’t a bigger issue bubbling away under the surface but you won’t know unless you ask. You also have to consider whether or not there’s a coxswain on the women’s side that can replace you. My guess is if there isn’t and you decide to switch your coach/rowers will be super pissed (which may or may not bother you) for leaving them hanging. If you’re in a position where there’s someone who can easily transition into your boat and after talking with your rowers things don’t look like they’re going to improve, talk it over with your coach and see what your options are. If there isn’t someone that could take your place and cox that boat at an equal or higher level than you currently are then you should really consider sticking with them and working out whatever issues you’re having. Unless you’re planning on coxing in college and really need the time/experience in a boat that runs like a well-oiled machine, I think it’s better to stay with the women. You have to think about what you want out of your last season but you also have to consider what’s best for the team and unfortunately those two things don’t always line up.

Keep in mind, my answer is based only on what I assume is a very small part of much larger story. If I knew all the details my opinion might be completely different. I just think that given the short amount of time that is left in the school year and the fact that you’ve already spent four years together, it just makes sense to work out whatever issues you have so you can make your boat go fast. That doesn’t mean you all have to like each other, just that you have to respect what each person is bringing to the table. If you feel like you’ve lost their respect, figure out why/how and start doing something different.