Tag: racing skills

Tips for coxing a time trial

By readyallrow June 20, 2017

Between mid-May and this week I’ve gotten several questions from coxswains about time trials – it seems like there were more than a few regattas this year that did them in lieu of heats. Below are a couple excerpts from some email replies I sent that include tips I’ve picked up from fellow coxswains and coaches over the years. If you have any strategies that have worked for you, feel free to leave them in the comments.

Pacing into and off the line

The simple approach to a time trial is to just go off the line with your normal start (no need to do the 1/2, 1/2, 3/4, full stuff, just do 5 to build as you approach the line and go straight into your high strokes as you cross – much like a head race) before lengthening out to your base pace. If you’re confident that you’ll make the top 12 or however many it is to advance, you can sometimes pace a little lower than normal (i.e. 33-34 instead of 35-36) but that’s something to discuss with your coach (and crew) well in advance of your race. I wouldn’t plan on racing at anything lower than your normal rate though but if your coach is confident and thinks it’s OK to conserve a bit of energy for the final, feel free to talk about it with them.

use the puddles to gauge if you’re on pace

Another point to remember (and this is important for all head races, not just time trials) is to not go out too hard. It’s easy to think you’re moving really well when there aren’t any other boats around to gauge your speed off of but you run the risk of burning out around 750m in and then it’s just a slow, painful crawl to the finish.

Practicing your start + the first 500 head-race style during practice is a good way to see how the crew feels, how the boat’s moving, etc. and gives you a chance to practice racing the splits vs. racing another crew (or five). If you’ve got a speed coach then obviously that makes it super easy but if you don’t have any splits to go off of, watch the puddles. Based on what I saw leading up to IRAs, when our varsity 8+ was running at top speed our stroke’s blade was entering the water just behind our bow seat’s puddle from the previous stroke. If the margins started to get smaller – i.e. stroke’s blade going in before the puddle reaches him) then I knew we were shortening up a bit and starting to fall off pace. You’ll have to watch your crews to know what the puddle margin usually is but that’s a good way to gauge your pace if you haven’t got a speed coach on board.

Don’t forget to start your clock

Last thing is to make sure you start your clock when you cross the start line. This is another thing you should be doing during practice so that it becomes second nature and not something you have to remember to do on race day. My coaches were always very intent on making sure we were cognizant of these easily overlooked details and after getting my ass verbally kicked by them for about two months, I came to really appreciate their constant reminders to not let stuff like this slip through the cracks. To them, the more little things like this you do, the more free speed you’re racking up and as cliche as “free speed” is, it’s also so, so true.

If you know your average 2k time (or 1500m, depending on what you race), this will help you gauge your speed and where you’re at on the course if it’s not clearly marked or there aren’t any landmarks to go off of. For example, if your boat’s average 2k time this season has been 6:00, you should be crossing 1500m around 4:30 in. If you’re coming through 1500m at 4:32 you know you’re a little off pace and should probably take a 10 to dig in at the start of the last 500m and really hit it with the legs before you build into the sprint.

This works as a great motivator too because if you’re on or ahead of your usual pace, that’s just gonna motivate the crew to keep pushing. Even if you’re off pace a little, hearing the time worked into a call can be the thing that helps them refocus and get back on track – i.e. “through 1000m we’re 3:03 in, that’s a 1.5 seconds off our time from last week; let’s commit to holding the finishes on this 10 and try to hit 1500m by 4:31 … ready … now.”

internal motivation is key (and not as hard as you think)

You do have to rely a lot on internal motivation to keep the crew going during time trials but you’ve likely got a lot more material to pull from than you think you do. Make sure you’ve got a good understanding of your crew’s technical strengths and weaknesses so you can make calls for that as necessary, and don’t underestimate the power of calling a move just for yourselves. I’ve done that before where I’ve called a ten for us … for the seniors, for the juniors … for [whatever team I’m coxing] … etc. and sometimes those are the most powerful tens in the whole piece. I usually save those for the 3rd 500 when I know they’re hurting and really wishing we had some crews around us for that visual confirmation of where we’re at on the field. 98% of the rest of my calls are almost exactly what I’d say during a normal race though.

