Tag: rowing

Q&A Rowing Technique

Question of the Day

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Can you explain the term “rowing it in”?

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

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

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

“In” vs. “On” vs. “Over”

Coxing Rowing

“In” vs. “On” vs. “Over”

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Even though I know I’ve mentioned this in passing, I’m not sure if I’ve ever actually explained the concept of “in” vs. “on” vs. “over”. It’s an important one to know and understand because executing one over the other can have an impact on what you’re crew is doing (and not always positively either).

IN

This is probably one of the top three most common calls we use. “In two” is used to tell the rowers when to do pretty much everything from add in to power 10 to weigh enough.

Related: All about power tens

When you say “in two”, what you’re really saying is “two strokes from now, do whatever it is I’m telling you to do“.

In the context of coxing, the stroke begins at the catch (whereas in terms of technique it begins on the recovery) so that’s where you want to call the two strokes that signal when the rowers should do whatever you’re telling them to do, that way everyone does it at the same time. For example, if I’m coxing a crew and I want to add a pair in, here’s what would happen:

“OK let’s add bow pair in in two…” I would start this call when they’re at the catch and finish it just as the hands start to come away (aka over the full length of the drive) or when they’ve just about got their hands fully extended. I’m not rushing the words out but I’m not saying them slow as molasses either.

“That’s one…” ‘That’s’ is said just as they start to square the blades up over the last three inches of the recovery and ‘one’, obviously, is said right at the catch.

“And two, on this one…” ‘And two…’ is said during the same part of the stroke as ‘That’s one’ and ‘on this one’ is said over the last 3/4 of the drive. As I’m saying ‘on this one’, that’s when bow pair should be preparing to come in. Prior to all this when I make the initial call, they should sit back at the finish so that as I finish saying ‘and two’ they can start coming up the slide with everyone else in preparation for the next stroke.

This next part is where people get tripped up. When I say “in two” I’ll count out two full strokes and then when I would say “three” if I were still counting, that is where bow pair’s blades enter the water. Occasionally I’ll see rowers try to come in right as the coxswain says two and it ends up throwing everyone off. Wait two full strokes THEN come in.

The main purpose of “in two” is to act as a preparation call – you’re telling the rowers they’ve got two full strokes to get ready to do something before they actually have to do it and then right on that third stroke, that’s when the magic happens.

ON

This is the simplest one. “On” is typically called as “on this one”, meaning the catch immediately following this call.

It’s typically used for one of two reasons – you’re with an experienced enough crew that the prep time that comes with “in two” isn’t necessary or you’re in a situation where you don’t have time to spare and whatever needs to happen needs to happen right now because “in two” would be two additional strokes too many.

When I make this call I usually say something like “let’s go on this one“, where ‘let’s go’ is said as the handle is coming into the finish, ‘on this one’ is said on the recovery, and the “this one” I’m referring to is the catch immediately after that recovery.

What you’re doing is eliminating the two strokes of prep time that “in two” gives you, although you’re not eliminating it completely. The latter half of the recovery coming into the catch serves as the prep time in this case, which is why it’s important that you don’t rush out your instructions as “getreadytogoonthisone” because all you’re doing is catching everyone off guard and ensuring that you’re only gonna get 7 or so good strokes out of the 10 you just called for.

The only time I’d say this call wouldn’t be advised is when you’re trying to go up/down on the rate by more than 2-3 beats. You can easily get that in one stroke but if you’re trying to go from your start to a settle or your base pace to a sprint the rowers, particularly the stroke, is gonna need more time than that. During a race if you see a crew walking right through you, “in two” isn’t an appropriate call because that’s two strokes you’re giving up where you could otherwise be trying to counter their move. Same goes for pretty much anything that happens within the last 250m of the race – it’s all gotta happen on this one.

OVER

This is is the Gretchen Wieners of coxswain calls – totally misunderstood, undervalued and always trying to make something happen that is never gonna happen (unless executed properly, of course). The thing with this call is that one of two things usually happens: coxswains don’t know it’s an option so they don’t use it at all or they call for it but treat it the same way they do “in two”.

“Over” is what I like to call a progressive call – when you call for it, what you’re saying is “There should be small incremental adjustments happening on each stroke of the X number of strokes I called for. When all the strokes are completed we should have achieved whatever the initial call was asking for.”

