Tag: qotd

College Q&A Recruiting

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I was looking at the NCAA rules for recruiting and I was confused by one of them and was hoping you could explain it to me. I am a rising senior so it is now acceptable for the coaches to call me, but I was reading the rules and it said that they could only call you once a week. I had a coach call me but I didn’t have my phone so he left a message. Does that count as the one call for the week? (BTW I tried calling back but he didn’t answer so I left a message.)

So I spent awhile Googling this and, unsurprisingly, found very little useful information. I even went through the NCAA D1 manual (a 432 page convoluted monstrosity…) and couldn’t find anything. The one thing I did find though is from an article posted on AthleticScholarships.net back in 2013 about phone call violations reported to the NCAA by Iowa State. Here’s the full article if you want to read it but the part most relevant to your situation says “calls where you do not reach a recruit, which could be a voicemail or someone else picking up the phone, do not count against the numerical limits on phone calls”. Also “The NCAA requires that voicemails, failures to reach the recruit, and dropped calls be supported with “contemporaneous documentation.” That means that in the moment or shortly thereafter, the coach must record why the call should not count.

The thing you’ve gotta realize about the NCAA is that they’ve got coaches on very, very short leashes. I’m pretty sure if they could hand out three year post-season bans simply for not sending them a Christmas card, they would. So while leaving a voicemail might not count against the “one call per week” limit, some coaches might not want to risk it and would instead just wait until the following week to call you again. This is usually why they schedule a specific day/time to talk with you so you can be sure to have your phone nearby. If I understand the rules correctly though, since he couldn’t reach you the first time he called and you called back and left a voicemail, technically he can return that call within the same week since the original call he made doesn’t count. (…hopefully that makes sense.)

My suggestion would be to ask him the next time you talk for clarification on all of this just so that you know what’s permissible and what isn’t. Before coaches can contact prospective student-athletes they’re required by the NCAA to take a recruiting certification exam that tests their knowledge on all the rules, so assuming that he’s done that he would definitely be able to fill you in on how things work. Knowing the rules, even though they don’t necessarily apply to you, could also come in handy should something come up in the future.

You could also call the compliance department (located within the athletic department, for those that didn’t know that…) and ask them for clarification since there’s not really anything explicitly stated online (at least not anywhere that is endorsed by the NCAA) what the protocol is here. Their sole job is to make sure the athletes (and coaches) understand the rules and comply with them so if there’s anyone besides the coach who would know the answer to your question, it’d be these guys.

Coxing Q&A

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So… I’m 5’6 and I weigh 132. I really like coxing and I suppose I could lose weight, but right now I only feel comfortable going down to about 125 (because of my shape and where my weight is distributed). I don’t really like rowing, but that may be because I can’t keep up with some of the girls on my team that I get paired with, I don’t like sweeping (but I LOVE sculling), I’m embarrassed by my painfully, horribly slow 2k, etc. etc. Basically what I’m saying is I’m in a huge rut because I’m too big to cox but too small to row well, but I’ve fallen in love with everything about the sport. What do you think I should do?

I’ve known people in similar situations, be it between rowing and coxing or rowing lightweight and heavyweight, and I’d guess that roughly half of them made it work and the other half took it as a sign that they’d gone as far as they could with their rowing career. I’d say you have two options. Option one, try coxing men. Their weight minimum is 125lbs so that tends to work in the favor of girls who aren’t comfortable going down to 110lbs or just have a natural body weight closer to that than to the women’s minimum.

Related: Hi. I’ve been rowing on my high school team for four years now and I’ve been considering continuing crew in college. However, my times aren’t good enough to be recruited and I’ve always wanted to cox. People have told me I would be good at coxing but my coach wants me to row for him. But my weight is an issue. I’m 5’3″ and weigh around 140. I don’t know if I can healthily get down to a weight to cox, so is it possible for me to cox men? Thanks!

If you’ve got experience coxing (actual experience is always preferable to “I coxed learn-to-row twice a year and a half ago!”) then I’d consider looking into this. Option two is to hang up your rowing hat and enjoy the magical concept known as “free time” which you will find that you suddenly have an abundance of. Regardless of whether you’re a rower or a coxswain though, height and weight are important components of being competitive in this sport (no matter how much people would like to pretend they’re not) so it’s up to you to decide whether or not losing a few pounds is something you’re willing to do and/or would be comfortable doing.

College Q&A Recruiting

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I am very shy and talking to college coaches is super intimidating to me. I really want the chance to row in college and I don’t want my shyness to get in the way.

