Tag: rowing

Novice Q&A Rowing

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Why would a coach put novices with varsity rowers in a boat for training? What benefits would that get the novices, and wouldn’t that be very frustrating for varsity rowers? I’m not one of those novices and I really wish I was but I don’t really know in what parts of my rowing it would help, if you know what I mean.

To an extent it’ll probably be a little annoying for the varsity boat but I think most coaches would expect them to be technically proficient and mature enough to deal with it. If they want the novices to succeed they’ve got to be willing to deal with the difference in boat feel for a practice and help the younger rowers get better.

There are a lot of benefits for the novices. Feeling what a consistent stroke rate feels like (number one, in my opinion), getting an idea for what each pressure level really feels like, getting a better sense of how to adjust the hands to fix the set, etc. are some examples. On a secondary level, I think it helps them psychologically. Being in a varsity boat, especially a good varsity boat full of good athletes and strong team leaders, I feel like that would motivate them to sit up a little taller, lift their chins a little higher, keep their cores a little tighter, and perform just a little bit better. I would make the argument that even if they didn’t make any technical improvements during the row, if they became more confident in themselves or motivated to improve, the outing was a success.

The only time this really ever backfires is when the inexperienced rowers use it as a crutch to lean on and then when they get back into their regular boat boat no one knows how to fix whatever issues there are because they’ve relied on the varsity rowers to sort it out. This isn’t super common though and when I’ve experienced it, it’s been with rowers who were never that committed in the first place.

How to Call a Pick Drill (and Reverse Pick Drill)

Coxing Drills How To Novice Rowing

How to Call a Pick Drill (and Reverse Pick Drill)

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Previously: Steer an eight/four

The pick drill

A pick drill is a fairly basic warmup (probably the most basic) that involves transitioning through each part of the stroke. It helps to isolate the recovery and the drive, as well as help the rowers with body preparation. The goal is to build one upon the other until you eventually get to full slide, where you can feel all four parts of the stroke flow together.

To start, have the rowers sit at the finish, blades squared and buried. The first part of the drill is “arms only” so if you’re doing the drill by 6s, you’d say “Stern 6, sitting ready at the finish, blades buried … arms only, ready row” and then have them row with arms only for however many strokes you choose. The standard number is 10 but with short, choppy strokes like this, sometimes I’ll extend it to 15 or 20 when there’s time. If you were doing 10 strokes, on stroke 8 you would make the call for the first transition, which is to arms and bodies. The reason it would be on stroke 8 is so that when you’ve completed “in two”, you’ll have rowed ten strokes. 8+2…get it? Don’t be that coxswain that says “10 strokes each” and then ends up doing 12 or 15 or 32. Believe it or not, rowers can count too and if they start to catch on that they’re doing more strokes than you’re telling them to do, that can lead to some not-positive feedback on your coxswain evaluations.

When I make the transition to arms and bodies, I usually say “alright, let’s add the bodies in two … that’s one … and two, on this one“, where “one” and “two” are called at the catch and “on this one” is called at the finish of “two”.

After arms and bodies comes half slide. Same call as before – “half slide in two … one, two, on this one“. Some coaches will have you do 1/4 slide after arms and bodies but more often than not this is skipped in favor of going straight to half slide.

Following half slide is full slide, which is the last part of the drill. When we go to full slide I remind the rowers to lengthen out and not shorten the slides up since the previous three parts of the drill involve either no slide or shortened slides. “In two, let’s lengthen out to full slide. That’s one … and two, on this one, stay nice and looong, catch send…” By drawing out the word “long” it almost forces the rowers to utilize the full length of their slides before they get to the catch. “Catch” is short and annunciated so that they don’t liken the long slides to a sluggish catch. Similarly to 1/4 slide, sometimes coaches will throw in 3/4 slide before going to full. Again, it’s up to you.

With the pick drill, it’s important that the rowers actually do each part of the stroke that you’re telling them to do. It’s broken down for a reason. I’m very hypersensitive to this because it is such a pet peeve of mine but there are few things in rowing that piss me off more than when I or another coxswain calls for “arms only” and you see the rowers rowing with arms and bodies. Drives. Me. INSANE. “Arms only” means “arms only”!! In the boat this is difficult to see from our vantage point but on the ergs it is definitely something we have the power to put a stop to. Don’t let the rowers cheat and use their shoulders either – on the first stroke of the drill to get the boat up and out of the water, fine, acceptable, but after that … arms … ONLY!!!

