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.
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.”
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.
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.
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.
This is going to be a new series of posts that go up on Wednesdays that highlight some of the “top terms” coxswains should know and understand. I got this idea from Tom Tiffany, who was the coxswain coach at Northeast Rowing Center this past summer. All these terms are ones that he felt were important for coxswains to be aware of so I decided to take it a step further and include what part of the stroke/stroke cycle does the term apply to, what it means, relevant calls, what to look for, effect(s) on the boat, and links to any elated posts or questions.
What part of the stroke/stroke cycle does it refer to
The recovery.
What does it mean/refer to
Rush(ing) is what happens when a rower (or several rowers) move from the recovery to the catch too quickly, meaning they’re coming up the slide in less time than it took to drive through the water. It lacks ratio and rhythm, in part because it requires the rower to pull themselves up the slide instead of letting the boat run out under them.
Relevant calls
“No weight on the legs…”, “Zero pressure on the stretchers…”, “Relax the legs…”
“Feel the run on the recovery…”
“Stride…”, “Lengthen…”, “Control…”, “Looong…”
“Get the bodies set early…”, “Hold the shoulders steady in the second half…”
“Match the hands out of bow to the boat speed, maintain that with the slides…”
“7-seat, make sure you’re backing [stroke] up, get on their rhythm and then send it back. 5 and 6, relax, focus on that swing through the back end and matching stern pairs movements up the slide.”
“Don’t pull yourself up the slide, let the boat come to you…”
What to look for
As a coxswain you’re going to feel the rush more than you can see it but there are still visual cues you can look for to tackle the rush before it gets out of hand. The main one is to look for blades/oar shafts that are moving towards bow faster than your stroke/stern pair’s. You can also count the ratio out in your head and if it’s closer to 1:1 instead of 2:1 or 3:1, particularly at lower rates then that’s an indication that the crew is rushing. You should also feel a loose “back and forth” motion that lacks any sense of control, in addition to feeling a jerking motion as the rowers come into the catch that will typically throw you into the back of the coxswain’s seat a little more violently than normal.
Effect(s) on the boat
Rushing the recovery is one of the main killers of boat speed. Lacking a defined contrast between time spent on the recovery and time spent on the drive results in either an individual’s or the entire crew’s weight being thrown toward the stern which creates check and results in a loss of speed.
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?
Pause drills, acceleration drills, emphasizing slow recoveries with painfully slow stroke rates, and lots of patience. Also, instead of saying “slow up the slide”, find other ways to say the same thing. If you’re consistently repeating the same call they’re going to tune you out (either voluntarily or involuntarily) because it will have lost any and all of it’s meaning.
Pause drills are a good place to start because they give you checkpoints throughout the recovery to make sure everyone’s timing is right. In this case I’d probably start with a triple-pause (hands away, bodies over, half-slide) and eventually work up to a double-pause (hands away, half-slide), then a single-pause (half-slide). Depending on how experienced the crew is I’d probably start off with 4s (bow four and stern four) then eventually go to 6s (stern six and box six), with “eventually” being after a couple of practices. Don’t move on until they’re ready though – it does absolutely nothing for anyone to move on to something that’s a little more difficult (even if that’s just rowing by 6s) if they don’t have a firm grasp on the basics. If the crew is more experienced then you can do sixes (bow and stern) and then all eight. The reason why pause drills tend to be effective is because it gives them, like I said before, checkpoints so they can make sure they’re in the right place at the right time. If they’re rushing it’s going to be a total pain in the ass for your stroke but that’s when you’ve gotta lean out and talk to individuals and say “7-seat, make sure you’re backing [stroke] up, get on their rhythm and then send it back. 5 and 6, relax, focus on that swing through the back end and matching stern pairs movements up the slide.” … or something to that effect.
