Tag: qotd

Question of the Day

By readyallrow January 24, 2015

I emailed the coach of a college I’m interested in about two weeks ago and she hasn’t emailed me back yet. I’m going to look at the school in a week and I’d like to meet up with her. Would it be worth sending her another email or should I just drop it?

Yea, it couldn’t hurt. It’s possible that if her team went on a winter training trip that that’s where they are now if classes haven’t started back yet or where they were when you initially emailed her two weeks ago. I’d send a quick email saying that you’re just following up on your previous email from [whatever the date was] and that you wanted to see if she’ll be around campus on [date(s) you’ll be there]. If you still haven’t heard back from her by the time you get to the school then you could always stop into the athletic department and ask them if she’s on campus. They can usually call her office or the boathouse to see if someone’s available to talk with you.

Coxing Q&A Teammates & Coaches

Question of the Day

By readyallrow January 4, 2015

So today we did some 30 second watt tests. I pulled a 305 on my first one and a 322 on my second one, and my assistant coach flipped out and is now obsessed with me becoming a rower. I guess I trust her judgement but I’m having a hard time with that idea. First of all, I hate the monotony of rowing. I’ve done it enough to hate it. The other coxes on my team are super type B and just don’t have good enough focus to make any calls. I’ve also almost exclusively coxed for two years a this is going to be a hard transition ( a junior in HS, 5’5″, 129 lbs). ALSO CAN 30 seconds really tell her anything? Really? Anyone can do anything for 30 seconds, and I’m not so sure that me being able to bang out 30 seconds will translate to a 2k very well. Thoughts? Thanks!

That does seem pretty good but like you said, anyone can do just about anything for 30 seconds. If you’re in good shape, play other sports, etc. then it’d make sense that you’d be able to pull decent numbers. I remember doing watts tests like that in high school and the novices that were swimmers, runners, volleyball players, etc. all did great just because they were super fit and had insane leg muscles. If I were you I’d probably just laugh it off and say “yeaaa … no” if she asks if you’ll consider rowing. If she presses it just be honest and tell her that you prefer coxing over rowing and feel like you’ll make a bigger/better contribution to the team by staying a coxswain.

Drills Q&A Technique

Question of the Day

By readyallrow December 8, 2014

Hi! My coach has been telling me the last couple of sessions that I’m opening up too early (both rowing and sculling). He says to imagine that I’m pushing my knees away from my chest rather than moving my chest away from my knees. I understand what he means and can feel that I’m doing it now but there is some mental block between that and actually fixing the problem. Do you know any other way I could think about it or what I could do to try fix it?

On the erg or while you’re warming up on the water try to spend a couple minutes doing some reverse pick drill stuff. This will help you segment your legs and back and really force you to think about your sequencing (aka legs first, then the back, etc.). Ideally you should do this in front of or beside some mirrors when you do it on the ergs that way you can actually watch yourself; this can help a lot with the “mental block” issue because being able to see what you’re doing can/will help a lot in allowing you to actually visualize where the block is happening with regards to your body movements.

College Q&A Recruiting

Question of the Day

By readyallrow November 26, 2014

I am a senior in high school and have only been rowing for about 8 months. I was wondering if I should fill out the recruiting questionnaires if I plan on walking on to a rowing team next year.

I wouldn’t. You haven’t been rowing for that long and unless your erg times are holy-shit-unbelievable then there’s not much to be gained from it. If you’re planning on walking on then just wait until you get to campus and find out when the walk-on meeting is or email the coach some time during the spring/summer and say that you’re an incoming freshman, you’ve rowed for a year, and are interested in walking on, can they give you some details about the program, etc.

Coxing Ergs Q&A Teammates & Coaches

Question of the Day

By readyallrow November 26, 2014

What is your opinion on weight-adjusted erg scores? I’m about 105lbs and 5’1″ so due to obvious height disadvantages, my erg scores are a bit higher than other lightweights on my team. There is an older girl on my team who is older and a “worse” erg score but she has the seat in the ltwt 8+. Would you suggest switching to coxing? I asked my coach about it at the end of the fall season since our team is going to be short on coxswains at the end of the year but she was trying to avoid the topic. Any suggestions?

I’ve never really done much stuff with weight-adjusted scores before this year so I’m largely unfamiliar with the “science” but from the limited knowledge/understanding that I do have, I think they can be useful but really only for determining who gets a shot to be in a boat, not who actually gets in the boat. I think most people agree that on-the-water performance is the more important variable though. I’ve also heard that the heavier/lighter you are the less accurate it is so if that’s true it’s probably not doing you many favors since you’re only 105.

