Tag: rowing

College Rowing Video of the Week

Video of the Week: Technology + Rowing

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Princeton posted this video early last month and if you’re into the idea of incorporating tech into your training, you’ll probably find this interesting. We’ve been using our Peach system for about a month now and it’s pretty cool. The guys are really into seeing their force curves after each practice and I’m convinced that the emails that get sent out with each guys’ watts from that practice are a subtle/clever tactic to get them to be even more competitive with each other. Lots of data to pour over but like Greg Hughes said in the video, it gives you a lot of opportunities to see where you can improve.

High School Q&A Rowing

Question of the Day

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Hi, I’m currently an sophomore high school girls coxswain and this question doesn’t really have to do with coxing or rowing, but I hope you can help me out. Both the junior and senior classes of my crew are very small, two people each. However, the sophomore class is quite big, around 15. Now that the spring season is starting only about 5 novices have joined so our coach, who was a rower back when the varsity team had 90 girls total, is mad at us and constantly pressing us to go out and recruit. Our school has about 600 people per grade so it shouldn’t seem too hard but I am not very good at talking to new people so I have a hard time going up to people to recruit. I am wondering if you have any tips on how to recruit and things to say to the person to get them interested in the sport.

Check out the post linked below. It’s mainly geared towards recruiting coxswains to your team (and what not to do) but there’s some stuff in there that’s applicable to recruiting in general.

Related: How to recruit coxswains

Instead of talking to individual people (which will never not be awkward) try reaching out to groups instead, like National Honor Society (pretty sure 3/4 of my team was in NHS), Model UN, Key Club, Student Council, etc. If your school has a marching band (particularly a competitive one), that’d be another good group to talk to. I think during my freshman and sophomore year at least half of us (which was like, 50ish people) were on the crew team too since it was a good way to stay in shape between when we finished in November and started again in July.

That’s obviously not a comprehensive list but it’s a good starting point if you think about the type of people that rowing typically attracts – driven, competitive, dedicated, etc. See if you can make a quick 5 minute pitch at the start of their next meeting and say that the team is looking for people who’d be interested in joining, this is when/where practice is, follow us on social media to get an idea for what the team is like, and if you have any questions talk to [the team captain(s), the seniors, or whoever else you designate]. You don’t have to give a ton of details right off the bat so just give them the pertinent information and then you can answer the more specific questions later. Another thing is to see if you can occupy a small part of the chalkboard in some of the classrooms. We did this my senior year and asked our AP/Honors teachers if they’d mind us writing something and leaving it there for a week or so and they were all pretty cool with it. I don’t remember what we wrote but it was probably something really simple (“WANNA ROW? 3PM. LIBRARY. SNACKS.”) written in a delightfully artsy design that only a bunch of 17 year old girls given colored chalk and free reign over the chalkboard could design.

Another great way to get new people is to talk to fall/winter athletes who aren’t doing a spring sport. We had a lot of swimmers, basketball players, volleyball players, cross-country runners, and soccer players on our team, in addition to several football players – wide receivers, running backs, safeties, and kickers specifically. These were always some of the best people on the team (physically and mentally) because they already had that competitive mindset that can be really hard to teach new athletes. If you’re trying to get walk-ons in the fall you can also have your coach talk to the coaches of the other fall teams and see if they can get a list of the kids that were cut that might have the potential (aka athletic ability) to excel at another sport. Just because they didn’t make the soccer team doesn’t mean they wouldn’t make a good rower!

Video of the Week

Video of the Week: Rowers in the mist

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Some of the best rows I’ve had (and my most favorite) have been when it’s in the 60s/70s, completely overcast, and so foggy that you can only just make out whats in front of your bow. Everything is dead quiet so the sound of the oarlocks, catches, finishes, slides, puddles, etc. are all magnified. It’s the most peaceful feeling because there’s absolutely nothing distracting you from what you’re out there to do.

