Tag: race plan

Race plans for practice pieces

By readyallrow September 23, 2014

Last week I was going over some audio with one of our coxswain’s from one of the race pieces she’d done during practice the previous week. On Fridays the two varsity eights go head-to-head, sort of, in a 7k race that begins at the 2k starting line in the basin and finishes at the HOCR finish line. One of the things I asked her was if she had a race plan going into the piece or if she just kind of “went with it” and coxed them without one. She said she just went with it, which I kind of figured based on her audio. I suggested putting something together for this week’s piece so that it would have a more organized and focused feel to it, rather than the focus of the entire 7,000 meters being on catching/beating the other crew that went out first.

Having a plan for races is important, obviously, but so is having a plan for the pieces you do during practice. They don’t have to be meticulously planned out or even be that similar to the plan you use during actual races – just as long as you’ve got a couple specific things to focus on throughout the piece other than just beating the other crew. What’s down below is what I detailed to our coxswain as to how I’d do it if I was doing one of those pieces.

What I’ve laid out is obviously going to be different for you since it’s unlikely you’re doing 7k pieces on the Charles but the goal is to get you to look at the pieces you are doing and thinking about how you could break them up into smaller, more manageable chunks. The way I broke up this piece, as you can see, is based entirely on the bridges. Remember, landmarks are your friend.

Starting line → Mass Ave. (1000m)

One of the other things we talked about was how to start this piece since they’re rowing right into it with just a few strokes to build into their rate (vs. taking a “high” 20 and a “settle” 10 to come down to their base pace). If you’re doing something like that, I’d treat it similar to a head race and do something like 3-5 to build to the line, 20 at rate, and then 5 or so to lengthen out and settle in. For the next ~750m your primary focus should be on establishing a rhythm.

Mass Ave. → BU (1500m)

This section should focus on making general technical calls to the entire boat based on what you’re seeing/feeling and working to incorporate some of the technical drills/changes that you’ve been working on over the last week. You should also be making calls that reference the rhythm you established in the first section.

Powerhouse Stretch (2000m)

Coming out of final 1000m of the 2k course, where you’ve just been talking to your crew as a whole, I would start to break down the boat and talk to the individuals (or if you don’t want to go person by person you can break it down to pairs). Here I’d spend 15-20 seconds per person (adjust the time to be a little longer if you go by pairs) and point out what I’m seeing with their stroke (good and/or bad) and remind them of any technical changes that they’d been working to incorporate over the last week. If your coach spoke directly to them when you were on the water about something, try to repeat what they were saying to reinforce the message.

If you aren’t seeing anything that needs correcting, let them know that their stroke looks strong/solid/consistent, great job backing up [whoever is sitting in front of them], I like that aggressive finish, etc. Positive reinforcement like that works wonders on a rower, especially when you’re doing a long piece. Normally I wouldn’t recommend doing something like this (talking to the individual rowers) during a “race” piece but because this one is so long and you’ve got the time/space available, I think it’d be beneficial. Plus, for those of you that have trouble coming up with things to say, this would help solve that problem.

Weeks → Anderson (500m)

This chunk right here is actually made up of two smaller sections; pre-Weeks and post-Weeks. Pre-Weeks is the first 100m of this section and is just for the coxswain because they’ve got to make sure they’re putting themselves in a good position to come through the bridge. And yes, I think out of the 7,000 or however many meters you’re rowing, the crew can spare a measly 100m to let you do your own thing. One of the things I was telling another of our coxswains was that you shouldn’t/can’t be afraid to take a few strokes off when necessary if you need to direct your attention to something else. If you’ve demonstrated that you’re in this just as much as the rowers are and have been coxing them accordingly up to this point, they’re not gonna care.

