Tag: rowing

Q&A Rowing

Question of the Day

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I’ve been rowing for six years and since my novice year I have consistently been in the V8. Our coach told us that in order to win we need to want to win more than the competition and in order to want it more we need to work so hard we can’t stomach the thought of losing. I’ve gotten to that point but it appears that this will be my first season in 11 that I will be rowing in the JV 8. I feel like a failure and that I’ve let myself down. It’s gotten to the point where it’s affecting other parts of my life. I’m taking it out through practice and working harder than ever. I feel like I’m being over dramatic but it’s so upsetting because I’ve made PRs on multiple erg tests (all are within the top 5 scores on the team) and I can feel that my stroke has significantly improved and it’s still not good enough. I know I’m being over dramatic but it hurts a lot and don’t know how to get over it. Do you have any advice?

This is why I have an issue (albeit a minor one) with coaches really pushing that whole “you have to want it to so much you’ll do XYZ” mindset because if it gets pushed too hard then people end up in the situation you’re in where they feel like failures because they’ve essentially been conditioned to think that not winning or being in the top eight or whatever is the worst thing ever. That’s just my opinion obviously but I think it’s important to keep in mind that there’s a fine line when it comes to stuff like that.

Erg scores aren’t everything. Most boat movers are good on the erg but not all those who are good on the erg can move a boat. I’m assuming that if you talk to your coach they’ll probably say that something about your technique is what put you in the JV8 which is encouraging since  fixing your technique is easy. Well, it’s not easy but it’s something you can easily commit to working on and improving, even in a short amount of time. Find out what it is you need to work on (it might be something specific or it might just be general…), commit to making and incorporating small improvements into your rowing, talk with your coach regularly about how you’re doing, and then after a couple weeks (like, two-ish minimum) ask if you can seat race for a spot in the V8.

I don’t necessarily think you’re being overly dramatic (maybe a little but not overly), I just think you’re being  harder on yourself than you need to be. Does getting put in the JV lineup after consistently being on varsity sting a little? Yea, it does but it’s the decision your coach made so you’ve gotta go with it (for now) and move on. Don’t throw yourself a pity party over this. My take on all of it is that if you’ve been rowing in the V8 for 11 seasons then whoever took your seat must be a really, really strong rower (either power wise, technique wise, or both), which means your coach probably had a really tough decision to make. This is a good thing. You want to have more than eight people competing for your top eight otherwise it’s a “top eight” in name only but if you’ve got ten people competing to be in it then you actually do have to narrow your lineup down to the eight best of those ten. Having a good 2nd/JV8 is good/important because it means the V8 is gonna have someone to push them during practice and vice-versa which in turn means everyone is going  to get faster.  This. is. what. you. want.  Right now whoever took your seat is (indirectly) saying “come and get me” so ultimately it’s your decision whether or not to put the time and work in to reclaim your spot.

Coxing Q&A Rowing Teammates & Coaches

Question of the Day

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So I had a really bad coach this fall (who got fired so she’s gone now, thank god) but after a particularly windy practice, she proceeded to yell at me for telling ports to row with pressure/vice versa because something got caught in my rudder and my steering didn’t work. She said that if we were going fast enough, our boat would go naturally straight. I’m just curious as to if her comment was accurate. (BTW, on this day it was windy, there was a current, and the water was whitecapping). Thanks!

I’ve had one or two coaches say that to me too but in my experience it’s never really been true, mainly because there are too many tiny variances in pressure, technique, etc. that I can no longer account for due to the lack of steering. Plus, if your steering isn’t working why would you be rowing fast anyways? That’s stupid.  The only control I have over what the boat does is through a credit card-sized piece of plastic connected to two strings … if that somehow fails then I no longer have control of the boat which means I want to be rowing with only the necessary people at a relatively moderate pressure. “If you were going fast enough” makes me think your coach assumes everything would be totally fine if you were rowing all eight at full pressure. Because that wouldn’t end up with you running into a bridge pier or anything…

In situations like that my opinion has always been that the coxswain has the final say on what they do because they’re the ones in charge of the safety of the crew and the equipment. (If you’re a novice/inexperienced coxswain this doesn’t apply to you.) What looks like it might be fine and safe to the coach in the launch might make the coxswain extremely uncomfortable because from their perspective it’s not safe. Obviously the last thing you want is your coxswain to be is unnecessarily tense and anxious so it makes a lot more sense to say “OK the steering’s not working, how do you want to get back to the dock?” Not only does this engage the problem-solving part of their brains and make them think about the best way to approach this but it also lets them to say what they’re most comfortable doing which allows them to stay in control of the situation.