Another way to say that is that you want to see something happen over the course of a couple strokes instead of on one specific stroke. If that still doesn’t make sense, look at it in terms of wave summation (not the actual physiology behind it, just the picture) – with each stimulus there’s a gradually greater response. That is what you’re looking for when you call for something to happen “over” a certain number of strokes.

When you use this one, you’re using it in conjunction with “on”, not “in”. Calling for something to happen over X strokes in two is wrong. I use this call primarily to bring the rate up or down and for miscellaneous technique things. If we’re rowing at a 28 and I want to take the rate to a 34, this is how it’d sound:

“OK we’re at a 28, let’s go to a 34 over three … on this one…” This call usually takes me about a stroke and a half to say if I say it exactly like that, which I normally do. I’ll say ‘OK we’re at a 28′ on the drive and ‘let’s go to a 34 over three’ on the recovery of the first stroke, followed by ‘on’ throughout the drive (I’ll draw it out to sound like “onnnn“) and ‘this one’ as the hands come around the turn at the finish.

“That’s one…” ‘That’s’ is said on the last three inches or so of the recovery (about the time when they start to square up) and ‘one’ is said right as they catch. When you’re bringing the rate up it happens on the drive, not the recovery so you should feel a difference on this first catch and drive. The next catch and drive you should feel a little more oomph and then a little more on strokes 2 and 3.

If you’re starting at a 28 and you’re shooting for a 34, ideally the rate would come up like this: [stroke 1] 29, [stroke 2] 31.5, [stroke 3] 34. Give or take half a beat or so that’s about where you wanna be when you’re bringing the rate up six SPM. In order to get the rate where you want it to be, you’ve got to communicate with your stroke seat and tell them the rates so they know how much more to bring it up in the X number of strokes they have left. Since I’m calling the stroke number at the catch, I’ll call the stroke rate at the finish so it sounds like “That’s one 29, two 31.5, and three 34, that’s it…”.

All of the above would also apply to bringing the rate down. During a race, if I see that the rate has jumped a couple beats then I’ll call for them to “lengthen it out over two on this one” while making leg calls on the drive and relaxation calls on the recovery.

The reason I get so specific is because “bring it down” says and does nothing. The biggest problem that arises from that call is some people will do it, some won’t, and whoever does do it won’t do it at the same time. By saying “over two” that tells them they’ve got two strokes to adjust the rate and “on this one” tells them when I want everyone to start making the adjustment. It’s also important to say the stroke rates here too so the stroke knows where he’s at and where you want him to be.

With technique, I’m usually calling for something related to posture. In particular, if I notice the rowers are starting to get tired, the strokes are a little sloppy, the boat feels heavy, etc. then I’ll say “OK over the next three let’s sit up on the seats and sharpen the catches … ready, now.” Following that I’ll make any relevant calls (“light on the seats”, “pop make it light“, etc.) and then after the three strokes are done I’ll say something like “yea, that’s it” to let them know that I feel the changes they made and to maintain that going forward.

The problem with “over”, as I mentioned in the beginning, is when coxswains call for it and then treat it like an “in two” call. This typically has to do with the rowers not understanding the difference in terminology, which is why it’s important that you explain to them what your calls mean. The most common thing I see is coxswains calling for the rate to come up over three or five and nothing changing until stroke two or four. Remember, it’s incremental. Each stroke should be a little bit more than the other. What the “more” is depends on what you’re asking for.

Now that that’s all been explained, I recommend finding a video that shows a straight on view of the boat so you can see everyone’s catches and practice making these calls. This one would be a great one to use – just mute the audio so you’re just focused on the blades.

Another thing you can do is get on an erg and go through all these motions yourself at varying speeds so you can get used to calling them at different rates. Practicing during the winter if you’re calling a practice is also a good time to work on this. Even if you’re not calling something, you can still watch the rowers and go through the calls yourself in your head.

