Heeey so at the moment we’re doing a lot of work on the finish and the release but I am struggling to come up with calls that really work. I have a few basic ones but not many so I find myself repeating them over and over and over and over. Do you have any calls for technique at the finish and release that Icould borrow or modify to suit my crew?? TY x
Good question. First thing (or first two things, rather) I’d do is talk with your coach about what he/she is specifically trying to achieve with the work you’re doing on the finish/release. Usually they’ll have at least one or two things in mind that they’d like to see the rowers improve on so find out what those are and as you’re listening to your coach explain them, write down 2-3 of the key things he says about each one (these should be short phrases, 5-7ish words max). From there, you can either use exactly what he said as a call or come up with a call on your own based off of his explanation.
For example, let’s pretend I had this conversation with my coach: “What I really want to focus on with these finish and release drills is making sure the guys are setting themselves up to have a good recovery and follow that up with a sharp, clean catch. If their posture is poor as they come through the finish it’s going to be hard for them to maintain the pressure with the outside hand that’s needed to tap the handle down and extract the blade from the water. That’s one of the reasons why we’re doing those pause drills at the release, to get them to think about staying up tall throughout the entire stroke and not slumping down into their hips as they lay back and draw through the finish. The other thing I want to focus on with the finish is making sure they’re continuing to move the handle consistently through the back end of the stroke and not giving up any of the speed from the front end.”
There’s a lot of info packed in that paragraph but that’s a good thing because it gives you plenty of inspiration to draw from. Something I did when I was in college whenever I’d try to get my biochem professor to explain something to me was I’d take my recorder and record our conversation so I could go back and listen to it later and pause it at the spots I thought were particularly important. This gave me a chance to actually process what was being said and compare his explanation to the notes I had from class vs. trying to recall everything he said a few hours later and forgetting half of what I asked him. I’d recommend doing this if you know you’ve got a specific question that (hopefully) has a long-ish answer, that way you can go back and review it later.
So, from that paragraph this is what I’d take away and what call(s) I’d create from it.
Take away: ” …making sure the guys are setting themselves up to have a good recovery and follow that up with a sharp, clean catch…”
Call(s): This is where I’d appeal to the coach’s good side while also communicating what we’re doing to the rowers. By repeating what he said to you shows you were listening and actually absorbing the information he was giving you. Even though this isn’t a specific finish/release call it achieves the same thing. “OK guys, as we go through this next minute let’s make sure we’re always thinking ahead to the next stroke and setting ourselves up for a smooth recovery. How good our catches are will be determined by how committed we are to having strong finishes and clean releases…”
Take away: “…poor posture through the finish = hard to maintain pressure with the outside hand…”
Call(s): This is where you have to do some work and think about what the finish should look like when they’re rowing with ideal posture. What does that “ideal” posture look like when they’re in the finish position? You should be able to come up with … I’d say five or six things easily that you can then use and direct to either the entire crew or to individual rowers if you know they have a specific issue with something posture-related at the finish. (I know I’m not giving you anything specific here but … that’s the point. I want you to do the work and come up with this stuff on your own!)
Take away: “…pressure with the outside hand that’s needed to tap the handle down and extract the blade from the water…”
Calls: Remind them that just the outside hand should be used to extract the blade (younger rowers in particular tend to try and use both) and make a few calls about having a relaxed, flat outside wrist with the elbow up and out (find a happy medium between T-Rex arms and chicken wings…). Keeping the elbow up will help them maintain a flat wrist position which in turn will help them exert the right amount of pressure on the handle to get the blade out. Don’t be afraid to tell them to look out over their outside shoulder to see if their elbows are up or to have them glance down at their wrist, particularly during a finish pause, to see what if they’re flat or a little hunched. Obviously that’s not something you can see with anyone other than your stroke (and even then it can be tough sometimes) so telling them specifically what to look for and what to change (if necessary) is what you have to do in situations like this.