The second part of this, the post-Weeks section, is where I would call for the crew to take five strokes to sit up, recommit out of the turn, and mentally prepare themselves to start racing the other boat. (You’ll notice that up to this point I haven’t said anything about the other crew that’s out there with you – nothing at all about racing, telling your boat where they are, etc. Trust me, I did this for a reason.) During the second half of this part, as you’re coming into the bridge, is where I’d be telling my crew where they are on the other boat, how far ahead/back they are, and what your goals are for the rest of the piece in terms of where you want to be in relation to the other boat as you cross the line.

Anderson → Finish line (2000m)

This last 2000m is all about racing and where your tone should noticeably change from “practice” to “race” mode. This is also where you can start actively taking power bursts in the forms of 10s and/or 20s. Before this I’d recommend sticking to 3s and 5s since the primary focus from the start to Weeks is largely technical. Remember though, just because you can take them here doesn’t mean you need or have to. It’s a judgement call on your end so be smart and don’t dilute their effectiveness by overusing them.

You’re probably wondering why I didn’t say anything about racing until you get to the final 1/3ish of the race. Here’s what I think … I don’t think you should be trying to race from the very beginning (unless your coach explicitly says “treat this like a real race”) because you’re either going to be playing catch-up or keep-away the entire time and not actually using the time to focus on the adjustments you should be implementing from practice. I also think that if the rowers go into it thinking they have to race for 7,000m then they’re just gonna hulk on the oar the entire time and not think as much about their technique. The first 2/3ish should have a largely internal focus, meaning you and the rowers are concerned only with what’s happening inside your boat. The final part of the piece is where you should be maintaining the good rowing from earlier and incorporating the changes from earlier as you shift into pure race mode.

It’s important to know that during the earlier part of the piece, your tone shouldn’t be casual like it is during a regular practice when you’re calling warmups and drills. You want it to be firm enough that the rowers know this is a hard piece but not so aggressive that you forget the purpose of the beginning of your race plan. On a scale of 1 to 10 you should be at about a 6.5-7.

The final important thing to keep in mind are the goals you give your crew for the end of the piece – make sure they’re realistic! Don’t say “I want to catch them by the end” if they’re five lengths away and you’ve only got 1500m left. It’s likely not going to happen, your crew will probably see the whole piece as a failure because you didn’t catch them, and then they’ll get pissed at you. Just avoid all of that by being honest about where you are and where you wanna be. If you can reasonably catch the other crew in front of you and cross the line even with or ahead of them (or continue to hold them off/walk away if you went out first at the start) then tell the crew that’s what you’re shooting for.

If they’re far enough ahead that you don’t think you can catch them but you know you can definitely close the gap, tell them the goal is to close the gap from five lengths of open water to two lengths. Don’t go by seats because that’s too small for them to picture and you to visualize when the gap is that wide. It’s not a realistic unit of measurement unless you’re actually within a length of them and will be overlapping with them at the finish. You can also go by time (which you should be able to see because you started the timer on your cox box at the start … right?) and say “we’re X minutes into it, let’s try to break Y” or “they started 15 seconds ahead of us, let’s get that gap down to six…”.

Hopefully all that makes sense and you can easily apply it to the pieces you’re doing while preparing for head race season.

Image via // @rowingcelebration

Coxing Racing Rowing

Race skills: All about Power 10s

By readyallrow May 8, 2014

As I’ve been talking to coxswains and listening to recordings I’ve been thinking that it’d be worthwhile to explain power tens in a bit more depth so you have a better idea of what they are, what they aren’t, what their purpose is, etc. Having this understanding will, hopefully, make them a more efficient part of your race plan/strategy as we head towards the peak of racing season.

What power 10s are

Power 10s are strategic bursts that you take during a race. 99.8% of the time they should be called for something if you want to achieve maximum effectiveness. Giving each one a purpose gives the rowers something to latch on to, for lack of a better term, whereas just calling a plain “power 10” isn’t likely to make them do anything different than they were before.