Don’t get frustrated if you end up confusing yourself a few times either – I definitely did. I think it’s good to actually sit down and think about this stuff though so that you’re actually aware of how you’re calling it and when your making each individual call. I know it might seem silly and/or pointless but it is worthwhile in the long run because it helps you develop consistency in the timing of your calls (which translates to better timing and efficiency within the boat) and comes in handy when you have to explain to novices how to do this. If you know every. single. detail. and actually understand why you do things the way you do them, not only will you be able to explain it better but you’ll also set a good example for the other coxswains.

Image via // @stephenjones_

Q&A Rowing

Question of the Day

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

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

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

Racing Video of the Week

Video of the Week: Jerry Seinfeld on “the silver medal”

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I was going through my YouTube likes the other day and came across this standup bit of Jerry Seinfeld’s where he talks about winning – “winning” – the silver medal. It might not be the best idea to post this right after the season has ended but it’s hilarious and the laughing that I guarantee you’ll do will definitely make you feel better about being “first out of all the losers”.

College Coxing Q&A Rowing

Question of the Day

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I’m a junior in high school and I am starting to look at colleges. I am 5’3 and around 125 pounds. I currently row and would like to continue into college. Is it more realistic for me to try to row lightweight or maybe cox for a men’s team? Thanks!

This is one of the rare cases where one option isn’t necessarily more realistic than the other. They’re both equal in that respect but my initial thought is to say look into coxing because I think you’d have more opportunities (and options) if you pursued that over rowing (and you’re the perfect size for it). I spent some time though going through the roster lists of a couple of the lightweight programs across the country and just based on that small sample size, you could probably row lightweight if you wanted since your height matches (or in some cases, is taller than…) some of the rowers already on the team.

If the schools you’re interested in have a lightweight program or have at least fielded a lightweight 8+ in the last 2-3 years (with decent results), contact the coach. Same goes for men’s programs as well. Like I said, I think you’ll have more options if you choose to cox for a men’s team but you could easily do both depending on what the schools you’re looking at offer.

Q&A Rowing Training & Nutrition

Question of the Day

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How do you deal with being burned out when you can’t take a break? We only have one race left but it’s not for another couple of weeks and I can’t bail on my boat because 1. WTF bailing on your coaches/teammates isn’t an option and 2. we don’t have any suitable alternates. I love rowing I’ve just been going nonstop for so many months that I physically and mentally need a hiatus. Is it just a “suck it up” type deal or a mental block that I can bypass?

I think it’s both – if you know you can’t take time off and there’s no one suitable to replace you then your only option is pretty much to just grit your teeth and HTFU. I think it’s also something you can … maybe not bypass completely but something you can at least work towards coping with, if that makes sense.

From my experience, the best thing you can do is tell your teammates. There’s four or eight other people in the boat with you and they all, theoretically, have your back. If you’re getting to the point of being over it to the max, tell them that you need some encouragement or a rousing pep talk or something to help you get your head back in the game. A couple of us did that my junior year and it resulted in all of us going on an impromptu trip to get slushies after practice and have a major bitch fest about pretty much everything we all had going on. (If I remember correctly, we were there when they closed which meant we sat there for probably close to five hours.) I think unbeknownst to each other, to varying extents we were all burned out on crew, school, college stuff, the SATs/ACTs, etc. and the thing we all really needed (in addition to getting away from the boathouse for a bit) was to know that we weren’t the only ones feeling like that. For the next two weeks or so, even though we were all scattered amongst the 1V, 2V, and lightweight 8+, we were able to give each other quick words of encouragement on the dock, in between pieces, etc. Not only did it help us stay focused but it also helped push us through that mental block, even if it was only for 2-3 hours a day for the last couple weeks of the season.

This was one of the moments where I really appreciated my teammates because I remember a couple of them saying things that I absolutely needed to hear … I just didn’t know it until they said it. We all admitted to not wanting to say anything to anyone because we didn’t want to be that person that seems like they’re not fully invested in the boat but it ended up being really good that we did. Like I said, your teammates should have your back and they should be supportive of you through good times and bad so hopefully if you bring this up with them they can give you some words of advice that’ll help you get through the next couple of weeks before your race.

If all of that isn’t an option, do your absolute BEST to only think about crew when you’re at crew. When you’re at home, at school, eating lunch, on the drive to the boathouse, walking through Target, etc. keep your thoughts on anything but rowing. Let your friends and family know that too and ask them to respect the fact that you’re feeling kinda burned out and only want to talk about/deal with crew between the hours of 3-5pm when you’re at practice. When you’re there, then like I said early, grit your teeth and suck it up for those couple of hours and then as soon as leave turn the crew part of your brain OFF.

