Tag: racing

Coxswain Recordings, pt. 10

College Coxing Racing Recordings

Coxswain Recordings, pt. 10

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George Washington University 2013 SIRAs Freshman 8+ Grand Final

Connor recently sent me a bunch of his recordings to listen to and they. are. all. so. good. I’ll be putting them all up in future posts so keep an eye out for them – there’s a ton to take away from each one, from execution to tone to calls and everything in between.

Something he does really well is using his tone to compliment the calls. A good example is at 0:47 when he says “get ready boys, shift in two, one, ready, two, SHIIIFT, BOOM…” and at 1:12 when he says “lengthen out half a beat … on this one, looong there…”. That transition between the high strokes and the shift to base was also flawlessly executed so if you’re trying to work out a good way to call that, that’s a great example of how it’s done cleanly and clearly.

At 1:30 he says “we’re gonna go off their move…”, which is  cementing how invaluable you are to your crew if you can recognize when another coxswain is about to call a move and then capitalize off of it by making a counter-move that the other boat doesn’t know is coming.

Sometimes when coxswains say “this is our race” and it can sound really cheerleader-y and frankly, stupid, but his tone at 2:33 when he said “I’m on 3-seat, this is our race…” communicated a confidence that really made me believe that this was their race. Sometimes when coxswains say that they say it in that loud, aggressive voice that makes me question if they’re saying it because they believe it or because they think it’s what the crew wants to hear. If it’s really your race you should be calm and confident because you know you’re in full control and all you have to do from here is keep executing things right.

Between 3:18 and 3:36, everything. about this. is perfect. The build-up with his voice during the countdown followed by an appropriately-aggressive “slingshot, engage“…awesome. Same for 4:00 when he says “I got bowball!” – after saying “I’m on bow deck but I need more” at 3:46 this is a brilliant response to what the crew did when he asked for more.

I’m debatable about the “it’s gonna be an easy win” call at 4:51 but not because I don’t like them. On the contrary, I think they can be a confidence boost for the crew but the one time I said this to my boat, the crew that we’d just annihilated with a move at 750m to go (we’d gone from me sitting on their 5-seat to having a full seat of open water), our biggest competition in this particular race, made a huge move on us during the sprint and came within about four seats at the finish. After that I never said any race was going to be an easy win ever again, regardless of how much open water we had on the field. My advice is to be cautious with this call – it can definitely give you a false sense of security sometimes.

Last thing – at 5:42 he says “sprint for those shirts, sprint for the win, that’s it, take it…” This is an infinitely better way of saying “how bad do you want it, show me you want it, etc.”.

Other calls I liked:

“Pryyyyyy through…” The tone is great, as is the addition of “through” at the end since “pry” on its own is kinda awkward.

“Go now, break away…”

“5-seat’s getting his blade in for UVA, you’ve gotta get yours in too…”

“5 to breathe and swing”, particularly the fact that he called it when they were 1500ish into the race

George Washington University 2013 Freshman 8+ vs. Georgetown

At the start he says “can’t lean to starboard otherwise we’ll turn…”, which I think is a really important thing for rowers to understand. If there is ever a time for you to not be moving around and constantly adjusting your weight, it’s at the starting line when your coxswain is trying to get a point. You have no idea how frustrating it is trying to get a point, especially in windy conditions, get it, and then have to go through the whole process again because someone off-set the boat and it turned. Please, do your coxswains a favor and sit still during and after the period of time where they’re getting a point. Coxswains, you can also help them out by giving them some “adjusting time” (dependent on how much time you have between getting locked on and the start of the race) before saying “OK, I’m getting a point now”.

At 4:06 he calls for “five for relaxation”, which I think can be beneficial after you’ve made a big move and gained something significant on an opposing crew. It helps to bring the focus back in between your gunnels, relax the bodies, breathe, and sharpen up the strokes while still maintaining the level of intensity that got you where you’re at in the first place. This is also especially good if you’re planning another big move soon after.