Power 10s are also one of (if not the) biggest misnomers in the sport of rowing. We call things “power 10s” even when they’re not strictly about power because there aren’t really any other words for them. I’ll also call them “bursts” if I’m taking a 5 or something short and sweet like that. I’ve actually been trying to get away from calling them “power” 10s and instead just say “gimme 10 for…”, “let’s take 5 for…”, “get ready for our 20 at 750m…”, etc. The reasoning for that is because when I take a 5 or 10 for leg drive (i.e. power) I don’t want the word “power” to be diluted because I use it for every other move/burst I take even when they have nothing to do with power.

What power 10s aren’t

Power 10s are not something you should just randomly call during a race because you think that’s what you’re supposed to do because you’ve heard other people do it. You’re less likely to get a response from your crew in terms of power, effort, etc. if you just yell “power 10” and start counting.

Does a power 10 have to be 10 strokes?

No. Obviously if you say “power 10” then you should call 10 strokes but you can do other variations too, like 5, 15, or 20. If you call anything more than ten strokes, make sure you’re separating them into chunks of ten rather than counting the whole thing sequentially – i.e. a 20 would be two sets of 10, counted out “…8, 9, 10, 1, 2, 3…” rather than “…8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13…”.

Similarly, a 15 (also known as a “5 and 10”) would be counted out as five strokes followed by ten strokes. Usually if I call something like this I’ll actually count the five strokes down as a way to build into the ten strokes, which I’ll count up like normal – i.e. “…3, 2, 1, 1, 2, 3…”.

Do all of those have the same purpose/mean the same thing?

No. This is how I usually (not always but ~90% of the time) treat each burst:

5-stroke burst

I tend to call a 5-stroke burst for things related to technique (i.e. sharpening up the catches, holding the blades in through the finish, smooth/even power on the drive, body swing/length at both ends), posture (i.e. supporting the bodies, staying tall, relaxed upper body, eliminating the tension), internal focus (i.e. rowing our race, establishing/re-establishing the rhythm, individual responsibilities), or other miscellaneous things like breathing, commitment, legs, etc.

10-stroke burst

I call 10s when I want to take seats (no more than two, maybe three) or walk on another crew.

15-stroke burst

15s are the overlooked middle child of power bursts. I don’t call them very often but when I do it’s because I’m trying to kill two birds with one stone. Like I mentioned before, I almost always count the five strokes first (5, 4, 3, 2, 1) followed by the ten (1, 2, 3…) because I like the “prep/build” period that those five strokes give you.

The only time where I would do the opposite is coming into the sprint where you would typically build for a few strokes coming into it anyways. In that case I’d count the ten first followed by the five, which would act as the “five to build” where you’d be bringing the rate up.

20-stroke burst

20s are strictly for making big moves on another crew or walking on/through the field. These should be used sparingly during a sprint race (once is sufficient, twice is enough, three is too many) but you can usually get away with maybe three or so during your average-length head race.

How do you count out each one?

This is mostly a personal preference thing with some input from the rowers on what they like best. This is what I was taught and also what makes the most sense to me so it’s what I do and teach. During a normal 10 or 20 during a race, I count up (1, 2, 3…). If I’m building into the sprint or prepping them for a big move/shift, I count down (5, 4, 3…). If I’m counting down the last [however many strokes] to the finish line I count down (10, 9, 8…). If I’m calling something “in two” I count up (1, 2…). Occasionally I’ll say “in two … in one…” but normally if I’m not just saying “on this one” I count up.

How do you call each one?

Again, this is mostly a personal preference thing but this is how I try to call them in race situations. During practice you can be a bit more lax if you want unless you’re doing a piece or something simulating your race, in which case you’d want to call them like you do during a race. This helps familiarize the crew with how you do things so there are no surprises on race day.

