Tag: qotd

Question of the Day

By readyallrow February 18, 2016

Hi! I am a freshman walk-on coxswain at a competitive D1 Ivy League program on the men’s lightweight team. We currently have 4 boats and I am the 5th coxswain, so in the coaches’ eyes I am obviously the worst although the rowers tell me they prefer me to the 4th coxswain (also a freshman walk-on) and the third is over the weight minimum by 10 pounds. The thing is, I am always messing up, always going to be behind because I never coxed in high school and never really learned (they put me in a boat the first day and told me to go) and I feel like I’m just never going to be good enough. I also feel like, no matter what I do, the coaches will never see me as better than the 5th coxswain even though I feel like I’m better than that and I’ve worked harder than the other coxswains and improved so much.

I love this sport and the team, but it has become such a negative thing for me. I often feel like shit after practice and I don’t feel valued or needed by the team or coaches. At this point the frustration is exhausting. I’m considering quitting, but I know that I would be ostracized by the team if I did, and I have become really good friends with some of them and don’t want to lose those relationships. Do you have any advice or have you ever been in a similar situation?

PS I can’t really talk to anyone about this because no one on my team understands, and I don’t feel comfortable addressing my concerns with my coaches because I feel like if they know I’m apprehensive, they’ll permanently “bench” (put me on the launch/kick me off the team) me–it has happened before.

Please help! Also I love your blog so thank you.

So … a couple things to start. Just because you’re the fifth coxswain doesn’t automatically or obviously mean that you suck … and I don’t mean that in an “every kid should get a participation trophy so their feelings aren’t hurt” kind of way, I just don’t think you should assume you’re the worst just because you’re not being boated. That kind of mindset almost predisposes you to make more mistakes on the water because you feel like you have to prove yourself more and that can cause a lot of anxiety which in turn causes your confidence to take an even bigger hit every time something goes wrong. If there’s four boats and five coxswains obviously someone’s gonna draw the short straw but ultimately it’s up to you to make the decision as to whether or not you’re going to settle for the short straw or you’re going to work your ass off to get in one of the boats (lack of coaching and experience be damned).

Secondly, if you feel like quitting you should quit. I’m never going to be that person who tries to talk people out of quitting, mainly because if it’s something they’ve already thought about doing then their minds are probably already made up and they’re basically just looking for validation or someone to say that it’s OK for them to do it. I think your reasons for wanting to quit are pretty valid … it’s your reasons for not wanting to quit that I think are … less valid. I get not wanting to lose the friendships you’ve made but to counter that argument, if the guys on the team are really your friends and put an equal amount of work into the friendship as you do, do you really think they’ll just let it fall to the wayside if you’re no longer around? Real friends won’t/don’t let that happen. You know the time commitment all of this takes so obviously it’s going to take a little more effort to make plans to hang out but if I were in your shoes, I’d rather quit and have this weight off my shoulders all the while knowing that I might not see my friends as frequently than stay on the team and continue feeling shitty and undervalued just for the sake of maintaining the status quo. Also, you should talk to them about this. Maybe not the coxing part of it specifically but the social aspect of it. Like I said, if they’re really your friends then they’ll probably be able to dispense some insight/advice that I can’t as an outsider looking in.

OK, so on to the coxing stuff. I understand why you’d say that you can’t talk to anyone on the team about this because I’ve been in that situation too. I felt the same way in college about pretty much everything because that whole four and a half years was like Murphy’s Law for me – if it could go wrong, it did (epically). Every time I’d talk to my professors, advisors, etc. it just made me even more upset because their advice sucked and I attributed it to them just not getting it … which I still think is true but it’s really only been recently that I realized I wasn’t approaching the situation in the best way. It’s scarily easy to fall into that “woe is me, this is bullshit, why is this happening” mindset and if what you’re saying or the questions you’re asking communicate that vibe, then yea … no one is gonna get it because they’re not experiencing what you’re experiencing. If you want some legit feedback/advice you have to put all that aside and approach it with a “this is where I’m at, this is where I want to be, what in your opinion should I do to get there?” attitude rather than a “I have no idea what I’m doing and everyone thinks I suck, HELP” one. The latter’s not gonna get you anything more than a fake “what, nooo, nobody thinks that” response whereas the former might get you a few nuggets of gold that you can then mold into an action plan.