Take away:“…purpose of the pause drill = to get them to think about staying up tall throughout the entire stroke and not slumping down into their hips as they lay back and draw through the finish…”
Calls: I would say exactly this since sometimes it isn’t communicated well or isn’t clear to everyone why you’re doing certain drills. In cases like this I would also talk specifically to that one person in your boat who consistently has shitty posture (there’s always at least one) and say “Dan, we’re doing these pause drills for you. Through these next five strokes I want you to think about staying tall all the way through the drive and not losing any height as you finish the stroke.” This puts some personal responsibility on Dan and gives everyone else something to think about too. Another thing I like to do when I’m doing pause drills at the release is let them take 2-3 normal strokes and then on the third pause say “OK now everyone sit up…”. You will magically see everyone get an inch or two taller. Once I say “go” I’ll tell them to stay tall into the catch (said on the recovery), drive with the cores (said at the catch), and support it here (said as they come through to the finish). Basic reminders like this are a good way to get them to think about what they have to do at each point during the stroke in order to have a supported finish.
Take away: “…making sure they’re continuing to move the handle consistently through the back end of the stroke…”
Calls: For simple things like this I like to keep it basic and say “squeeze” (my most common finish call), “draw through“, “pull in high, snap at the finish…”, etc. Sometimes I’ll also say “keep the handle moving through the back end” on the drive and then say “snap” or “here” right at the finish as the arms draw through.
Take away: “…not giving up any of the speed from the front end…”
Calls: I was just talking about this with the walk-ons the other day. One of the most important things to remember at the finish is that in order to maintain your speed and give the end of the stroke a little extra “oomph”, there has to be a flawless transition from the momentum that’s been created by the leg drive to the draw through with the arms. The arm draw is responsible for taking advantage of the momentum created at the front end and carrying it through to the back end, so in order to do that there has to be consistent pressure exerted on the face of the blade as you come through the finish. I like to appeal to the musculature here and make calls like “squeeze the lats”, “elbows and triceps up”, “press back with the shoulders”, etc. Other times I’ll just say what I said at the beginning – we can’t give up any of the speed we got with the legs so keep the transition between the legs and body smooth and sharp. Another thing I’ve said is “don’t cheat the speed”, meaning don’t get lazy at the finish and expect the boat to do all the work for you.
The other thing I would do is talk to the rowers and find out what they want/need to hear. Some have individual things they’re working on, others are looking for more general reminders … find out what all those things are and make note of them. A lot of times they’ll say “if you could say something like X if you see me/us doing Y…” which is usually a good starting point for you to go off of and build your calls from there.
Hey! I cox a HS women’s bow loader 4+ and after looking over some footage from our past regattas, my coach noticed that many rowers are “missing water” and not getting the oars enough behind them enough at the catch to produce a maximum length and power stroke every time. She asked me to try to make calls and to focus on things that will help get the length behind them, and also to have them think about rotating out towards their rigger at the catch. Would you be able to clear what she means up for me, and possibly demonstrate the way something like this would be called? Thanks!
Normally whenever I get questions I’ll read through it and automatically think “Oh OK, all you’ve gotta do is X, Y, and Z”. First thing I thought when I read this was “your coach only realized after watching race footage of multiple regattas that the rowers weren’t getting a long enough stroke?” … l donno, I guess that just seems like a pretty obvious thing that you’d be working on during practice vs. only recognizing it after the fact.
Anyways, to break down what she’s saying, “missing water” as we know means that they’re not getting the blades locked on to the water before they start the leg drive. This is also sometimes referred to as “rowing it in” although you’re not always necessarily rowing it in when you’re missing water. In this case it sounds like the biggest issue contributing to the missed water is not getting enough length, which is actually a pretty simple thing to fix. Being in a bow loader makes it really hard/nearly impossible for you to see this though because unless you’re sitting up and actually turning around to look at the blades (and offsetting the boat in the process), you’ve really only got the bow man’s blade (seen mostly from your peripheral vision) to go off of in terms of seeing whether or not they’re making the necessary changes. You can make all the calls you want but it’s really up to your coach(es) to address the root issue and work on it during practice. I’ve found while coxing that a lot of coaches don’t get that for some reason and I’m really not sure why… (and, to be honest, it really contributes to how much of a bitch it is to cox bow loaders).