The reverse pick drill

A variation of the pick drill that your coach might have you do is called the “reverse pick drill”. This is a great drill for isolating each part of the drive and teaching rowers to not do one thing before the other (i.e. don’t bend the arms before the legs are down, etc.). Although it can take some time to explain, this is a great drill to do with novices due to their penchant for trying to open their backs while still on the drive and so on.

This drill, like the regular pick drill, is best done by 4s or 6s but you can do it by all eight if you want – just make sure the rowers keep it balanced otherwise it’s gonna be tough to execute. Starting with whatever group of rowers you choose, have them row with JUST the legs. Just the legs, contrary to what some rowers think means rowing with just. your. legs. No arms, no back, just. the. legs. This means that your upper body should still be reaching forward and your arms are still extended. The ONLY thing that happens between the catch and the first part of this drill is that your legs go down. The call to start this would be “Stern 6, sitting ready at the catch, blades squared and buried … starting with just the legs, ready row.” When I do this drill, for legs only I tend to do 10-15 strokes total.

Following legs only is legs and back. After the leg drive, you’ll open the back but keep the arms extended straight out – the arms are the final part of the stroke, which we haven’t gotten to yet. When you see it, this part of the drill tends to look very rigid due to the fact that the arms are still straight. When calling for the addition of the backs, say “in two, let’s add the backs, that’s one … and two, on this one, legs swing…”. Occasionally I like to say “swing” just to remind the rowers to pivot from the hips and open the backs up. After doing however many strokes without the backs, sometimes they’ll not lay back as much as they normally would; saying “swing” just puts the bug in their ear so they’ll do it from here out.

The final part of the reverse pick drill is to add in the arms and row normally. Up to the point, the arms have been extended straight out, so the call will go something like “in two, let’s add in the arms, we’ll go in one … and two, now accelerate it through … accelerate through, that’s it…”. Legs and legs + backs reiterates hanging off the handle and not breaking the arms early so once you do add the arms in you wanna make sure they’re accelerating the weight through the drive and all the way into the finish.

Below is a video that gives a good demonstration of the reverse pick drill and what it should look like.

 Image via // @mahe_ld

Coxing How To Q&A Rowing Technique

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One of my coaches was a coxswain and I got switched out the last third of practice to be in the launch with her. OMG BEST TIME EVER. Every time I had a question she’d answer it so well! More coxes should become coaches! One thing she was talking about was watching the wind patterns – like the dark patches in the water to let the crew know. I understand the concept, but I’m not really understanding why. Like, I tell them that a wind/wake is coming to prepare them?

The type of wind that you’re encountering will determine what you tell the rowers and how they should adjust their technique.

Headwind

Lay back just a little bit more than you normally would. If you look at a protractor and visualize that sitting straight up makes a 90 degree angle, your normal layback should be about 110 degrees (roughly – don’t overthink this). In a headwind, you want to layback just a little farther, to about 115-120 degrees. The reason why is because if you think about rowing into the wind, it’s going to slow you down regardless, but if your body is up high, it’s essentially acting like a brick wall and slowing the boat’s movement even more. When you layback a little more than usual, you’re allowing the wind to flow over you, which results in the boat not being slowed down as much.

Tailwind

The tailwind is going to push you along so you’ll be moving faster than you otherwise would, which can give the rowers the sense that their blades aren’t gripping the water like they should. Quick catches and maintaining connection will be important technical focuses here. The boat might be a little tougher to set up too so you can also make general reminders for that as well.

Crosswind

Crosswinds are the worst, in my opinion. Depending on how strong the wind is, it can actually push the boat into another lane or into the shore, regardless of how hard you steer. Crosswinds can also knock the boat offset so if I can see a gust coming on starboard I’ll say something like “gust on this next stroke, ports hands up…”, that way the “push” the boat will get from the wind will actually keep it even.