“You see them now, you don’t let them walk back one fucking inch…” is a great post-walk or post-move call when you’ve just gotten through the other crew. Remind them that they’re in the commanding position and it’s up to them to keep you there. Don’t give anything back. Same for 5:18 when he says “oh yea, now we’re moving away” and at 6:02 when he says “you gotta work for it”. Notice how he said they still had to work for it after telling them they’ve got 3/4 of a length of open? You can’t get complacent when you open up a lead like that because you never know what that other crew has left. It’s your responsibility to remind them of that. Do the work necessary to get you ahead and then keep doing the work to keep you ahead.

At 5:31 he says “this is where we died last race”, which I think can have one of two effects on a crew. For me, I use calls like this as a challenge. Last time this is what happened but the difference between then and now is we’re better, we’re stronger, and we’re smarter – it’s not going to happen again. The two outcomes are that they’ll either remember this is where they fell apart last time and their brains will give into that and they’ll die again or the brains will respond with a determined “fuck that” and will rise to overcome the challenge. In order for this call to be effective and come off the way you want it to, you have to understand the brains of the eight people in your boat. If there’s even a question of the mental vulnerability of any one of them, you can’t use this call.

Other calls I liked:

“Fuck yea, I’m on their 3-seat, get ready to break them and crush their fucking dreams…“

“Through and through…”

“Blackout 10 motherfuckers!”

You can find and listen to more recordings by checking out the “Coxswain Recordings” page.

Training: Carbohydrate loading and rowing

Rowing Training & Nutrition

Training: Carbohydrate loading and rowing

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In college I majored in sport science and human performance, which meant the bulk of my course load centered on exercise science, sports nutrition, kinesiology, exercise physiology, etc. and nearly all the research I did involved athletes. One of the topics we spent a lot of time covering in my sports nutrition class was the various diets that athletes maintain while in-season, during the off-season, and in the immediate days leading up to competition. Today’s post is going to talk about one of those strategies – carbohydrate loading – and it’s effect on your performance during a race. (Spoiler: there’s not much benefit.)

The role of carbohydrates in the body and during exercise

During high intensity exercise, carbohydrates are the main energy source. CHOs also function as the only fuel for red blood cells, your brain, and nerves. If you deplete your CHO stores, for example during strenuous exercise, your blood glucose will be maintained by breaking down lipids and eventually some protein – lipids are fine but you never want to be breaking down proteins because that means that all other sources of energy have been maxed out so your body now has to rely on its skeletal muscle tissue (which is made up of protein) as a last-ditch energy source. This reverts back to everything I talked about in February regarding eating disorders.

Related: National eating disorder awareness week

During exercise, CHOs are the preferential fuel because they rapidly supply ATP via oxidative processes that allow them to be delivered twice as fast as fat and protein. During anaerobic activity (such as the start and sprint), they are the sole suppliers of ATP. Having a low CHO intake for three consecutive days has been shown to lead to a decrease in anaerobic exercise capacity, which means that if you’re not getting enough carbs in your diet during the week your body will be physically unable to go as hard at the beginning and end of a race, which is why it’s important to make sure you’re eating well-balanced meals all the time (regardless of what weight-class you’re competing in).

CHO-loading as an ergogenic aid

Ergogenic aids are defined as “any method or practice that serves to enhance energy utilization, including energy production, control, and efficiency.” There are several different types of ergogenic aids, some legal (CHO loading), some illegal (blood doping), some mechanical (in the context of rowing, rigging would be an example of this), and some psychological (hypnosis), amongst others.

Related: Intro to rigging

We spent a lot of time talking about the history of ergogenic aids because most people assume that they were developed or thought of recently – in fact, they’ve been in use since the original Olympic games. The ancient Greeks actually believed the “you are what you eat” mantra and to become better competitors, they’d eat the raw meat of lions and tigers because lions and tigers were/are powerful, swift, aggressive, fast, and deadly when on top of their game, which is what we as athletes all strive to be when we compete.

The mechanisms of CHO-loading involve super-compensating the stores of glycogen in the muscles and liver. The pros of doing this include:

Increased time to exhaustion (TTE) in activities lasting longer than 90 minutes and performed at a moderate to high level of intensity (marathons being the main example)

Increased TTE in intermittent high intensity sports (tennis, for example)

Improved endurance by about 20%

Improved performance by about 2-3%

The only major con is that there may be a disturbance in the body’s overall energy balance, meaning that the diet may lack other necessary macronutrients (the other two macronutrients being protein and fat). It’s also been shown that there is little or no effect on high intensity bouts of exercise lasting less than five minutes in length.