The best analogy I’ve heard when it comes to explaining rotating out towards the rigger came from Holly Metcalf, who’s the head women’s coach at MIT. (She coxed my masters 8+ for a bit when I first started coxing them and, more impressively, was 2-seat in the first women’s 8+ to win gold at the Olympics at the ’84 games in Los Angeles.) The way to think about it is to think of what your upper body is doing when you’re throwing a frisbee. The way to get the flattest and longest throw is to keep your arm flat and rotate ever so slightly from the core. The same applies to rowing. To get the longest stroke possible you don’t want to dip your hands or raise them up because that’s going to mess with the trajectory, so to speak, of the blade, which is going to result in a shorter and less powerful stroke. It’s definitely something that’s much easier to understand if you can demonstrate it vs. just saying it but if you do understand what I’m saying then by all means, show ’em how it’s done.
If I were in your position I’d do three main things:
Start adding pause drills to your daily warm-up.
The goal is to emphasize getting the body prep early so you want the pause to be at bodies over. You also want to reiterate that by the time they get to this point, they should have their bodies as far forward as they’re gonna go in order to get as long of a stroke as possible. I usually like to remind them that they should be feeling a bit of a stretch in the hamstrings, in addition to telling them to keep in mind that they shouldn’t be lunging, rather they should be pivoting from the hips while keeping the back flat and the core tight. If you can, I’d recommend going over this on the erg with them before you go on the water so you can show them the difference between how they look vs. how you/your coach wants them to look. Do this for 10-15 strokes per pair (stern pair, bow pair, middle pair, outside pair) and then if your crew can handle it (you be the judge) for 10-15 strokes by all four. Remind them that it should feel different than what they’re used to doing and make sure that your coach is watching you so she can give them feedback on what it all looks like. That’s kind of crucial…
Make a list of all the “length” related calls you can think of and carry it in the boat with you.
I can’t remember what I did this for but I did something similar in college for whatever technical thing we’d been working on that week and it was great because not only did it give me 20-some different ways of saying the same exact thing but also because I had it right in front of me for an entire week of practice so I didn’t have to wrack my brain for things to say. (It also gave me an excuse to not write whatever paper I was supposed to be writing for my philosophy class.)
Get the footage from your coach and go over it.
Take notes on what you’re seeing – what looks right that you can use for positive reinforcement and what doesn’t (individually, as pairs, as a crew, etc.). With the stuff that looks right, why does it look right – what are they doing well here? Even though you know they’re not getting their full length, how do their catches look? What about their posture? Are they finishing clean? Stuff like that. Same goes for what doesn’t look right. You already know length is an issue but why? Can you see specifically where they’re doing something that would contribute to that? Go through the stroke, look at each part of it, and take notes on what you see. You really can’t be too specific here but try to avoid writing something down just for the sake of saying something. If possible, try to do this with your coach so you know exactly what she’s looking at with respect to the length issue and so you can take her exact words in the boat with you and use them. (If you can get the video on your laptop but can’t go over it with your coach, feel free to email to me and I’ll take a look at it.)
As far as how I’d call something like this, I’d mainly try to focus on incorporating basic “reminder” calls into your regular coxing (“remember to get the bodies set before the knees come up”, “45 degree angles between the blades and the boat”, etc.) and then whenever you’re doing short pieces, if you’re not given something specific to do, make the majority of your calls about finding that length. When I do this I like to focus on the technique that leads to the rowers getting long so that I’m not harping on one thing over and over but the general idea of what we’re going for is still obvious.
