Tag: steering

“Weigh enough” vs. “Let it run”

By readyallrow June 24, 2014

If I had to make a list of the things coxswains do that really grind my gears, misusing these two calls would easily be in the top three.

Weigh enough

This, as we all know, is the most basic call in your arsenal – it means “stop”. Anytime you want to stop rowing (or walking, if you’re on land), this is what you say. In a game of “Red Light, Green Light”, this is the red light.

Let it run

In “Red Light, Green Light”, this is the yellow light. It’s pretty much the “rolling stop” of rowing. “Let it run” also means stop but it does not mean “stop now” like weigh enough does. They are not the same call and they should not be used interchangeably. “Let it run” is what you use when you want the boat to purposely run out after you’ve finished rowing. When you make this call you’d say “let it run in two … one, two…” and the rowers would stop in the finish position with their hands away (exactly like a hands away pause) and the blades up off the water.

This isn’t a call you should make if you’re paddling or not rowing very hard either because you’re unlikely to get the run out of it that would necessitate making this call in the first place. If you’re doing steady state or starts, those two instances are the only two that come to mind when “let it run” could be a good alternative to “weigh enough”.

The video below shows what it should look like after you make the call for the boat to let it run. This was from our first day of training for nationals – the girls did a 1/2 pressure start then let it run out for a few seconds before the coxswain called for “blades down”.

Let it run is also a great “drill” to practice your balance with. The better your balance and more stable your handle heights are, the more run you’re going to be able to get. Another fun thing to do is take 10 or so really hard strokes and then let it run to see how much run the boat can get. I love doing this, especially with other crews just to see who can keep it set the longest and who can get the most run.

The most inappropriate time to use this call is when you’re on land and telling your crew to stop walking. From now on I think I’m going to take our coxswain’s suggestion from when we were at nationals and start telling the crews I coach that they should just start jogging away or something whenever the coxswain says “let it run” on land. One of the refs down by the docks overheard us talking about it and said that he’d told a couple of them that that wasn’t the correct terminology so hopefully after having someone point it out fewer people will make that mistake.

If you want to make a really simple, effortless correction this summer, start using “let it run” in the appropriate situations and stop using it when you should be using “weigh enough” instead. They are two different calls with two different purposes!

Two other calls that often come up in similar conversations is “hold water” and “check it down”, which I talked about in the post linked above from waaay back in October 2012. Although they both mean essentially the same thing and can be used interchangeably if you want, I tend to treat them as separate calls to be used in one of two different situations (both of which you can read about in that post).

Image via // @rowingcelebration

Coxing Novice Q&A

Question of the Day

By readyallrow May 21, 2014

Hi! I’m a sophomore girl who just finished her novice year as first boat coxswain. I began fall as a rower and started coxing half way through winter (after Crash-Bs). Due to several strokes (haha) of luck (for me) I quickly moved up from being my teams third and least experienced coxswain to my teams only, most experienced, and favored coxswain. We eventually gained two more coxswains but I remained my coach’s and rower’s favorite.

Point of this is that coxing novice first 8+ and first 4+ through several gold medals this season had given me a lot of confidence and I thought I’d be ready for varsity and that I might even be able to beat out some of their current coxswains. But, a couple weeks ago, I broke two riggers and and an oar on our best boat during practice in an accident that left the boat itself and my rowers in tact and ever since then I’m pretty sure the varsity coach–my future coach–hates me a little and no longer trusts me like he seemed to before hand. I apologized and took full responsibility for breaking the boat, the riggers and oar were replaced without too much hassle, and me and my rowers went on to place a close 2nd at Midwest in that boat.

The overall point of this whole story are my questions: do you have any tips on how to improve my coxing over the summer (during which I’m not doing any sort of summer rowing programs)? And, are there any specific things you think I should do to help gain the varsity coach’s trust back? I want to prove to him that I’m good enough for second boat or for the lightweight V8 even as a junior with only a year of experience because I really think I’m not that bad of a coxswain now and that any sort of improvement could boost that. Anyway, thank you so much for this blog and for whatever answer or advice you can give!

I’ll be totally honest with you, if I was your coach I’d probably be a little apprehensive of your coxing abilities for awhile too but at the same time, I’d probably chalk part of whatever happened up to you being a novice. I highly doubt your coach hates you though. Adults don’t really experience the same levels of satisfaction that come with blatantly disliking someone the way we did when we were teenagers so it’s likely that you’re just misinterpreting his frustration with the overall situation as something it’s not. I think you’ll agree with me when I say that he definitely has a right to be frustrated too. I don’t think you need to do anything specific to try and win back his trust and truthfully, I’d advise against trying to apologize again or make some grand gesture because it’s like … whatever, it happened, move on already.