Below is a slide I did for a presentation on supplements for a class on issues and controversies in nutrition. We’d just gone over this stuff on ergogenic aids a couple days before this project was assigned so I was able to use all the info from my physiology class for my nutrition class. The yellow, orange, and red table at the top gives you a brief overview of what your CHO intake should look like in the week leading up to a race, which in this case was on a Sunday.

If your diet is made up of about 70% carbohydrates, as you progress through the week (Monday through Thursday) you would gradually decrease the amount of CHOs in your diet. Monday would be 60%, Tuesday 50%, Wednesday 40%, and Thursday 20%. During this time you are still training, although you tend to scale back a little as the week progresses (also known as tapering). On Friday and Saturday you ramp back up the amount of CHOs in your diet (where the term “supercompensate” comes from), from 20% to 75 and 80%.

CHO loading and rowing

Something you might have noticed from that slide and in what I mentioned earlier is that it says “endurance sports” and only talks about the increased TTE in events lasting longer than 90 minutes. So, this would lead one to believe that CHO loading before a sprint race wouldn’t do much to enhance your performance, which for the most part would be correct. CHO loading is better suited for something like a head race where you’re going at 100% for 20-30 minutes, although even then any performance benefits would be small.

Pre-competition meals

To ensure your energy supplies are topped off before an event, your best bet is to eat a pre-competition meal about three hours ahead of time, although it’s important to remember that this meal alone cannot and will not make up for having a poor chronic diet. Ideally you’d be eating something with 150-300g of carbs (3-5g/kg of body weight) while being sure to avoid anything containing high fat or protein contents. The advantages of  a meal like this are that they replenish your glycogen stores, it requires less energy to break down, nutrients are absorbed faster, digestion is quick, and it serves as the main source of energy for short term anaerobic/high intensity aerobic exercise, which is basically exactly what a sprint race is.

On the flip side, if you eat something immediately before you go out and race, you end up with a spike in your blood glucose levels which results in a hyper-insulinemic response. Because of the surge in insulin being released, your blood glucose then plummets which in turn leads to your performance being not so great. This is why you should avoid eating anything within thirty minutes of your race.

So, what should you actually eat?

There are so many options. Seriously. Pasta is not the only food with carbohydrates – bagels, peanut butter, honey, raisins, whole-wheat bread, apples, brown rice, yogurt, sweet potatoes, etc. are all examples of good staples in a rower’s diet.

If you’re going to commit to CHO loading, you should spend the time to work out exactly how many grams of carbs you should be eating/how much you need and then determine the number of carbs/calories in the foods you’re ingesting. If you’re in college and are taking a nutrition class or know someone who is, ask to borrow whatever book they’re using. Most basic nutrition classes require textbooks that tend to have long, long, long lists of foods in the back from every food group that list amount of macronutrients they contain. If you can’t do that, you can search whatever food you’re trying to look up and the awesomeness of Google will tell you right on the search page the number of carbs that food contains. If you don’t trust Google, I suggest using the USDA’s website. All you have to do is open up the “carbohydrates” report – you can open it with the foods listed either alphabetically or by nutrient content, which has the foods with the highest amount of carbs listed first.

Vegetarians, vegans, and CHO loading

There’s a lot of controversy on athletes who are vegetarians or vegans since the majority of them don’t eat any animal by-products, which cuts out a lot of the foods that their carnivorous counterparts rely on to maintain adequate energy stores. When attempting to CHO load, the options are pretty much the same for the most part, the only difference being they would need to look into gluten-free options and replace the meat and dairy with more vegetables, lentils, beans, tofu, chickpeas, etc. If there are any vegetarian/vegan rowers out there who wouldn’t mind sharing the foods they eat when prepping for a race, that’d be great.

Moral of the story…

Carbo-loading for sprint races is pretty much pointless. It’s a little more understandable for head races but in essence this is a tactic best reserved for straight endurance athletes, which rowers are not. You’re better off eating a diet rich in protein (see the slide below this) than trying to ingest large amounts of carbs that you most likely won’t fully burn off.