Top 20 Terms Coxswains Should Know: Hanging the Blade

Coxing Rowing Technique

Top 20 Terms Coxswains Should Know: Hanging the Blade

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Previously: Rush(ing) || Body angle || Pick drill || Suspension || Skying the blade || Quarter feather || Pin || Run || Lunge || Washing Out || Missing water || Footboard || Check || Ratio || Over compression || Release || Cut the cake

What part of the stroke/stroke cycle does it refer to

The catch.

What does it mean/refer to

The majority of the time when we talk about hang we’re talking about suspension but in this case “hang” means to pause at the catch and let your blade hang in the air before dropping it in the water. You want the blade to be moving down to the water as the wheels are rolling through the last few inches of the slide so that you’re changing direction just as the blade becomes fully buried. When you hang the blade, you basically just get to the front end and stop without the blade changing height relative to the water.

Related: Top 20 terms coxswains should know: Suspension

Relevant calls

This is where you’ll make/hear a lot of “direct to the water” calls. You can/should also remind the rowers that they should be unweighting the hands (not lifting – unweighting) the hands in the top quarter of the recovery so that the moment when the blade enters the water and their slides stop coming forward is the same point in time. One shouldn’t happen before the other. When I’ve coached younger crews, explaining the catch as a motion rather than a position has helped them understand this better and eliminate the pause at the front end (which most of the time they don’t realize they’re doing).

Calls for slide control (coupled with “direct to the water”-esque calls) can also help here because you’ll sometimes see rowers rushing their slides and then hanging out at the catch waiting for everyone else to get there, which usually leads to them having choppy catches or being late.

Related: Top 20 terms coxswains should know: Rush(ing)

What to look for

This is slightly less obvious from the coxswain’s seat than it is from the launch but what you’ll see is a very obvious (but quick) pause in the blade’s movement at the front end. It’s not something I’m always on the lookout for but if I notice a rower is missing water at the catch then I’ll watch to see if I can see them winding up (aka dropping the hands at the catch causing their blade to sky) and then stopping before putting the blade in.

Related: Top 20 terms coxswains should know: Skying the blade

Effect(s) on the boat

Hanging the blade at the catch turns the stroke into a stop and go movement instead of one fluid motion which prevents the crew from establishing a consistent and easy-to-lock-onto rhythm. It also messes with the catch timing (duh – you’re always going to be late), your ability to have a long, complete stroke (since you’ll be missing water at the start of the drive as a result of not getting your blade in before the slide changes direction), and the shell’s ability to achieve its maximum run (because you’re missing water → not generating as much power → not getting as much send at the finish).

Related: Top 20 terms coxswains should know: Missing water

Related posts/questions

Like several of the other terms, this isn’t one I’ve talked about on the blog before so below are two videos that demonstrate the difference between hanging the blade (the first one) and going straight to the water (the second one).

Very start and stop-y and you can see the missed water as they start their drive.

Much more smooth and fluid.

Image via // @ryanjnicholsonphoto
Top 20 Terms Coxswains Should Know: Release

Coxing Rowing Technique

Top 20 Terms Coxswains Should Know: Release

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Previously: Rush(ing) || Body angle || Pick drill || Suspension || Skying the blade || Quarter feather || Pin || Run || Lunge || Washing Out || Missing water || Footboard || Check || Ratio || Over compression

What part of the stroke/stroke cycle does it refer to

The finish.

What does it mean/refer to

The release is the part of the stroke that occurs immediately after the actual finish – it’s when the outside hand applies weight to the handle, causing it to tap down and release the blade from the water. The terms “finish” and “release” get used interchangeably but they’re actually two completely separate parts of the stroke. At the finish the blades are in the water and at the release they aren’t (which is why it makes no sense when coxswains tell the rowers to “sit at the release” before they start rowing), although the bodies are still in the same layback position.

Relevant calls

Many of the calls I make specifically about the release have to do with the set of the boat. One of the things we say to the guys a lot, particularly if the boat is looking wobbly, is “release to the balance”, which gets them thinking about the position of their hands relative to the set of the boat. I’ve adopted this call too when I’m coxing and usually say something like “…let’s make sure we’re releasing to the balance … right [catch] here [finish] … haaands [drive] here [finish]… haaands here …”. I try to save this call for when the boat is consistently off-set rather than just a wobble here or there, mainly because I know it gets the rowers’ attention and I don’t want to wear it out.

