Tag: voice problems

(Another reason) Why you need a working cox box

Coxing

(Another reason) Why you need a working cox box

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Below is an email I received from a coxswain who wanted to share her experience of coxing without a working cox box. I will never understand programs that look at cox boxes as an option rather than a necessity or say that sending them in to be repaired, serviced, whatever is too much effort, too expensive, etc. Cox boxes are expensive, yes, but so are boats and oars and riggers and you rarely, if ever, see programs so flippantly write off issues that arise with them. So … why are cox boxes any different?

“I’ve been following your blog for a while now and I have seen several stories and questions about not having a cox box. I just wanted to share my story about not having one.

My freshman year of high school I decided that I wanted to try out for crew. I was put as the coxswain because I was one of the smaller girls. At the start of the season, our team had 4 varsity 4s (coxed) and the novice team had an 8 and 2 extras. Between the time the season started and when we really started to learn how to row effectively, more girls had joined which gave the novice team an 8, a 4 (coxed), and an extra. The eight was the worst boat and I was given that boat because the other coxswain was better than I. I didn’t have any problem with that because I wanted our team to be fast.

Since our freshman year (I am now a sophomore) both the other coxswain and I did crew in the fall and spring of freshman year and fall of sophomore year. This spring season however, she decided that she wanted to do lacrosse. Now I am going to get to cox the second boat – in the fall I was in fourth boat because there are only 2 experienced coxswains. But my story really starts with the eight novice year.

Our school has a total of 8 boxes. Box “A” is the newest and the best. Box “B” is the next best. Box “C” is third best (and mine for this fall season). Box “D” is fourth best. Those are the four varsity boxes. The novice boxes aren’t named because they change hands ever year. One of the boxes that we have really does not work at all but another one works fairly well. The last box, my box for my novice season, did not work in the eight or the novice four and was just really staticky in the varsity boats. I brought this up to the coach and he said that there was nothing that we could do so I should just try and yell. IN AN EIGHT. I some how managed to make my self heard and when the other coxswain and I switched halfway through the year we kept our boxes because at this point I was pretty good at projecting my voice so my rowers could hear me. Now though I was in a bow loader four.

At some point along this path I had developed a cough that sounded uncannily like a goose. Like not even kidding, the geese on the dock would honk back at me. Now this cough didn’t really bother me, it was just part of who I was and it didn’t hurt. My rowers though told me to go to the doctor. Being a silly fourteen year-old, I did not connect the cough to the coxing so I continued as normal. Fast forward through the winter (during which I play ice hockey) and the spring season (when I decided that I wanted to try rowing for some unknown reason). My cough continued but was less noticeable. Spring season ended. At our school spring sports end before finals start and at the end of the two week finals I get a cold (right before my oral Chinese final…). Of course along with a cold comes a cough. At first they were just normal coughs but towards the end of my cold they turned in to the dry deep coughs I refer to as my “goose cough”.

I took the first two weeks of summer off from doing anything and my cough continued. Soon though my summer job started up. At my summer job I biked 7 miles to a pool and then helped with swim lessons for the morning. I also knew that I was going to take the life guarding course at the end of the summer so I started swimming laps. I used to be able to swim laps with pretty good stamina but now I started getting out of breath after one lap. This shortness of breath continued throughout the summer and continued getting worse. Eventually at the end of the summer I had to go to the doctors for my regular physical. I mentioned my breathing problem and my doctor said it will probably pass and not to worry about it so I didn’t. Well a couple weeks later I’m back for some reason and I mention that it had gotten worse and she was able to hear me cough because I had been slightly sick. Without running any tests she “diagnosed” asthma and prescribed an inhaler, which didn’t really help. I went back to tell her that and she put me on another inhaler that was every morning and night rather than as needed like the other one was and yeah, it really didn’t help. It made me dizzy, tired, and was such a hassle.

Now school starts again and my breathing gets to the point were I am out of breath when walking down the hallway and I simply can’t do stairs. The crew team decides to go run Harvard stadium for a workout and the coxswains decided as a group that we would do this workout with the team, so I took along my inhaler. To warm up we run once around the stadium. I used my inhaler and tried to jog with them. I managed to get around but it was a very big struggle. We start to run the stairs and I do the first section with lots of problems. By section 3 I have to take the inhaler again because I physically can not get air in. I made the decision to stupidly do at least half of all the sections because … I was stupid. I took probably 8 puffs by the time we were done with 30 of the sections. Cut to the car ride home and the entire way I could not breathe. My mother was close to turning around and bringing me to the emergency room. She didn’t but made an appointment for me with a pulmonologist (lung doctor). He had me do a bunch of tests and when they gave me the asthma medication they normally used, my breathing capacity went down. So they gave me the proper tool to use the inhaler with and sent me on my way with a follow up appointment in 6 weeks.