That isn’t to say that you shouldn’t be eating a solid amount of carbs too, because obviously you should be, but when comparing the benefits of CHO loading (remember, that’s super-compensating the amount of carbs you’re taking in) vs. ingesting protein, the more applicable benefits to rowing come from diets with adequate amounts of protein in them.

Image via // @row_360

College Racing Video of the Week

Video of the Week: The 148th Harvard-Yale Regatta

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In case you don’t know about the Harvard-Yale Regatta, it is the oldest intercollegiate sporting event in the United States. They started racing each other in 1852 which, for those of you who know your US History, was before the Civil War began. With the exception of not racing during times of war when the US was fighting, the race – “The Race” – has been run every year since 1859. Initially it was rowed on Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire but it’s more permanent home is on the Thames River in New London, CT. (Unlike the river that runs through London, England, this one is not pronounced “Tems”. It is in fact pronounced just as it’s spelled.)

There are two campsites along the river that act as the training grounds for each team and where they bunker down for a week or more to prepare to race each other. Yale is at Gales Ferry and Harvard is at Red Top. There are four races all together – the varsity (4 miles), junior varsity (3 miles), freshman (2 miles), and combination (2 miles), which is a boat comprised of rowers from the 3V8+ and 2F8+. The winners of the combination race earn the right to paint their team’s colors on the rock at Bartlett’s Cove the next day, which also happens to be the most popular spot to watch the races as they come down the river.

Harvard is currently sitting atop the leader boards with an impressive 94-54 record, having won the varsity race for the last six consecutive years and 13 of the last 14.

Coxswain recordings, pt. 9

College Coxing Drills High School Racing Recordings

Coxswain recordings, pt. 9

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Dartmouth Heavyweights Pause Drill

This is a long video – almost 15 minutes – but if you’re looking to improve your technical skills then I’d definitely spend some time watching this one, listening to what the coach and coxswain are saying, and matching that up with what you’re seeing with the blades. They’re doing pause drills by 6s (and later all eight) with some continuous (occasionally quarter-feather) rowing in between.

Regarding the actual drills, coxing pause drills isn’t that tough but a common question that comes up is how to transition between pairs while you’re pausing and the beginning here is a good example of how to do that. She’s not saying a ton besides “go” but I assume that’s only because the coach is right there actively giving the crew feedback. If he wasn’t talking as much or they were by themselves I assume she’d be making more regular calls beyond telling them when to take a stroke.

Another reason why I like having my recorder on me as much as possible is so I can go back later and listen to everything the coach is saying and actually absorb the things he’s pointing out so I can incorporate it into my own calls later on. Examples from this recording include:

Change direction at the front end without the bodies collapsing down

Take your time from the finish through the pivot

Establish your length through the pause

All basic stuff but it’s a good habit to take the things your coach is saying and include them verbatim (or close to it) within your own calls to reiterate what they’re trying to teach and to show that you’re actually engaged with what’s going on and not just zoning out when you’re not the one making the calls.

Dartmouth Heavyweights Practice Starts

This is a great drill to do with any crew but particularly novice/less experienced ones since doing starts with them tends to look similar to an octopus having a seizure. The focus is on refining each stroke of the start at low pressure before progressively adding speed and power.

Jesuit Dallas Lightweight 8+ 2013 Youth Nationals Petite Final

There were two main things that I took away from this recording. After a few minutes I got bored because a lot of the calls were the same – stand on it, push, let’s go, big press, etc. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t tune out a few times, open up a new tab, start scrolling through Twitter, and then realize that I missed 45+ seconds of audio. This is one of the reasons why I encourage coxswains to record themselves. If you listen to your recording and find yourself getting bored, how do you think the rowers feel?

Another important takeaway from this is that you can’t go on race-mode autopilot and forget about everything else. There were a fair number of strokes where it 7-seat’s blade wasn’t buried all the way and was washing out at the finish. For as often as the coxswain was looking over to port I was waiting for him to say something about it but he never did. There isn’t a rule barring you from calling out technical issues during a race – if something isn’t right you’ve gotta say something otherwise you’re giving away tiny amounts of speed to the other crews with every stroke that add up over the course of 2000 meters.