Assuming making your way into a boat is your goal, you should schedule a meeting with the coaches. Being in the launch – as boring as it can be sometimes – really isn’t the worst thing that can happen (our sophomore coxswain literally spent March-May (every day) this past spring in the launch and I honestly believe she’s a better coxswain because of it) and if they kick you off the team (which is easily the dumbest thing I’ve heard all week) … who cares. If you’re already on the fence about quitting then them kicking you off probably isn’t going to phase you that much.

Do you have to say you’re thinking about quitting? Well, no, obviously. I’d keep that to yourself, not out of fear of retaliation but because it’s not relevant. Neither is the rowers’ preference for you over the fourth coxswain or the fact that the third is 135+ pounds. You’ve already listed some good talking points so use those to drive the conversation and help you get what you want. If I were you, I’d go into this “spring season goal-setting” meeting (<– email subject line) prepared to say two things:

1. You’re the fifth coxswain now and while you know you still have areas to improve on, you’re really proud of the effort you’ve put in to improve over where you were when you started. [Confidence is key. If you feel like you’ve gotten better, own that shit.] Making your way into the fourth boat is your goal so what one or two things do they feel you should focus your efforts on so you can better compete for that spot?

Make sure you have a couple things on hand that you are already planning to work on, i.e. steering, practice management, etc., that way you can either pre-empt them by saying “I know I need to get better at managing practice when we’re on the water” so they hopefully don’t say the same thing or they can elaborate on it further. Additionally, if they ask you what you think you need to work on you can say XYZ. If I were your coach I’d take you a lot more seriously if you come prepared having thought about this stuff ahead of time.

2. You want to make sure you’re being a productive member of the team, regardless of whether you’re in a boat or not, so what can you do on land or in the launch that would help them out, help practice run smoother, etc.?

You can ask the rowers and coxswains this too, framed exactly the same way. Both groups will say different things so you’ll be able to get a ton of info out of one simple question. This addresses the whole feeling undervalued/not needed thing too without directly saying so and it makes you sound proactive instead of whiny, which is how saying you feel undervalued can come off to some people. Whatever they all say though, even if it’s the most mundane task possible, embrace it and execute it so flawlessly that Beyonce herself would be proud. Find situations where you can create value for yourself and eventually people will start appreciating what you have to offer. That’s what I did last year with working with our coxswains. It was already something I was planning on doing in addition to coaching the rowers but because we were such a small team, I didn’t have a boat to coach which meant I would have been showing up every day to essentially do nothing. If I wanted to be taken seriously and not be seen as that hanger-on wannabe coach who just rides in the launch every day, I had to create value for myself so that even if I wasn’t coaching the rowers I was still contributing to the team and helping to make them fast. Coxswains are obviously my thing so I tapped into that and now anytime something comes up with them, on our team or any of the other three, I’m the one that people go to. Find something similar that you can do for your team. It might not be glamorous but don’t underestimate how much rowers appreciate always having a full water bottle during erg workouts or being able to get started right away because the ergs, weight-circuit stations, etc. are already set up because you showed up early to take care of it.

So .. to summarize all of this (sorry it got so long), if you want to quit then quit but if you want to give coxing a shot then approach it proactively and come up with some goals and a plan. Get your coaches on board by discussing this with them and as I said, tell them where you’re at, where you want to be, and get insight from them on what you can do to get there. You’re a novice, you’re obviously not expected to know everything so use your teammates and coaches to help you fill in the gaps. At the end of the day if you want the right answers you’ve first gotta initiate the conversation and ask the right questions.

Q&A Rowing Training & Nutrition

Question of the Day

By readyallrow February 18, 2016

OK, so I will preface this saying that I know this was not my best winter, but I have not been working out nearly as much as I should. I’ve had various injuries to work through but I’m fully cleared now and probably could have been working out more through it. Anyway, I’m pretty nervous with the season coming up that I’m not going to be up to par so do you have any workout (or other) suggestions to be in better shape for the season? Thanks so much!