The key here is to help them understand that they shouldn’t be rushing from one pause to the next, rather they should be “floating” into it. It’s not a race to see who can get to the catch first. I say this to pretty much everyone (even the guys on my team that have been rowing for 6+ years) but just because your butt is on wheels doesn’t mean you can just fly up the slides with reckless abandon or assume that you don’t have to exert some kind of control over your own movements. Alternatively, if you’re physically pulling yourself up the slide with your feet instead of letting the boat run out underneath you, that whole floating thing can’t/won’t happen. We say “coming up the slide” because it’s easier but the way to actually think about it is to visualize your seat staying in the same spot while you bring your feet back towards your body. (This is something you can actually see when you’re in the launch too. 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”.)
When I’m coxing pause drills I like to give them one simple instruction at each pause (which should last for about two seconds, hence why what you say has to be concise) for a few strokes and then I’m silent (except for saying “go”) for a stroke or two. This gives them a chance to process what I just said and how the boat feels while also implementing any changes that need to be made. So if I’m coxing double pause drills starting from the previous stroke this is probably what it’d sound like:
“Let’s go double pause starting at hands away … on this one. [Catch, finish, hands away pause] Deep breath, relax the shoulders, go. [Half slide pause] Easy into the catch now, go. [Catch, finish, hands away pause] Little more control this time, go. [Half slide pause] Float into it, go. [Catch, finish, hands away pause] Better, go. [Half slide pause] Light into the front, accelerate through, go. Hook, squeeze. [Finish, hands away pause] There it is, go. [Half slide pause] Go. [Catch, finish, hands away pause] Go. [Half slide pause] Control the front end here, go. [Catch, finish, hands away pause] Chins up, eyes up, go. [Half slide pause] Keep it smooth, go. [Catch, finish, hands away pause] Go…”
And on and on until we switch. Something else you could/should emphasize is getting the bodies set early, meaning that by the time they’re at bodies over they’ve gotten all the reach they’re gonna get. Sometimes rushing into the catch doesn’t have as much to do with the slides as it does people throwing their upper bodies forward because they didn’t get enough (or any) swing in the first half of the recovery. In my experience it’s usually a 50-50 split between that and the slides so I’d talk with your coach and see what he/she thinks is the underlying issue and then go from there.
Acceleration drills are fairly straightforward, all you’re doing is starting the stroke at a low pressure and then gradually building to full pressure by the time you get to the finish. This is best done at lower rates (16-20spm) so you can really feel the boat pick up. Engage the legs muscles right at the catch but don’t “slam” them down until you get to about half-slide or so. That split second of patience vs. slamming them down immediately tends to make a big difference because it lets you feel the connection between the blade and the water before you start applying power.
It sounds like you need to also remind them (or emphasize, if they’re novices) that stroke rate and pressure aren’t the same thing – low stroke rates don’t necessarily mean low pressure just like high stroke rates don’t necessarily mean full pressure. Try rowing 12-14spm at 3/4 pressure – not only will that help them with slowing the recoveries down but it’ll also hopefully get them away from the idea that you have to be rowing high in order to pull hard.
In addition to all of that, I’d spend some time talking with your coach about what you’re seeing/feeling, that way they can watch from the launch and address the issues during practice. Another thing is pay attention to how the boat feels when you’re rowing by 4s and 6s (especially by 6s). You can usually pinpoint which pair the rush is coming from or who isn’t rowing at pressure when you switch people in and out. Depending on your relationship with them, how experienced you all are, etc. you could say something to them in the boat (“3 and 4, when you guys came in we started to feel the rush a bit more so once we get going again make sure you’re getting the bodies set early and controlling the slides as you come into the catch…”) but it might be best to talk it over with your coach first and see what they say. Most of the time my coaches would say to just tell them when I notice that happening but other times they’d say to hold off and wait for them to address it first. Talk with your coach and find out what to do in situations like that and then address it as necessary.
I was just wondering if there is a way to control the stroke rate when coxing. Usually the crew is too fast. Are there certain things that I should say? Thanks.
It sounds less like a stroke rate problem and more like you’re coxing rowers (novices, if I had to guess) who are having a problem with rushing . Just because your butt is on wheels doesn’t mean you can just fly uncontrollably up the slide but that’s a hard concept to get when you’re first starting out. Check out the posts in the “rush” tag, there are lots of questions and answers in there that should help you out in terms of coming up with things to say.