Image via // @nickmiddletonphoto

Coxing Drills Racing Rowing Technique

Getting off the line with world class speed

By readyallrow May 5, 2016

This was a talk given by Bryan Volpenhein, former Ohio State and US National Team rower and now current national team coach of the men’s four. He spoke on “getting off the line with world class speed”, which comes down to having the right mentality at the start, staying relaxed at peak speed, and executing a clean shift.

The start defined

We’ve all heard the phrase “you can’t win the race off the start but you can lose it”, not just as a result of your rowing but also due to your mentality. The one singular purpose of the start is to get you into the race. Your specific job is to get the lead and the start is your first opportunity to do that. One of the biggest keys (#majorkey) to accomplishing that is the intent you go to the line with. There can’t be any hesitation or doubt about what you’re going to do – everyone has to be on the same page and know exactly how the next 30-40 strokes are going to be executed. If there’s any hesitation or you’re thinking about what you’re gonna do on the shift or how it’s going to happen or anything other than just straight execution, you’re already at a disadvantage.

This is huge reason why coxswains MUST call the start consistently and not change the calls on race day or the number of strokes it takes to shift to base, etc. The start must be instinctual for you and the rowers and if your execution here is poor, you’ve gone from being an asset to a distraction in 30 strokes or less. Practicing them on a regular basis and having the discipline to “stick to the script” can help alleviate any uncertainty and allow the crew to become more comfortable with the calls, speed, and, in the case of the rowers, discomfort.

Relaxation with effort

This is a simple concept. Maintaining a sense of relaxation with power and while at speed is all about being loose. Less is more here and patience is the key to both.

At the catch and on the drive the shoulders and hands should stay relaxed while the resistance is felt in the hips and fingers.

Putting the blade in the water should be the result of swinging from the armpits rather than lifting with the shoulders. The catch should be completely free of tension.

The recovery should be an exercise in patience, particularly at high rates like you have off the start. A steady roll into the catch, regardless of rate, should occur naturally by letting the boat run under you rather than relying on the hamstrings to pull you up.

Bottom line – any unnecessary contraction of muscles you don’t need is going to result in a loss of speed.

Practicing the shift

This is one of the most important parts of the race so the execution of it has to be clean by both the coxswain and crew. One of the things that I thought was interesting was what Bryan said about the language they use to describe this chunk of strokes. Rather than call it the “settle” or say “stride”, both of which he considers too passive, he prefers to call it the “shift” because it refers to an active shift in speed to race speed. This communicates the sense that you’re not coming down in speed, you’re maintaining it or trying to go faster by attacking the race at a more sustainable pace.

When you’re calling the shift, the timing of your calls is important for a clean execution by everyone. Something you need to practice and discuss with the crew early on is where in the stroke cycle you’re making your calls. Convention dictates that 98% of your calls are made at the catch but if you’re one of those coxswains who counts their strokes at the finish, you’ve gotta figure out how the shift is going to work if you want the change to happen on the next catch (i.e. if you say “ten” at the finish of stroke 10 and want the change to happen on what would be stroke 11).

Personally I think making calls at the finish and trying to initiate the shift in the span of half a stroke (aka the recovery) rather than across one full stroke (the drive and subsequent recovery) introduces frantic, rushed feeling into the boat’s psyche that could easily be avoided by just spacing out the calls … and, obviously, as I’ve said many times before, not trying to cram too many words into a short period of time. Efficiency applies not just to the rowing but to your calls as well.

Related: Listen to how the shift is called in this race (around the 0:32 second mark), as well as the language used.

Drills to work on the start

Some of the high rate drills Bryan does with the four to help them practice getting off the line include half-slide builders, which help you change direction and get connected without checking the boat (seen below) and reverse ratio placements.