Coaches tend to look at stuff like this as “(potentially) broken equipment = money, time, wasted practice, dammit” which causes them to get frustrated (sometimes deservedly so, other times not) and become a little too controlling. This in turn results in them being short with the coxswain which can be a confidence killer and make them look/feel like that have no control over what’s going on (two things that, obviously, do nothing to help them feel like competent leaders, regardless of how experienced they are). I’m not saying every single interaction (good or bad) needs to be OMG-so-empowering for the coxswain because sometimes we screw up and we deserve to have our asses handed to us but more often than not it’s better to stay civil and turn the situation into a learning experience and then express your annoyance with them on land rather than let them have it on the water in front of the people they’re supposed to be in charge of.

For future reference, if you find that you’re unable to steer the first thing you should do is stop and reach under the boat to see if your fin is still attached. Even if you didn’t hear or feel something hit the boat you still might have run over something that pulled it off. (And yes, I know, sticking your arm in the water is not an ideal solution. Personally I’m not doing it unless it’s May – August when I know the water’s warmer and I’m guaranteed to not be wearing long sleeves and/or layers. In most cases though your coach will take pity on you and not make you do it if the temperature/water is cold.)

If the fin is there then the next thing you should do is see if there are leaves or something stuck in the rudder. If it’s rained recently then this is the most-likely cause of your steering problems and is pretty easily taken care of. I’ve had leaves, seaweed, rope (???), and one time a small tree branch get wedged up in the rudder but as long as you’re able to clear it out you should be all good. If the fin isn’t there then you’re shit-out-of-luck and you’ll have to use the rowers to help guide you home. I prefer to row by sixes at somewhere between half and 3/4 pressure depending on the conditions but if you’re less experienced then rowing by fours might be a better option for you. Unless my coach says to cycle through the sixes on the way home (typically what we’ll do if it’s raining or it’s cold, that way no one is sitting out for too long) then I like to stick with stern six rowing and then I’ll add in bow or two if I need help steering or going around a corner. Rather than have people power up here I prefer to have one side power down and the other side maintain their pressure. In my experience this always works better but feel free to play around and find out what works best for you.

Mental health + rowing

College Coxing High School Teammates & Coaches Training & Nutrition

Mental health + rowing

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This week, Feb. 22nd – 28th, is National Eating Disorder Awareness Week. I’ve talked about eating disorders on here before and wanted to link those posts here for those of you who haven’t seen them before or for those who might want to revisit them again.

National Eating Disorder Awareness Week: Intro

Eating disorders defined + explained

Warning signs + symptoms

Coxswains

Lightweight Rowing

Your experiences

More so than probably any other set of posts on the blog, I think I’m most proud of these ones because of the discussion/realizations that they sparked. It was scary when I got so many emails initially saying “I have an eating disorder, I’ve been dealing with it for awhile” or “That describes me, I know I have bad habits when it comes to food, I think this might be me, what do I do?” because eating disorders aren’t something you mess around with. There’s obviously a huge mental component to it and with the stigma around mental health issues in the US it’s no wonder why so many people don’t know where to turn or what to do.

I remember spending a good deal of time thinking “Oh shit, what did I get myself into” when I first wrote those posts because I didn’t want to say the wrong thing or give the wrong advice but I learned really quickly that what a lot of the people needed was someone to talk to and just some genuine encouragement to seek help. It’s been so exciting to hear back from a lot of those people and hear them say that they did talk to their coaches, parents, doctors, teammates, etc. and are working on normalizing their relationship with food and their bodies. That alone takes more willpower and strength than any 2k you’ll ever pull.

Below I’m posting an excerpt from an email I got at the beginning of the year from a rower-turned-coxswain who has really motivated me to make sure that I’m doing my part to keep this discussion alive.

“You were the first one that I confessed to after my coaches. Things have gotten worse (broken foot, plus being put in the B boat and freaking out forever until we won the second novice race) and better (not being able to work out sucks and I already eat healthy – sometimes borderline orthorexia), my weight is nerve-wracking and anxiety-inducing still, and everything still feels “off” (energy levels, thyroid, mood, ability to lose weight is nonexistent I swear it drives me crazy) – but that’s definitely a byproduct of almost seven years of disordered eating. And after talking to you and feeling your understanding and support, I was brave enough to open up to so many other people in my life who have been incredibly supportive.