5-stroke burst

“Aaron, blade in right at the front end, direct to the water. Let’s take 5 to sharpen ’em up together, ready, now. Sharp, send … sharp, send … sharp, yea Aaron … together … sharp, yea there we go! Grab the water and send…”

10-stroke burst

“Alright, two seats down on UVA, I got Adrienne on their 3-seat. Let’s take ten to get even, get it on the legs and through the water … on this one. Power through, power through YEA TIGERS, 3 walking, 4 1 seat down, 5 here we go, jump send, jump half a seat, 8 reel ’em in, 9 big legs, 10 EVEN! Sitting coxswain-to-coxswain, stay solid with the legs and move now…”

15-stroke burst

“Coming up to the bridge, 400m to go, let’s sit up, take a deep breath, and get ready to take 15 into our sprint – first 10 for commitment on the legs, last 5 to build the rate up – ready to go in 3, in 2, in one, COMMITTTTTT … 1 together, 2 drive it down, 3 send it out, 4 send it out, legs keep the length, legs BOWBALL, legs push ’em back, 8 ready to build 9 we move together, 10 here we go, NOW on the legs, together 34.5, together 35, punish them 36, last 250 breathe … go now!”

20-stroke burst

“Sitting in second, 8 seats up on Cal, 3 seats down on Stanford coming into the third 500. Let’s get our minds ready for the 1000, shift that focus internal and get ready to move. We’re taking seats – no mercy. Ready to go in 3 … in 2 … in 1, get on it and ATTACK! Gimme that bow ball, 2 yea Tigers, 3 chaaa, 4 chaaa, jump send ’em back, jump send ’em back, 7 BOWBALLLLL, 8 finish them, ready to move we’re one seat down, up 2 to get even, HERE WE GO NOW, send it out, 2 walking, 3 YEA, 4 half a seat, get it yea, EVEN yea, stay on it send, leeegs send it, 9 half a seat up, 10 YEA TIGERS! One seat of open on Cal, got the stroke of Stanford. Sharp with the catches, our bow ball stays in front. Stride it out to base … on this one, length and power, length and power…”

Where and how often should you call for a burst?

Read the post linked at the beginning on where to call them (there’s a bit of strategy definition in there too) and the post linked below for some thoughts on frequency. If you twisted my arm and made me give you a number of how many bursts you should take over the course of 2000m, my gut reaction would be to say a max eight. That includes one 20 (your “big” move), two or three 10s, a couple of focus 5s, and whatever build you do into your sprint (if you do one).

For 1500m, I’d say six total (one 20, a couple 10s, and maybe one or two 5s) would be sufficient. You don’t want to burn your crew out by calling ten after ten after ten and you most especially do NOT want to that coxswain that counts every single stroke of the entire race.

The bottom line is to call and use these bursts responsibly. Rowers, don’t be afraid to talk to your coxswain too if you have concerns over their use of them since feedback on stuff like this is much appreciated.

Image via // @ryanjnicholsonphoto

Coxing Q&A Racing

Question of the Day

By readyallrow February 5, 2014

Hi, so I’m coxing a race this weekend and its a bit of a funny course. Its raced 2 X 1800m stints so I am unsure how to cox it? As two separate pieces? Or as the full 3.6k? How tired should they be at the mid point, as they get a good few mins rest?? I am also racing the course later in a crew so it would be interesting to know your take on racing such an odd head. Sorry for all the questions, Thanks a lot! 🙂

Personally, I think I would try to cox it as a combination of a head race and a sprint, with the starts being head-race style and the bodies being sprint race style … ish.

A few things, first…

I’m assuming this is set up more like a head race course and less like a sprint race course. I’m also assuming that in between each 1800m you’ll want/have to keep the crew moving (meaning no one completely weighs enough). If you do get to weigh enough, pretty much everything I said in orange doesn’t apply (except for the park about making sure they all drink something).

Break the two pieces up like you would a head race – the first third is all about technique, pace, and rhythm, the second third is starting to incorporate in some motivational calls (sparingly), and the final third is mostly motivation while still keeping them on pace. With this race, your middle third is going to be the end of one piece and the beginning of another so you’ll probably end up doing calls that center around “clean strokes, finish out the first piece strong” and “let’s re-establish that rhythm we had in the first piece, *compliment them on something that felt really good that you want to carry over to the 2nd piece*”.