Just get on the erg and do some steady state. If you can’t erg for whatever reason, run, swim, or bike. Usually when our guys can’t erg we have them go on seven mile runs or they jog over and do a full tour of Harvard Stadium (which is 37 sections + 3 miles there + 3 miles back). If the weather’s bad or the conditions are unsafe (i.e. snow or ice) then they’ll do Green Buildings (self-explanatory once you see the picture) with weight vests on. They’ll also hop on the bikes and go at whatever pace the guys on the ergs are going (meaning they’ll bike lightly during the rest periods but amp it up during the actual pieces). The coxswains have started taking their heart rates to make sure they’re in the right zones so I’d recommend doing that regardless of what you do, that way you can be sure you’re training the right way (and actually working hard vs. just feeling tired because you’re not in rowing-shape yet).

I’d also make sure you’re communicating with your coach(es) too about your injuries and progress (if they don’t already know). They’ll care a lot less about whatever shape you’re in if you let them know what’s going on and keep them updated vs. not saying anything at all and showing up wildly out of shape on the first day.

Coxing Drills Novice Q&A Rowing Technique

Question of the Day

By readyallrow February 4, 2016

Hi! So I am in my fourth season of crew, and my second season of coxing. Our season started Monday and the novices were already on the water. I was not with either of the novice boats that day but I coxed one today. I found it really difficult to teach them everything. Do you have any advice on how to teach the novices? Also, our first race is in 4 or 5 weeks, so the novices need to get the hang of it as soon as possible so that we can get “normal” boats put together. My boat today was able to row all 8 (6 novices and a 2nd season rower and stroke) fairly well. Any and all advice would be super helpful. Thanks so much!!! I love your blog- I’ve used it since I started rowing.

Therein lies the problem – you can’t teach them everything all at once. Imagine you’re sitting in math class and your teacher starts the day by teaching you to add two numbers together and finishes 90 minutes later by trying to get you to do differential equations … that’s what most coxswains (and new coaches – I was definitely guilty of this) try to do when they’re in charge of a novice crew. You have to start really simple and build from there once you’ve established a solid foundation. 4-5 weeks is plenty of time to get them rowing well enough to race so don’t rush through everything or try to pile on too much in a short period of time just because it feels like you don’t have that much time to work with.

I run our walk-on program in the fall and what we always start off doing (both on the ergs and in the boats) is a super basic pick drill. We’ll start off doing arms only for awhile (like, 15-20min) and I’ll walk around the ergs adjusting peoples’ form and making sure they’re getting the motion down. It’s obviously not going to look great but if it’s like, 75% there I’m happy. From there we’ll take a break and then do arms + bodies. Same routine, I’ll walk around and coach people as necessary but for the most part I want them to just focus on getting the motions down. Even though there are like, a thousand things I could say to them I try to err on the side of letting them figure it out for themselves (unless it’s so egregious that I have to say something) since I think that’s goes a lot further than if I were constantly in their ear nitpicking everything they’re doing.

Once they’ve got arms + bodies down we’ll go back to arms only and blend the two together, so 10 strokes doing that and 10 strokes adding in the bodies, and then we’ll repeat that once or twice more. The next day we’ll start with what we finished with the day before, cycling through arms and arms + bodies before adding in the slides. We’ll start with determining where half-slide actually is, what it should look like, feel like, etc. and then I’ll have them row at half-slide for a bit, similar to what we did the day before with arms and arms + bodies. Most of the coaching I do here is just reminding them to get the hands away and bodies over before the slides start and to not go too far past where half-slide should be.

Another point of focus is feeling what it’s like to drive off the footboards with the legs at the catch, although I don’t bring this up until I feel like they have a comfortable grasp on the recovery sequence. After they’ve got half-slide down we’ll lengthen it out to full slide and repeat the whole process again. Points of emphasis here are, again, hands away/bodies over before the slides start and not flying up the slide just because your butt is on wheels.