At 2:16 he says “two seats up on first place” … so, you’re in first place? A better thing to say would be “we’ve moved into first, two seats up on second”. Also, at the end they definitely stopped rowing before they crossed the finish line. The general rule of thumb is that you don’t call them down to paddle until you have crossed the line, that way you can sure that you’re actually over.

Other calls I liked:

“Time to find that next gear…”

You can find and listen to more recordings by checking out the “Coxswain Recordings” page.

Coxing Q&A Racing

Question of the Day

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Hello! I’m not great at estimating distances but I’m learning and getting better – but my coach told me and the other coxswains on the team that it is better to call the sprint early and then ask for 10 more strokes than to call it a little late and wonder what could have been (strokes used in the race). However, I always feel bad if I tell the rowers we have twenty strokes left when we actually have thirty. What do you think? Is my coach wrong or do I just need to suck it up? Thanks!!

I don’t think your coach is explaining this properly. He’s taking two separate things and explaining it like they’re one in the same. The sprint doesn’t have to do with a certain number of strokes – you’re calling it for a certain number of meters, like the last 250m or something (which is the start of the red buoys to the finish line). Some teams do X strokes at 36, X at 38, etc. for their sprint but they still start it when they cross the last 250. The “10 more strokes” thing comes in if you say “last 10 to the line (regardless of whether you’re sprinting or not)” but it ends up being not the last 10 to the line.

Related: Judging distance

As far as wondering “what could have been”, you’re going to wonder that after every race that doesn’t result in a gold medal. If you aren’t paying attention or “forget” to call the sprint at 250m, don’t call it until there’s 100m left, and then lose by a seat, yea, you’re going to really wonder what could have been.

There’s nothing for you to “suck up”, really. Just keep practicing. At some point or another every coxswain has said “last X strokes” and it’s actually be a few more or less than that. If you can nail it and have the last stroke happen just as your bow ball crosses, rock on, but it’s not an exact science and most of the time you are estimating and hoping you’re within a stroke of what you call for. If you say “last 10” and it ends up being the last 11, it’s not a huge deal. If you say “last 10” and it’s actually the last 20, that’s a bigger issue because by now you should have an idea of how far your boat travels in ten strokes and be able to guess when you’re that far away from the line. Plus, your rowers are trusting the fact that you can see where the line is since they can’t, so they assume that when you say “last 10” you really mean last 10. Like I said though, it comes with practice and consciously making an effort to gauge the distance you’ve traveled in ten strokes, twenty strokes, etc. when you’re out doing pieces.

Coxing Q&A Racing

Question of the Day

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This kind of relates to the not being first off the start but my coxswain would always tell us not to walk, even if we could, until the sprint so that we would be sure we could hold it. She thought it made more sense and the majority of my boat agreed with her. I however think that if you can walk then you should walk, where ever you are in the race. We kind of saved it for the first thousand and then just went crazy in the second thousand and won our regional final but I think it would’ve been a much more clean and firm win had we walked in the first thousand like we could have. What do you think?

I disagree with her because I think if you don’t walk you’re potentially digging yourself into a hole that you might not be able to get out of by the time the last 250m rolls around. I assume by “hold it” she means to conserve your energy throughout the race so you can apply it all to the sprint. That reminds me of this scene from The Incredibles.

I’m the guy at 0:17.

I guess in the end the hardware is all that matters but I agree with you, it probably would have been a smoother race overall if you hadn’t held back at the beginning.

It’s OK to not be in first place…

College Coxing Racing

It’s OK to not be in first place…

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…coming off the starting line.

I was watching the NCAA Championships yesterday morning and was pleasantly surprised to see Ohio State dominate the V4+ and 2V races. (You can watch the full replay of yesterday’s races here. The V4+ race is at the 89:51 mark and the 2V race is at 109:11.) When I’m coxing, something that I like to do with my crews is get out ahead immediately. I would much rather defend a lead than work towards it – psychologically I just think there’s less hurdles to overcome when you start in the lead. Plus, it was just one of those things that all the coaches I’ve ever had have taught me. Both of Ohio State’s boats though, despite winning by 3 seconds and 2 seconds respectively, started behind. The V4+ started in fourth place and the 2V started in 3rd. As I was watching the races I noticed something: it seemed like both coxswains were content to not be in front off the line, like not being in first was OK … or something.