Thank you for always reminding us to take care of ourselves. Whenever I start to slip up and make bad decisions the NEDA week posts are my go-to reading. Your frank, honest attitude and advice about telling people who make those insensitive comments to your readers are so refreshing and they always remind me to take care of myself. When I freak out about weighing more than the four (for two boats!) other, shorter coxswains on my team and losing my spot, you always remind me that I cannot steer and motivate a boat if I do not take care of myself. Thank you for always, always, stressing your advice with weight with “healthy” and “sensible” and “obligatory reading.” Because sometimes you don’t want to admit your darkest parts to yourself until someone else makes you face them.”

Coaches, I really encourage you to talk about these issues with your teams (regardless of whether you coach men or women) because this stuff is real. There are probably rowers and coxswains on your team right now who are dealing with an eating disorder or walking that fine line between trying to be healthy and experiencing disordered eating. If you’re not comfortable doing it, reach out to a nutritionist at a local hospital or within the athletic department and have them come talk to the team. Trust me, it’s worth losing 45 minutes of practice time for.  I’ve said this a thousand times but part of being a good teammate is looking out for each other. If you think that one of your teammates might be dealing with something like this, don’t jump the gun and accuse them because when has that ever been a logical and successful approach? Instead, just let them know that if they need someone to talk to you’re there if they need anything. More often than not that’s all it takes, just knowing that someone is willing to listen without being judgmental.

And on that note I also wanted to link back to this post on suicide awareness. Last week the rowing community lost a high school rower named Draven Rodriguez. Some of you might know him as “laser cat meme guy“, others of you might know him as a teammate and member of Shenendehowa Crew. I remembered reading the story about the yearbook and his cat (seriously though, how great is that picture…) last year but I didn’t know he was a rower until this weekend when someone messaged me on Tumblr about it. They said they didn’t know him personally but as a fellow 17 year old rower they were upset and shocked and didn’t know how to react.

Related: Suicide awareness + prevention

I’ve never known anyone who’s died (at least not that I’ve been close enough to that would evoke some kind of response) so I don’t really know how to react in situations like this either. I think the only thing you can really do is use this to reinforce to yourself that everybody’s got their own shit that they’re dealing with and you never truly know how someone is feeling at any given moment. Be supportive of your teammates, even the ones you might not be friends with, and if you’re going through something find someone you trust to talk to about it. You can always email me of course (sometimes it’s a lot easier to talk to someone who doesn’t know you personally … I totally get that) but I would encourage you to reach out to someone at home too, whether it’s a sibling, parent, coach, friend, teammate, teacher, etc. just so that you have a support system nearby if/when you need it.

I know that this is a pretty random post and not at all about rowing or coxing but like I said earlier, I think we all have a responsibility to do our part in eliminating the stigma that surrounds these issues by talking about it with our teams and teammates. I encourage all of you to read the posts I’ve linked to in here and find some small way to do your part, either by making the decision to seek help if you need it or by reaching out to a teammate who might be having a hard time. At the end of the day, all of this is a lot bigger than crew and I hope reading through all of this helps to hammer that point home.

Image via // @rowinginmainz

Rowing Video of the Week

Video of the Week: Traits of a Champion

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This is a great video to watch and absorb now that we’re all in the midst of winter training. What does being a champion mean to you? It might be some of the things mentioned here, it might be all of them, or it might be none of them but whatever your definition is, repeat it to yourself before each practice and before every erg piece, run, and lift. Don’t let a hard workout or a workout you don’t want to do make you forget what being a champion means and entails.

Here’s the list of what’s mentioned in the video.

Champions focus on the end result; they train with a sense of purpose.

A champion never thinks they’re working hard enough and want to do more.

A champion trains in the moment without thought about the next practice.

Championships are earned in the winter and champions are crowned in the spring.

Everyone wants to win but there can only be one champion.

The goal of a champion is to win and it is your decision whether you wish to pursue it or not.

A champion is afraid of losing. Everyone else is afraid of winning.

A champion is someone who is bent over drenched in sweat and at the point of exhaustion when no one is watching.

A champion is someone who focuses on the process of becoming a winner rather than actually winning.

If being a champion is a choice then it is your choice to make.

If you have a team meeting where you discuss your goals for the upcoming season, that would be a good time to determine how you define being a champion and what traits you as a group need to employ to meet that definition and achieve your goals.