When I’m out I’ll watch the ripples on the water to see if a gust is coming or which direction the wind is blowing and then alert my crew and adjust my steering as necessary. If they’re going side-to-side or at an angle, it’s a cross wind, if they’re going in the same direction as us, it’s a tailwind, and if they’re coming towards me, it’s a headwind.

Drills Q&A Rowing

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Since my 8+ rushes so much and doesn’t row together, I thought that rowing with closed eyes might help them. I talked to my coach about it today (like you suggested!) and she said it would be best incorporated in the warm up or rowing back to the dock. How should I go about calling this for my rowers? Like I don’t want to freak them out or make them hate me. What if they cheat, open their eyes, and it won’t help them? I mean, I won’t be able to see if they do….

I like to do this as part of my cool-down as we row back to the boathouse. Sometimes I’ll do it in between pieces too to get the crew to focus on feeling the boat, particularly if the previous piece felt rushed.

They’re definitely not going to hate you and it won’t freak them out. As long as you explain what you want to do, they shouldn’t have any reason to worry. If you just randomly call out “OK everyone, close your eyes” then yea, they might wonder what you’re talking about but if you explain ahead of time why you want to do it, what the benefits are, etc. then they’ll be more open to it. I’ve been with experienced crews long enough that I just tell them we’re going to close our eyes and row for a bit and no one says anything about it.

When I first started doing it in high school, I told my crew either on land or during the warm-up that I wanted to try something new that might sound unconventional but I thought it’d help with the various things we’d been having trouble with. They all trusted that I knew what I was doing, so I didn’t encounter any resistance or anything. When I call for it now, I usually say something like “OK, so we’re gonna close our eyes and row back to the dock … everyone take a deep breath … and let’s close our eyes on this one. Keep the bodies loose, relax, and just feel the boat.” It all sounds very meditational but it really does help the boat flow better.

If they cheat and open their eyes, honestly, that’s their problem. You’re not there to be their babysitter (although that’s what it feels like sometimes). There are times when you have to just go with the flow and trust that your coach and/or coxswain is telling you to do this because there are benefits to it, even though up front you might not see what they are. I’ve encountered people like that they think “oh this is stupid, I’m not doing it.” I’ve been that person too. When I’ve had them in my boat and they make it known that they think whatever we’re doing is pointless, I just say to them “Look, everyone else is going along with it. If you want to be that person that doesn’t do it, fine, but know that you will be known by the rest of us as the person in the boat who only does what they want instead of what is best for the crew.” It definitely gets you a pissed off look in response but no one wants to be that person so eventually they’ll get on board. It’s not your job to go down the line and make sure everyone’s eyes are closed. If they trust you, they’ll go with it.

Q&A Rowing Technique

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I have this bad habit of shortening up my stroke and basically just not compressing enough. I never really notice when I start to do it, I feel as if I’m at full slide but my coach tells me that I’m getting short. How do I force myself to lengthen out when I hardly notice I’m doing it? I’ve also been told it might be flexibility, if so what on earth do I stretch to help that problem?

Row2k actually posted a hack yesterday that I think could help you out. They wrote this with the use of an erg in mind but I think you could definitely try doing this in the boat if you used a piece of tape or something on the tracks. Basically what you do is you take a bungee cord or a piece of tape and wrap it around the erg at the point where your body should be fully compressed when at the catch. Then when you row, you’ll know if you’re hitting that spot because the slide will either stop completely (if you’re using a bungee) or you’ll feel the slide hit a “speed bump” (if you use tape). Based on those feelings, you can train yourself to inherently recognize where your full compression should be.

Another trick you can do for when you’re in the boat is take a regular drinking straw and tape it to the side of the boat to mark where your catch should be. When you’re fully compressed and reaching out towards your rigger, you should be able to touch the straw with your finger tips. If you can’t, you’re not going far enough up the slide. If you’re hands go past it, you’re going too far (or didn’t tape it to the right spot).

Like you said, your flexibility could be an issue as well. Where it’s lacking is most likely in your low back down through your hamstrings, so those, in addition to your IT band (which runs along the side of your upper leg), would be the muscles you’d want to focus on. Guys typically have tighter hamstrings than girls, so if you’re a guy, that could be contributing to the problem (girls can have tight hamstrings too, but it’s more common in guys).