Another one is “cut the pressure before the bodies, come down and away smoothly…”. This isn’t so much a “coxing” call that I try to line up with any particular part of the stroke, rather it’s a “coaching” call that I say conversationally as we’re rowing. I try to follow it up with a specific “coxing” call though, usually something like “smoooth here“, “hands here“, “cut it now“, etc.

What to look for

Because the finish and release only differ by about six inches in handle height, one’s ability to tap down at the release is largely effected by their posture at the finish. Not laying back enough or laying back too far can inhibit the movement of the hands here because it’s practically impossible to tap the handle down when your body is directly underneath it. (If you’re laying back too far it’ll be your stomach and if you’re not laying back enough it’ll be your thighs.) On the water you can make reminder calls for this but on the ergs is where you can really coach the rowers (particularly novices) on proper body angles, posture, etc. Plus, it’s a lot easier to do this on land when you can actually manipulate them to the right positions vs. on the water where it can be tough to explain what it should look/feel like.

At the release, assuming pressure was cut before the handle reached the bodies, you should see the blades cleanly pop out of the puddles and then feather over the water. If you’re seeing the blades get stuck in the water as the recovery begins (which at best will cause the boat to go off-set and at worst can cause crabs of varying magnitudes) then a couple things might be happening, the first of which is what I mentioned above about not giving yourself room to tap down. The other is not accelerating the blade through the drive into the finish. If you’re connected on the drive and have good acceleration the blade will naturally pop out more easily at the release whereas a lack of acceleration will cause the puddle to close up and essentially act like a brake (tl;dr physics), which obviously limits the carryover of acceleration and kills the boat’s run.

With regards to feathering, watch that they’re not feathering before the blade is fully out of the water too. You’ll be able to tell if this is happening because you can see the water getting flipped up as the blade rotates. In my experience this happens most often when people feather with both hands because they’re rotating the handle down into their laps instead of drawing straight through, tapping down with the outside hand, and then feathering with the inside. Square blade and outside-arm only rowing, along with delayed feather drills can help fix this though.

Effect(s) on the boat

The effects of a poor release will be felt on the subsequent recovery and catch, usually in the form of the boat being off-set or poor posture on the previous finish causing timing issues with getting the hands down and away (and bodies over) on the next recovery which leads to a late/poorly timed catch. A clean release though provides a stable platform for the rowers to work off of and lets the boat take full advantage of the power and acceleration that was generated on the previous stroke by allowing it to run out further between strokes.

Related posts/questions

Heeey so at the moment we’re doing a lot of work on the finish and the release but I am struggling to come up with calls that really work. I have a few basic ones but not many so I find myself repeating them over and over and over and over. Do you have any calls for technique at the finish and release that i could borrow or modify to suit my crew?? TY x

The Kiwi pair does this really incredible thing where they take their oars out of the water SO FREAKING CLEANLY and I am having such a hard time trying to do it, I can never tell if I’m throwing water around when I feather my blade and IDK if you know what I’m getting at but yeah help?

To see all the posts in this series, check out the “top 20 terms” tag.

Image via // @rowingcelebration
Top 20 Terms Coxswains Should Know: Over Compression

Coxing Rowing Technique

Top 20 Terms Coxswains Should Know: Over Compression

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Previously: Rush(ing) || Body angle || Pick drill || Suspension || Skying the blade || Quarter feather || Pin || Run || Lunge || Washing Out || Missing water || Footboard || Check || Ratio

What part of the stroke/stroke cycle does it refer to

The catch.

What does it mean/refer to

The position your body is in at the catch – hips behind the shoulders, shins vertical, etc. –  is called “full compression”. Over-compression is when you go beyond this point and your knees end up over your toes (instead of in line with your ankles). Shorter rowers (and novices) have a tendency to over-compress at the catch as a way to get more reach.