Assuming our first practice is on a Monday, we’ll do all of that on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday (with Wednesday just being a “review” type day of everything up to that point … nothing new gets added) and then on Thursday/Friday we’ll start off with the pick drill (15-20 strokes each) before going into 3-5 minutes of continuous rowing (ideally in the tanks if they’re available). After that we’ll take a break and then do some kind of drill – like cut-the-cake or a pause drill or something relatively simple like that – before going back to a few minutes of continuous rowing.

Once we get on the water (and after spending the first day doing “admin”-type stuff – i.e. how to set the boat when you’re rowing and not rowing, what stern four, bow six, etc. means, how to spin, and all the other basic stuff) we’ll repeat what we did on the erg, either by pairs or fours depending on if we’re in a four or an eight and what the weather is like. The more stable you can make the boat, the less frustrating practice will be for them and you so always lean towards having less people rowing when it’s safe to do so. Oh, and don’t even think about rowing on the feather for at least a few days (or longer…). Stay on the square while going through the stroke sequence, rowing by 6s, etc. and get them comfortable with figuring out blade heights, setting the boat, etc. before you teach them the feather. Keep in mind that square blade rowing is a pretty useful drill in itself.

What my coaches always did (with us as novices and as an experienced crew) and what I try to do with the walk-ons is once we were able to row by all eight (and not have it be a total shitshow), we’d row 20ish strokes by sixes and then all eight for 10 on the feather, rotating through the sixes for … probably 30ish minutes or so. A couple practices later we’d do the same thing except reverse it – 20ish strokes by all eight on the feather and 10 by sixes on the square – before eventually making our way to all eight on the feather (at which point we’d eventually work in varying rates and pressures to keep things from getting too boring).

All in all, everything I just said could be covered in roughly three to four weeks, depending on how quickly you moved through it all, which gives you a week or two to introduce them to racing and how all that works.

Related: Managing novice coxswains

All that aside, the best advice I can give you is to talk with your coach and figure out what their plan is for coaching the novices. If they want you to be in charge of coaching them while you’re coxing (which isn’t uncommon) then at least discuss with them what you should cover each day so you’re not trying to come up with stuff on the fly. If you’re going out with your coach then let them do the bulk of the talking/coaching while you act as the reinforcer of what they’re saying as necessary. Make sure that whatever you are saying is communicated as clearly and in the most simple manner as possible too. If it can be broken down into simpler concepts, do it. You’ll end up saving a lot of time in the long run when you don’t have to go back and re-explain something that you didn’t cover initially because you thought it was obvious or assumed. (I touch on that in the post linked above – it’s about coxswains but the ideas behind the first three bullet points could all easily apply in this situation too.)

Ergs Q&A Rowing

Question of the Day

By readyallrow January 26, 2016

If I am 5’4 and 148 lbs what should my 2k be at? My new 2k is 7:40 (I know it’s awful). Had to take a little break because I had an injury to my one knee. Is this good? What should I bring it down to? My goal is 7:20 before spring season comes around. What would be a good 2k plan? I have 2k sprints coming up and I want to do really well. Thank you! I really love your website so much! I always read it on my free time! 🙂

I’m assuming you’re a girl and in high school, in which case 7:40 is most definitely not an awful 2k time. I can’t tell you what your 2k should be because it’s dependent on a variety of things so if you want specific advice in that area, talk to your coach and see what they say.

Related: How to prepare for a 2k test

Dropping 20 seconds in a month and a half seems pretty ambitious unless you’re a novice and still in that honeymoon period where you’re dropping 30 seconds on every test or if this is the first test you’ve done since last spring (in which dropping a chunk of time wouldn’t be too unreasonable but 20 seconds still seems a bit out there). If 7:40 is your most recent one then I’d probably shoot for something like 7:35-7:37, depending on how you feel.

Related: 2k test strategy

As far as a race plan goes, check out the post linked above, as well as this Instagram I posted last year of one of our freshman’s race plans. Obviously the splits would be different but it’s another example of how you could lay out your race.