If it’s an issue with hitting the right rates, make sure you’re communicating with your stroke about what rates you need to be at and then stay on them until they hit it. This is especially important if you’re a less experienced crew because the sooner everyone (especially your stroke) learns what each rate feels like, the quicker they’ll be able to hit it when you say where they should be. The key with this though is to not be annoying and nagging about it. For example, don’t say the rate on every single stroke of a 5 minute piece or get super nitpicky if they go +/- one beat from where they’re supposed to be. If they’re consistently too fast then tell them (both when they’re not rowing and when they are) to be more controlled/slower/relaxed/composed/etc. on the slides as they come into the front end. Match their hands to the boat speed as they come away at the finish, get the bodies set early, stay light on the feet (aka don’t pull yourself up) and move with your stern pair. Follow the pace they set instead of, as I said earlier, uncontrollably flying into the catch.
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.
What the hell do I, as a stroke seat, do to calm outrageous rush?
If you’re already setting a reasonable pace and they’re not following you, it’s unlikely that things will improve if you try to forcefully resist the rush because that’s just going to result in the timing getting way off, which will cause other problems (obviously). I’ve occasionally had strokes that will try to hold their finishes a little longer but that’ll tend to only work for a few strokes before it gets out of control again (and their backs start to hurt).
If you haven’t already, talk to your coxswain and coach about it. When you’re on the water you should consistently be communicating with your coxswain whenever it feels like you’re getting pushed up the slide. During water breaks or on land, you should bring it up to your coach so they can observe the crew to try to determine what/who is causing it and/or so they can adjust their practice plan, if necessary, to focus on slide control for a bit. Fixing the rush tends to be a collaborative task, at least in my experience, and really requires you and your coxswain to be on the same page whenever you’re on the water. Off the water, you have to communicate what you’re feeling to the coach. The coxswain can explain how it feels to them but we don’t feel the rush the same way you do in stroke seat so it’s important that you tell the coach where you feel it the most during the stroke, if it only happens at specific rates or if it’s a regular and consistent problem, if you notice it more when a certain pair comes in (i.e. if you’re rowing by 6s and you only feel rushed when 3 + 4 are rotated in), etc.
One thing that I’ve consistently heard from my stroke seats over the years is that they’re not going to take the rate above what feels comfortable for them. If we’re doing pieces at a 28 but they feel like shit because of the rush, they’ll row at a 26. If it still feels like shit, they’ll go down to a 24. This obviously requires communication between you, your coxswain, and your coach so it’s something I’d definitely try to discuss before going out on the water but there are other times when you just need to make a game-time decision and tell your coxswain “this feels awful, we’re taking the rate down two beats”. You’re the one responsible for dictating the pace so … assert yourself and do that (without being an ass about it). One of the things that rowers need to understand in general is that there’s no point rowing at a certain rate if it feels terrible just to say you did your piece at a 28 or a 32 or whatever. Find a stroke rate that feels good (even if it’s really low), row at that rate for awhile, then bump the rate up and try to get that same feeling. Emphasizing slow recoveries and making sure your coxswain is calling out the people who are early at the catch are going to be two of the best things for your crew right now. It’s also going to be important for you to tell the coxswain when something changes, either positively or negatively, so they can assess it and make the appropriate call to either reinforce what the crew did well or to continue trying to elicit a change from them.
Another thing you can do is ask your coach/coxswain to do pause drills during the warmup. I’ve talked about this before in the post linked above (scroll down to #3 and check out the other links in that section too) but pause drills are great for getting everyone on the same page and really thinking about what they’re doing. I like to break it down into pairs and fours when I can, just because it puts a little more responsibility on the individuals, and because it helps me (as a coach or the coxswain) pinpoint the specifics of what that rower is doing that is contributing to the problem. Obviously that has nothing to really do with you but it’s something you can suggest if they aren’t already part of your warmup or the drills you do.
Also, make sure you talk to your 7-seat (off the water). Their main job is to back you up and maintain the pace you’re setting. That obviously puts a little more pressure on them to resist the rush but at the same time, they can’t be part of the problem by contributing to it. They probably feel it just as much as you do if it’s really that bad so just remind them that you need them to back you up and help set the rhythm.