Coxing Novice Q&A Rowing Technique

Question of the Day

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I’m brand spanking new at coxing. I’m an indoor rower instructor, where correcting form and giving cues is based on having a good view of body position. As a cox, I don’t have the body cues of my crew to help me (beyond my stern seat.) I know paddle height and timing should be telling me what I need, but I’m having a hard time interpreting what I’m seeing into form correction. Any thoughts you could share are appreciated!

Kayakers use paddles, rowers use oars. “Stern seat” is called “stroke”.

As a coxswain, in general you should be less concerned with correcting the bodies and more focused on the things you can see like bladework, timing, puddles, etc. Anything specific regarding the bodies will most likely be individual in nature and come straight from the coach since they have an easier time seeing those kinds of things. You should pay attention to what they’re saying to the rowers or crew as a whole so you can make “reminder” calls as necessary but the majority of your “body calls” are going to come from things you’ve heard the coach say, observations you’ve made on land, etc. and less so from direct observations while you’re coxing.

Just to clarify, I consider “body calls” to be about 99% related to posture and nothing else. Things such as handle heights, for example, are straight technique calls for me because I don’t need to see the body to know what the hands are doing since I can see the oars right in front of me. If something relating to posture is resulting in poor handle heights then I’d normally rely on the coach to make that call before I start postulating from several seats away what the exact issue is.

Now that I’ve been coxing for awhile I can typically make those calls on my own and be right or at least in the ballpark the majority of the time but when I was a novice I’d wait for my coach to make the call and then eventually incorporate the things he said into my own calls during practice, pieces, races, etc. once I had a solid understanding of the issue. Usually he’d go over with me after practice what he saw, why he said what he said, why this is the correction he had them make, etc. and then give me a day or so to process everything before asking me (spur of the moment) to explain it all back to him.

Most of the time it’d be on the water and he’d say “Kayleigh, if you were me, what would you say to Abby in order to correct the problem she’s having with missing water at the catch?” or something along those lines. When I could explain it back to him on the spot, in detail, and in front of my teammates proficiently enough, that is when he’d allow me to start making calls and corrections relating to that issue on my own. This demonstrated to him (and to an extent, my teammates) that I wasn’t just wildly guessing at what might be causing the problem, rather I was making a fairly certain educated guess on what was happening based on what I knew about the stroke, what I knew the rower’s tendencies were, and what the typical corrections were for that or similar issues. When making any kind of calls for the body, having the memory of an elephant helps a ton.

Poor timing is less about body position and more about just being too slow or too fast on the recovery. It can be because of other things but those are the more common reasons. Oar height is related to handle heights. If the blade is up in the air (known as “skying”) then the hands are too close to the legs on the recovery and/or feet at the catch. If the blade is barely off or dragging on the water then the rower most likely didn’t tap his hands down at the finish, meaning the hands are too high. The collection point for the finish is around the belly button/bottom rib so pulling in to this point should give you a solid couple of inches to tap the blade out. When they come away on the recovery the blade should be about six inches off the water to allow for a direct catch with little to no missed water. (If you have more specific questions – i.e. you’re seeing this, what does it mean, how should it be corrected, etc. – feel free to email me.)

Have your coach take a camera out on the water with him and try to get some video of the crew rowing if you want to learn more about what the rowers bodies look like and the corrections they need to make. Also ask if you can ride in the launch one day if you’ve got another coxswain who can switch in for you. I would say though that if you’re just coxing recreationally or as part of a learn-to-row program and not as part of a competitive team, don’t over-think things and try to find a solution to every problem right off the bat or think that every technique error is strictly related to something going wrong with the bodies. (I wouldn’t recommend doing that even if you are coxing competitively…) Just go out, have fun, and steer the boat. Let your coach do the coaching and just listen to what he/she is saying until you become proficient enough to make the calls yourself.