Q&A Training & Nutrition

Question of the Day

By readyallrow January 12, 2016

Hey! I’m a freshman first year varsity female rower at a high school club team. All fall we’ve really only have done 2 land workouts that we do on a weekly basis. Workout #1 is a longer workout that involves running and erging for about an hour and I almost always throw up on this workout no matter how I try to change what I eat/how much fluids I consume. Our practice starts at 3:30 so its not like I’m working out right after a meal. Workout #2 is a shorter interval/SS workout on the erg and I usually don’t throw up or feel that bad on these workouts. I haven’t actually done that many land workouts since I was part of a boat training for HOCR but since, I always feel really nauseous during/after the workout. Recently, I started feeling sick on the shorter workout #2 and we just did a new 1min sprint interval workout and I felt so bad after. My stomach/throat just felt really acidic and I ended up doing really bad. I never really thought my vomiting was something too serious since it was usually just some water/air and I never threw up last year when we did harder workouts. But now I think it might be something more since it occurs so often. I know that stomach acid is really bad for the throat and I was wondering what foods I should avoid eating, when I should eat/what snacks to eat before practice, and how I should bring it up to my coaches. I’ve already told my parents and I think I’m going to see my doctor during break. Thank you so much! I love your blog it helped me sooo much my novice year.

I would definitely check in with your doctor because they’ll obviously be able to give you much better advice than I can. One of my friends in college had a similar problem and eventually found out it was the result of a peptic ulcer so the doctors he was seeing put him on a pretty rigid diet of super bland foods and medication to control the acid reflux. Luckily the foods he ate were still rowing friendly – oatmeal, toast, chicken, salad, fish, fruit, etc. – but it did get pretty boring after awhile and it took awhile for him to figure out how to get the necessary number of calories each day.

He had everything under control for awhile but then our senior year he finally had surgery for it because the ulcer wasn’t healing properly and the doctors were worried about it perforating. He was told to stop rowing numerous times and just kinda ignored them because the pain and discomfort wasn’t any more than what he was already experiencing when he was training and things seemed to be under control with his diet and the meds. Once it got to the point where they recommended surgery he realized he probably should have taken more time off to recuperate though so … just keep that in mind if your doctor gives you a similar recommendation.

As far as telling your coaches goes, just be straightforward with them. Obviously this is something out of your control so it’s not like they can be pissed at you for needing to modify the workouts or take time off. It sucks but your health is more important.

I’d stick to basic foods like oatmeal (those little single cup things are great), a bagel, toast … one of my friends eats an avocado every day before practice so you could try that too, along with maybe some nuts, fruit, etc. I’d stay away from spicy stuff, alcohol (…duh?), and anything that’s heavy on the citric acid, like grapefruits, tomatoes, oranges, etc. Avoiding dairy might be worth trying too. This was how another of my friends found out her previously unknown dairy allergy was causing her to throw up regularly at practice – she started eating a cup of yogurt before practice each day and didn’t make the connection until her doctor suggested cutting it out for a week. Assuming you do have an ulcer of some kind though, dairy can also exacerbate the problem by increasing the amount of stomach acid you’re producing (despite the fact that it initially makes you feel better by coating the stomach lining).

It might be worth keeping a food diary for a week or two so you can track what you’re eating, how you feel before/after practice, what workout(s) you did that day, etc. Most doctors/nutritionists will suggest doing this anyways as a way to narrow down what might be causing the problem so consider doing that before you see your doctor, that way you can hopefully expedite the process of figuring out what’s wrong.

Coxing Q&A Technique

Question of the Day

By readyallrow December 10, 2015

I have noticed sometimes when coxing that some of my rowers tend to sort of bang the gate with their oar (not sure how to fully describe it) and was wondering what are they doing wrong in the stroke and appropriate calls to fix it?

If I’m picturing this correctly, what I think you’re saying is that the rowers are pulling the oar away from the oarlock and the “banging” is when the collar comes in contact with it again. I see novices do this a lot, mostly because they don’t fully grasp that you have to apply consistent pressure against the pin to prevent that from happening. Something that helps with this is making sure you have the right grip on the oar. If your hands are really far apart and/or your outside hand is a few inches away from the end of the oar then you’re much more likely to pull the oar away from the oarlock. Hands shoulder-width apart, outside pinky resting on the edge of the handle – that’s what your grip should look like.