Bottom line, what it comes down to as far as what you can do to calm the rush is to make sure you’re aggressively and consistently communicating what you’re feeling to the people around you. Effective communication will be your biggest asset here. Let your coxswain (first) and coach (second) be the one to communicate what you’re saying/feeling to the crew as a whole but make sure you’re also talking with your 7-seat off the water or quietly during breaks about how things are going.
Hi! My coxing has gotten to the point where I can see the technical problems in my rowers, but sometimes I’m not sure how to call a correction on them. For instance, I know if someone is skying at the catch I can call the boat to focus on direct catches and “hands up at the catch” and things like that for stability…but there are others I’m less sure about. Would you please touch on good ways (positive reinforcement, they hate the word “no” in the boat) to call for the following problems in a rower?
Yanking at the finish
Swinging early
Rush on the last 1/3 of the slide (and she doesn’t respond to ‘patience up the slide’)
Inside arm bent
Washout (I know one call is to ‘lean into the rigger at the finish’ but is there anything else I can say?)
Drop-off in power due to lack of focus (focus calls help her, but I can’t do that every minute)
Thank you so much for your blog! I started coxing this year and this has been my go-to resource for improving, watching videos, and asking questions!
I’ll give you some pointers and things to look for but you’re on your own with working it into calls for your crew. It’s no fun for anyone if I do all the work (although feel free to email me with whatever you come up with and I’ll definitely give you some feedback). The best way to figure out what calls to make is to learn as much as you can about technique and then tell the rowers exactly what they’re doing vs. what they should be doing if what they’re currently doing is wrong. Until you have a thorough grasp of all the technical aspects, it’s better/easier for everyone to just explain it in it’s entirety during practice before chopping it all up into smaller, more monosyllabic calls. Plus, it reinforces for both you and the rowers how the stroke should look and feel.
Pretty much all of these are better to understand when you can actually show the person what you mean so try hopping on the erg with them or grab one of the better technical rowers on the team to help demonstrate what you mean. Unless you’ve got impeccable technique yourself, I would get a rower (or your coach) to assist you. If you get a coach to help you (which I would recommend over a rower but it’s your call), talk to them beforehand and ask them to let you explain everything and not to interject unless what you’ve said is 100% completely wrong. This gives you an opportunity to test your own knowledge and abilities to communicate that to your rowers without having someone else jump in, cut you off, or undermine you. This is also a chance for you to assert yourself and let your coach know that you’re trying to use this as a learning opportunity too so that they understand why you’re telling them to not try and take over what you’re doing. (Key word here is assert yourself. Most coaches are totally cool with backing off in situations like this but you have to let them know that’s what you need them to do.)
Doing this really helped me when I was learning how to spot technique errors when I was a novice. Afterwards, my coach and I would go over what I said together and they’d give me feedback on what/how I explained something, if I left something out, if there was a better or more efficient way of explaining something, etc. While I was explaining it though, if I made a mistake they let me make it because that helped me learn a lot better than if they constantly butted in and corrected me. Letting me explain things on my own, make mistakes if necessary, and then talking with me about it afterwards also helped me build a lot of confidence in what I was doing. If I knew I was going to have to explain something differently to my boat as a result of explaining it improperly the first time, I’d just tell them that I made a mistake earlier and this is what you actually need to do. Making mistakes is a natural part of the process when you’re learning something new so it’s OK to make them as long as you make an effort to not make the same ones again.
Yanking at the finish
Finishes are like relationships: you can’t force them, you’ve just gotta let it happen. Remind the rower(s) that the majority of the power on the drive should be coming from the legs (via the quads and hamstrings) and that the acceleration that occurs should be smooth and consistent. The legs and hands should be in sync so once the first part is completed, the back and arm motions should be seen as a continuation of the leg drive, not separate movements, if that makes sense. When you’re yanking the handle you’re separating the back and arms from the legs. What tends to happen when you have a jerky finish like that is you complete the first half of the drive (legs flat, back perpendicular to the hull, arms still out straight) and try to get the same amount of power out of of your back and arms that you got out of your legs, which isn’t possible thanks to the smaller muscle groups of the upper body.