This got me thinking – both boats started behind but then dominated the field the rest of the way down the course. Maybe not being in first off the line is OK. By the time the 2V had reached the 500m mark, they were sitting in 3rd place, 0.65 seconds behind first. Right around the 1000m mark (2:45ish into the race), the coxswain made a call that resulted in the boat walking about a deck length in five(ish) strokes. From there, they were gone. Same with the V4+. They started back, worked their way up (effortlessly), and then refused to relinquish the top spot. I’m still a huge proponent of getting your bow in front right away and keeping it there but I also enjoy a good challenge. Being in front means you have a target on your back which only makes it easier for me to hunt you down, one by one by one.

The point is this: patience is everything. Be content to not necessarily be in front but don’t settle for that. When you’re coxing you want to give your crew small, achievable goals throughout the race with the ultimate one being to cross the line first. After the start (the full start, no sooner than 3ooish meters in), find out where you are in relation to the other crews and go from there. If you’re sitting in third, forget about the first place crew. Set your sights on second place and start taking the strokes you need to walk through them. Once you’ve absorbed them, put your focus on the first place crew. Once you’ve gotten through them, put your focus on pushing everyone else back and reeling the line in. Part of the reason why coxswains get frantic at the start when they’re behind is because they put all their energy into walking on the crew that’s way out ahead in first instead of the crew that’s only three seats ahead in second. If you maintain an aggressive composure, your boat will too.

Don’t panic if you don’t start quick off the line. Instead, focus on rowing smarter than the rest of the field and giving your crew all the information you have so they can put together the right combination of solid strokes to get their bow out front. And, like the announcer said during the V4+ race, it’s all about strategy. Some crews just aren’t good off the line but they’ve got a killer middle 1000. This is another spot where knowing your crew’s tendencies will be of huge benefit to you. If I had to throw out a guess, I think this was part of Ohio State’s strategy; come off the line solid but conserve the bulk of their power for the middle, which was where both crews started to break the rest of the field.

Image via // @rbcmsweeps

Coxing Q&A Racing

Question of the Day

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Once we are underway with an outing or actually in a race, I am completely in control and able to respond to any situation and keep a level head, which is what I think makes me a good cox. I find it difficult to keep that same composure on land or as we navigate up to the start. I panic and stress that we are missing a rower/ late/ something has gone wrong. I find it difficult to not get irate with my crew and my coach tells me to stop stressing but I don’t know how. Help?

I’m the same way. I have a tendency to try to micromanage things so I’ll get nervous if another boat gets in my way or in an undesirable situation, worry that we’re going to be late/miss the race, etc. I’ve gotten better at internalizing all of it so it’s not as obvious that I’m freaking out but it still happens sometimes. I’ve never gotten angry with the crew though unless they’ve directly played a part in me being nervous (i.e. being late to get hands on, forgetting something important, or just being a general annoyance by doing those annoying rower things…). The second you get irate with your crew though is when they start losing respect for you and not wanting you in the boat. You have to stay composed regardless of the situation. If the rowers think you’re incapable of handling the situation, they’ll mutiny. Not in the fun Pirates of the Caribbean way with rum and sea turtles and Johnny Depp either – they’ll just straight up stop listening to you and/or try to take control themselves. Rowers should never feel like they have to be the ones in control of the boat, which is why it’s so important for us to always act calm, even and most especially when we aren’t.

If you’re worried about something related to the rowers (showing up on time, remembering important stuff, not talking, being present, listening to you, etc.), tell them that. They probably know that you’re a bundle of nerves on the way to the start but have no idea why so they can’t do anything differently to help alleviate some of the stress. Before your next regatta, either at your boat dinner or after practice some time (never the day of or right before going out) talk to them and say that you need their cooperation to make sure things run smoothly. You have a million different things to watch for on your way to the start and spending unnecessary amounts of brainpower worrying about what the rowers are doing, etc. stresses you out. There’s nothing wrong with saying you get stressed by things. I used to think it made me a less-than-capable coxswain by admitting that I feel stressed in certain situations but it really, really doesn’t. You only have control over so much when you’re at a regatta but making sure that you are 100% in control of the things you do have control over goes a long way. If something goes wrong, close your eyes for a second, take a deep breath, and figure out what needs to happen to rectify the situation. Stay calm and do exactly what do when you’re on the water.