I don’t think it will. Not everybody is super outgoing or comfortable making conversation – there’s nothing wrong with that. As long as you’re not completely aloof when you meet/talk with them, there’s pretty much no way that being shy can work against you. I answered a similar question a couple weeks ago (linked below) about talking on the phone with coaches and I think a lot of what I said in that post would also apply to your situation, particularly the part about acting confident even if you don’t feel like it.

Related: Hey! This isn’t exactly about rowing but I was hoping you could help. So I have been emailing with a college coach a little bit and I am supposed to call him this week. The only thing is I get really nervous when I talk on the phone so I am really nervous about calling him. Do you have any advice about talking to college coaches on the phone? Thanks!

You already know that part of rowing in college entails meeting with coaches so there’s really no getting out of doing that. You essentially have to just take a deep breath, say “suck it up, this is part of the process”, and go in there ready to tell confidently tell them why you’d make a great addition to the team. Most coaches are pretty chill people too and very, very few of them are actually intimidating people.

College Q&A Recruiting

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I am going to be a senior and I have been looking at this one school that I could potentially row for. I have spoken with the coaches via email and I really love the school. The head coach seems to be interested in me but the thing is, I am not the tallest or strongest rower on my team and I am worried that I won’t be able to live up to the expectations of the college coach or college rowing in general.

Very rarely are people’s expectations as high as you think they are. Trust me…

Here’s the thing you’ve gotta understand about pretty much every rower competing at a high level right now, be it in college or on their country’s national team – very, very few of them were the tallest or strongest on their junior teams, let alone on the teams they’re on now. If coaches only took the tallest and strongest you’d have very few teams, very little competition, and very little to motivate you to get better. You can’t change your height so whatever – forget about that. You can improve your strength and fitness though so if that’s an area where you feel like you have some room to get better, start a lifting program, do some circuit training, etc.

This is going to sound horribly cliche but I’ve heard it straight from the mouths of too many coaches to think of it as anything but a cliche – character trumps height, strength, etc. any day of the week. Obviously there’s got to be a base level of ability in place, which you’ve clearly got, but you can make up for a lot of things simply by being a solid person. It’s all about work ethic and whether or not you’re willing to put the work in to improve upon the strengths you already have. A 5’9″ woman with a 7:35 2k who is constantly finding ways to get better, buys into the team’s philosophy and goals, and is willing to do the not-so-fun stuff with a consistently positive attitude is ultimately going to be a more valuable asset to the coach (and team) than a 6’1″ woman with a 7:22 2k who does just enough to be good but won’t put in that extra effort to do what’s necessary to be great.

Going back to the expectations thing, I would first find out what the expectations are before assuming you can’t, don’t, or won’t meet them. It’s as simple as saying something like “As an incoming freshman, what range of erg scores do you typically look for?”. From there you can compare your times to the range you’re given, determine what’s realistically possible for you to achieve by next August, and then put together a plan to make it happen. Doing that and keeping the coach(es) up to date with your progress (i.e. new PRs) goes a long way in showing what you’re capable of, how hard you go after something you want, and just the overall kind of person/athlete you are. I would also caution against assuming on your own what the expectations are or might be just based on what you see or read online. Yes it’s hard work and yes it’s time consuming but isn’t that true of most things that we find worth pursuing?

If you assume right now that you won’t be able to live up to the expectations, you’re right – you won’t. The expectations at most college programs are pretty high and that’s a good thing – you should want to be part of a team that has high standards and lofty goals like that but you sure as hell shouldn’t let that intimidate you. Do you honestly think that this coach would be talking to you in the first place if he/she didn’t think you had the capabilities to meet and exceed the expectations they have for the athletes they coach? Come on. They don’t have that kind of time to waste.

The upcoming year, or at least the fall semester, is probably going to be pretty stressful as you go through all the necessary preparations to get ready for college. Don’t make things even harder for yourself by worrying about stuff like this. It’s not worth it. Like I said, try to start doing some kind of lifting this summer to start working on your overall strength and the next time you talk with the coach ask them to name 3-4 of their basic expectations for incoming freshman in terms of erg scores, team contributions, etc. Graduating and going to college is essentially like leveling up in a game – what happens next really isn’t anything out of the ordinary, there just happens to be subtle differences in a couple areas that present new challenges that are usually small and easily achievable with the right about of dedication and persistence. I think you’ll find that rowing in college compared to your current program is the same way, as will be the expectations of your new coach(es).

Coxing Q&A Rowing

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At Masters’ Regionals this weekend we were having a discussion on if it is important for coxswains to have time rowing. Not just on the erg, but on the water as well. What do you think?