Sure! When you hear someone say you’re rowing it in, what they mean is that you’re starting your leg drive before you’ve locked the blade on to the water. Starting the leg drive before your blade’s in means that you’ll miss water at the catch, have a shorter stroke, and generate less power on the drive (since your blade isn’t in the water for as long as it should be). Something to remember is that getting to the front of the slide isn’t what signifies that it’s time to change direction, rather it’s the blade catching the water. Lock the blade then go with the legs.
Another thing that can contribute to missing water is diving at the catch. This tends to happen when you fail to set the body angle early enough. By the time you reach half-slide you should have all the body prep you’re going to get otherwise what ends up happening is you get to 3/4 slide and end up throwing your upper body forward to get more reach (or rather, the amount of reach you would have gotten had you set your body angle at the right time). This effects several things within the boat, including where your blade is when you go to start the drive. Throwing the body tends to push the hands down towards your feet, which in turn lifts the blade up. If your blade is higher than it needs to be above the water (i.e. six inches or more…) then you’re going to have difficulty staying on time with everyone else and going straight to the water. If you’re not going straight to the water then you’re missing water.
If you’re a coxswain this can be tough to see from where we’re sitting but the easiest way to tell if someone is missing water is to look at the angle of the oar shafts. A good catch angle from our perspective is about 45 degrees, give or take. Anything less than that and they’re likely doing one of the two things I described up above. Sometimes I’ll poke my head out of the boat if we’re not doing pieces to see if I can spot the problem but if I can’t I’ll make a couple calls to that individual about going straight to the water, getting it right in at the catch, etc. and then talk to them/the coach about it more whenever we stop.
Hi there!! So I am a junior school (Under 14′s) cox and we have moved into using bow loader quads, instead of the usual stern loaders we used to use. We have been racing in an oct for awhile so I am a bit out of practice with the quads. Anyways, in the bow loader, I obviously have a very restricted field of vision, so I was wondering if you had any tips on “reading” or “feeling” the boat, to pick up on faults e.t.c ? Also I sometimes feel like I stay quiet for too long, during steady state if there are no obvious technical calls, rate calls, or rhythm calls. Is there anything that I can say to make it a bit less silent and awkward for the rowers?
Don’t underestimate the power of not talking. I think there are plenty of rowers who will agree with me in saying that if you don’t have anything constructive to say, especially during steady state, it’s best to just not say anything. When we’re doing long pieces I’ll actually tell the rowers that for the next 2, 3, 5, etc. minutes, I’m not gonna talk and that they should focus on X, Y, and Z. During that time I focus first on steering and second on feeling the boat. If I’m weak in any area as a coxswain, it’s definitely steering. I mean, I’m pretty proficient at it but if I had to grade myself I’d definitely give myself a lower grade there compared to my other skills. When I get the chance to go off auto-pilot and actually focus on the adjustments I’m making, I take the opportunity. You can read about all that and the technique “game” I play during steady state pieces in a bit more detail in the post linked below.
When it comes to feeling the boat, the best thing you can do for yourself is listen painfully hard when the coach is going though a technical practice with the crew. I hate technical practices because they’re boring as hell and there’s hardly ever anything for coxswains to actually do but I appreciate them to an extent because it helps me continue developing my sense of boat feel, regardless of whether I’m coxing an eight or a four. What you want to do is focus on how the boat feels while the rowers are doing the drill and how it feels after the coach gives them an instruction or feedback (i.e.”pull in higher”, “good adjustment with the hands”, etc.). For the most part, I gauge the “feel” of the boat by averaging the last three strokes. How did the last three strokes feel as a whole after an adjustment was made vs. pre-adjustment?