Weight-adjusted scores aside, I’d probably at least suggest looking into coxing. You’re pretty small and it’s no secret that it’s tougher to be a successful rower the smaller you are. I really don’t ever understand why coaches make this so awkward and try to avoid the subject when it gets brought up but if it’s something you’re interested in and you know you’re going to need coxswains anyways, I’d probably bring it up again at some point (although not repeatedly…) and just be very point-blank about it. The more beating-around-the-bush you do the more opportunity you’re giving your coaches to avoid the conversation (I’ve been on both sides of that so … trust me on this).

Q&A Rowing Technique

Question of the Day

By readyallrow November 25, 2014

Hi! I’ve been rowing for four years and recently I’ve been getting some sort of tendonitis in my forearms: the forearm swells up a little and it feels very stiff and it is very painful to row with. This usually happens when I’m in a single or a double, but it has happened before in an eight and a quad. It has never happened to me so often, last year I got this twice throughout the season, but it went away the same day. I’ve talked to my coach and he said I might be gripping too much with my fingers, I’ve changed my grip since then and it was fine for a few weeks, however over the course of this week, it has come back and I’m not sure what I am doing wrong. I know it’s caused when I row long distances and when my forearms tense at the catch, but I don’t think that there is any other way to row (without tensing the forearms at the catch), when I relax my arms I end up pulling more with my fingers. As far as I’m aware, no one else in my crew has this although some say that they have had it before, but very rarely. I was just wondering if you had any tips for correcting my stroke if it is what is causing this? Thank you.

I definitely agree with your coach, I think you’ve got a bit of a death grip thing going on. If you made adjustments though and the pain came back then I’d probably recommend checking in with your doctor just to make sure there’s nothing else going on. At the very least they’ll likely be able to give you a stronger anti-inflammatory than your standard over-the-counter Ibuprofen that might help with the pain.

As far as tips for correcting your stroke, I really think loosening your grip is the biggest/best technical correction you can make right now. It’s a sequential thing too; if your upper body (i.e. upper back and shoulders) is relaxed, your arms will be relaxed, and that will lead to you having a more relaxed grip. If your upper body is tense, which it sounds like it probably is, then your forearms and grip are going to be tense as a result. When you’re at the catch, you want to maintain what I like to call a “common sense grip” – not too tight but tight enough that you have control of the handle – and make sure you’re unweighting the handle rather than lifting it in. If you’re lifting it in then that’s going to contribute to the tension you feel in your forearms. Tension’s not really the right word but if you’re going to feel “tension” anywhere it should be in your lat muscles as you lock on to the water.

From there it gets a bit harder for me to guess what you can do so definitely make sure you’re discussing this with your coach, having them watch you on the water, look for specific technical flaws, etc. and then go from there. Start with the grip thing though, for sure.

Coxing Novice Q&A

Question of the Day

By readyallrow November 18, 2014

Hi, I am a novice cox and was just wondering about what to do during the winter training. Thank you so much.

Check out any (or all) of these posts:

Winter training tips for coxswains…

Coxswains + winter training (Similar titles, different posts, I promise…)

How To Survive Winter Training, pt. 1b: Coxswains

“The Coxswain in Winter”

How do you as a coxswain help your rowers when they are erging in the winter?

Coxing Masters Q&A

Question of the Day

By readyallrow November 18, 2014

So I’m the most experienced coxswain on my juniors team, and was asked to cox a master’s eight. It isn’t a racing boat or anything. Some of the masters just wanted to try sweep. The thing is both of my coaches and a few of the board members for the juniors team will be in the boat, as will my dad. I’m afraid that if I mess up, or if my coach isn’t a fan of my style, it could affect boat placement going into spring. Any advice?

It won’t. It would be really stupid of your coach to keep you out of certain boats just because he didn’t like your style of coxing. I was emailing with another coxswain about a very similar situation a couple weeks ago and a lot of what I told him applies to you too. In this situation, yea it might be awkward to have your dad, your coach, and some of the board members in the boat but when you’re on the water they’re none of those people – they’re just another group of rowers. Something that I’ve noticed with masters rowers over the last few years (both men and women) is that they tend to forget that on the water I (and the other coxswains) don’t look at them the way their employees, colleagues, etc. look at them – they’re not doctors, lawyers, university administrators, hedge fund managers, venture capitalists, small business owners, non-profit managers, contractors, advertising execs, etc. to me. They’re just rowers. If it comes off like you’re intimidated by them because of who they are off the water then you open the door for them to put on their manager/department head/executive hat and try to run the show because that’s what they’re used to doing every day. Don’t forget though, you’re used to managing people every day too, the only difference between the two groups being age.