I’ve touched on this a couple times before but yes, I do think it’s important for them to get on the water/erg but how I think it should be approached is typically very different than how rowers and other coaches think it should be. I think it’s pointless to make coxswains row competitively for a season or two or train them as if they’re rowers because … they’re not. If you look at the average person who’s targeted to be a coxswain when they’re in high school, they’re usually very small kids. We’re seriously like the runts of our age group. Putting us in boats with “normal” sized kids and trying to teach us to row rarely accomplishes anything because the size and strength just isn’t there. I’ve talked to a few coxswains about this and I agree with what they’ve said about how psychologically it can be pretty damaging for them, mainly because of how obvious it is that they’re “weaker” in comparison to the other kids. It can be (and usually is) very intimidating for them. It’s also really hard to go from being portrayed as the weak kid, even if it’s not done intentionally, to suddenly being the kid with all this responsibility and who’s expected to step up and be a leader. Trust me, I’ve had to do it before and it’s rough. Some kids have an easier time with it than others but if you want to know a great way to kill a kid’s confidence right off the bat, that’s how you do it.

Like I said, I do think that coxswains should have the opportunity to get on the water to row but I think it should be done separately from the team’s regular practice. The further into the season you get the less important it is (in my opinion) so I would try to get them on the water (or in the tanks) during March-April before the competitive season begins. (Before that I’d spend time with them on the ergs doing stuff similar to what I’d do on the water.) Ideally I would like to get them out at least once every week or two for 30-45 minutes after practice, preferably in fours if we can. Initially the goal would be to teach them what the stroke feels like with an actual oar and how it’s different from being on the erg and then as we progress I’d want them to focus more on consciously feeling what their body is doing as they go through the recovery, catch, drive, and finish. I think teaching them to feel what all that (the body, the boat, etc.) feels like at various points during the stroke, both when they’re doing something correctly and when they’re not, helps teach them the boat feel that they need to have as a coxswain, in addition to helping them communicate more effectively with the boat when they’re trying to elicit a change.

Even if you’re not entirely sure what the issue is you can still say something like “I was having a similar problem getting the blade out cleanly at the finish the other day but what worked for me was making sure I stayed tall throughout the drive instead of sinking down into my hips as I got closer to finish. This gave me a little more room to tap down so the blade wouldn’t get caught in the water. Next time think about keeping your core tight and the low back muscles engaged so that you stay upright as you press back. [Etc. etc. etc.]” That’s a pretty basic call to make and it’s very likely that most coxswains would know to say something like that whether they’d rowed or not but having the personal experience to back it up adds credibility to the call and lets your crew know that you’re making extra efforts outside of your usual responsibilities to learn more about what they’re doing so you can communicate with them better while you’re at practice (and ultimately be a better coxswain).

Once I think they’ve got a good handle on what the stroke should look like, feel like, etc. then I’d start taking them through some of the drills we do and getting them to understand that this is the purpose of the drill, this is how it’s done, this is what we’re looking for when it’s done correctly, etc. Basically anything I’d want them to know about the drill I’d go over with them while they’ve got an oar in their hands. Similarly to what I said up above, I think this just helps them better communicate with the rowers what they want to see happen, what change needs to be made, etc. The knowledge and understanding they gain by doing it themselves is ultimately what the coach should be after (vs. trying to perfect their technique and make them row like actual rowers). For me personally, I’m a really hands on learner. I can grasp concepts pretty easily if you explain them to me but if you show me and let me go through the trial-and-error process of getting it right on my own, that’s what really solidifies it for me. That’s how I learned a lot about the drills we used to do – I’d get on the erg with my coach for 5-10 minutes and go through it with him so I knew what it should look like, what I should be looking for, etc. when we were on the water.

Rowers talk a lot (incessantly would probably be more accurate…sorry guys) about wanting coxswains to understand what it feels like to row but what they usually mean is they want them to know what it feels like to row when lactic acid is wreaking havoc on your muscles. I can appreciate that but at the end of the day I think it’s more effective to teach the coxswains one-on-one(ish) about the stroke, the drills, and the general technique things that they should be looking for, pointing out, and correcting when necessary. Putting them in a boat, giving them an oar, and saying “here, now row with these people that are six inches taller and twenty-five pounds heavier than you” is about as helpful as saying “steer straight and don’t hit anything”. Rowers and coxswains are two separate entities so you’ve got to coach them as such. When coxswains are in a boat trying to row I’m not so much trying to coach their bodies as I’m trying to coach their brains, if that makes sense. With rowers it’s all about the bodies because their role in the boat is physical. A coxswain’s job is mental, thus that’s what you’ve got to coach.