I went out a couple times with some of the adult classes when I coached at CRI and there were few things more irritating than trying to coach a boat with this one rower who knew pretty much nothing about rowing but thought they knew everything because they’d just recently been certified as an indoor instructor. Whenever they’d get in the coxswain’s seat they’d try to make all these grand observations and corrections but all it did was confuse the other rowers, waste time, and piss the coaches off. Input and communication between the coach and coxswain is great and pretty crucial but when you’re just starting out, the best thing you can do is just listen and develop a better understanding for the stroke before trying to make corrections on your own. One of my coaches used to say “you coach the blades and I’ll coach the bodies” and that worked well for us because I coached what I could easily see and he did the same without either of us interfering with the other. We’d both listen to what the other was saying and factor that into the calls we were making but for the most part, I was responsible for coaching/correcting the bladework and he focused on coaching and correcting the body positions.

How to Manage Your Race Day Warmups

Coxing How To Racing Rowing

How to Manage Your Race Day Warmups

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The warmup that you do when heading to the starting line shouldn’t be that different from the regular routine you take your crew through during practice, rather it should just be a condensed version of what you typically do. I love long warmups but time restrictions and space constraints tend to make that pretty impossible, especially when you’re at a large regatta (like nationals, for example).

One of the things I learned early on is just because you’re launching 45 minutes before your scheduled race time does not mean that you’ll have enough time to go through your typical routine. I remember thinking before one of my first races as a freshman that I totally had time to do what I’d been doing at practice before eventually realizing that because we did so many arms, arms and body, and half-slide strokes, in addition to having to stop a couple times for the races coming down and crews stopped in front of us, that we hadn’t actually moved the boat that far up the course.

This meant that in order to get to the starting line on time and not miss our race, we had to haul ass for about 1000m, which probably took a bit of the edge off the rowers (for the sake of proving my point, let’s pretend it did) in addition to causing them to use more energy than they should have since we needed to row at a higher rate and pressure to get up there.

Here’s a couple things to remember about your warmup on race day:

Be mindful of the weather

This will definitely have an effect on what you can and can’t do. If it’s cold, raining, snowing, etc. you’ll want to make sure you’re keeping as many people moving as possible without letting them sit out for too long to avoid anyone getting too cold or stiff. This might mean rowing by all eight instead of sixes or cycling through the sixes every 10 strokes instead of every 20 before going to all eight. If you’re experiencing a crosswind or a strong headwind, rowing by anything less than sixes isn’t going to get you anywhere and will only end up slowing you down.

If it’s really hot out (particularly with minimal cloud cover), try to row up in the part of the warmup lane that is the most shaded. This will keep them out of the sun and in a slightly cooler area until it’s time to race. If there’s not a lot of shade, make sure you’re giving each pair a couple strokes out so they can get a drink or at least take a break since the sun can/will quickly deplete their energy and dehydrate them. You also don’t want to sit for too long in the staging area for those same reasons.

Keep the stroke rates reasonable

Something that I noticed about our lightweight 8+ today as I was watching their warmup was that it looked rushed. Not in terms of slide control but just in general – they were flying through each part of their warmup and it didn’t look like they were actually warming up. Instead it looked like they were just taking strokes to take strokes and that was it. When I take out a boat I very rarely let the stroke rate creep over 20spm at the beginning of practice, let alone on race day. The point is to get your muscles warmed up and get the crew in the swing of things, not to exert 1/4 of your energy reserves right off the bat. Unless you’re doing starts, keep the stroke rate around 18-20spm, 22spm at the highest if you must. And no, the excuse of “my stroke just can’t get it down that low” doesn’t fly because if you wanna be able to row fast, you’ve gotta be able to row slow. Figure it out.

Be aware of how much space you have

The warmup lanes are typically not that big. You might get lucky on some courses but the majority of the ones I’ve been on have about a lane and a half to two lanes worth of water for you to row in to get to the starting line. This usually isn’t that big of a deal because there’s always room to pass someone if you’re coming up on them but where it messes with your plans a bit is when you’re trying to get some starts in. If you’ve got a fair amount of open water between you and the crew in front of you then go for it, otherwise hold off until you’ve got at least two lengths of open to work with. Never do a start when you’re right beside someone or have little to no open water between the two of you.