That applies to anyone in similar situations too – two times max is really quite enough when it comes to apologies. Once when it happens and again (privately) after practice. After that I just don’t care anymore and will probably get annoyed with you, as I think most coaches would. Saying you’re sorry umpteen hundred times doesn’t actually mean you’re sorry or prove that you’ve learned anything from what happened. Doing something different at practice and upping your game is a much better way to prove you’ve moved on and have become a better coxswain thanks to the situation you were put in. That would do a lot more for restoring my trust in you than probably anything else you could do.

As far as improving over the summer, if you’re not going to be doing anything rowing related I’d recommend listening to the occasional recording or two when you’ve got some free time (long car rides or flights are perfect for this), doing some research on anything you didn’t fully understand or want to learn more about, etc. Otherwise just take the summer off. There’s nothing wrong with that. If there are rowing programs near you, even if you’re not participating in them see if you can get in contact with one of the coaches and ask to ride in the launch with them for a practice or two. I always liked doing this when I could in Boston because every coach is so unique with their approach that I’d ultimately come off the water having an entirely new perspective on something that I thought I understood pretty well already.

Coxing Q&A

Question of the Day

By readyallrow May 7, 2014

Do you know which lanes are “better” and which are “worse” with regards to the bend in the course on the Schuylkill?

Philly coxswains, feel free to weigh in and/or correct me on this since I haven’t spent a ton of time on Schuylkill and am not as familiar with its quirks. There’s a staggered start to account for the bend so there’s not really a “good” lane or a “bad” lane to be in as far as I know. Pretty much what makes one lane better or worse than another is gonna be more related to the condition of the water than anything else. If you/your coxswain is competent at steering you can easily gain a few seats coming through the bend but at the same time you can also lose some too if you mess it up. Waiting too long to turn will cause you to swing wide and if you cut it and swing early you’ll end up crossing over into another lane as you come under the Strawberry Mansion bridge.

I thought I had some video of the coxswains taking the turn through the bridge but if I do I can’t find it. A good example of how to do it though is to watch this video (also included on the “coxswain recordings” page) starting around 1:37. The way he called it was pretty solid, as was the line he took.

Coxing Q&A

Question of the Day

By readyallrow May 6, 2014

I’m a masters coxswain, with experience primarily on lakes in the Pacific Northwest. This past Saturday at a very hectic and busy race in this area, I was told by a Marshal to execute a “river turn” as I was crossing the warm up area. I realized with all the races that I have done over the years, I have only actually coxed on a river ONCE, and have no idea what a “river turn” is. Could you explain this maneuver and describe how to execute it without flipping your shell? Typically when we need to turn in a tight area I have the side I am turning towards back, and the opposite side row in alternating strokes. So if I need to rotate clockwise I have starboards back and ports row. It’s a bit of a slow process, is a river turn something faster?

What you’re doing is a river turn. I’ve never heard that term before though and actually had to Google it to find out what it meant (there weren’t very many results either). Apparently it’s also called a “scissor stroke” but it seemed like that one was used more with sculling than sweep rowing. Hopefully it’s not just me that’s never heard “river turn” used before … I feel like a lot of people probably wouldn’t know what it means though if a course marshal told them to “execute a river turn”.

I’ve found that turning with four rowers is just as fast or faster than trying to turn with all eight so I tend to have bow and three row and six and stroke back. I was always taught (and it’s been reinforced many times since then) that you just don’t turn to starboard unless you row on a river that has an opposite traffic pattern. If you are turning to starboard though for whatever reason, you’d have two and four row and five and seven back. Using four people instead of all eight helps keep the boat set more than anything else; 99.9% of the reason why turning with all eight is usually such a hassle is because it’s offset and one side can’t get their blades out of the water. The “fast” part of it comes not from speed but from power. As long as the people rowing/backing are doing so with an adequate amount of pressure, it really shouldn’t take more than say, 7ish strokes to turn the boat.

As far as flipping the boat goes, I’ve said this many times and I’ll say it again … it takes a special kind of stupid to flip an eight. Like, a seriously special kind of stupid. I’ve never heard of a crew flipping while turning (although in small boats it’d make sense if that’s when it happened) so it’s really not something you need to worry about.

Coxing How To Novice Racing Video of the Week

Video of the Week: Stake Boat Tips & Tricks

By readyallrow March 24, 2014

Getting into the stake boats at regattas isn’t that hard, provided you’ve practiced how to do it beforehand. If you try doing it for the first time at the start of your race, you’re gonna have a bad time.