Technique-wise though, the simplest way of explaining it is that you want to be exerting pressure in the direction that the blade is moving rather than the direction your legs are moving (keep in mind those two things are moving in the opposite direction). If you’re applying pressure towards the front or back of the oarlock (depending on whether you’re on the drive or recovery) rather than flat against the whole oarlock, you’re more likely to pull the oar away from it at either the catch or finish and when you begin moving in the other direction, that’s when you’ll get that “bang” that occurs, like I said before, when the collar comes in contact with it again. As far as calls go, keep it simple and just remind them to keep pressure against the pin and that the collar should always be in contact with the oarlock (which means they need to be applying force in that direction).

I’d really recommend talking about this with your coach though because they’ll be able to address the technical aspects of it with everyone and then once the rowers understand what’s actually happening, whatever calls you make will be a lot more effective. A huge, huge pet peeve of mine is when coxswains see an issue like this and think that all it takes to fix it is a couple magical calls (which don’t exist, by the way). Not that that’s what you’re implying (because this is a really good question so I’m glad you asked it), I just that I think that’s what a lot of coxswains expect when they ask questions like this. This is something that has to be coached so tell your coach what you’re seeing so they can address it, otherwise whatever calls you make (which may or may not even be correct) won’t make a difference since no one will understand what you’re talking about. I know it’s said a lot that coxswains are “the coach in the boat” but coaching the rowers isn’t your job. Now that you (hopefully) understand a bit better what’s happening you’ll have an easier time following your coach’s explanation so listen to how they explain it to your boat and reiterate the key points they make using the same language and terminology they use … that is how you fix a technical problem. What I said up above (and pretty much everything I say on here), it all equates to doing the assigned reading before your next class so you’re not staring wide-eyed at your professor as he flies through the lecture. Ultimately my goal is to hit the high points so you can follow along while your coach fills in all the little details.

Coxing Q&A

Question of the Day

By readyallrow December 10, 2015

Hi – Our rowing club in LA is having all sorts of coxbox/wiring issues lately. Weird thing is it’s in different boats and different boxes so I’m wondering if it could be something global like weather. Now, we don’t get that cold compared to other regions but we do row all year and last 3 weeks its been in the upper 40’s/lower 50’s in the early morning. The main symptoms are very low volume throughout the boat or intermittency – all speakers cutting out in middle of row. We did try at least two microphones in one boat this morning. Any ideas??

40s-50s is not cold … I mean, maybe by LA standards but that’s not the issue here. By the sounds of it, I’m going to go out on a limb and say you row in salt water, in which case that’s your problem. When the salt comes in contact with the wires it can cause corrosion which in turn can/will effect the sound quality, transmission, etc. That’s one of the main reasons why you have to wash the equipment (which includes cox boxes!!) off regularly, tedious as it might be, otherwise eventually it’ll catch up with you and you end up with problems like this.

Assuming you do row in salt water I imagine that you’re washing your boats every day after practice so while the rowers are doing that I’d grab a washcloth or something and wipe off the cox box, the wires, the connectors inside the boat, etc. With the newer cox boxes I think you can probably get away with doing this 2-3x a week since most of the important stuff has the rubber casing around it but with the older cox boxes where the mic connector is metal, the prongs on the connector inside the boat are a little more exposed, and the wires are more likely to be frayed due to age, I would probably wipe them down every day.

My next suggestion would be to check the wiring throughout the boat and make sure the speakers haven’t come unplugged anywhere. Sometimes that happens if the wires are exposed and accidentally get pulled or caught on something. Since this is happening across multiple boats with multiple boxes though I think salt water corrosion is your culprit.

Coxing Q&A Teammates & Coaches

Question of the Day

By readyallrow November 30, 2015

Just wondering , what do you say to your crew after a training session and they say “Thanks cox”?