You can’t judge how the boat’s moving or what the rowers are doing if you look at it stroke by stroke – or at least, I don’t think you can. You’ve gotta base it off of what’s consistently happening. If the boat is set for ten strokes, dips to starboard for one, and then goes back to being set for several strokes, do you really need to say something about handle heights? On the flip side, when you would say something is if it’s down to one side for several strokes then setting up for one before going back to being offset because then you know that someone (or multiple someones) is consistently doing something that’s affecting the set (whereas before it might have been one person trying to readjust themselves on the seat or something).
Anyways, the point is is that if you use your time wisely during technical practices then when you’re doing steady state you can test yourself regarding technique and how that makes the boat feel. If the boat is doing this then you know either X or Y must be happening. X is caused by this, Y is caused by that. The factors causing X aren’t something your crew typically has an issue with but you know that factors B and C (that cause problem Y) are two things that your 3-seat has been working on a lot lately. Keeping that in mind, whenever you start talking again you can make a call for that or when you stop you can say to your coach “It felt like Y was happening and I know Dan has been working on B and C lately but I couldn’t tell if that was what was actually causing the problem. Did you see anything?” and then go from there.
…because we all know there’s no worse time to be a coxswain than during the winter.
The winter months are a great time for coxswains to work on two main skills: your ability to spot and diagnose technical proficiencies/deficiencies and polish up some of your calls. One of the best things you can do for yourself is talk to your coach and ask them to let you run a practice (or multiple practices) under their supervision. As thrilling as taking the rowers through a body circuit is, doing that for 3+ months is not going to make you a better coxswain.
One of my coaches overheard a friend and I whining about taking our respective eights through circuits our sophomore year (pretty sure the gist of our conversation was “this is so stupid, I’m so bored, I could be doing my homework right now (lol), etc.”) so the next practice he had us stay upstairs and alternate taking the rowers through warmups and different drills. It was good for us because at that point after a year of experience we knew how things should be called, we just needed to fine-tune how we did it.
When it comes to working on your technical calls, you should limit this to two occasions: warmups/drills and group workouts where everyone is rowing at the same pace (rate pyramids are an ideal workout for this). Basically anytime the rowers are all doing the same thing, go for it, otherwise, be a silent observer. In cases like this, you’re not really focusing on the individual so the rowers who don’t like being coxed on the erg won’t have much to complain about. This is more for you than it is for them anyways.
One of the main things you should focus on is how you call the transitions between rates, pressure, starts and settles, etc. Remember that just because you’re not on the water doesn’t mean you can start monologue-ing with your calls. Everything should still be simple and concise. I’ve used this analogy before but for those who haven’t heard it, if you can’t tweet whatever call you’re trying to make (aka it’s longer than the length of one tweet, which is 140 characters), it’s too long. Take out the unnecessary words so only the really important ones (the ones that are critical in conveying your message) remain. This would also be a good opportunity to practice the difference between “over” and “on” in terms of when to do something.
If the workout is going to have a technical focus, particularly if you’re in the tanks, determine what the focus is ahead of time (catches, finishes, sequencing, etc.) so you can create a “word bank” comprised of 10-12 calls that you can then incorporate into your vocabulary while you’re coxing. The more you practice them off the water the more natural they’ll sound on the water (and the less effort you’ll have to go through trying to come up with something to say). If you’re an experienced coxswain, don’t fall back on the same general calls that you’re used to using. Get creative and come up with some new ones by listening to recordings, talking with the rowers, etc. This is your time to figure out what works and what doesn’t before you get on the water so don’t waste the opportunity by being lazy.
When incorporating these technical filler calls, also make sure that your tone matches the overall intensity of the piece. The goal in coxing these pieces on land is to mimic how you would do it on the water during practice or in some cases, like you would on race day. (Side note, I think practicing race-day warmups, starts and settles, etc. are all GREAT to do on the ergs, especially if you give yourself a time limit to have it all done by.) If the rowers are doing low-rate steady state pieces with a focus on controlled and in-sync leg drives, don’t cox them like they’re bow ball to bow ball with Brown and Harvard in the grand final at IRAs and you’re trying to nose your boat out in front with a five for legs.
