Tag: usrowing

Coxing Q&A

Question of the Day

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I’m kind of confused looking over the USRowing Rules. Can you please give a summary of what I should know? Thank you, I really appreciate it. PS Your blog is an amazing resource I wish I found out about earlier than I did. Thanks for all you do.

Anything specific or is it just all the legalese that’s not making sense? To be honest, in twelve years I’ve never once actually read the rule book in its entirety. My coaches gave us specific things to review (mostly the rules of racing) but pretty much everything you need to know is clearly stated at the coaches and coxswains meetings. Try to stay up to date with the rule changes though – they’re always one of the first PDFs posted on this page on USRowing’s site.

Follow up: The protesting “process” and when to do it is kind of confusing. Thank you!

Check out the post linked below (scroll to the very bottom of the post).

Related: What happens at a coaches and coxswains meeting?

The only major difference between the rule book and what I wrote is that in the rule book it says it’s $50 to file a protest. I think that might differ at regular regattas (aka not the big ones like regionals, nationals, etc.) because I’ve seen it range from costing nothing to up to $30, so just pay attention to what they say at the meeting (or ask if they don’t mention it).

Racing Video of the Week

Video of the Week: Inside the 1999 World Cup USA M8+

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I can’t embed this week’s VOTW so you’ll have to go here to watch it. It’s an archived video from World Rowing of the 1999 USA M8+ that raced in the A-final at the 1999 World Cup in St. Catherine’s. Make sure you read the interview below the video too but do it either before or after watching the video, not during.

The first thing I thought when watching the start was “holy shit“. The only way to describe the USA’s start was nothing more than downright furious power. Watch 1:48-1:54 to see what I mean.

Also watch the two coxswains at the front of the screen between 2:19-2:25. See how the GBR coxswain in lane 6 (closest to the screen) is sitting down low and isn’t being jerked around by the movements of the boat? Now compare that to the RUS coxswain in lane 5; notice how he’s sitting straight up and is mimicking a bobble head with his upper body and torso movements? That’s how you get lines of bruises all along your back. You can’t feel how the boat’s moving if you’re letting your body be thrown around with the ebb and flow of the shell.

I liked what the commentator said at 4:09 about crews who aspire to overturn the United States. He said that they have to stay in touch otherwise they’ll be in real trouble. That’s so true, regardless of whether you’re fighting for 1st or 5th. Where they’ll be in trouble isn’t necessarily physically either, it’s mentally. If you give a crew a chance to break you, they’re gonna do it and mentally you will be weaker for it, which is why maintaining contact and then feeding off of that as you climb back to the front is so important.

6:10, “this is the first time a British crew has been in a winning position since 1912…” Haha, what?? Seriously?!

7:49, I love how after big races Pete jumps out of his seat and gives his stroke the biggest hug ever. It’s not a wimpy bro hug either, it’s a solid hug. Love it.

Something that stuck out to me that Bryan Volpenheim (bow in this crew) said in the interview below the video is this: “Power to me is technique. If you are able to put in the power at this part of the race (the finish) then that’s technique.”

And finally, my favorite part of the video, 11:43 … something Pete and I have in common is that no one will ever question our role in the boat. We’re that short.

Q&A

Question of the Day

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How do people qualify for CANEMEX? Is it the boat that wins club nationals?

The athletes that are chosen to represent the US are chosen from the rowers that attend the high performance camps. I have to imagine that the selection process for the crew(s) that goes includes lots of seat racing and exceptional erg scores. Both the junior men’s and women’s sites said that they were taking one eight each this year, so of all the attendees at camp, only eight rowers and one coxswain from each side would go to the regatta. I feel like in the past I’ve read about quads or fours going but I couldn’t find any information about that on USRowing’s website.

Coxing Q&A Racing

Question of the Day

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Hi. I was recently contacted by the Junior National team because they want me as a cox for this year. I am so honored however I am scared that I am too heavy. I don’t know what I would be coxing and at the moment I am around 128 pounds. I feel as though because I focus so much of my life on a sport that does not require me to be active, I have slowly lost my fitness. I am going on a big trip this summer as well and am scared that I will gain weight while traveling. Do you have a good solid work out routine that can be done in a short period of time?

International rules state that you can’t cox the opposite sex so if you’re a guy you’d cox men and if you’re a girl you’d cox the women. This would mean that you’d need to be at or as close as possible to international racing weight, which for women is 50kg/110.2lbs and 55kg/121.25lbs for men.

This is coming straight from the section on coxswains from the JNT website:

Please note: We are looking for coxswains who can comfortably manage the international racing weight standard of 110.2 for women and 121.5 for men.

Now, don’t take this wrong way – I’m going to tell you exactly what I would expect/assume the JNT coaches to tell you. Being a coxswain comes with a lot of responsibilities, monitoring our weight when it’s necessary being one of them. In the beginning it’s not as important but as you progress through the sport and start coxing more competitive crews, it does become very important. I’ve said this many, many, many times – we have a purpose in the boat, yes, but no matter how you look at it or what way you try to spin it, we are dead weight. When you’re hauling dead weight, you want to haul as little as possible. That’s why short, petite people are chosen to be coxswains and why we’re “encouraged” to stay as close to the minimum racing weight as possible. Yea, it’s annoying, but it’s part of the job.

You signed up and went through the whole ID camp process which meant that at the very least you thought you had a chance of being invited to selection camp. When you did that and throughout the winter and spring you should have been keeping an eye on your weight, regardless of whether your were at, above, or below the minimum at the time. I really, really disagree with what you said about focusing so much on a sport that doesn’t require you to be active. That’s no excuse. There are plenty of opportunities to work out with the team when they’re lifting, running, doing calisthenics, core, etc., in addition to making time to work out on your own. When it comes down to it, you’ve got to be willing to put the time and effort in from the start, not at the last minute.

It’s not all about exercising either. You can work out all you want but if your diet is bad, you’re negating any gains you would have gotten from the exercise. There has to be a two-part approach/commitment to losing weight: one, adjusting your diet and two, exercising. Cardio is everyone’s best friend when they’re trying to lose weight, so running, biking, swimming, erging, etc. As far as gaining weight while traveling, you just have to be conscious about what you’re doing. I’m not going to say you should question whether you want those French pastries more than you want to cox the JNT because that’d make me a hypocrite and an asshole but my theory on stuff like this is that if it’s important to you, you’ll find a way to make things work.

I would suggest getting a hold of the coaches who sent you the invite and talking to them about any concerns you have. You’re obviously a good coxswain otherwise you wouldn’t have gotten the invite but I’m not going to lie to you and say that excellent coxing is going to win out over weight all the time, especially when you’re competing at this level. The coaches wouldn’t have emphasized the part I quoted a few paragraphs ago if it wasn’t part of their consideration for who makes the final boats. You essentially have to always assume that given the choice between two coxswains of equal skill, the coxswain who is closest to or will have the least difficult time maintaining their racing weight will be the one chosen. I don’t mean to say that to make you lose hope or anything, it’s just one of those harsh realities that people tend to gloss over or that coaches don’t fully explain, which ends up making people way worse than if they’d just known the rationale ahead of time.