I go back in six weeks and – surprise surprise – the medications are not working. They take me off them and suggest a possibility that had not previously been discussed. They asked me if I had ever misused my voice for extended periods of time and I was like “yeah try the whole fall season my freshman year.” They said I most likely had something called vocal chord dysfunction where the vocal chords actually close when you try and breathe, making it feel like you can’t get any breaths in. This perfectly described my situation and they put me on a different medication that mostly worked for the first couple of weeks (as in I no longer get out of breath walking down the hall) but I am still not completely well. I go back in two weeks and they will probably change my meds to better fit my needs (probably a stronger dose or something). And who knows, I might not ever be completely better. My breathing problems at one point made it so I was afraid I was going to faint while walking to chemistry class.

DO NOT LET ANYONE COX WITH OUT A BOX BECAUSE IT MIGHT CAUSE PERMANENT DAMAGE. I shared this story because I wanted to tell someone how dangerous coxing without a box is. By the way, love the blog, it has definitely helped me improve. Thanks for reading.”

I know I’ve talked to several of you recently via email about similar breathing/coughing issues so if this isn’t something you’ve already explored as the cause, I’d talk with your parents about it and make an appointment with your doctor as soon as you’re able.

Thanks to the coxswain who I sent this in, I appreciate it and I’m sure other coxswains (and their parents) will too.

Image via // @ryanjnicholsonphoto
How to train when you’re sick … as a coxswain

Coxing How To Training & Nutrition

How to train when you’re sick … as a coxswain

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Previously: Steer an eight/four || Call a pick drill and reverse pick drill ||  Avoid getting sick || Make improvement as a novice || Protect your voice || Pass crews during a head race || Be useful during winter training || Train when you’re sick (as a rower)

Coxing while sick is pretty damn unpleasant. If you’re not going through practice in a fog then you’re spending half of it hacking into the mic, which leaves you really sore and the rowers really irritated. I usually try to avoid coxing when I’m sick and I’ve been lucky that most of the coaches I’ve had were cool about giving us a break when we needed it but here are my three top tips for how to handle practice when you’re feeling under the weather.

Related: How to train when you’re sick (as a rower)

Turn the volume on your cox box up

I usually have it at about ⅓ volume but when I’m sick I turn the knob about ⅔ of the way up. If you’re losing your voice, have a sore throat, or your chest/torso is sore from coughing (this tends to be my problem) turning the volume up will continue amplifying your voice while letting you talk a little quieter and with less force than you normally do. This can be a life saver if you’re treading the line between having a voice and losing it. Just make sure you tell your crew you’re doing this since getting blasted by the speakers isn’t the most enjoyable way to go through practice.

Related: What coxswains can do to protect their voice

Be aware of the meds you’re taking

Cough suppressants, nasal decongestants, etc. are usually fine to take but just be aware if you start to feel loopy or anything before practice or while you’re on the water. If this happens, tell your coach or a teammate immediately. This really isn’t the time to wonder or care if someone’s going to be pissed at you. My freshman year of college I made the mistake of grabbing the wrong box (because I was in a hurry and not feeling well) and taking the “pop these if you want to fall asleep ASAP” meds before practice, which I realized while on the bus to the boathouse. I told my coach and our assistant drove me back to my dorm but after that I made sure everything was very clearly labelled “drowsy” and “non-drowsy” since reading boxes while sick and rushing out the door wasn’t always my top priority.

Similarly, if you go to the doctor and they give you medicine (and clear you to continue practicing), be aware of any side effects that come with it. It is really hard to cox when internally you’re freaking out because you’re experiencing the shortness of breath side effect that supposedly only a very small fraction of patients experience with the new meds you just started taking. Had that happen (also in college, also during the same week as the drowsy drugs incident) while coxing a race piece and it was just a straight up awful experience.

Switch out with another coxswain (if one’s available) and ride in the launch

If you’re not sick enough to miss practice but you’re not feeling 100% either, this is your equivalent to the rowers biking instead of going on the water to give their bodies a break. If I or any of the other coxswains were ever at this point my coach would have us ride in the launch and take video for him. It was an easy way to keep us engaged in what was going on, which we all definitely appreciated since getting sick can be a guilt trip-inducing experience for coxswains.

If there are no other coxswains that can rotate in for you, you pretty much just have to suck it up and do the best you can. Presumably if you’re at practice to begin with, even if you’re planning on riding in the launch, you’re OK enough to cox so this shouldn’t be too difficult to do but just communicate with your coach and crew so they know you’re not feeling great and can take that into account if you’re not up to your usual standards.

Image via // @ryanjnicholsonphoto

Coxing Q&A

Question of the Day

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My friend who does choir tries to avoid dairy before big concerts. Do you know why that is and if this would apply to coxswains too? I use my abs a lot when I’m coxing but I still feel like my voice is not very strong.