If there’s a crew coming up behind you, ask their coxswain if they’d mind moving to [whichever side you want them to move to] once they pass you because you want to practice a start. I’ve done this plenty of times and have found that as long as you’re nice and communicate with them, you won’t have a problem. Unless you’re on one of those courses where the warmup area is huge, don’t try to do more than a start and five. You shouldn’t do more than that anyways because again, that’s energy and power you want to save for the race.

Be efficient

Don’t take more hard strokes or total strokes than you have to. Take as many strokes as you need to complete your warmup before going to all eight at a steady pace to get you the rest of the way to the staging area.

Pay attention to the time and manage it properly

Know how long your race warmup usually takes (this means run through it at practice a few times…), add in 3-5 minutes to account for having to stop for other crews, races that are coming down, quick water breaks, etc. and then subtract that time from the number of minutes you’re launching ahead of your race. This will give you an idea of how much time you have to play around with so that if you find you’re running ahead of or behind schedule, you can tweak things as necessary.

So, if you know your warmup usually takes around 11 minutes, you factor in about 4 minutes of “stoppage” time, plus the 5ish minutes that you’ll need for staging (getting lined up, locked on to the stake boats 2 minutes before the start, etc.), that adds up to around 20 minutes. If you launch on first call, which is usually 35- 40 minutes before your scheduled race time, that’ll leave you with about 15 minutes. Once your warmup is done, you can row by all eight the rest of the way to the starting line (let’s assume that takes 5-7 minutes) and then hang out up there with the other crews for the final few minutes before they call you up to the line for staging.

Make sure you have a watch (or your phone) with you so you can keep an eye on the time – do not be that coxswain that is asking their rowers, the officials, other coxswains, etc. what time it is or gets their crew to the start late. You look unprofessional and ultimately it’s disrespectful to the competition and officials. I don’t care if you’re a novice or a college varsity coxswain – get a watch. On the flip side, don’t be that crew that feels the need to be first to the starting area. You don’t get a prize for that and it more than likely means your rowers will spend more time sitting stationary than they should be, which can lead to them getting cold, tense, etc.

I usually start with a simple drill, like the pick drill by 6s on the square, and rotate through before picking it up all eight at steady state-ish pressure at 18-20spm-ish. My coaches liked to have us do quarter feather for awhile when we were rowing all eight but I only did that about half the time. (I’m not a fan.) Another thing I’ll do if we don’t have the time or room to do starts is I’ll do some quick builders while we’re rowing by all eight. Usually I’ll do one ten (with 3 to build) at roughly our starting SPM and another at base pace with about 10-15 strokes in between. I’ll also try to throw in 15 strokes at our sprinting pace, going “up 2 in 2” every 5 strokes. I’ll usually only do this after stopping for a quick break and asking the rowers how they feel and if they want to do this one. If we didn’t get much time to practice our sprint during the week we’ll do it, otherwise most of the time we’ll just pick it up all eight at a steady pace the rest of the way to the starting area.

One thing you have to remember is that you’ve got – GOT – to be flexible. Sometimes you’re not gonna have time to do part of your warmup and other times you’re going to have tons of time and/or space. Not having a lot of time doesn’t mean that you should rush, rush, rush through everything though because that accomplishes nothing – all it does is communicate a sense of frantic-ness that you don’t want the crew to be experiencing.

It’s your responsibility to keep them (and yourself, obviously) calm, cool, and relaxed. If you find yourself short on time for whatever reason, calmly communicate that to them as you’re coming out of the launching area and say “Alright guys, we’re not gonna have time to go through our usual routine so let’s go ahead and pick it up by all eight at an 18 on the quarter feather. This’ll be our warmup so let’s make sure we’re taking smooth strokes together and getting long at both ends to warmup the muscles.” It’s much smarter to eliminate things than to fly through them just for the sake of being able to say you did them.

This is where paying attention to the time is very important too. If you find yourself far enough up the course with a bit of time on your side now, go ahead and drop down to sixes for 10-15ish strokes each to give each pair a chance to make any necessary adjustments, grab a quick drink, etc. If you find yourself to still be behind schedule a bit, have the crew add just a bit of pressure to their strokes. I wouldn’t recommend having them row any more than 3/4 pressure max because, again, that’s energy they should/could be using during the race. (If you have to row all eight, full pressure to the starting line somebody somewhere screwed up big time.)