Alright, this probably sounds really dumb and I really hope I’m not the only one that has this problem … but I never know how to respond to this! I mean, I typically will just say “no problem, you guys did good today” but there’s definitely a nanosecond period beforehand where I’m like “shit, do I say ‘you’re welcome’, no that sounds douchey, do I say XYZ…” before I just reply with “no prob”. If I’m coxing a new crew then I’ll usually say “no prob, thanks for inviting me out with you guys” or something to that effect but if it’s my usual crew then I just go with what I said before or keep it simple with a smile and a fist bump. I also think it’s good to take that opportunity to talk about something that went well that day (i.e. “no prob … we found our groove on that last piece, it just looked and felt a lot more composed than yesterday…”) so that’s another thing I’ll do. If they say something like “thanks, your calls were on point today” or “nice job managing all that traffic today” then I think it’s good to acknowledge the compliment and say thanks back. If it’s something you’ve been working on, say “thanks, I really appreciate that because I’ve been trying to work on my race calls…”.

What amuses me about this is it’s such a simple exchange but it’s one that you can easily overthink to the point where it’s beyond ridiculous that you’re putting so much effort into thinking about how to reply to someone saying “thank you”. That’s literally the first thing that goes through my head as we’re walking the boat up after practice … like, ” was it really that hard to just say ‘no prob’ or ‘thanks’ in return?”. Ugh…

How do you guys respond when your crews thank you after a race or practice?

High School Q&A Recruiting

Question of the Day

By readyallrow November 30, 2015

Hi! I’m a junior in high school and I just moved up to the girls varsity team in September. I was on the novice team for fall and spring of my sophomore year and I was in the top boat but now since I moved up to varsity the playing field is a lot more competitive and I am worried about being recruited later this year. I’m also around 5’5 and 140lbs and I wasn’t sure if I should drop to 135 to be considered for “lightweight” considering my height. I was invited for winter training on our team (just finished our first full week) and I feel like I’m already burning out. My family and I are making over a 40 minute commute to get to practice each day, 6 days a week and I just feel like I cannot get, well, my shit together fully. The days are getting shorter and we have practice at 5:45 to 7:45 three days a week and its just a little tough. Mostly I just needed some re-assurance that all this hard work and commuting will be alright and I will get recruited. I was also wondering if its even possible for a 5’5 girl to get into a D1 program in college? I’m also looking at D2 and D3 possibly, but it seems if I want a scholarship D1 is the choice to go. Also I’m taking my SAT’s and ACT’s in about 2-3 weeks and I’m worried that this too late for colleges to see my scores? I heard some girls my age sending them in October for colleges but I think if I send them in December it’s still pretty early…? And should I shoot some coaches an email now about being interested in their team for the fall of 2017 before I even have my SAT scores? Thank you thank you thank you.

There’s no way I can reassure you that this will all work out and you’ll get recruited. There’s a lot that goes into being recruited (if you haven’t been following along check out all of these posts), not to mention getting a scholarship, so it’d be impossible to say whether or not this is all worth it. I know that’s definitely not the answer you wanted/needed but I can’t imagine anyone else out there would say differently.

If you’re 5’5″ I think you might have better luck (in terms of the boats you’d be able to compete for) at a D3 school but I definitely know of some women at D1 schools that are your height or shorter and they do fine. They usually settle into the 2V or 3V, which can be tough if you’re super competitive and being in the 1V is your goal, but of the ones I’ve talked to through here it’s just something they’ve accepted (in a positive way, not that they feel like they’re settling or something) and they’ve refocused their personal goals to suit the lineup they’re currently in. Regardless of where you are I think that’s a good mindset to put yourself in but when you’re in high school and looking at colleges it’s definitely something you need to consider. You might talk to your current coach and get their opinion since they obviously know a bit more about you as an athlete and can probably give you more specific advice based off of that.