Q&A Rowing Technique

Question of the Day

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Hi! I’ve been rowing for four years and recently I’ve been getting some sort of tendonitis in my forearms: the forearm swells up a little and it feels very stiff and it is very painful to row with. This usually happens when I’m in a single or a double, but it has happened before in an eight and a quad. It has never happened to me so often, last year I got this twice throughout the season, but it went away the same day. I’ve talked to my coach and he said I might be gripping too much with my fingers, I’ve changed my grip since then and it was fine for a few weeks, however over the course of this week, it has come back and I’m not sure what I am doing wrong. I know it’s caused when I row long distances and when my forearms tense at the catch, but I don’t think that there is any other way to row (without tensing the forearms at the catch), when I relax my arms I end up pulling more with my fingers. As far as I’m aware, no one else in my crew has this although some say that they have had it before, but very rarely. I was just wondering if you had any tips for correcting my stroke if it is what is causing this? Thank you.

I definitely agree with your coach, I think you’ve got a bit of a death grip thing going on. If you made adjustments though and the pain came back then I’d probably recommend checking in with your doctor just to make sure there’s nothing else going on. At the very least they’ll likely be able to give you a stronger anti-inflammatory than your standard over-the-counter Ibuprofen that might help with the pain.

As far as tips for correcting your stroke, I really think loosening your grip is the biggest/best technical correction you can make right now. It’s a sequential thing too; if your upper body (i.e. upper back and shoulders) is relaxed, your arms will be relaxed, and that will lead to you having a more relaxed grip. If your upper body is tense, which it sounds like it probably is, then your forearms and grip are going to be tense as a result. When you’re at the catch, you want to maintain what I like to call a “common sense grip” – not too tight but tight enough that you have control of the handle – and make sure you’re unweighting the handle rather than lifting it in. If you’re lifting it in then that’s going to contribute to the tension you feel in your forearms. Tension’s not really the right word but if you’re going to feel “tension” anywhere it should be in your lat muscles as you lock on to the water.

From there it gets a bit harder for me to guess what you can do so definitely make sure you’re discussing this with your coach, having them watch you on the water, look for specific technical flaws, etc. and then go from there. Start with the grip thing though, for sure.

Q&A Rowing Technique

Question of the Day

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The other day our coach had all of us move our foot stretchers all the way forward on the tracks. I was wondering what the benefit of doing this is?

Trying not to overthink this too much but my guess is that your coach is just trying to have everyone get a sharper catch angle since adjusting the stretchers has a much greater effect on the catch than it does the finish. The closer to the stern your feet are the closer to parallel the oar will be at the catch and the more shallow of a release angle you’ll have (it’ll be nearly perfectly perpendicular to the boat compared to being at a 20 degree angle or so otherwise).

Just going off what I’ve picked up from coaches and boatmen in the past, I think he’s probably just trying to avoid rigging seats individually (be that out of laziness or because of some other reason, I don’t know). If a longer catch angle is what he’s going for though, I’m not sure if this is necessarily the best way to approach it, although I guess if you’re all novices (and/or short…) then it could be a temporary thing as you work on developing better flexibility and mobility throughout the fall/winter. Still, if he’s trying to go for uniformity with one aspect of the stroke the catch isn’t what he should be going for, it should be the finish since you don’t have to contend as much with individual flexibility issues, amongst other things.

College Coxing Novice Racing Video of the Week

Video of the Week: “Ignatius, stop rowing”, pt. 3

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Really? Really?

That novice boat should have been disqualified and given a serious talking to by the regatta officials with their coaches present. (Supposedly they only received a 20 second penalty.) This goes way past your standard novice screw-up. The blades of the two boats were overlapping which means they were probably less than 10 feet apart. This was almost a head-on collision between a varsity four at full race pace/pressure and an eight that appeared to be rowing at least by bow 4. It doesn’t matter that they’re novices, “oh they weren’t going that fast”, “they probably just didn’t know where to go”, etc. … NO. Not buying ANY of those excuses.

Coxswains, I implore you to use your common sense and pay attention to the traffic patterns so you know where the travel lanes are and where the actual race course is. I don’t care if you’re a novice or varsity – pay attention. Varsity coxswains (and coaches, because … it’s your job …), you should be asking the novices multiple times if they understand the course, the traffic pattern(s), etc. so that there is no question that they’re prepared when they go out on the water and aren’t going to be at risk of putting themselves or another crew in danger. Novices, you need to suck. it. up. and get over being intimidated by asking questions and ask someone if you don’t know where you need to go. There are plenty of people on land that you can ask, in addition to regatta officials and other crews on the water. You should also have your head on a swivel at all times so that situations like this don’t happen.