Make sure you and your crews stretch before you go out, drink plenty of fluids, and eat something small within 30min of your race. Also, don’t forget to go over your race plan one final time with them before you launch. Keep the warmup conservative but if you have room and time to spare, try to get at least one good practice start in at at least 3/4ish pressure. Don’t take too many hard strokes though, you don’t want to tire them out before you even get to the starting line.

You’re right, this is a really odd race but I think the key to racing it successfully is having a coxswain who knows how to pace his or her crew. The rowers also need to know how to pace themselves but I think it’s a lot easier to do that when you’ve got one person saying “this is when we’re gonna go hard, this is when we’re gonna stay relaxed, in 50m we’re gonna hit it, etc.” If you’ve got eight people that are rowing as eight people instead of one crew, you’re not going to be able to pace yourself and you’re going to burn out really fast.

I would say how tired they are probably depends a lot on their individual fitness and stamina but if I had to make a really rough guess, I’d say if they were working hard and you paced them properly they should probably feel like they just did a 2k at about 85-88%, give or take. They should be tired and feeling it but not so tired that they can’t do it again after 3-5 minutes.

Coxing Q&A Racing Rowing

Question of the Day

By readyallrow January 28, 2014

So I have a question. My rowers are asking me to take power 10s basically every 20 ish strokes. It seems excessive to me but I feel like I should follow their request. What do you think? Thanks!

My first question is why are they asking you to take them every 20ish strokes? I’d figure the answer out to that first before deciding whether to acquiesce their request or not. I’ll agree that that does seem a bit excessive but if you’re doing it during practice, say during a steady state piece or something, then I think it’s fine. On occasion I’d do that with my eights when we were doing longer pieces to break up the monotony – they wouldn’t just be power 10s though, they’d be 10s for something, but hopefully that part’s obvious.

During a race, yea, that’s pretty pointless. When you do any kind of burst the output is typically expected to be just a bit above normal compared to the rest of the race. If you’re rowing at 96% as your “baseline” then the 10s or 20s you take, assuming you use them sparingly and strategically, should be able to be right around 98%. If your base is 96% and your consistently taking 10s/20s then right around 750m in you’re going to stop feeling any difference in power between your base and the bursts. Around 1250m you’ll start to feel everything falling off and nothing will be as powerful because they essentially wasted their energy and spun their wheels in the first half of the race.

Talk to them and figure out why they want you to call 10s so often and then decide from there. Just because they’re requesting something doesn’t mean you have to do it. Life’s full of little disappointments like that. If you don’t think it’s an effective use of your time though then tell them why (you can use what I said up above if you want, just don’t just say “no, that’s dumb, shut up and row”). It’s also possible that they’re asking you to call power 10s because they don’t think you’re talking to them enough or giving them enough feedback while you’re rowing and since power 10s are an easy “go to” thing to tell the coxswain to do, that’s what they’re doing. Regardless of what it is though, you need to communicate with them and figure out why they’re asking for this, why they think they need it/what they think they’re getting out of it, and then decide if it’s a worthwhile use of your time. Talk to your coach too if you’re unsure. They know your crew better than I do so they’d be able to say “yea, they need some practice taking some hard strokes when they’re tired (like they will be during a race)” or “no, that’s not what they need to be doing, rather you should have them do something like this instead: _____”.

Coxing Q&A Racing

Question of the Day

By readyallrow January 5, 2014

I’m a sophomore in high school and this is my second year coxing. When I was a novice, my coaches would give me an outline of a race plan they wanted me to follow. Now that I’m varsity, I have a pretty good idea of how to make one on my own. But I want to make sure I have a really good race plan before the season starts. So I was wondering if you had a good race plan for a 2,000 meter race?