Reverse ratio, which is when you have a full speed recovery and a zero speed drive, isn’t something you typically want to see but in this context it helps the rowers work on body control (setting the bodies quickly) and accuracy at the front end. It also helps you coordinate the recovery sequence when you’re at race pace and eliminate any tension on the drive when the blade is being supported by the water.

Below are some videos that Bryan showed during his presentation and shared with me afterwards that demonstrate what the reverse ratio drill looks like. The first is a stroke by stroke drill, the second and third show the reverse ratio while rowing continuously, and the last one shows their full starting sequence (the splits of which he said were consistently hitting 1:17s).

Image via // Merijn Soeters

Coxing How To Racing

Coxswain Skills: Race Steering

By readyallrow March 29, 2016

Previously: Steering, pt. 1 || Steering, pt. 2 || Boat feel || How to handle a negative coxswain eval || How to cox steady state workouts || How to cox short, high intensity workouts

It’s officially racing season which means your steering is going to be under heavy scrutiny for the next ten weeks. If you steer a straight course you’re not going to get any recognition (and if you do it’s minimal) but any slight deviation towards one buoy line or the other will likely draw the ire of your rowers and/or your coach, depending on their vantage point. You’ve got a lot of “number one” jobs on race day but steering straight is THE number one priority of all your “number one” priorities so make sure it’s a skill you’re honing every day at practice.

Related: How to steer an eight

Steering during a race is, for the most part, exactly the same as steering on any regular day, at least in my opinion. There are very few things I do differently and the things I am doing differently are simply a result of my heightened levels of awareness. One of the hallmarks of steering is that the speed in which the hull responds to the rudder is directly proportional to the speed of the hull itself. The faster you’re going, the faster it’s going to respond to you making adjustments which means that your adjustments have to be that much smaller in order to avoid oversteering and serpentining your way down the course.

One thing that helps avoid oversteering is making sure you’re holding the strings correctly. Don’t just grip them with your full fist like you’re holding a broom handle or something – you’ve got to ground yourself in some way to the boat otherwise you’re not going to know when you’re making conscious adjustments or when your hands (and in turn, the rudder) are reacting to the boat surging, falling off keel, etc.

This is how I grip the strings when I’m coxing. I didn’t do it here because it would have been impossible to take the picture but in addition to positioning my fingers like this, I also hook my pinkies over the gunnels. This forces me to make millimeter adjustments at a time and nothing more, which is great for when we’re doing straight-shot pieces or I’m racing. If I want/need to make a larger adjustment then I have to take my pinkies off the gunnels and since 99.9% of my steering these days is auto-pilot, that conscious movement of moving my finger “wakes me up” to the fact that I’m steering and forces me to evaluate why I’m doing it.

(During a regular practice I don’t hook my pinkies unless we’re doing pieces, mainly because I have small hands and it’s uncomfortable stretching my finger like that for an hour and a half. If you’re working on limiting how much you hit the rudder though you should spend more time with your pinkies hooked than unhooked.)

That aside, it’s time to think about how steering is integrated into your race plan. The most trouble you’re going to have with steering during a race is going to come in the first 3-5 strokes and this is usually a result of sloppy bladework by the rowers. If they’re trying to muscle the boat off the line instead of taking clean, crisp strokes then the boat is going to be offset and your point will get thrown off.

If conditions are poor (wind, chop, etc.) then this will only exacerbate the amount of steering you’ve gotta do. The only way to try to avoid having this happen is to practice your starts and make sure those first few strokes are clean and together before you add the power in the fourth and fifth stroke. The calls you make here should emphasize this too.

We have a five-stroke start and last year our varsity coxswain would call it as “pry, complete, complete, accelerate, go“, where “pry” = light on the seats, pick the boat up out of the water, “complete” = hold the finishes, complete the strokes (aka don’t get so amped that you’re just throwing water around), “accelerate” = start adding power, and “go” = full commitment with the legs, time to haul on it. The more time you spending getting those first five strokes down (or however long your start is), the easier it’ll be on race day to get off the line with minimal touches on the rudder.