Relevant calls

I don’t make a lot of calls for this on the water because I can’t see when it’s happening (unlike other things I can’t “see” where I can pretty closely guess what’s going on based on the bladework). Plus, over-compressing on the water is a more rare occurrence than over-compressing on the ergs so even when I’m coaching it’s not something I see that often (at this point though that might be more of a factor of who I’m coaching than anything else though).

When we’re on the ergs most of what I’ll say will be simple stuff like “too far…”, “stop a little shorter…”, etc. if I see them coming too far up the slide and then once they’re stopping closer to full-compression (rather than going past it) then I’ll have them pause at the catch and tell them to think about what this position feels like and if we’re beside any mirrors I’ll have them look over to see what their bodies look like, where their slide is in relation to their heels, the angles their shins are at, etc. If you have less-experienced rowers who haven’t fully figured out where full slide/compression is yet then utilizing mirrors/video while on the ergs during the winter is the best way for them to figure this out. (You can also use the tape trick to help with this – figure out where full slide is and then put tape on the slide so that the rower feels the slide hit it if they compress too far.)

Sometimes over-compressing can be a byproduct of not getting the bodies set soon enough so if I see that happening then I’ll address that first (read the post linked below for more on that) and usually the over-compressing (which has them sitting straight up, heels right up against their butt, and hips directly under the shoulders) corrects itself.

Related: Top 20 terms coxswains should know: Body angle

What to look for

This is what correct full compression looks like…

…and this is what over-compression looks like (note the positioning of her shins at the catch)…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q97MlxjkZ6o

In some cases on the water, usually at the beginning of the season or if the rowers are switching seats a lot, you might find that the foot stretchers (if they’re set too far towards bow) need to be adjusted to prevent them from over-compressing. This shouldn’t be the first thing you jump to though to fix the issue unless it’s completely obvious that it’s the cause and not the rower’s technique.

Related: Top 20 terms coxswains should know: Footboard

Effect(s) on the boat

The effects of over-compressing obviously have an effect on the boat but they more drastically (and obviously) impact the individual’s stroke than they do the entire boat. The biggest impact is on their power output because it puts you in a weak position when you go to initiate the leg drive; instead of relying on the quads and glutes to help you generate power as you drive off the footboards, you’re now relying on the smaller muscles of your calves as you start the drive. If you’re trying to get more reach you might get an extra inch or two but in the end you’re sacrificing some of your power to do so.

Related posts/questions

Hi! So I recently started rowing not to long ago, as I just did two weeks of long skinny boat camp. But as I was rowing I kept getting told not to over compress at the catch. Also to relax my shoulders. I am short, only 4’11 and I talked to the coach about coxing(my sister is a captain) in high school and he wants me to row first. Do you have any tips I can take from the rowing? Also how not to over compress at the catch? Thanks! I love your blog!

To see all the posts in this series, check out the “top 20 terms” tag.

Image via // @row_360

Coxing Drills Novice Q&A Rowing Technique

Question of the Day

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Hi! So I am in my fourth season of crew, and my second season of coxing. Our season started Monday and the novices were already on the water. I was not with either of the novice boats that day but I coxed one today. I found it really difficult to teach them everything. Do you have any advice on how to teach the novices? Also, our first race is in 4 or 5 weeks, so the novices need to get the hang of it as soon as possible so that we can get “normal” boats put together. My boat today was able to row all 8 (6 novices and a 2nd season rower and stroke) fairly well. Any and all advice would be super helpful. Thanks so much!!! I love your blog- I’ve used it since I started rowing.

Therein lies the problem – you can’t teach them everything all at once. Imagine you’re sitting in math class and your teacher starts the day by teaching you to add two numbers together and finishes 90 minutes later by trying to get you to do differential equations … that’s what most coxswains (and new coaches – I was definitely guilty of this) try to do when they’re in charge of a novice crew. You have to start really simple and build from there once you’ve established a solid foundation. 4-5 weeks is plenty of time to get them rowing well enough to race so don’t rush through everything or try to pile on too much in a short period of time just because it feels like you don’t have that much time to work with.