The second half of the drive usually looks something like this as a result: pulling the handle up (creating an arc-like motion) instead of straight into the body (thus burying the blade deeper than necessary, making them think they’re doing more work than they actually are) and finishing the stroke in their lap (resulting in them washing out and having an incomplete stroke).
Try rowing with the inside arm only if you can; it’s pretty much impossible to keep the blade completely submerged and yank it into the finish if you’re only rowing with one arm. Another thing you can do (this is actually probably the better option) is to get on the ergs and pull up the force curve on the monitor (just press the “change display” button until it comes up on the bottom of the screen). I don’t recall if PM2 monitors have this so this may only work if you’ve got the newer PM3 or PM4 ones. If they’re yanking the handles they’ll see their force curve will have two peaks instead of one. You can see in the photos below what that’ll look like. The way they change this so that it shows only one peak is to adjust where and how they emphasize their legs, back, and arms.
Swinging early
I don’t know if you mean swinging on the drive or swinging out of bow so I’ll start with out of bow. I really don’t know what to say about that other than to just pay attention. Watch the shoulders of the person in front of you, anticipate (key word there … anticipate) their movement, and match their timing. You can usually see this if you watch their oars on the recovery – they move faster than the one(s) in front of them. Since the body swing comes after getting the hands away I’d also remind them to control the hands coming out of the bow and match them to the speed of the boat.
If you’re talking about swing on the drive, they’re opening their backs up early. This means they’re trying to use the backs before their legs are completely flat. This usually results in them laying back too far, rushing out of the finish (because they have to come up so much farther than everyone else), and not getting the bodies set on the recovery.
This was happening with one of my novice rowers last week. Her problem was that she’d have good body prep on the first stroke but as she was coming into the catch she’d let her butt come under her shoulders instead of keeping the shoulders in front, which meant that at the catch her upper body was perpendicular to the boat (as opposed to being at an angle with the body over). From the catch, she would push off and at half slide start to open her back, which would then make it hard for her to get her legs down with everyone else because the weight of her upper body moving towards the bow (plus the run of the boat) was pushing her butt, which is on wheels, towards the stern of the boat.
One of the things I told her was to imagine a brick wall at the end of her slide (not the end of her stroke, the end of her slide). As you go through the first part of the drive with the legs, you want the part of your body that hits that wall first to be your butt. If your shoulders hit it first then you know you’re opening up too early. The shoulders must stay in front of your butt (and over your quads, if that’s easier to visualize) until the leg drive is completed. Reminding them to engage their glutes (aka squeeze their butt) on the drive has also been something that’s helped some of the rowers I’ve coxed. If you sit in a pseudo-catch position right now and squeeze your butt you can kinda feel your core (abs + low back) tighten as well. Tight core = better posture = stronger back = less likely to open up early.
Another thing to focus on is direct catches. If you dive into the catch (hands physically down by your feet) your blade is going to be way up in the air, which means that when you push off at the catch there’s no resistance to keep you from opening your back up. Timing is key here, as is keeping the hands up and level on the recovery. When the slide is about an inch or so away from the catch, that is when you should start lifting the hands to put the blade in the water. If you don’t start lifting the hands until you’re already all the way up your slide, you’re gonna be late, you’re gonna miss water, and you’re probably gonna open the back too soon.
One of the issues that people tend to have with this (or as a result) is they think of the stroke as being a pulling motion rather than a pushing motion. I know we use the word “pull” a lot when trying to explain certain things but pulling really only applies to the very last part of the stroke (with the arms). The majority of the stroke happens because you’re pushing off with your feet. If you’re pulling on the handle right from the start you’re not getting any suspension (or hang) on the handle. In order to do that you’ve got to have the shoulders forward and your back supported (no slouching, sit up tall, contract your core, chin up, shoulders firm but relaxed). This allows you to push the boat rather than pull the handle.