I do, actually! If only all the useless random facts I know counted as something I could throw under the skills section of my resume…

The whole “don’t drink or eat dairy” thing before you sing is partially a myth. Singers tend to think that if they eat anything with dairy it’ll produce a lot of phlegm in their throats and make it harder for them to hit their notes. This isn’t actually how it works though unless you’re one of the few people that are allergic to milk proteins. What actually happens is the mucous that’s already in your airway gets thicker due to the high amounts of fat in the dairy you eat. The lower the fat content of the dairy products, the less of an issue this is since it won’t thicken the already-present mucous as much.

I suppose that could also apply to coxswains. Trying to talk or project your voice when you’ve go a ton of crap in your throat can be tough because you spend more time coughing to try and clear it which just leads to your voice getting all scratchy and hoarse. I’m always clearing my throat (not because I eat a lot of dairy though) so that sometimes happens to me. That or I end up with a really bad migraine which is just about the worst thing to happen to a coxswain short of completely losing their voice.

Some people just don’t naturally have strong voices, which is fine. To strengthen your voice, go on YouTube or Google “voice strengthening exercises” or something similar and try out some of the exercises that come up. Or, since you’ve got a friend in choir, ask her to teach you some of their vocal warmups. Obviously you won’t notice a difference overnight but if you do them consistently then you’ll probably start to feel like your voice is a little stronger after a couple weeks. Remember too that there’s a difference between having a deep voice and a strong voice. How deep a person’s voice is is something that you don’t really have much control over whereas how strong it is has to deal with the strength of your vocal muscles and how confident and/or authoritative you feel.

Related: Hi Kayleigh! Last week, I lost my voice after one of our fall head races. I was talking to my coaches and they said that your “coxing voice” shouldn’t come directly from the throat or something like that – it should come from deep breaths from your stomach or the bottom part of your throat. I am now officially confused and don’t know who else to ask! Help please? Thanks!

In addition to all that, try doing some core workouts a couple days a week. As I’ve said before (in the post linked above), the stronger your core the easier it’ll be for you to project your voice.

Coxing Q&A Video of the Week

Question of the Day

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Hi Kayleigh! Last week, I lost my voice after one of our fall head races. I was talking to my coaches and they said that your “coxing voice” shouldn’t come directly from the throat or something like that – it should come from deep breaths from your stomach or the bottom part of your throat. I am now officially confused and don’t know who else to ask! Help please? Thanks!

They’re right that the deeper voice you want to use when you’re coxing shouldn’t come from your throat, it should come from your diaphragm. Instead of yelling, you want to project your voice, which means using your core and diaphragm to “push” the sound up out of you instead of trying to just use the muscles in your throat to be loud.

Related: I’ve only been coxing for three years but I feel like it has changed my voice…do you feel like that? Like, I feel like I cant hit as many high notes when I sing in the car (haha) or is there something I’m doing wrong?? I lose my voice easily in races now, especially during the spring when we have like 3 races in a day. What can I do about this? Should I change the way I cox?

Sometimes this can be hard to visualize or understand but think about horror movies and stuff – what does every person do right before they scream? They take a huge breath and then sort of contract their torso as they yell, which always makes their voice way louder than if they’d just screamed from their throat (which always sounds really high pitched and not convincing at all). It’s the same way with coxing. You’ll know if you’re doing it “right” if you get out of the boat after a race and your abs are just on fire. (I’m convinced that’s at least half the reason why I had a semi-six pack in high school.) It’s also good motivation for you (and other coxswains) to do the core workouts with the rowers, especially during winter training. The stronger your core is, the less “work” you’ll have to do when it comes to projecting your voice.

Related: How to protect your voice

As far as losing your voice goes, check out the post linked above. Doing all of that combined with trying to project more than you yell will go a long way in preventing you from losing your voice again.

How to protect your voice

Coxing How To Novice

How to protect your voice

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Previously: Steer an eight/four || Call a pick drill and reverse pick drill ||  Avoid getting sick || Make improvement as a novice

We’re getting closer and closer to racing season so you want to make sure you’re taking the necessary steps now to ensure your voice is in working order on race day. Similar to other athletes, you can do everything right and still injure yourself – in the case of a coxswain, you can still lose your voice regardless of the preventative measures you take. I’ve learned that many times. Most people don’t realize that it’s about prevention first and not just dealing with the after effects. It’s different for everyone so no guarantees but here are some of my tried and true ways to protect your voice when you’re out on the water.