If you find yourself out there with tons of time, lengthen out your strokes a bit or throw in an extra 30 second break. If you normally row at an 18, row at 16 or row by 6s a little longer than you otherwise would. The goal here is to make sure you don’t go through your warmup at a normal pace and then find yourself sitting up at the starting line for 20 minutes instead of your usual 5-10. Resting for too long is just as bad as not resting for long enough because as I mentioned before, the rowers can get cold, stiff, dehydrated, fatigued, etc. depending on the conditions. I’m always jittery going to the starting line so getting there earlier than I needed to would only end up exacerbating my nerves and making me imagine every possible way that I could fail at getting into the stake boats (or something equally as dumb since backing into stake boats is pretty freakin’ easy after the first time or two).

To summarize, have a race day warmup plan that is a condensed version of your usual day-to-day warmup, be flexible and able to tweak things at a moments notice if/when necessary, and pay attention to the elements and know how to adjust if the conditions don’t allow you to follow your usual plan. Also, have a watch or timepiece of some kind so you don’t have to rely on your rowers or anyone else on the water to tell you what time it is.

Image via // @deutschlandachter

High School Q&A Teammates & Coaches

Question of the Day

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Hi OK on my team novices don’t go to regionals unless you’re in the fresh 8. So anyways for the rest of the year those who aren’t going have to row in pairs which is awesome but we have assigned pairs and the girl I’m with is bow and she is so horribly bossy and mean and she yells at me and blames me for everything that goes wrong. I’ve talked to the coach but she said we just need to work it out and I even took a starboard rigged boat just so I could be bow but she still acts like she’s the coxswain. How should I deal with this? I really like rowing pairs but she makes it so awful.

After you talked with your coach did you then try to talk to your pair partner off the water about all this? I would say that if you did and nothing changed (after say, three to five days) you should go back to your coach and say that you tried to talk/”work things out” but nothing came of it and is there any way that you could switch partners because the current setup isn’t working. Maybe it’s just me but it really irritates me when coaches say “work it out” and expect that to birth some magical solution that suddenly fixes whatever problems there are. Like, yes, I understand that people need to find solutions to their own problems and act like mature (young) adults but at the same time, you’re the coach. Being a mediator in situations like this is part of your responsibility. If someone says something isn’t working, I feel like the natural course of action would be to figure out why it’s not working (by talking to the people involved), make some observations, and make a call one way or the other. Telling teenagers to “work it out” and not getting any more involved than that sounds like a great way to escalate the drama. Like I said, maybe that’s just me that thinks that but whenever I hear a coach saying “work it out” it just sounds like they’re saying “I’m above dealing with this”.

The next time you go out for practice, let her be the bowman. I know that’s probably not the ideal solution for you but in terms of safety, if she’s going to talk over you when you’re in bow anyways, she might as well just be back there herself. As much as I’d love to fight (and win, obvs) every battle, sometimes you’ve gotta pick and choose which ones are worth are engaging in. This one’s not worth it because ultimately your safety is more important that whatever issue you two have with each other.

Talk to her before you go out and say that the last few practices haven’t been very productive for you because it feels like she’s being overly aggressive with … well, everything and that’s taking your focus away from actually rowing. If there’s a certain way that works best for you in terms of how constructive criticism, etc. is given, tell her that. For example, “If I’m doing something wrong or could make an adjustment, the best way to say that to me is to XYZ, rather than just yelling at me.” Maybe the two of you just need to spend some time figuring out the best way to communicate. Until you’ve tried that and found that that’s not the issue (or that the issue extends beyond that), don’t assume that simply talking it out won’t make a difference.

If you try that and find that nothing changes, like I said before, go back to your coach and see if she can pair you with someone else. Rowing in pairs is a great way to work on your technique because it really highlights and magnifies a lot of little things that would otherwise get covered up in the eight. You definitely want to make sure you’re taking full advantage of the time you have in them. If you feel like that’s not happening, you should make that clear to your coach and let her know that this really isn’t about you not wanting to row with your current partner because you don’t get along but rather because you want to be paired with someone who’s going to actually help you get something out of practice (and for whom you can do the same).