Don’t be afraid to tell the rowers too that the cleaner the start the less you’ll have to steer off the line. I’ve said this numerous times but I have no problem telling my crew that if they want me to not steer during a race then I expect them to take good, clean strokes so I don’t have to steer. I’ll take full responsibility for the other 195ish strokes but they’ve gotta work with me on the first five. I know I can hold a straight point without thinking about it so the less distracted I am by having to think about where I’m going, the more I can focus on executing the race plan.

The last thing to think about is the buoys, assuming the course you’re on has them. I’ve touched on how to get a point on buoyed courses before but ultimately it’s up to you to figure out what strategy works best for you. Some coxswains rely on their peripheral vision to maintain an even spacing between the shell and the buoys on either side of them, others focus on where the buoys converge on the horizon (aka their stroke’s head) and just aim straight towards that.

There is no right or wrong strategy so utilize the time you have to practice on the course (if you have any) to see which one is easier for you. The first time I steered a buoyed course my coach told me to just go out and steer like I would if there weren’t buoys there and this allowed me to do whatever came naturally when it came to holding a point rather than explicitly focusing on where the buoys converged or where they were on either side of me in relation to the shell.

Not having buoys, while annoying, isn’t the end of the world. Like I said at the beginning, the only differences in my steering on race day is that I’m more aware of and subtle about my adjustments. That’s basically the “trick” for steering on an un-buoyed course. Grip the strings like I showed earlier, pick a point off the starting line (or aim at the markers at the end of the course if there are any – i.e. on the Charles there are 8ft tall lime green markers strapped to the trees on the Boston side across from the BU boathouse), and only make millimeter adjustments as necessary or as dictated by the weather conditions/bladework.

Image via // @rowingcelebration

Coxing Q&A

Question of the Day

By readyallrow July 31, 2014

I’m kind of confused looking over the USRowing Rules. Can you please give a summary of what I should know? Thank you, I really appreciate it. PS Your blog is an amazing resource I wish I found out about earlier than I did. Thanks for all you do.

Anything specific or is it just all the legalese that’s not making sense? To be honest, in twelve years I’ve never once actually read the rule book in its entirety. My coaches gave us specific things to review (mostly the rules of racing) but pretty much everything you need to know is clearly stated at the coaches and coxswains meetings. Try to stay up to date with the rule changes though – they’re always one of the first PDFs posted on this page on USRowing’s site.

Follow up: The protesting “process” and when to do it is kind of confusing. Thank you!

Check out the post linked below (scroll to the very bottom of the post).

The only major difference between the rule book and what I wrote is that in the rule book it says it’s $50 to file a protest. I think that might differ at regular regattas (aka not the big ones like regionals, nationals, etc.) because I’ve seen it range from costing nothing to up to $30, so just pay attention to what they say at the meeting (or ask if they don’t mention it).

College Coxing Racing

It’s OK to not be in first place…

By readyallrow June 3, 2013

…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

College Coxing High School Novice Racing Rowing

Racing skills: 10 regatta tips for coxswains

By readyallrow March 29, 2013

With the spring season kicking off this weekend, here are my top ten tips for coxswains to ensure you’re prepared for every regatta.

Take responsibility for your cox box

These things are expensive – don’t let them out of your sight. Make sure they are clearly and visibly labelled with your name and/or your team name. Bring the charger home with you and fully charge it the night before your race. Also double check that you’ve got a working mic before you leave the boathouse.

Bring weight if you need it

Some regattas require coxswains to provide their own weight if they’re below the minimum. Check with your coach and see if the regattas you’re going to require this.

Have your recorder, notebook, and a pen

Make sure the batteries are charged and bring extras just in case. Have your notebook and a pen or two on hand so that you can throw together a quick recap of your race after you get off the water.

Wear the right clothes

The “right” clothes all depend on the conditions, but make sure that you are at least wearing clothes that display your school or team logo/colors. Don’t wear something that would make it impossible to identify you as a member of your team. Check the weather the night before and pack appropriately. Unless the weather is cloudless, no wind, and 85 degrees, you’ll probably get a little chilly on the water. Rainboots or Bean boots are another good thing to have on hand, particularly if it’s cold, raining, or has rained recently, that way you can keep your feet dry while slopping through a muddy race site.