One of the drills that really helps with this problem is rowing with the feet out. If you’re opening up the back early it is highly unlikely bordering on impossible that you’re maintaining any connection with the foot stretchers, which means that if you open up the back before you’re supposed to you’re going to fall backwards and into the lap of the person behind you. Rowing with the feet out (during warmups is a great time to do this) forces you to really think about the sequencing and not shifting your weight before you’re supposed to. The reverse pick drill is another drill that focuses on the sequencing on the drive – legs only, then legs and back, then legs, back, and arms. For someone opening their back early, your focus is going to want to be on emphasizing those first two progressions.
The other thing you can do to help them understand the concept of suspension is to get on the erg with them and have them come up to the catch. (Make sure they’re where they need to be and are in a good position – if they’re not, correct them.) You then go stand directly in front of the erg and grab a hold of the handle in between their hands. (Brace yourself against the erg if you need to but make sure you have a firm grasp on the handle.) On your call, tell them to drive back (not all the way, just the first inch or so) and feel the resistance you’re putting on the handle. What should happen is they should feel their weight come just slightly off the seat. That is the hang you’re looking for on the water. If you have mirrors in your boathouse, set the erg up parallel to them so you can watch their bodies and ensure that they’re driving back properly.
Rush on the last 1/3 of the slide
Pause drills. I did this with the eight I took out the other day for like, 30 minutes and I swear it made such a difference with their slide control. We did a two-part pause at hands away and 1/2 slide and started off doing it by pairs, then fours, then sixes, then all eight so that each group could get a sense of what the recovery should feel like without being rushed up the slide by another group.
Starting with the pairs let me focus on the individuals and (attempt to) correct whatever I was seeing that was contributing to them rushing the slide. It was honestly much (much muuuuch) more of a focus issue than it was anything else (as it is most of the time) but breaking it down and really forcing them to think about getting the hands away together, coming up the first half of the slide together, stopping at what is actually half slide (not 3/4 slide or full slide), having room to come the rest of the way into the catch, and doing so in a controlled manner was really the most effective way I think we could have gone about it. We spent a good amount of time finding where 1/2 slide is (never as far up as you think it is) and that helped a lot.
Talk to your coach and see if you can spend some time doing this during practice. Since he’ll have a much better view of the bodies and slides, listen to what he says (since you can’t see either of those things) and try to work the things he’s saying to the rowers into the calls you make. If you know specifically who the girl is that’s rushing, don’t be afraid to specifically call her out and say “Amanda, I need you to focus on slowing your slide down on the recovery between hands away and the catch…”. The calls I tend to make for stuff like this are “control”, “patience”, “relax”, “feel the recovery”, “stay long”, etc. but when it comes to fixing specific problems I just repeat whatever I’ve heard the coaches say since I can’t see anything that’s happening with their bodies or slides.
This isn’t something you should have a call for, it’s just a bad habit that needs to be broken. The only way to do that is to explain why they shouldn’t do it and then show/explain what they should be doing instead. Some coaches actually do teach you to row with a bent inside arm, which I don’t understand at all (please explain down in the comments if you do), but I’ve never had a coach teach my crews that and the coaches I’ve worked with that have taught that have gotten in such hot debates with the other coaches over whether it’s effective or not that, at the end of the day, it’s really just not worth it.
If you think of the arms as an extension of the oar handle, a bent elbow disrupts the transition of the load at the catch (resulting in not-as-strong of a hang). In order for you to have a good hang at the catch and not end up with elbow tendonitis later on in the season, the arms need to come away and get completely outstretched before the bodies come over and then stay that way until the final part of the drive when you bring the handle in. If, on the flip side, they’re having trouble getting the arms out with everyone else on the recovery, a) they need to practice everything at a slower pace so they can get the proper sequencing down and b) they need to be quicker (obviously … it’s really that simple). (Those things might sound counter-intuitive but I promise they’re not.)