Q&A Rowing Technique

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Can you explain the term “rowing it in”?

Sure! When you hear someone say you’re rowing it in, what they mean is that you’re starting your leg drive before you’ve locked the blade on to the water. Starting the leg drive before your blade’s in means that you’ll miss water at the catch, have a shorter stroke, and generate less power on the drive (since your blade isn’t in the water for as long as it should be). Something to remember is that getting to the front of the slide isn’t what signifies that it’s time to change direction, rather it’s the blade catching the water. Lock the blade then go with the legs.

Another thing that can contribute to missing water is diving at the catch. This tends to happen when you fail to set the body angle early enough. By the time you reach half-slide you should have all the body prep you’re going to get otherwise what ends up happening is you get to 3/4 slide and end up throwing your upper body forward to get more reach (or rather, the amount of reach you would have gotten had you set your body angle at the right time). This effects several things within the boat, including where your blade is when you go to start the drive. Throwing the body tends to push the hands down towards your feet, which in turn lifts the blade up. If your blade is higher than it needs to be above the water (i.e. six inches or more…) then you’re going to have difficulty staying on time with everyone else and going straight to the water. If you’re not going straight to the water then you’re missing water.

If you’re a coxswain this can be tough to see from where we’re sitting but the easiest way to tell if someone is missing water is to look  at the angle of the oar shafts. A good catch angle from our perspective is about 45 degrees, give or take. Anything less than that and they’re likely doing one of the two things I described up above. Sometimes I’ll poke my head out of the boat if we’re not doing pieces to see if I can spot the problem but if I can’t I’ll make a couple calls to that individual about going straight to the water, getting it right in at the catch, etc. and then talk to them/the coach about it more whenever we stop.

College Coxing Q&A Recruiting Teammates & Coaches

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Hi! I’m finishing my junior year in high school and I know it’s quite late for me, but after my past spring season I’ve decided that I want to cox in college. I’m uncertain about a couple things in the process though. First off, I emailed the head coach for my top choice college, and he emailed back that he would share the email with his recruitment coordinator, his assistant coach, to answer all my questions. So when I email coaches from now on, should I just always email the assistant coach? For another college, they don’t have an assistant coach listed, but they have a novice coach. Should I email them over the head coach? And lastly, what are some good things for a coxswain to include in those emails?

These are great questions!

So, for your first question, I think a good thing to do is email whoever is listed as the recruiting coordinator/freshmen coach and then CC the head coach, that way both of them get it but it’s directed at the person who you’ll mainly be corresponding with. After the initial email where you introduce yourself and such you can probably just stick to emailing the assistant coach. You can always ask though – “should I CC [head coach] on the emails going forward” – and they’ll let you know what works best for them.

For your second question, yes, email the novice coach and do what I said up above. Some coaches aren’t listed as “assistants” and instead are just titled “freshmen coach” or “freshmen/novice coach” on the athletic department websites even though they are assistants to the head coach in the grand scheme of things.

Related: I’m a junior starting to look into the recruiting process. What would a good first email to a coach be formatted as? What should I include? How long should it be?

Regarding emails, check out the post linked above. There are a couple other links in there that might help you out but in addition to that I’d recommend checking out the “recruiting” tag and reading some of the questions that other rowers and coxswains have asked. You might find an answer to a question you didn’t know you had yet.

Q&A Rowing

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I am about average height for a rower but I have really small feet (like a size 6) and almost all of the shoes in the boats we have are size 12. Some I am able to tighten so it’s not too bad but in some of our older eights and fours its almost impossible. There have been several times when my feet have come out because they are not secure. Do you have any ideas of how to fix this?

Ah yes, the plight of the small-footed rower. (I can wear a size 2 in kids shoes so I sympathize with #smallfeetproblems.) The few times that I’ve gotten in a boat to row I’ve taken two pairs of extra socks that I have in my car and stuffed them up in the top of the shoe. It’s not the best solution but it’s not the worst either. I’m going to defer this question to the rowers out there though because outside of just dealing with it, I genuinely have no idea what you could do in this situation.

Help us out, guys – how do you deal with shoes that are too big for your feet? Is it just a matter of “sucking it up” or is there an actual tried-and-true solution?

College High School Q&A Recruiting

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Hi there! I’m a rising senior in high school and I’m considering rowing in college but I’m not entirely certain that I want to do it. Should I talk to the coaches of a couple schools anyways or should I just wait until I get to college?