Related: What to wear

Have several wrenches

One is necessary, multiple is preferred. Inevitably someone in your boat is going to say “I don’t have a wrench”, which only slows down the rigging process. Have extras on hand so you can share them with the rowers. Make sure they’re marked with your name though otherwise you might not get them back.

Review the course map before you race

The week of, or at the very least the day before, find a map of the race site and go over it. Look at the race course and see what identifiable landmarks you can point out, as well as where the meter marks are. Use this to help you form your race plan. Find out where your trailer is going to be in relation to where the docks are so you can determine the best way to get down there. Also locate where the coaches and coxswains meeting will be held.

Drink plenty of water and have a few cough drops on hand, just in case

I’m not a huge fan of cough drops but if it’s really cold or the air is dry then inevitably my throat will get kinda sore. I always try to make sure I drink a lot on race day but if I don’t have any water a cough drop is a good alternative (just not while you’re coxing – you’ll choke).

Related: How to protect your voice

Know when and where the coaches + coxswains meeting will be held

These aren’t optional. It doesn’t matter if you’ve been to the same regatta three years in a row and you know everything they say at the meeting forwards and backwards, you should still go. This year could be the year they’ve made a change with the traffic pattern and unless you’re there, you’re not going to know about it. There’s nothing more important that you need to be doing at the ungodly hours that coxswain meetings are held so you might as well go.

Show the novice coxswains around

Once you’ve been to the coxswains meeting, the boats are rigged, etc. take the novice coxswains on a quick tour and show them where all the important stuff is. Answer their questions, point out stuff about the race course, etc.

Keep track of your rowers

When you get on the bus, make them countdown from bow to stern. Tell them well ahead of time what time you’re meeting before your race, at the bus, for team meetings, etc. Have everyone’s phone numbers on hand so you can get a hold of them if someone is missing. If they want to go off during the down time, at least try to get an idea of where they’re going so you know where to look if you need to go find someone.

Image via // @avironfrance

Coxing Novice Q&A Racing

Question of the Day

By readyallrow March 15, 2013

Can you explain the hand raising process at the start? Like you raise hand while getting point and keep it up till you’re done? If you’re on the line, how do you fix your point so you don’t cross the line and have to back? I heard of scull/row…(???) There’s no stake boats, just a regular start. What’s the stake’s purpose?

Raising your hand indicates that you aren’t ready to go yet and are still getting your point. If your hand is down, the officials assume you’re all set so best practice is to have your hand and your bowman’s hand up for the duration of the time that you’re getting your point (which you should do as quickly as possible).

The rules have changed slightly (at official USRowing events, maybe not at smaller regattas) where they won’t recognize hands during the starting countdown, only before. Whereas before you could still have your hand up and be getting your point when the officials were counting down or polling the crews, now you have to be done before they start that. So, back to your question, yes … hand up while getting your point, don’t put it down until you’re done but keep in mind it won’t be recognized once the countdown or polling starts.

The officials/coaches who are lining you up will start the crews maybe a boat length away from the start line to account for the current, wind, etc. as you get your points. Sometimes you’ll naturally drift across and they’ll have to bring the other boats up but they’ll rarely have you back it down during a floating start. (If they do have you do that, they’re just making it harder for everyone.) It messes up your point too much and then you’ve got to re-align yourself and it just takes too much time. Floating start races tend to end up being slightly shorter than 1500m (or 2000m) simply because there’s no way to ensure you aren’t moving with the wind and/or current.

Sculling it around is when you have 2 take bow’s oar or 3 take 2’s oar and have them take shorter strokes to straighten out the boat. It’s very simple to do but I wouldn’t break it out for the first time at the starting line if you can avoid it. That’s not the best place to try to explain how to do something new to your boat, particularly if you’re coxing novices or less experienced crews.