I wouldn’t spend too much time thinking about your race plan just yet because a) it’s only January and b) you most likely don’t know what boat you’re gonna have yet. Until you know your crew, their tendencies (what part of the race is their strong spot and where in the race they start to fall off), strengths, and weaknesses, you can’t really make one. Whatever you come up with now would more than likely change completely by the time April rolls around.

Related: Training: 2k test strategy

For me, my race plans were always skeletons until the day before the race. I always had the basic premise figured out well ahead of time but I wouldn’t fill in the details until the last minute because the specifics were usually based on whatever my boat and I had been working on during practice that week, as well as race(s) from the previous weekend. Typically it looked something like what’s below. Since I was part of a scholastic team and not a club team we primarily raced 1500m so that’s what this is based off of.

Start: High 20 @ 38-40spm, settle 10 to 34-35spm

500m: 10 for X

750m: 5 to sit up, refocus before the mid-race move

1000m (give or take 100m): High 20 to move on or away from a crew or the field

1250m: 5 to build into the sprint at 36-38spm

1400m: Take the rate up again if necessary and charge the line

Once I had an idea of who we were racing, what we needed to focus on, etc. I’d fill in the details and give myself an idea of where I wanted to call each technical 10 (if my coach and I thought it was necessary to have them – if we didn’t, I wouldn’t include one unless something I saw during the race that warranted it). Regarding bursts to take seats, I’d call them as I needed to since you can’t really plan that kind of thing. The rule of thumb that I always try to abide by is that you should stick to the plan until it has to change. The “plan” is more of a loose guideline than anything else anyways. Races are very fluid and you’ve got to be adaptable to that. There’s nothing more frustrating than a coxswain who goes into the race and is hell bent on rigidly following his/her race plan to the tee, regardless of what’s going on, and forgetting to actually observe everything that’s happening outside of the 3ft x 1.5ft seat they’re sitting in.

This is one of the reasons why I don’t think you should be formulating one 3.5 months before the season begins. It gives you tunnel vision that’s hard to break and you become less likely to absorb the things you’re hearing and seeing during practice. Wait a few months, spend some time on the water with your boat, and then put one together. Don’t forget to get input from your crew and coaches too.

Coxing Racing

HOCR: Race plan “hacks”

By readyallrow October 17, 2013

Previously: Getting to the starting line || Steering through the bridges || Landmarks along the course || Steering around the turns || Race plans || My general race plan || Yaz Farooq’s coxswain clinic

Since this was my first time racing HOCR and my crew had some very specific things they wanted to hear during the race, I figured it’d be better safe than sorry to just write it down so I could glance at it if necessary. In hindsight I definitely psyched myself out and wrote down way too much stuff but it didn’t take me any effort to glance at it during the race so it wasn’t something that concerned me. If you’re not an experienced coxswain (and even if you are…) I don’t recommend writing down this much – a quarter of this would suffice – because I can easily see people becoming reliant on it and getting distracted.

So, what’s on there? The one to the left of my cox box had miscellaneous calls that related to specific things we’d been working on during practice, the one below my cox box had crew-specific calls, and the one to the left had my actual “plan” that detailed where I wanted to take power bursts along the course and what each one was for.

During the race I think I only glanced down at it maybe … four or five times max, and that was usually as we were entering or exiting a congested area. I had a way better grip on the race plan and calls than I gave myself credit for as I was making this, which is probably what led to me overcompensating a bit, but I still think it’s a worthwhile thing to do if you’re not confident in remembering the race plan or there’s a couple calls that you really want to make sure you incorporate. Just don’t go overboard and plaster your entire seat with Post-its … one will get the job done.

Image via // Boston Magazine

Coxing High School Novice Q&A Racing

Question of the Day

By readyallrow May 16, 2013

Hi, I am a exchange student and I joined our crew team. Since I am pretty small I am a coxswain. I am now moved up into our first boat but I never know what to say during a race. The problem is I am not a native speaker and so I have even more problems to make good/clear calls. Do you have any tips for Nationals (YES we qualified) and Stotesbury?