Coxing Q&A Rowing Technique

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Hi! Read your last post about rushing rowers. How can you tell which rowers are rushing? My view usually stops at 7 seat. Are you supposed to watch the oars to see if catches match? Thanks!

That’s about where my (and most coxswains) view stops too unless I tilt my head to look out of the boat. I normally do a few things to see if I can pinpoint who it is.

Tendencies

Does someone in the boat ALWAYS rush? Is your coach constantly telling one person to control their slides? This is one of the pieces of knowledge I rely on the most, especially when I’m in a bowloader.

Talk with your stroke

In my experience, the stronger the rush, the closer to the stroke it’s happening. In talking to my stroke and having them tell me how rushed it is, I can usually narrow it down to a specific pair. If it’s really strong and they’re getting thrown up the slide, I look to 5 and 6 to see if they’re where the rush starts. If it’s not too strong I’ll look closer towards bow.

Lean out

I don’t recommend this unless you can do so without rocking the boat too much. Sometimes leaning your head out of the boat can help you see the bodies a little better, which can help you see who’s rushing up the slide.

Talk to your coach

If I can’t tell where it’s coming from (which, to be honest, for most of us is the majority of the time) I’ll yell out to my coach and ask him if he can see from the launch where the rush is coming from. Since he has a perfect side view, I rely on his input a lot.

Watching the oars doesn’t really help that much when it comes to rush because someone could fly up their slide and then sit at the catch until everyone else gets there then drop their oars in at the same time as them. Their catch timing in that case would be near perfect but their slide control would be horrific. “Timing” as a call gets generalized too much I think. I try and only talk about timing when I’m talking about the blades, but if I do make a call about timing with the slides I’ll specify “let’s watch the timing on the recovery” or “let’s get the timing on the slides together”. Otherwise I’ll stick to calls about ratio, slide control, etc.

Coxing Q&A Rowing Technique

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Today our novice boat was SO rushed! No matter what the stroke, they’d hit it for like 3 secs before flying 3 or more SR than was supposed to be. Stroke told me that she and 7 seat were trying to control it but middle 4 on back kept rushing. I tried to say “lengthen, ratio shift, control, etc.” while still saying their SRs. Nothing I said changed it, if anything SR went higher. I gave up by the end of it, since they weren’t listening. Coach didn’t help, just said follow stroke. Help?

Ugh, I’ve been in this situation before. I will try and correct it 99.9% of the time but then my impatience kicks in and I just say “screw it” and let them figure it out on their own. Sometimes that’s all you can do. I’ve also had that coach that is totally useless and says things like “follow the stroke”. You’re the coach, can’t you come up with something a little more helpful that that?

If you know that the middle four were the ones that were initiating the rush, don’t be afraid to directly call them out.  When I’ve had this happen in the past, I’ve directly called out the people that I know are causing the rush and I’ve asked them a) do they know what seat they’re in, b) do they know who the stroke is, c) do they know how to control their slides, and d) is anything that either the coach or I said unclear? Normally the answers go something like yes, yes, yes, and no, to which I reply “then what are you doing??” They don’t normally have an answer for that but by that point they either realize that they are the problem or that when I was telling people to slow down the slides I wasn’t just talking to test my brain’s ability to formulate sentences.

Related: In the boat, when you’re calling a rower out to make a change, is it better to call them by their seat or name? A rower told me that by using a name it puts them on the spot – but isn’t that the point to make a change?

After I’ve had that conversation with them, we usually take a break from whatever we’re doing for so everyone can refocus. Once we get started again I remind them that the slides need to be controlled, they need to follow the person in front of them, and they need to not assume that they’re not the one causing the problem. Incorporating in calls that focus on getting everyone’s body motions matched up right out of the finish usually helps too (i.e. matching the hands away, timing the swing of the shoulders, starting the slides together, etc.) but at some point you do have to just stop talking and let them row in silence for a bit so they can focus on implementing the changes.