The reason you scull it around is because the strokes are short and choppy and the boat moves a very small amount to the side with each stroke, whereas if you used bow or 2 to get your point like you do in most regular situations, not only would it pull you forward but you run the risk of overshooting your point and then having to spend more timing correcting it.

The purpose of the stake boat is to make sure everyone is starting perfectly aligned. You don’t have to worry about the wind and/or current pulling you forward because you’re locked on to a fixed object (that being a small overhang off of a larger dock or platform that has someone laying on it to hold your stern).

Related: Racing skills: Pre-race prep

With floating starts, it’s never exact – no one is ever perfectly aligned and the race is hardly ever the distance it’s supposed to be. It’s a longer process overall because you’ve got to keep moving people forward, adjusting points, etc. whereas with stake boats, the official just has to say “Lane 3, out one foot. Lane 4, back 6 inches, Lane 5, out three inches.” and boom, it’s done and you’re aligned.

Coxing Novice Racing

Race skills: Pre-race prep

By readyallrow February 22, 2013

We’re getting closer to the start of the spring racing season, which means I’m getting a lot of questions on racing starts – what they are, how to do them, what it’s like at the starting line, etc. The simple explanation is that it’s tense … super tense. It’s also exciting, nerve wracking, intense, incredible, and terrifying all in one. The bigger the regatta, the better the feeling. The trick (and honestly, a sign of total badass-ness) is the ability to reel in the emotions and stay completely pokerfaced while you’re getting staged.

I always thought of it like a slingshot. As we’re being backing into the stake boats and I’m getting my point, it’s being pulled back farther and farther until the official finally says “GO” and that’s when the slingshot releases and all the pent-up energy goes into coxing the race. For me, there are few places I enjoy being more than the starting line of a sprint race.

Getting to the line

The hardest part of the start isn’t even part of the start. Getting there is the hardest part, for a number of reasons. It is imperative that you know what time your race is set to begin. At most major regattas, you have to be locked onto the stake boats no less than 2 minutes before the start of your race. If you’re not there, they will not wait for you. Ideally you would know the race schedule before you even leave to go to the regatta but worst case scenario is you find out the morning of at the coxswain meeting. Commit your race time to memory and then determine how much time you’ll need to get everyone together, get the boat down to the dock, and get up to the starting line.

Our band director in high school used to say “to be early is to be on time and to be on time is to be late” all the time and it’s something I carried over to rowing as well. When in doubt, always be early. I used to tell my crews that we would have hands on the boat 35-45 minutes before the start of our race and preferably we’d meet an hour before our race, spend fifteen minutes stretching and having a quick meeting with our coach before getting hands on and making our way down to the dock. You never know if the dock is going to be backed up, so getting down there with a little bit of time to spare is always a plus.

Once we’d get out, we’d do our warm-up and get up to the line as quickly as possible without rushing through anything. It’s important to still get a good warmup in and go through everything you want to do while still moving at a good pace. It doesn’t need to be frantic but your job is to keep things moving.

Staging

Depending on the regatta, staging will either involve stake boats or they won’t. Smaller regattas typically don’t use stake boats and instead do what is called a “floating start”. Floating starts mean that all the crews gather about 200m or so above the starting line and then paddle down together. As I paddle down, I like to go by 4s unless I’m told to go by 6s or all eight. Usually I’ll end up doing what everyone else is doing but if I’m the front boat I’ll row down by 4s. Whatever pairing you choose to row by, don’t switch in the middle (i.e. don’t go from stern four to middle four to bow four).

When you get to about 100m before the starting line, the starting marshal will typically have you go down to 4s (if you’re currently at 6s or all eight) or bow pair to row it up closer to the line. They’ll be off to the side so they can see where everyone’s bows are. It’s important that you and your crew (especially your crew) are quiet so you can hear what they’re saying. Sometimes they’ll talk directly to you, other times they’ll talk to whatever pair you have rowing. You don’t need to repeat their instructions to your crew and personally, I think it’s best if you don’t. Tell them before you launch to listen to the instructions of the marshal and immediately respond to what they say.