Do you have a race plan? If you have a race plan that you can go off of, that tends to make it easier to come up with calls vs. not having one and doing everything completely on the fly. It allows you to have a “skeleton” to go off of for about 50% of the race and then the other 50% you fill in as you go based on what you’re seeing happen around you. Below is a hybrid of some of mine:

Starting 5 (pry, 1/2, 3/4, lengthen, full) + high 20 + settle 10 (5, 6, 7, let’s lengthen in 3, 2, 1, lengthen boom).

10 at 500m (what it’s for is based on what I see…it could be to push a crew back, to walk, or just for ourselves, so I’d call it to push our puddles back, to feel the acceleration, etc.)

3 + 20 at the 1000m (3 to build into a 20 at the 1000m. No change in stroke rate, just building the power on the first 3.)

5 at 750m to regain composure and shift our focus to the last 1/3 of the race.

15 at 600m to make one final move on the field, either to walk or walk away.

10 at 400m, final 3 building into the sprint (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, shift up to our sprint (7), over three (8), two (9), and one (10)…sit up and go)

Last 250-300m is an all out sprint, driving for the line

10 in the last 100ish meters to charge the line, get the bow ball ahead if necessary, etc.

As far as calls go, talk to your rowers and ask the what they want to hear. I tend to ask them to tell me one technical and one motivational thing they want me to call and then I’ll write that down and try to work it in somehow over the course of the race. They are your best resource though for figuring out things to say because you want to make calls that resonate with them.

Coxing How To Novice Q&A Racing

Question of the Day

By readyallrow February 21, 2013

One of the varsity rowers told me about a certain race move/call-10 for pairs? Like having all 8 take a 10, but emphasis for specific pairs. I’m not sure how to call that, can you help me out? I was thinking maybe ” Alright, we’re all 8 we’re going to take a 10 by pairs.. in two… in ONE.. on THIS one, stern pair let’s see what you got! That’s one… two… 5 and 6 right here 3… 4..” and so on..” I don’t know if that’s how you call it…

Yup, I know exactly what you’re talking about. I use this frequently with my boats, usually in the second thousand of a sprint race or during the final 30ish strokes of a head race. I like to do 5 “hard” strokes per pair + an all eight power 10 so that I’m not making the crew do a straight power 40 or something. I usually say something like: “OK, coming into the last 30 strokes, let’s feel it – stern pair 5 … give it to me, on this one… (5, 4, 3, 2, 1) … 5 + 6, now, (repeat down to bow pair) … and all eight, 10 to bring it home, on this one…”.

I like to use each pair’s five strokes as “focus” strokes to get them to maximize the stuff they’ve been working on … like, they’re obviously still power strokes but I’ll usually say something like “grab those catches, bow pair”, “5 + 6, let’s see that jump!”, “squeeze the finishes 3 + 4!”, “Stern pair, work that rhythm now...”, etc. At the end when I call the final ten I’ll say something about driving across the line just to remind them how close we are to the finish and to give that last little bit of “oomph” to get us over.

Coxing Q&A Racing

Question of the Day

By readyallrow February 21, 2013

Is it a good idea before our first spring race this weekend to get together at someone’s dorm and “go through” the race? Like, I’ve heard of coxswains sitting their rowers down in a dark room, eyes closed, and imagining the race while the cox does the calls.

For sure! It’s definitely always a great idea to go over the strategy with your crew before you race because then there are no surprises and they can anticipate things a little better. Make sure you go over Plan A and Plan B, that being what you’re going to do if something during the race doesn’t go as planned and you have to deviate from Plan A.

I like the idea of the rowers visualizing the race while the coxswain makes the calls. I know that’s a thing that some of the national team coxswains do and if you take it seriously and really commit to it, it could be a useful tool for you and your boat. Even if you just have them close their eyes while you walk them through each 500 and point out the highlights of your race plan, that’s another great way to help them stay calm and prepare for the race.