I run our walk-on program in the fall and what we always start off doing (both on the ergs and in the boats) is a super basic pick drill. We’ll start off doing arms only for awhile (like, 15-20min) and I’ll walk around the ergs adjusting peoples’ form and making sure they’re getting the motion down. It’s obviously not going to look great but if it’s like, 75% there I’m happy. From there we’ll take a break and then do arms + bodies. Same routine, I’ll walk around and coach people as necessary but for the most part I want them to just focus on getting the motions down. Even though there are like, a thousand things I could say to them I try to err on the side of letting them figure it out for themselves (unless it’s so egregious that I have to say something) since I think that’s goes a lot further than if I were constantly in their ear nitpicking everything they’re doing.

Once they’ve got arms + bodies down we’ll go back to arms only and blend the two together, so 10 strokes doing that and 10 strokes adding in the bodies, and then we’ll repeat that once or twice more. The next day we’ll start with what we finished with the day before, cycling through arms and arms + bodies before adding in the slides. We’ll start with determining where half-slide actually is, what it should look like, feel like, etc. and then I’ll have them row at half-slide for a bit, similar to what we did the day before with arms and arms + bodies. Most of the coaching I do here is just reminding them to get the hands away and bodies over before the slides start and to not go too far past where half-slide should be.

Another point of focus is feeling what it’s like to drive off the footboards with the legs at the catch, although I don’t bring this up until I feel like they have a comfortable grasp on the recovery sequence. After they’ve got half-slide down we’ll lengthen it out to full slide and repeat the whole process again. Points of emphasis here are, again, hands away/bodies over before the slides start and not flying up the slide just because your butt is on wheels.

Assuming our first practice is on a Monday, we’ll do all of that on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday (with Wednesday just being a “review” type day of everything up to that point … nothing new gets added) and then on Thursday/Friday we’ll start off with the pick drill (15-20 strokes each) before going into 3-5 minutes of continuous rowing (ideally in the tanks if they’re available). After that we’ll take a break and then do some kind of drill – like cut-the-cake or a pause drill or something relatively simple like that – before going back to a few minutes of continuous rowing.

Once we get on the water (and after spending the first day doing “admin”-type stuff – i.e. how to set the boat when you’re rowing and not rowing, what stern four, bow six, etc. means, how to spin, and all the other basic stuff) we’ll repeat what we did on the erg, either by pairs or fours depending on if we’re in a four or an eight and what the weather is like. The more stable you can make the boat, the less frustrating practice will be for them and you so always lean towards having less people rowing when it’s safe to do so. Oh, and don’t even think about rowing on the feather for at least a few days (or longer…). Stay on the square while going through the stroke sequence, rowing by 6s, etc. and get them comfortable with figuring out blade heights, setting the boat, etc. before you teach them the feather. Keep in mind that square blade rowing is a pretty useful drill in itself.

Related: Hi, I was wondering about coxing brand new novices. I’m in boats right now where most, if not all, people are still learning how to row and working on figuring out technique so I haven’t been making very many calls other than if the balance is terrible or if people aren’t rowing together because my coach is talking individually to people to work on body form and things I can’t see. I feel bad about not saying very much, but I don’t want to interrupt the coach or focus on things not important right now. Other than steering straight and paying attention to explanations for correcting form, what should I be doing to improve my coxing?

What my coaches always did (with us as novices and as an experienced crew) and what I try to do with the walk-ons is once we were able to row by all eight (and not have it be a total shitshow), we’d row 20ish strokes by sixes and then all eight for 10 on the feather, rotating through the sixes for … probably 30ish minutes or so. A couple practices later we’d do the same thing except reverse it – 20ish strokes by all eight on the feather and 10 by sixes on the square – before eventually making our way to all eight on the feather (at which point we’d eventually work in varying rates and pressures to keep things from getting too boring).

All in all, everything I just said could be covered in roughly three to four weeks, depending on how quickly you moved through it all, which gives you a week or two to introduce them to racing and how all that works.