The second thing that you should do when not working on your calls is sharpening up your “technical eye”. Being on land gives you the opportunity to look at the rowers in a way that you don’t normally get to – from the side. This should be your “go to” thing to do if/when you aren’t given anything else to do. I personally don’t like calling drills or whatever while trying to observe the rowers because then my focus is split between the two and I end up not being wholly focused on either. One consistently distracts from the other and if I’m not losing track of what stroke we’re on, how much time is left, etc. then I just end up looking at the rowers without really seeing anything.
When observing the rowers, you should have a picture in your head of what the “ideal” rower’s form looks like. I used to always pick the best rower on our team and compare everyone’s form to her. This is after actually confirming with our coach that she had the best form on the team and would be a good example for others to follow. From there you can compare what you’re seeing in front of you to what you’re visualizing in your head and note what’s different between the two. The details aren’t what’s important here, rather you should be looking at the building-block kind of things – mainly leg drive, the transitions through the body sequence (legs → back → arms and back up), posture, etc.
From there, you can either make the correction directly to the rower or make a note of it in your notebook (which you should absolutely have on you) to address at another time. Something that I’d recommend doing is writing down what the issue was and what correction you made so that you can reference it later (as in days, weeks, or months later). Additionally, if something looks off but you aren’t sure what specifically the problem is, ask an experienced coxswain or your coach if they could look at the rower and explain what they’re seeing, what the correction needs to be, why that specific correction is needed, and what a good on-the-water call for that would be.
I also do a lot of walking when I’m observing the rowers on the ergs. Very rarely do I stand in the same place for more than a minute or two, unless I’m standing at the front of the room and observing everyone as a group. I like to stand in front of each individual for three to five strokes and look at them like I would in the boat. From there I try to figure out what’s good/bad about their form and what they might look like with an oar in their hands. As I mentioned in the post linked above, it’s a game I play with myself. It involves a lot of educated guesswork but ultimately it’s a great way to teach yourself about technique and form in general. And, as I’ve said thousands of times before, if you learn the tendencies of the rowers and what calls to make to address them while you’re still on land then you’ll be one step ahead of the game once you get out on the water.
I’m brand spanking new at coxing. I’m an indoor rower instructor, where correcting form and giving cues is based on having a good view of body position. As a cox, I don’t have the body cues of my crew to help me (beyond my stern seat.) I know paddle height and timing should be telling me what I need, but I’m having a hard time interpreting what I’m seeing into form correction. Any thoughts you could share are appreciated!
Kayakers use paddles, rowers use oars. “Stern seat” is called “stroke”.
As a coxswain, in general you should be less concerned with correcting the bodies and more focused on the things you can see like bladework, timing, puddles, etc. Anything specific regarding the bodies will most likely be individual in nature and come straight from the coach since they have an easier time seeing those kinds of things. You should pay attention to what they’re saying to the rowers or crew as a whole so you can make “reminder” calls as necessary but the majority of your “body calls” are going to come from things you’ve heard the coach say, observations you’ve made on land, etc. and less so from direct observations while you’re coxing.
Just to clarify, I consider “body calls” to be about 99% related to posture and nothing else. Things such as handle heights, for example, are straight technique calls for me because I don’t need to see the body to know what the hands are doing since I can see the oars right in front of me. If something relating to posture is resulting in poor handle heights then I’d normally rely on the coach to make that call before I start postulating from several seats away what the exact issue is.
Now that I’ve been coxing for awhile I can typically make those calls on my own and be right or at least in the ballpark the majority of the time but when I was a novice I’d wait for my coach to make the call and then eventually incorporate the things he said into my own calls during practice, pieces, races, etc. once I had a solid understanding of the issue. Usually he’d go over with me after practice what he saw, why he said what he said, why this is the correction he had them make, etc. and then give me a day or so to process everything before asking me (spur of the moment) to explain it all back to him.