Related: College recruiting 101

The recruiting process for most people tends to start in their junior year so you’re not super late to the party since that’s where you’re at now. If you already know the schools you’re interested in then I’d fill out the questionnaires on the athletic departments’ websites and then shoot an email to the coaches introducing yourself and letting them know when they can expect your test scores. Once you receive them, forward them on to the coaches and keep them updated on your progress from there. (I talk about contacting coaches a lot in the recruiting posts I linked before so I’d really recommend spending some time reading through those, as well as any of the posts in the “recruiting” tag since there have been lots of similar questions asked in there.) The only time it’s really too early to be contacting a coach is if you’re a freshman or sophomore (or a junior with little to no notable results) so you should be fine assuming you have a solid rowing resume and appear recruitable on paper. That’s something else you should discuss with your coach too – based on what they see in you as an athlete, your 2k time, your grades, etc. what do they think your chances are at being recruited by the schools you’re interested in.

As far as getting burned out, I get where you’re coming from. Obviously it’s a little different but when we were practicing in the afternoon this fall it would take me anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour to drive eight freaking miles across town to get to the boathouse. By the time October rolled around I was beyond over it because it just ate up so much time … 45+ minutes to get there, 2 hours at practice, and then 45 minutes to get home. Like I said, obviously it’s not the same but trust me when I say that I get how mentally exhausting a long commute can be. Eventually you’ll get into a groove where it doesn’t feel so overwhelming but you do have to spend some time planning out what you’ve gotta do, how you need to allocate your time, etc. Since you’re not too far into winter training yet I’d try to do that sometime this week when you’ve got some free time. Take advantage of your commute to/from the boathouse too – if you’re not driving, bring some earplugs to block out the noise and get some reading done in the car. When I was at Syracuse I would review flashcards for my anatomy + physiology class on our 25ish minute drive back to campus. It didn’t require a ton of mental effort to do and it was something I wouldn’t have to find time for later in the day when I was a lot busier (and a lot more tired).

I wouldn’t put all your eggs in one basket as far as all this being worth it though. If your only measurement of success is whether or not you get recruited then I think you’re most likely setting yourself up for disappointment. If you make that a big picture goal though and set smaller goals for each month of winter training (i.e. drop your 2k by 2 seconds by New Year’s, increasing the length of your planks by 10 seconds per week over the next six weeks … stuff like that) then I think you’ll be less likely to feel burned out and more likely to feel like the sacrifice was worth it if you see yourself achieving in other areas that are more relevant to where you’re currently at in your career.

Q&A Rowing Training & Nutrition

Question of the Day

By readyallrow November 17, 2015

Hi, I wanted to know if you if you have any advice on goals that you could set yourself. I’m 14 years old and I’m female, I’m 5’9 pushing 5’10 and participate in a lot of sports so I have a tall lean but muscular build. My high school doesn’t have a rowing team so I have joined a club. I really like rowing and I’ve been rowing for about 6 months. My coach is great and I row in a quad, double, and single (all scull). I row 4 times a week and I’m starting to become successful but I want to set myself some goals so I can keep improving. We are going to start gym sessions soon so I was wondering if you have any tips on times or achievements I should aim for?

This would be a great question to ask your coach because he/she would be able to give you a more specific answer than I can since they know your current times and all that stuff. Without knowing any of that it’s hard to give any concrete advice but I will say that whatever times you do end up aiming for, have that be the end goal but also have targets to hit at various intervals leading up to that as well. If you’re currently at an 8:00 2k and you want to be at 7:40 by spring break, determine how often you want to test yourself in between now and then and what times you’re shooting for with each test (i.e. 7:55, 7:50, 7:45, 7:40…). It’s a lot more effective to be able to check off a small goal each month than to just aimlessly work towards a bigger goal that is three, six, nine months down the road.

When you’re in the gym, if you’re doing a bodyweight or plank circuit, try to add reps or time every couple of days. For example, if you’re doing 30 second planks, after two or three sessions add 10 seconds. If you can comfortably hold it, do 40 second planks for a couple sessions before bumping it up again. If you can’t complete whatever additional amount of time/reps you add, go back to the previous amount. The goal is to slowly build upon whatever you’re already doing. When you’re on the ergs, consider getting a heart rate monitor so you can track your workouts and make sure you’re training in the right HR zones when you’re doing steady state. This can help a lot with tracking your progress towards your goals (because if you’re training the way you should be you should in theory be able to hit your targets with little to no issue).