Related: Managing novice coxswains

All that aside, the best advice I can give you is to talk with your coach and figure out what their plan is for coaching the novices. If they want you to be in charge of coaching them while you’re coxing (which isn’t uncommon) then at least discuss with them what you should cover each day so you’re not trying to come up with stuff on the fly. If you’re going out with your coach then let them do the bulk of the talking/coaching while you act as the reinforcer of what they’re saying as necessary. Make sure that whatever you are saying is communicated as clearly and in the most simple manner as possible too. If it can be broken down into simpler concepts, do it. You’ll end up saving a lot of time in the long run when you don’t have to go back and re-explain something that you didn’t cover initially because you thought it was obvious or assumed. (I touch on that in the post linked above – it’s about coxswains but the ideas behind the first three bullet points could all easily apply in this situation too.)

Top 20 Terms Coxswains Should Know: Check

Coxing Rowing Technique

Top 20 Terms Coxswains Should Know: Check

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Previously: Rush(ing) || Body angle || Pick drill || Suspension || Skying the blade || Quarter feather || Pin || Run || Lunge || Washing Out || Missing water || Footboard 

What part of the stroke/stroke cycle does it refer to

The recovery, primarily the second half.

What does it mean/refer to

 “When a crew is on the drive, they’re moving the boat FORWARD. As soon as they tap down, get the hands away, and start coming up the slide, the momentum of the boat shifts. This is completely natural. The rowers are now moving in the OPPOSITE direction of the shell’s momentum, which is still going forward.

Related: There’s a lot of like, I don’t know how to describe this really, lurching in the boat? Because I think the girls slide forward to fast and that makes us go back instead of forward if that makes sense. how would you correct this? Thanks!

The reason the ratio of the stroke is 2:1 is because in order for the boat to continue moving forward at the same speed, the disruption in momentum by the rowers has to be minimal. It’s going to happen, but you want it to be as unnoticeable as possible. If the rowers get to the catch and fly up the slide (eliminating the ratio), it’s comparable to driving at 60mph and then SLAMMING on the brakes…then hitting the gas to get to 60mph again…then SLAMMING on the brakes. When you hit the brakes in your car, what happens to your body? You jerk forward towards the steering wheel, right? In the shell, you’re the steering wheel. When the rowers hit the brakes and then rush up the slide, the boat jerks towards you. If you watch slow-motion video (and on rare cases, live video) you can visibly see the boat STOP and then start again with every stroke. Just like starting and stopping wastes gas in your car, it does the same thing in the boat. Your rowers are WASTING their energy because on every drive they’ve basically got to kick start the boat again.”

Related: Top 20 terms coxswains should know: Rush(ing)

Other things that can cause check in the boat include overreaching at the catch (dropping the shoulders down into the catch pushes the stern of the boat down which in turn slows the run of the boat – it’s like dragging your foot on the ground while skateboarding), not keeping your body stable on the seat during the recovery (this will also mess with the set of the boat which only slows the boat down further), and not getting the bodies set before the wheels move (throwing your upper body weight forward at the last second does the opposite of minimizing the disruption in the shell’s momentum).

Relevant calls

Outside of the general calls to lengthen out the slides, control/emphasize/exaggerate the recovery, ratio shifts are the go-to call I make when I feel the boat’s momentum starting to shift.

Related: How do you call a ratio shift to control and stop the rush without lowering the SR? Is it even possible?

That is step one. Sometimes that’s all it takes to fix the problem but other times it’ll persist which means I’ll work through the stroke from the finish to the catch and make calls that hit each of the four components (finish timing, hands away, body swing, and slides) in order to smooth out the recovery and re-establish the boat’s run. (How much time I spend on this is dependent on whether or not we’re doing steady state (more time) or sprint pieces (less time) but if you’re communicating clearly with the crew then you should easily be able to parse down your calls from longer explanations of what you want (like what you’d make during steady state) to short 3-5 word calls without losing any of the meaning.)

Step two is starting at the back end of the stroke and getting the finish timing together. Calls to accelerate and hold the blades in the water (“squeeze” is my go-to here) are what I’ll start with before moving on to getting the hands to match the boat speed immediately out of the finish. From there it’s about watching the shoulders of the (wo)man in front of you, swinging from the hips, and establishing your body position before the wheels move. Once the slide starts, it’s all about maintaining a controlled float into the catch and locking on to stern pair’s rhythm.