Related: Racing skills: Pre-race prep

This video has a lot of good pointers on how to get into the stake boats so definitely check it out and share it with the younger coxswains on your team.

Coxing How To Q&A

Question of the Day

By readyallrow March 11, 2014

Hey. So I took a boat on the water for the second time ever yesterday, and we hit a nasty cross-course wind that kept blowing me off my point. Every time I’d try to fix it, I’d end up on the other extreme of that point. Any advice for dealing with these kinds of winds?

Crosswinds are a huge pain. When you’re getting hit on the side like that while trying to establish your point, the key is to know exactly what you need to do and who you need to do it so that you can move quickly. The quicker you get your point and start rowing, the less time the wind has to throw you off.

When getting your point in a crosswind you do want to over-correct just a little bit so that when you start rowing the crosswind blows you straight. Once you’re actually rowing, assuming you’re rowing by 6s at the least and with an adequate amount of pressure, it should be fairly easy to maintain your point. When starting out, assuming I’m in a port-stroked boat and am trying to turn towards starboard (the side I’m getting hit on with the wind), I like to have 2-seat row and 7-seat back. It takes some of the pressure off of 2-seat so he doesn’t have to turn the boat himself and adds a bit of power via 7-seat to expedite the process. Having all eight rowers row and back at the same time is too much of a hassle and is going to contribute more pressure than you actually need. More is not better or faster in this situation.

To get perfectly straight would normally take about two strokes but since we’re getting hit on starboard, we want to over correct a bit so I’d probably take three. In certain circumstances I might take a fourth stroke, although I’ll usually tell them to make the last one an arms only or arms and bodies stroke since I don’t want to over–correct too much. Since I’m trying to over-correct a little bit though I want to shoot for one stroke past straight, meaning if I’m two strokes to starboard I want to correct so I’m one stroke to port. (Hopefully that’s not too confusing.) This will give me enough leeway so that when we start rowing I can either adjust with the rudder or just let the wind push me into being straight.

From here it’s all about using the rudder to stay straight. You can use the rowers to help you adjust if you need to by telling one side or the other to “gimme one hard stroke on this one” but you should do that sparingly since that can really mess up any drills or pieces you’re doing.

Coxing Video of the Week

Video of the Week: Pay attention, coxswains

By readyallrow March 10, 2014

If you’ve ever had to fill out concussion forms for crew and thought “why am I filling this out, how could I possibly get a concussion?”, this video should give you an idea of one of the (very) few ways that you can sustain one. Keep an eye on the guy in the green shirt.

Coxswains, if something like this happens it’s on you. There’s no excuse for something like this. It’s not like massive trees just hang out below the surface and then suddenly think “hmm, time for some fresh air” before popping up out of the water. For as close as they were to it combined with the fact that it was sitting upright about 5ft above the water it should have been visible to the coxswain and she should have steered around it. “But there are eight tall guys in front of her, do you know how hard it is to see around them? They’re practically trees themselves!” Why yes, yes I do. That’s why when I’m coxing, regardless of who it is, I’m always peaking my head out of the boat every 15-20 strokes to see what’s up ahead of me.

Oh, and nonchalantly saying “sorry I didn’t see that” is probably one of the fastest ways to get eight people really pissed at you really fast. One or more of your rowers could have been hurt, not to mention the damage done to your boat (snapped oar and a broken rigger in this case) so a little bit more emotion, for lack of a better word, would do you some good. I have no idea how she reacted once they stopped but I know my knee-jerk reaction and probably that of the coxswains I know wouldn’t be “ho hum oops sorry”, it would be something along the lines of “oh SHIT are you guys OK??” Someone (I think my college coach but I don’t remember) said to us once that our reaction to hitting something should be proportional to the size of the object we hit.

The days after it’s rained are the ones where you’ll most likely have to deal with excessive amounts of debris in the water. In Philly last summer we had a week of really bad thunderstorms that resulted in our coxswains having to deal with massive tree trunks and limbs (even house furniture, oddly enough) almost every day. It’s tough but manageable if you’re paying attention to your surroundings.

Another time you’ll have to deal with stuff like this is when the ice melts since it’ll most likely cause some flooding. If you’re really short like me (4’11”) and/or have trouble seeing around your rowers then it’s your responsibility to communicate with your bowman and have them turn around every so often to check if there’s something that could potentially impede your path. If there is then they need to YELL LOUDLY and you either need to immediately weigh enough and check it down or figure out where the object is so you can navigate around it.