You could do either one but it might be easiest to test the waters now vs. when you get to campus and have tons of other things occupying your time during the first couple of weeks. I’d recommend getting in contact with the assistant coach/recruiting coordinator (they’re almost always the same person) of the schools you’re applying/have applied to and indicate that you’re interested in rowing in college but haven’t fully made a decision one way or the other yet. Let them know the major(s) you’re interested in and ask for some basic information about the team (I’d say limit it to two or three questions max for right now).

Don’t forget to include your basic stats – height/weight, which side you row, your 2k and 5k/6k time and average splits, the boat you rowed in this year/how well you did, etc. so that they can get a general idea of who you are as an athlete (assuming you’re already a rower – if you’re not just include your height/weight). Including your GPA and any academic highlights (the number of APs you’re taking seems to be a common one…) is also a good idea. If you’ve got all that on a rowing resume already then you can just attach that. I’ve found that when emailing coaches, the shorter and more direct your email is the more likely you are to get a response (not a fast response, just a response in general).

When you’ve got some free time, scroll through the “recruiting” tag and read some of the (many) questions other people have asked. There’s some good info in there and some of it might end up applying to you if decide to pursue rowing in college.

Coxing High School Q&A Technique

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Hi there!! So I am a junior school (Under 14′s) cox and we have moved into using bow loader quads, instead of the usual stern loaders we used to use. We have been racing in an oct for awhile so I am a bit out of practice with the quads. Anyways, in the bow loader, I obviously have a very restricted field of vision, so I was wondering if you had any tips on “reading” or “feeling” the boat, to pick up on faults e.t.c ? Also I sometimes feel like I stay quiet for too long, during steady state if there are no obvious technical calls, rate calls, or rhythm calls. Is there anything that I can say to make it a bit less silent and awkward for the rowers?

Don’t underestimate the power of not talking. I think there are plenty of rowers who will agree with me in saying that if you don’t have anything constructive to say, especially during steady state, it’s best to just not say anything. When we’re doing long pieces I’ll actually tell the rowers that for the next 2, 3, 5, etc. minutes, I’m not gonna talk and that they should focus on X, Y, and Z. During that time I focus first on steering and second on feeling the boat. If I’m weak in any area as a coxswain, it’s definitely steering. I mean, I’m pretty proficient at it but if I had to grade myself I’d definitely give myself a lower grade there compared to my other skills. When I get the chance to go off auto-pilot and actually focus on the adjustments I’m making, I take the opportunity. You can read about all that and the technique “game” I play during steady state pieces in a bit more detail in the post linked below.

Related: Since were still waiting for the river to be ice-free, I’ve been thinking about what I need to work on when we get back on the water. I’ve decided that coxing steady state pieces are harder for me to cox. I think it’s because I don’t want to talk to much but I’m also scared of not saying enough or being too repetitive. Do you have advice for coxing steady state workouts?

When it comes to feeling the boat, the best thing you can do for yourself is listen painfully hard when the coach is going though a technical practice with the crew. I hate technical practices because they’re boring as hell and there’s hardly ever anything for coxswains to actually do but I appreciate them to an extent because it helps me continue developing my sense of boat feel, regardless of whether I’m coxing an eight or a four. What you want to do is focus on how the boat feels while the rowers are doing the drill and how it feels after the coach gives them an instruction or feedback (i.e.”pull in higher”, “good adjustment with the hands”, etc.). For the most part, I gauge the “feel” of the boat by averaging the last three strokes. How did the last three strokes feel as a whole after an adjustment was made vs. pre-adjustment?

You can’t judge how the boat’s moving or what the rowers are doing if you look at it stroke by stroke – or at least, I don’t think you can. You’ve gotta base it off of what’s consistently happening. If the boat is set for ten strokes, dips to starboard for one, and then goes back to being set for several strokes, do you really need to say something about handle heights? On the flip side, when you would say something is if it’s down to one side for several strokes then setting up for one before going back to being offset because then you know that someone (or multiple someones) is consistently doing something that’s affecting the set (whereas before it might have been one person trying to readjust themselves on the seat or something).

Anyways, the point is is that if you use your time wisely during technical practices then when you’re doing steady state you can test yourself regarding technique and how that makes the boat feel. If the boat is doing this then you know either X or Y must be happening. X is caused by this, Y is caused by that. The factors causing X aren’t something your crew typically has an issue with but you know that factors B and C (that cause problem Y) are two things that your 3-seat has been working on a lot lately. Keeping that in mind, whenever you start talking again you can make a call for that or when you stop you can say to your coach “It felt like Y was happening and I know Dan has been working on B and C lately but I couldn’t tell if that was what was actually causing the problem. Did you see anything?” and then go from there.