What to look for

It’s less about what you see and more about what you feel (see the post linked below on boat feel for more on that). As I mentioned before, it’s like being in a car that’s hitting the brakes then hitting the gas then hitting the brakes again … your body’s response to that is to jerk back and forth (sometimes more violently than others, depending on how bad it is), which almost always causes a line of bruises across your low back from where you hit the back of the coxswain’s seat.

Related: Coxswain skills: Boat feel

If you also notice that your body is particularly tense – like you’re bracing yourself pretty aggressively in the boat to avoid getting thrown around – that’s another sign that you should shift your focus to what’s going on with the slides. The latter is one of the things I try to pay attention to a lot because it’s something I unconsciously do but because I try to make a lot of “keep the shoulders loose”, “stay relaxed with the upper bodies”, etc. type of calls (and shake out my own shoulders as I make them), it makes me spend a quick second checking what my own body is doing. From there if I recognize that my legs, core, and shoulders are really tense, I most likely need to pay attention to the slides and run for a stroke or two to see if a ratio shift or other check-related call is necessary.

Communication with your stroke seat is also important because sometimes they can feel things that are there but at that stage are too subtle for us to notice. I always talk with my stroke between pieces and ask how that piece felt, was there anything happening with the slides that you felt that I didn’t notice, etc. and if they say “yea, when we shifted from the 26 to the 30 I was getting pushed up the slide a bit” then I know to tune in a bit more to the recovery speeds after we make a shift in the rates on the next piece.

The thing with check, rush, ratio, etc. is that we tend to only notice it when it’s bad enough to be noticed … so on a scale from 1-10, we probably only feel it ourselves when it’s at a 5 or higher (depending on your level of experience – less experienced coxswains might not pick up on it until it’s at an 8 or 9 and they’re getting whipped around like a rag doll). This is why I talk to my stroke seat a lot because I know that the rowers are going to feel it when it’s at a 1-5 and having them point out to me that it’s there, even if it’s subtle, gets me to tune into it so I can make the calls early enough that it prevents it from getting worse.

If you’re riding in the launch, pick a rower and watch their body in relation to something stationary on land, like a tree or something. You’ll be able to see the boat running under them while their body stays “fixed” (as discussed in the post linked below). Assuming the ratio is on point and there’s no check occurring you should see minimal movement of the boat/rowers back towards the coxswain at the catch. If the boat is getting checked down for whatever reason (99.9% of the time because of rush) then you’ll see the rowers move in front of whatever object you’re pairing them with on land.

Related: I’m the senior girl’s cox for my school club and my crew is really struggling with having a slow recovery then accelerating to the finish and putting in pressure. When I call to go slow up the slide they might slow down 1 or 2 points or not even at all. And the pressure dies when the rating slows. Then the rating goes up when I call pressure. Do you have any ideas about how I can help them get into a slow steady rhythm but still put in pressure?

Effect(s) on the boat

Check = loss of speed because … physics.

Related posts/questions

There’s a lot of like, I don’t know how to describe this really, lurching in the boat? Because I think the girls slide forward to fast and that makes us go back instead of forward if that makes sense. how would you correct this? Thanks!

What checks the boats run? Recently in our octo the run of the boat is checked but I don’t know how to prevent it and what to call to make it better. Thanks love this blog, so helpful! 🙂

Hi, I never know what it means when someone asks me what the boat “feels” like. Like the rush for example. I’m not sure what that feels like vs. a boat with no rush. Just in general, I’m not sure how to gauge whether a piece felt good or bad. I feel like the only things I can see are blade height, square up timing, catch timing, and if bodies are moving together, and I can tell if the boat was really moving and if there was power. But what else should I be aware of?

So my team has a regatta next weekend and we have only rowed at all 8s like 3 three times since winter training. When we do there is A LOT of check and the boat is really not set. As the coxswain, is there anything I can say to fix this and help get my boat ready for Sunday? Thanks!

To see all the posts in this series, check out the “top 20 terms” tag.

Image via // @radcliffecrew