Coxing Ergs Q&A Racing Rowing

Question of the Day

By readyallrow February 13, 2013

When do you call power 10s, both on the erg and the water? Would it be like when you see a girl’s split dropping and staying down on a 2k or during a race if you’re close and want to pass another boat? Or could it be any time just for a burst of energy? I don’t really know the strategy, I just know at some point I’ll have to sound like I know what I’m doing and call a few.

On the erg, I don’t call a power 10 unless the rower has asked me to beforehand. A lot of rowers don’t like to be bothered during 2ks so they can get/stay in their zone and randomly popping up behind them to give a power 10 can sometimes do more harm than good. When they’ve asked me to give them one, they usually say to do it whenever it looks like they need one or they’ll say “I want a 10 at 1500m, 20 at 1000, 10 at 750m, 10 at 500m, and 10 at 150m.” If they say to call it whenever I’ll try and do one at each of the major meter marks and/or within the last 100m. In between there if it looks like they’re falling off a little I’ll give them a quick 5 instead of a 10 to get them to refocus.

On the water, I always have a strategy ahead of time that I try and stick to. Nearly every burst I call is called with a purpose – I very rarely call a burst just for power but if I do it’s usually because I’m not feeling the power or because I want to get up with or past another crew. During sprint races in high school I was always trying to listen to the other coxswains and when I’d hear them take a 10 or 20, I’d wait for them to get about halfway through it before I’d start my own burst. Not only would that counteract their move nearly every time but it’d also put us a little bit more ahead at the end of it. Sometimes those spontaneous calls would interfere with my planned calls so I’d either go straight into the planned call or I’d skip it if we were far enough ahead that I could afford to do that. For head races, using the course map to find the landmarks, mile markers, etc. will help you a lot in figuring out where to make calls.

In sprint races, I don’t deviate too much from “the plan” each week since 1500m or 2000m courses are the same everywhere. They’ve all got 1500m, 1000m, 500m, and 100m to go marked along the course and since those are major points where I tend to call strategic bursts, I don’t change it up very much.

Normally my crew would also have a “special move” thrown in outside of my usual spots, usually to counteract another team’s move or to just open some water on the other crews. This was typically a 20 where we’d build for three, bump the rate up a beat or two for 15-18, then settle back into our regular pace over the remaining couple of strokes. These moves always had code words associated with them so that the other crews wouldn’t know we were making a move. “POWER 10” is really, really obvious (and easy to exploit by other coxswains), especially when you’re yelling it into your mic, so we’d talk during practice the week before and figure out what they wanted me to say. Usually it was something simple like “fire ’em up” and they would just know, without me saying it, that the move starts on the next stroke. They’d make the move and I’d cox them as normal. Even though I wasn’t calling it I could see it happening because we’d either be walking on or away from a crew and I could see the stroke rate change on my cox box. (We practiced this a lot to ensure everyone knew when to bring the rate up and when to bring it down too. Doing it on the fly I think would have been a mess.)

At bigger regattas where sprints were a bigger deal we’d take 5 to build into the last 250 but before that burst we’d take a build into the build that was purely for power. My senior year when I used the build-into-the-build nearly every race, I’m convinced that it’s what put our bow ball ahead in the few races we didn’t win by open water. I don’t remember what I’d say to start that build but it was always something synonymous with “power”. I think one of the things I said most often was “bend ’em”, meaning to hang on the oars so hard that you’re bending them as they go through the water. Going into the 5 to build into the sprint, the call was always “light ’em up” and then the start of the sprint was “afterburners”.

The best thing you can do is to sit down with your coach, your crew, and a course map. Figure strategic spots along the course to make a call then figure out what that call is going to be for. If you’re going to use a code word, discuss that with your crew. Make sure everyone knows what the word is and what means. Once you’ve got the strategy down, figure out your “special” move, what it’s going to be, where you’d ideally like to call it, and then make sure you practice it throughout the week so the crew gets used to hearing and feeling it.