I hate when people tell me to just “stop stressing” because it’s like … how do I do that?? Don’t you know the eight million things I’m dealing with right now?! How you avoid getting stressed is something you’ll have to figure out on your own because it really is different for every person. It’s not possible to not get stressed though, which is something I learned to accept pretty quickly as novice. What you can do is adjust your reaction. Is this something I can deal with on my own or do I need help? Who do I need help from? (Asking for help is OK. Do as I say, not as I do.) What happened and what do I need to do? Am I missing some information? What do I need to know and where can I find it? When we were on the water going to the start I told my rowers that I needed them to be absolutely silent unless our team was coming down the course, in which case we’d obviously stop and cheer, because if it felt for a nanosecond like they weren’t giving me/the boat their full attention, it took my focus off of getting us to the line quickly and safely. It was a necessary plea but I had a good enough rapport with them that it didn’t come off as being dictator-ish or bitchy and they understood, without me giving an explanation, that in order for me to be the best coxswain for the crew, I needed them to do this for me.

The next time something pisses you off or doesn’t go as planned, right before you want to totally lose it, close your eyes. I promise you, it helps. Close your eyes and take a slow, deep breath. Rationalize your thoughts and make a serious effort to approach the situation differently than you have in the past. Talk with your boat and/or coach and explain why you get stressed and what they can do to help you be less stressed in whatever situations stress you out. Talk to yourself too. I found that part of the reason why I would get so stressed is because I would try to micromanage everything, which very rarely every works when your stressed. Don’t stress until you have to and even then, be calm about it.

College Coxing Racing Video of the Week

Video of the Week: Harvard, Penn, and Navy

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This week’s video is a good opportunity for coxswains to learn what to do when there’s two separate pieces happening within one race. You’ll notice that after Mass Ave. Harvard’s got a solid length’s lead on the other two crews. If you’re the Navy or Penn coxswain, what do you do? You obviously don’t want to keep telling your crew that you’re a length or more down on Harvard and continue the increasingly futile attempts at chasing them down, so at that point you have to, in a sense, concede that race and focus on the one you can still win, which in this case would be the one between Navy and Penn.

Basically what I’m saying is that you have to recognize when you’re racing for first and when you’re racing for second. First place was established about 500m into the race but 2nd is still up for grabs, so the focus should shift towards the crew you still have a chance at beating. There’s some psychology behind this that you’ve got to wrestle with but ultimately you’ve got to recognize the situation and understand that you lost this battle but you can still win this other one, and then in the midst of all of the racing you’ve got to get your crew to buy into that within the span of 3-5 strokes.

In that same vein, if you’re the Harvard coxswain, what do you do? You’re not racing anyone anymore, so how do you keep your crew from getting complacent? Just as you have to work hard to keep them engaged when you’re a boat length down, you also have to work hard to keep them engaged when you’re a length up.

In one situation, you’re behind and you’ve got to claw your way back to the top. The rowers can’t see anyone behind you so they know they’re behind and that creeping feeling of “shit, we’re losing” is taking over. The bodies aren’t quitting yet but the minds are. You as the coxswain have to shut that voice up, eight, sometimes nine, times over. In the other situation, you’re ahead and the rowers can clearly see they’re ahead. This gives them an opportunity to think “well, we’re ahead, we clearly have the lead … let’s back off a bit, save some energy, and coast through the finish line”.

At regattas where you’re part of a progression and you’ve got to go through heats and semis before reaching the finals and you’ve established a solid lead during your heat, yea, you can back off a little. That’s on your call though, not theirs. Make sure that is established ahead of time. You want to save your energy and your best rowing for the final so backing off a bit in the heat once you’ve secured a spot in the semis or finals is fine. When you’re in a finals-only race like this one between Harvard, Penn, and Navy though, you should be going all out from start to finish. At the very least, it’s good practice.

If mid-race you find yourselves in a one-crew race you’ve got to assess the situation and figure out what you can do to still make the piece worth something. Yea you might win but what else did you get out of it? If you race all the way across the line instead of coasting across it, that gives you the opportunity to push your bodies so that when you are racing all the way to the end your bodies don’t prematurely give out with 200m to go because you haven’t been tested all season.