The majority of masters rowers are great and come out just to have a good time with friends so trust me when I say all you have to do is the exact same thing you do during practice with your normal crews. Obviously you should make sure you’re on top of your game (that means steering good lines, not hitting things, communicating clearly and concisely, etc.) but if you excel at all of the basic coxswain skills any other day of the week then you’re not going to have any issues with these guys.

Below is another part of the email I mentioned earlier that I hope will help you out. Remember, you wouldn’t have been asked to do this if someone (your coach, I’m assuming) didn’t think you were capable. Don’t take the situation too seriously and have fun with it!

“The biggest piece of advice I can give you is if you get nervous, keep it to yourself. Act like every single thing you say and do is a deliberate action, not something you debated doing before making a decision. Be confident and have a good time! Coxing masters, even competitive ones, can be a lot of fun. They’ll probably joke around with you which will hopefully lighten the atmosphere a bit so just approach it like you would any other practice. Communicate with the coach, ask questions if you don’t understand something, need it repeated, etc., be clear with your calls to the crew, and use this as an opportunity to learn. Every crew is different so you can probably apply something you’ve done with your high school team to these guys and you’ll probably be able to take something away from this and apply it to your high school practice next week.”

Coxing Q&A

Question of the Day

By readyallrow November 14, 2014

Hi, this is quite important as I have a race tomorrow, sorry it’s short notice and I completely understand if you don’t have time to answer this. Anyways I have taken my CoxBox home to charge before the race (as usual). I plug it in and it says 46% battery, 5 mins later it’s at 100%, so I switched it on and off to double check and it goes back to 46% or lower. I need as much charge in as possible as it’s a long race, and we’ll be on the water for 2+ hours. I don’t know how to fix it! I have tried also leaving it on charge all day and night, but again the same thing happens, it goes to 100% then when taken off charge back down to 46% or less. It’s always roughly the same number it goes back down to. Sorry if it doesn’t make much sense… bit stressed!!! 🙂

That’s odd. Off the top of my head I’d say try resetting the battery but that requires more time than it sounds like you have. If you can’t borrow another cox box (which you should try to do) then you’ll just have to find a way to deal with this one. Make sure your coach and crew know ahead of time that you’re having issues with it and then plan to use it as little as possible tomorrow before the race actually starts. Once it’s in the boat just leave it off until maybe 5 minutes before your race starts. Yea, that means you’ll have to project a little more than usual but if people are quiet and paying attention it shouldn’t be much of an issue. Make sure you’re fully hydrated beforehand too since this will help keep you from losing your voice. If it stays at 46% then I’d guess you’ll get maybe an hour or so out of it, provided you don’t have the volume up super loud, so just make sure you plan accordingly.

College Q&A Recruiting

Question of the Day

By readyallrow November 13, 2014

Hi! So I live in New Zealand and I’ve had an email from a coach in the US saying she’s coming to NZ next week and wants to come and see me row. Any tips for what to talk about? I don’t really know much about the whole process and I don’t want to come off too eager/not interested. How will I tell if she is interested in recruiting me? Thanks so much!!

That’s pretty awesome, congrats! Check out the list of questions to ask prospective coaches in the post linked below. There’s some good ones in there that pretty much cover all your bases as far as recruiting, academics, the program itself, etc. goes. Obviously you don’t have to ask them all of those questions but pick out maybe 5-7 or so and keep them on hand for whenever you’ve actually got some time to talk one-on-one. If you don’t have much time to talk with one another ask if it’s OK if you send an email within the next couple of days with some questions that you have and then just write out whatever they are in a brief, bullet-pointed email maybe a day or two later.

Also check out the post linked below on how to respond to a coach that asks “what should I know about you”, “tell me about yourself”, etc. That’d be one of the first questions that I’d ask a recruit (and it’s something I’ve been asked on nearly every worthwhile job interview I’ve had) so it’s always good to have something prepared just in case.

As far as coming off too eager or not interested … just be cool. She’s a coach, not a foreign dignitary. Just be polite and act like you always do (aka a normal person). I imagine that if she’s interested in you then she’ll let you know at some point in the future but if it’s really bugging you to know then I don’t see why it’d be a big deal to ask where you stand next to the other rowers she’s looked at. I would probably save that for your follow-up email though just to give her some time to actually process what she saw in practice.

There are a lot of really great questions in the recruiting tag that cover pretty much everything you’d wanna know and some things you didn’t know you wanted to know so if/when you’ve got time, definitely try to spend some time reading through them.