Novice Q&A Teammates & Coaches

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Our coach had the novice 8+ row with two varsity 8s today. Coach focused on the two varsity boats and paid no attention to our novice boat. My rowers were really frustrated because she told them they can’t mix with varsity rowing until they know how to row but they feel like if there’s no direction and if they can’t row with the varsity they won’t learn anything. My opinion is that the coach wants them to know what it feels like to do the varsity workouts 1st. From a coach’s point of view, what do you think?

Interesting situation. I get what your coach is saying but I don’t understand why she’d take you out with the varsity and then completely ignore you. That seems counter-productive. Based on their frustration, it sounds like a chat with your coach might be in order. As their coxswain, it’s your job to act as the go-to person between the boat and your coach, so I’d talk to her either before or after practice and explain that the rowers are frustrated/confused/whatever emotion best describes them because they felt like they were totally ignored when they went out with the varsity boats and they feel like when they’re not getting any instruction, their rowing isn’t improving. Hopefully she’ll be able to give you some insight into her thought process.

I’d also ask her if there are days when she wants you to go out with the other boats but knows that her focus will be on the varsity, can she give you a workout to do on your own and then she can come check up on you intermittently throughout practice. That way the rowers can still feel like they’re accomplishing something without the coach being around. That would also make you look good too – every coach loves a coxswain who takes initiative.

College Q&A Recruiting Rowing

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So you told that other anon that height is what stops good rowers. I’m 5′ 7” and one of the better people on my team, though one of the shortest. I think I may grow just another inch, give or take. My coach always tells me, “you’re shorter than I think you would be from your scores.” Is that good or bad? And is it not possible for me to get recruited for a D1 college if I’m too short? What is “too short?” Sorry that’s a lot of questions. Thanks!

Well, it doesn’t necessarily “stop” them, per se, the national teams just have specific requirements that only a specific group of people meet. It makes sense, to be honest. Taller rowers typically have a longer reach and can generate more power so it’s understandable that those would be the type of people they’d be looking for. On the other hand it’s a little unfortunate since there are many great rowers out there who don’t meet the height requirements.

If I’m reading that correctly, I’d definitely take it as a compliment. I think what he’s saying is that looking at you, it doesn’t seem, based on whatever factors, that you’d be able to pull the times that you do, so to see you pulling times that are comparable with the taller people is really impressive.

I don’t think it limits you from being recruited at all. I’ve said in a couple other responses that if being a lightweight is something you can do (in a healthy way), it’s worth considering since lightweight programs were created for people of “normal height” but being 5’7″ – 5’8″ definitely doesn’t rule you out of openweight programs. As I’ve said before, there are a lot of factors that go into recruiting an athlete and one’s height is probably not the biggest one when compared to other things like erg times, academics, etc., mainly because it’s something you don’t have any control over.

Coxing Q&A Rowing

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What do you like to do to cheer yourself up after a lost race or tough practice?

During the summer and fall my practices were from 5-7:30am so if I wasn’t immediately working or coaching afterwards I’d just go home and sleep for a few hours. If I had a particularly shitty practice, I nearly always felt better once I slept it off. If it was a really shitty practice, I’d call my dad and talk to him. He and I are very similarly minded when it comes to sports and stuff like that, so most of the time he knows where I’m coming from when I get frustrated. Another thing that helped me get some aggression out was to just turn the radio up and listen to the music on the drive home. That’s my go to stress reliever for practically anything.

Later on in the day when I wasn’t as irritated I’d reflect on why practice was so tough that day. Were the rowers not responding to what I was saying or was I being unnecessarily hard on myself? Were my coach and I not communicating properly or was I not communicating well with the crew? After asking myself those questions I could usually figure out why practice didn’t go well and determine what I needed to do differently the next day to ensure that whatever happened that day doesn’t happen again. It doesn’t always work out that way – sometimes practice just sucks – but most of the time it did for me.

In the long run, wallowing over a bad practice or race isn’t worth it. Is that going to cheer you up? Probably not. What will cheer you up is figuring out how to make sure whatever happened doesn’t happen again and then going out the next day and busting your ass to ensure that you have a good practice or that your next race is your best one yet. It seems cliche (trust me, I know this) but using those experiences as a learning opportunity ultimately makes you a lot happier than just focusing on how shitty your day ended up being.