Coxing Q&A Teammates & Coaches

Question of the Day

By readyallrow January 15, 2014

Our cox steered our boat into a tree today (the river has been high since the floods so there were strong currents; it’s not really her fault) but our coach had a proper go at her and said she should apologise to me (I was at bow) for being hit by a tree but I really don’t want to make a big deal of it as she’s my friend even outside of rowing. What should I do?

I’m all for keeping coxswains accountable when they make a mistake but there’s no need to make it a bigger deal than it is or make them feel worse than they already do (and trust me, if they’re a good coxswain who knows what they’re doing, they will feel bad). If your coach already said something to her then there’s a good chance that she feels a bit guilty that her friend got whacked by a tree, so if/when she apologizes just accept it and move on. Let her know that you know that the circumstances were a little out of her control so she (hopefully) did the best she could at the time. Accidents happen. If she’s got an otherwise good track record as far as steering goes, chalk this one up to factors outside her control and let that be the end of it. Keep things lighthearted but reserve the right to bring up “that time you steered us into a tree and I got a branch to the back of the head” at least once a season for the rest of your time in school.

Coxing How To Q&A

Question of the Day

By readyallrow December 7, 2013

Any tips on keeping a straight course in the dark when it’s hard to see things to point at?

I hadn’t coxed in actual pitch black darkness until I was in college. It was hard but as time went on what helped me the most was becoming very familiar with the water during the daylight hours. Doing this meant that I could stay on autopilot with my steering when it was dark out instead of forgetting about all my other responsibilities and constantly leaning out of the boat, looking around, etc. to see where I was (although I still did this on occasion if it was raining, snowing, or foggy). When I first started coxing at Syracuse, since I was pretty unfamiliar with the river, I’d pick out various markers along the shore, typically a light of some kind, a boat that was docked nearby, etc. and count the number of strokes it would take to get to a bend or turn. When we got to that point I’d know that in three strokes I’m gonna need to steer lightly to starboard. It was a pretty simple solution that didn’t require much effort or overthinking. In Boston I didn’t have to worry about this as much because there’s so much ambient light around that we were never really in the dark.

If you’re already comfortable with steering then you’re probably operating on autopilot the majority of the time you’re on the water anyways but you’ve got the benefit of being able to see your surroundings. When you lose that ability or it becomes harder to do you’ve got to use what you know of what the river looks like during the day to help you out. One of the big cons of autopilot is that you only focus on what’s directly in front of you instead of everything that’s surrounding you. The more you’re aware of your surroundings the easier it can be to steer, regardless of the time of day.

When you’re on a river, you might be tempted to get close to the shoreline (closer than you normally would) and follow it but I’d advise against that because you never know what’s under or hanging out into the water, how shallow it is, etc. and you risk damaging the boat or injuring a teammate. If anything, I’d say position yourself slightly closer to the middle of the river (provided there are no crews coming in the other direction) so that you’ve got more of a buffer against the things you can’t see.

If you’re on an open lake or body of water, the biggest tip I can offer is to just not steer. Hold the rudder straight and only make adjustments if your coach tells you to. Also talk to your rowers – let them know that it’s tough to see and you need them to work with you so that you can maintain the point you’ve got. This means rowing at the same pressure as everyone else and/or making immediate adjustments when you call for one side to come up or go down in pressure for a stroke or two. If you can see something far off in the distance, like a cell phone tower or something, use that as your point.

If you really can’t see anything though, you should say something to your coach. They can sometimes underestimate what our field of vision is like and how tough it can be to see as it gets darker.

Coxing How To Q&A Rowing

Question of the Day

By readyallrow November 12, 2013

Do you have any tips on making super tight turns?

If it’s sharp enough that you can’t get around using just your rudder, then you’ll have to tell one side of the boat to row light for a couple strokes while the other side increases the pressure. Anticipate the turn ahead of time and start turning before you actually get there, that way you’re already well into before you need to ask for the rowers to adjust their pressure. I’d say that at least 75% of the work should come from you and the last 25% from the rowers.

If you try to take the turn completely on the rudder, you’ll end up going way wide and if you try to go around having one side row at 110% while the other side is still rowing at 100%, you’re not gonna go anywhere. As you go around the turn, make sure you tell the rowers you’re on the rudder (and have them adjust their handle heights accordingly, if necessary). When you need them to “add in”, tell one side to go light for however many strokes (make sure you specify but try to make it five or less) while having the other side pound it out for the same number of strokes.

That’s really the secret to navigating tight turns – one side rowing lighter, not one side rowing harder.

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