Most of the time it’d be on the water and he’d say “Kayleigh, if you were me, what would you say to Abby in order to correct the problem she’s having with missing water at the catch?” or something along those lines. When I could explain it back to him on the spot, in detail, and in front of my teammates proficiently enough, that is when he’d allow me to start making calls and corrections relating to that issue on my own. This demonstrated to him (and to an extent, my teammates) that I wasn’t just wildly guessing at what might be causing the problem, rather I was making a fairly certain educated guess on what was happening based on what I knew about the stroke, what I knew the rower’s tendencies were, and what the typical corrections were for that or similar issues. When making any kind of calls for the body, having the memory of an elephant helps a ton.
Poor timing is less about body position and more about just being too slow or too fast on the recovery. It can be because of other things but those are the more common reasons. Oar height is related to handle heights. If the blade is up in the air (known as “skying”) then the hands are too close to the legs on the recovery and/or feet at the catch. If the blade is barely off or dragging on the water then the rower most likely didn’t tap his hands down at the finish, meaning the hands are too high. The collection point for the finish is around the belly button/bottom rib so pulling in to this point should give you a solid couple of inches to tap the blade out. When they come away on the recovery the blade should be about six inches off the water to allow for a direct catch with little to no missed water. (If you have more specific questions – i.e. you’re seeing this, what does it mean, how should it be corrected, etc. – feel free to email me.)
Have your coach take a camera out on the water with him and try to get some video of the crew rowing if you want to learn more about what the rowers bodies look like and the corrections they need to make. Also ask if you can ride in the launch one day if you’ve got another coxswain who can switch in for you. I would say though that if you’re just coxing recreationally or as part of a learn-to-row program and not as part of a competitive team, don’t over-think things and try to find a solution to every problem right off the bat or think that every technique error is strictly related to something going wrong with the bodies. (I wouldn’t recommend doing that even if you are coxing competitively…) Just go out, have fun, and steer the boat. Let your coach do the coaching and just listen to what he/she is saying until you become proficient enough to make the calls yourself.
I went out a couple times with some of the adult classes when I coached at CRI and there were few things more irritating than trying to coach a boat with this one rower who knew pretty much nothing about rowing but thought they knew everything because they’d just recently been certified as an indoor instructor. Whenever they’d get in the coxswain’s seat they’d try to make all these grand observations and corrections but all it did was confuse the other rowers, waste time, and piss the coaches off. Input and communication between the coach and coxswain is great and pretty crucial but when you’re just starting out, the best thing you can do is just listen and develop a better understanding for the stroke before trying to make corrections on your own. One of my coaches used to say “you coach the blades and I’ll coach the bodies” and that worked well for us because I coached what I could easily see and he did the same without either of us interfering with the other. We’d both listen to what the other was saying and factor that into the calls we were making but for the most part, I was responsible for coaching/correcting the bladework and he focused on coaching and correcting the body positions.
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.
Hi Kayleigh! I have an issue. One thing that coxes and coaches mention quite a bit during pieces, either on the erg or the water, is breathing. I know a lot of people like that, however whenever breathing is mentioned I start thinking about it and my breathing pattern gets screwed up and I have trouble breathing for a few strokes, which in turn screws up my rowing. I don’t want to keep having this problem however I don’t want to say something and be *that* person, especially since I’m new to my team.
Keep it simple – inhale on the recovery, exhale on the drive.
Most of the time coaches and coxswains talk about breathing because it’s an easy thing for rowers to forget to do. Plus, if everyone is inhaling and exhaling at the same time it can help to establish a rhythm in the boat. And, on top of that (but less importantly), it sounds really cool. Not getting caught off guard by them saying something about it really comes down to just being focused on what you’re doing and training yourself to not be so easily distracted. How you go about doing that is up to you. I don’t think it’s an uncommon problem though … I think I’ve known at least 2-3 people at each place I’ve coached that have had the same or a similar problem. If you ask your coach they can probably give you some advice too – that is their job, after all. If you don’t ask, they can’t help you. As a novice you get a pass for not knowing certain things because you’re new so how/why would you know them. You’re only that person if your question is out-of-this-world stupid or the answer is really, really obvious, neither of which apply here.