All the crews will row up to about 20ish meters before the start before they’ll have you weigh enough and hold water. At this point, everyone should sit at the ready position with their blades buried, holding water, while the marshal finishes lining up the crews. As he lines them up, you’ll hear him say “Dartmouth, tap it one stroke. Harvard, hold water. Princeton, two strokes.” When your crews take these strokes, they should be LIGHT. I am known to make the biggest “WTF” face when I see a crew take a full slide, full pressure stroke (or two) when they’re being lined up. It throws everything off, really pisses off the marshals, and really pisses off the other coxswains. Strokes shouldn’t be more than 1/2 pressure at most. Make sure your crew is aware of that, especially if you’re coxing a men’s boat (they tend to use more pressure than is necessary).

When the marshal sees that the boats are lined up evenly, he’ll call the start. If you’re doing a floating start, it’s pretty likely that you’re not on a buoyed course so make sure that as you’ve rowed down you’ve spaced an equal distance away from the crews on either side of you to avoid a collision or clashing of oars right off the line.

Stake boats

The other staging scenario is when you’re using stake boats. It takes a little effort and skill to get into them quickly and correctly but compared to the potential hassles of a floating start, they’re worth the extra time.

Stake boats, if you’re unaware of what they are, are anchored docks or boats that run perpendicular to the crews. A stake boat holder lies on their stomach and holds on to the stern of your boat and is responsible for moving it in or out to ensure the crews are aligned. Some examples of various stake boats can be seen here, here, and here. The ones from the Olympics this year are similar to the most common ones I’ve backed into. A long diving board-like platform extends from the main dock and that is where the stake boat holder lies.

Getting into stake boats is admittedly not easy for novices. It’s best to practice it with your coach before you get to the regatta (you can do this by either backing into the launch or into the dock) but not all coaches will think of this as something to practice with their coxswains so I’d suggest proposing the idea to them yourself.

Similar to how crews stage for a floating start, boats will row up behind or beside the starting platform and wait to be called in. Typically they’ll call you in in the order of your lanes, so pay attention to the crews you’re near and be prepared to move out of their way if necessary. As they call you in, you’ll row across the lanes (which are almost always marked with buoys), spin, and then back up to the starting platform. It sounds tricky but it’s really not that hard once you’ve done it a few times. The two biggest things to remember are:

Don’t be an unnecessary distance away from the platform when you spin. You want to be as close as you can get to it when you spin so that you don’t have to spend a ton of time (and energy) back rowing. 50m away from the platform is more than enough.

When you back, only back by stern pair or stern 4 if necessary. Don’t use your bow 4 to back because it’ll be harder for you to control the boat’s direction than if you were using the rowers in the stern. Backing should be done at 1/2 – 3/4 pressure at most. Make sure you’re looking behind you and lining yourself up with the platform too. I find it easiest to keep the rudder straight and use the rowers to guide you in vs. trying to steer yourself. When your stern is a couple of feet away from the platform, weigh enough and let it drift in. If you come in too fast the holder can’t grab you and you can end up breaking your stern by getting it caught under the platform. I’ve seen it happen before, so go in slowly. Better safe than sorry.

To line the crews up, the marshal will talk directly to the stake boat holders and will usually say “Lane 1, in 6 inches. Lane 4, out one foot. Lane 5, in 2 inches.” As soon as my crew gets locked on I like to have them sit ready, blades flat on the water until we’re finished getting lined up. When they’re done aligning us that’s when I’ll have them square up.

Below I’ve posted some videos that do a great job of demonstrating how to get into the starting blocks. The first video is by far the best one I’ve been able to find in terms of explaining how it’s done. The second one also does a good job of showing the do’s and don’ts. (Shout out to my high school team from senior year at 1:01.) The third video let’s you see the boats back in the last few strokes and hear the announcer telling the holder how much to move each crew and the fourth video is a stake holder’s view of the start.