Having the arms bent (on either the drive or the recovery) puts you in a vulnerable position too because it makes you less stable against anything that would offset the boat. One of the things I worked on with a four I took out yesterday was keeping the arms straight because whenever the boat would go offset it was partially made worse by one of the rowers having bent arms that would buckle as soon as the boat started tipping. This caused her hands to collapse down into her lap nearly every time which then exacerbated the set problems. Once we corrected the bent arm issue, the set problems were somewhat alleviated. It didn’t fix them but it definitely made a noticeable difference.
Washing out
This goes hand in hand with what I said about at the beginning about yanking the handle. If the rowers are washing out, they’re not finishing with the handle high enough on the body, rather they’re finishing with it in their lap. This is easily noticeable because there will be a lot of whitewater being thrown around as their blade comes out and the boat will likely tip over to that side a bit as the hands and rigger are forced down. They’ll also most likely have a shorter stroke than everyone else, leading to them extracting the blade early.
One of the ways I’ve explained it while coxing is that they’re pulling the blade down instead of through the finish. I tell them to make sure they keep the outside elbow up throughout the drive and through the finish, while focusing on using the lat muscles to draw the handle in to the lower rib. Another thing I’ve said (when all the “technical” rowing explanations aren’t working) is to imagine someone you really, really, really don’t like sitting directly behind your outside arm. Every stroke you take, your want your elbow to be up high enough for you to be able to elbow that person in the face. In order to do that, you’ve got to pull straight through, not down, and with a solid amount of force. I don’t know what it is about that analogy but it has helped fix so many problems related to washing out.
If after working on their finish position, drawing through, etc. you still notice the rower having a problem, talk to the coach about maybe looking at the rigging at that rower’s seat. If it’s rigged too high (less likely) or the pitch is off (more likely), that could be contributing to the problem. Work on technique first though before looking into this.
Drop off in power due to lack of focus
Yea, I lack the patience to constantly try to draw a rower’s focus back into the boat. Some coaches and coxswains are like “whatever, it’s part of the job” but I am so. not. one of them. If I have to say it more than once or twice in one practice (or every day, if it’s a habitual thing), I very sternly remind them that I am not there to babysit them and they either need to get their eyes and head in the boat or get out.
Even with novice crews, I get that you’re young and new to the sport and whatever but still, this is a skill you need to work on. I can’t (and refuse to) be held responsible for your inattentiveness. I’m not going to spend my time constantly telling you to keep the pressure up, stay focused, etc. when there are umpteen hundred other (more important) things I need to be paying attention to. The rowers can hear me telling that person to match up with everyone else too so it’s very likely that they’re going to start getting annoyed that this same person is constantly finding things outside of the boat more worthy of their attention. That’s happened before and trust me, you would much rather me harshly tell you to pay attention than have seven rowers get on your ass about it.
If I notice that it’s a continual problem with one specific person then I’ll pull them aside after practice, ask them what’s going on, and reiterate that I can’t constantly be telling them to stay focused and match the pressure of everyone else. I try to remind them that I’m not trying to be a bitch about it but they’re really not leaving me any option, especially if something has already been said to them multiple times. One on one conversations like that have always been more effective in my experience than any random call I could make in the boat.
If you’re getting tired midway through practice and that’s why your power is dropping off then you need to start running, biking, lifting, etc. on your own time to increase your cardio base and overall strength. If your power is dropping off because you’re getting bored or whatever, sorry but I don’t know what you want me to tell you. I explain too that there’s a reason why I’m always talking when I’m coxing and that’s to keep the rowers engaged and focused (I’ve found with my boats that the less I talk, the more unfocused my crews become). They should be listening to what I’m saying and evaluating themselves, what the boat is doing, etc. on every stroke.
I’ll also ask them if there’s something specific that I can say to help them refocus and over the next week or so, if I notice them starting to fall off or lose their focus, I’ll say something like “Allie, lemme feel that drive, big push, refocus heeere annnd send … good, now let’s maintain this pressure, making sure everyone is equally contributing to the boat speed, no passengers, pick it up and send…”. A huge part of being a rower (and coxswain) is understanding the concept of personal responsibility and this is one of those things that falls under that category. You either get it or you get left behind but in the end, whatever you do is your choice.
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.
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.
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.
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.