Hi Kayleigh. First of all I’d like to say how much I love love love your blog! It has been such a valuable resource, thank you for devoting so much time to it. My question is: I’ve been coxing for about 18 months now and I’m feeling comfortable with steering and basic calls. My coach has asked me to start judging each rower’s technique from what his blade is doing and I’m finding this really hard. Other than looking for timing issues and comparing length against other blades, I’m at a bit of a loss. Do you have any tips? Thanks!
Hi! Technique is the hardest thing to talk about when I haven’t got a visual of some kind right in front of me so apologies if this is kinda vague. The easiest and best way to point out how things should look vs. why something doesn’t look right is to just find a video online – almost any video (within reason) of people rowing will work – and email it to me. Then I can sit down, analyze it, and share what I see. I wish there were gifs like that one I posted in the Bend & Snap post but I haven’t been able to find anything. I got lucky with that one because I just happened to scroll past it on Tumblr while I was procrastinating on writing that post.
I’ll try to write a longer post on this soon but for now, other than what you’ve already said here are five things to watch for with the rower’s blades…
Pausing at any point during the stroke, particularly at the finish (usually leads to rush and check in the boat)
Rowing it in (the legs start before the blade is in the water, resulting in a stroke that’s half or 3/4 as long as it should be)
Excessive amounts of water being thrown up at the finish (this means they’re feathering before their blade is out of the water). It’ll probably look something like this (seriously).
Where the blades are in relation to the water on the recovery (this will tell you what their hands are doing)
Blades “bobbing” while they’re in the water (which means they’re not applying the force evenly and smoothly throughout the drive with the push of their feet and the pull with their hands)
Hey! So last year I didn’t make a varsity boat though my ergs scores are very good, my technique was very bad. We just had our first day of practice of the season today, and I have another season and summer training under my belt now though, so I was hoping things would go better. But I seem to be having a lot of technique problems again. When your erg scores are bad, you just pull harder (though I’m worried I can’t repeat my erg scores from last season), but fixing technique isn’t concrete so it’s a lot harder to learn for me since I don’t really have a good sense of hand eye coordination and the smaller details of the stroke just seem so much for difficult for me than others. I mean, a lot the brand new freshmen yesterday already seemed better than me!!
Fixing technique issues can be really tricky because once you’ve developed a bad habit it takes twice as long (or longer) to break it. I was having a similar conversation with someone at practice today and what I told them was that it requires a frustrating level of concentration on your part because you’ve got to think about what each part of the stroke is supposed to look like and then consciously think about what your body currently looks/feels like in comparison. (If you’ve got some video of yourself rowing you can compare it to videos like the ones linked below too.) It helps if you can have a coach or experienced rower/coxswain sit with you for a bit before or after practice while you erg to give you some feedback on what you need to work on but at the end of the day it all comes back to you being willing to self-critique and force yourself to make the necessary changes.
If you know you’ve got specific issues that are really apparent when you’re on the water, talk to your coach/coxswain about that and have them watch you/your blade for a few minutes so you can get some direct feedback from them after practice on what you need to work on. Coxswains can usually tell a lot about your body just based on what your blade is doing so ask her what she’s seeing while you do your warmup or are rowing steady state. Work with her too and let her know that it’d be really helpful for you if she could work in a couple calls that relate to what you’re doing, even if it’s a just a simple reminder like “hands up at the catch”, “sit tall”, etc.
Comparing yourself to the freshmen isn’t going to do anything for you. Who cares if they pick it up quickly or not? Focus on yourself. You’ll be a lot more satisfied at the end of the season when you realize you focused your energy on the right things (like training) instead of on something dumb like worrying about other people being better than you.