There’s really no question with regards to how the coxswain from Marietta College handled this. Given the nature of the situation, I think he did well. I mean, what else can you do other than make a split second decision to either try to get the other crew’s attention and/or drastically alter your course? He was loud, made a good effort to get the coxswain’s attention, got his crew right back into it afterwards, and didn’t appear to have to make any steering adjustments. Saying “way off course, coxswain” is pretty much the tamest thing he could have said in that moment so props to him for not losing it on the other crew. Trust me, as much as you’d probably want to in that situation … don’t. Find the regatta officials afterwards and talk to them or go find the crew’s tent/trailer if you know what team they’re from and let their coach know what happened. It’s not about throwing them under the bus or trying to get them in trouble so don’t use that a reason to not say something later. The only way situations like this are going to be prevented in the future is if people speak up and give the coaches/officials a chance to address with the coxswains where they need to be on the water, either again or simple more effectively this time.

Coxing Q&A Rowing Technique

Question of the Day

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Calls to control rush? There’s only so many ways to say “control the recovery” and “slow the slides.” Thanks!! 🙂

I’m a big fan of “patience”, “looong“, “relax”, “feel the recovery”, etc. When we’re paddling I’ll usually say something like “Guys, there’s not a lot of slide control right now and it’s causing us to [do X and Y]. We need to focus a bit more on [doing A and B] and [staying patient] on the recovery as we come into the catch.” Usually whatever call I plan on using (usually one of the ones I said at the beginning) I’ll say where it says [staying patient], that way they hear me saying it and understand what I’m referencing vs. me just randomly saying “patience!” during a piece with zero context whatsoever.

From there I’ll combine that call with whatever “A” and “B” was and get a more combined call that addresses all the issues instead of just part of the problem, if that makes sense. So, if the lack of slide control was causing a few people to row it in because they weren’t giving themselves enough time to get the bodies set, I’d say something about body prep, control coming up, and locking on for probably two or three strokes to help them get the rhythm and ratio back. Starting at the release and as the hands come away, “pivot”, as they start the roll, “patience”, as they lift the hands into the catch, “lock”, and then finish it out with a powerful “send” before repeating that again for another stroke or two. “Pivot, paaatience, lock, send…“.

Obviously this is a little easier to do at steady state rates (18-22ish, maaaybe up to 24) and less so at the higher rates but if you can work calls like this into your warmups, steady state pieces, etc. (both when there is and isn’t a rush problem, just to reinforce the message) then if you experience rush at the higher rates you can simplify the call to something that won’t take as much time to say, like “patience, send” or whatever. As long as you’re consistent with the terminology you use, breaking it down into a shorter call like this can/will still get the message across because they’ll be able to reference the longer call you made before. Sometimes at higher rates when I do this (during practices, not so much races…) I’ll say “Starting to feel a little rushed, let’s get that rhythm back we had the other day. Pivot here … pivot here. Now relaaax into the catch, loose in the legs, LOCK and send … LOCK send…“. It’s spread out over the course of 3-4ish strokes (I try not go more than five, max) and that one long call is broken down into two shorter ones.

Does that make sense? Basically what I’m getting at is that it’s easier to maintain a rhythm with how you should be saying the first call at lower rates than it is at higher rates. If you try to say “pivot, patience, lock, send” right now it’s going to sound more controlled when you say it slowly, which is what you want if you’re trying to get the rowers to exert more control on the slides. Trying to say all of that in the space of however much time a stroke at 30spm takes (…I guess that’d be about two seconds, wouldn’t it…) is a little harder because you won’t have as much control and rhythm in your voice because you’re trying to get out a lot of words in a really short period of time, which in turn is going to negate, in a sense, what you’re trying to communicate to the rowers about being more patient and relaxed. So, at the end of the second paragraph, even though I’m saying more words than I was before, the actual calls that I’m making are shorter so that I can still say them with the proper inflection and rhythm.

Hopefully that wasn’t too convoluted and you can kinda see what I’m getting at. It’d probably make a lot more sense to hear me say it than to read it so whenever I’m out next I’ll try to record myself so you can hear what I mean. Also, check out the posts in the “rush” tag, you might some ideas for what to say in there too.