Stay hydrated

Drink lots of water throughout practice (and before and after too). I’m guilty of not doing this and there are definitely times when I regret it, most often when it’s cold outside. I end up feeling like I’m swallowing needles, which is not pleasant. You know when you go to sleep in the winter and you wake up with your nose and/or mouth really dry because there’s no humidity in the air? Take that feeling, get in a boat, and talk at a loud volume for two hours … you can imagine the damage you’re doing to your throat. Your vocal cords essentially become two pieces of sandpaper rubbing together. Water acts as a lubrication to keep things sliding off each other the way they’re supposed to, so when you remind the rowers to get a drink make sure you do too.

If you have allergies or a sore throat and are taking any kind of medicine, make sure you’re drinking lots of water to counteract the decongestants. I had to take a lot of allergy meds in high school because I was allergic to the pollen, mold, etc. that was down by the boathouse and my doctor, who knew I was a coxswain, told me to drink a lot because when the tissues in your throat dry out it reverts back to the whole sandpaper feeling.

Stay relaxed

The more tense I was, both mentally and physically (with my upper body), the scratchier my throat got when I was doing intense pieces. Make sure you’re breathing correctly when you’re calling races and talking a lot. You should be breathing from your core, not your shoulders. Breathing from your shoulders creates tension which eventually leads to your vocal cords cramping up. If this happens too often you can get nodules which will really suck because they’re essentially blisters on your vocal cords. These are our version of the blisters rowers get on their hands. If they’re bad enough they might require surgery to fix.

Take it easy

If you have a cold or sore throat, switch with another coxswain for the day and ride in the launch or ask your coach if you can stick to drills and stuff that don’t involve the usual loudness during practice.Your coach and boat can survive without you for a day if it means you’ll be 100% on race day. A sore throat alone is not a reason to skip practice though. If you have a cold, the flu, etc. duh, stay home but if you just have a sore throat but are otherwise fine, ride in the launch and take video of your crew or something.

The type of injuries coxswains suffer are different than rowers which tends to lead everyone to think they aren’t “real” or as serious because they see rowers with shoulder injuries, back injuries, etc. Our overuse injuries are internal where they can’t be see so it’s up to you to be your own advocate and speak up when there’s an issue. Personally, I think that if you’ve got a sore throat and you continually go to practice and don’t do anything about the issue, your coach and boat have every reason to be pissed at you when you can’t cox on race day. Just like with the rowers, it’s irresponsible to not take time off when it’s needed because in addition to yourself, there are now four or eight other people affected by your choices.

Minimize how much you’re coughing

This sounds hard to do but when your throat is dry and you’ve got that scratchy tickle in there, but get something to drink instead of trying to hack up a lung. Dry coughs are the worst because not only can they hurt like hell and give you a killer headache (been there, done that more times than I can count), but they can also damage your vocal cords. Coughing regularly isn’t so much a problem, it’s when it becomes a repetitive habit that you can start to get the overuse damage to your throat. Before inducing a coughing fit to get the tickle out of your throat, try to drink something to lubricate the tissues.

Limit the amount of pop you drink

Before you go out and after you come in, try not to have a lot of caffeinated drinks. The caffeine in pop dehydrates you in general but it can also irritate your throat, especially if it’s already sore. When I was in high school I played the clarinet and we were always told to not drink any pop before playing because the caffeine swells your tongue (it’s not usually visibly noticeable) and makes it harder to enunciate the music, especially at a fast tempo. I did it anyways but … do as I say, not as I do. If you’re drinking a lot of pop and getting that swelling in your tongue, it actually can have an effect on your speech and your ability to rattle things off during a race. If you’re thirsty, try to always drink water.

To follow up on that last point, while I’m on the vein of what not to drink, if you’re one of those hot water-honey-and-lemon people, eliminate the lemon. The acidity from the citric acid combined with already dry, potentially damaged tissues can just irritate them more. Lemon is really only beneficial for sore throats when you have a lot of mucous and stuff because the acidity cuts through it and helps eliminate any lingering bacteria.

A good alternative to water or water and honey is chocolate milk. It’s a little denser than regular milk so it coats and soothes your throat. I have a constant tickle in my throat so I am always clearing it and I know up front that I wouldn’t be able to tolerate something coating it because it’d just make me cough more. If you’re like that, stick to the regular remedies but if you can stand it definitely try the chocolate milk.

Related: I’ve only been coxing for three years but I feel like it has changed my voice…do you feel like that? Like, I feel like I cant hit as many high notes when I sing in the car (haha) or is there something I’m doing wrong?? I lose my voice easily in races now, especially during the spring when we have like 3 races in a day. What can I do about this? Should I change the way I cox?

The best, most foolproof way to prevent losing your voice is to just be smart. Coxswains are typically talkative and social people so it can be hard to “rest” your voice when you’re always around other people but it’s a small sacrifice to make. Resting doesn’t necessarily mean taking a vow of silence either. Resting by just lowering your usual talking volume can be a good thing. For naturally loud people this can be tough but I promise you, it’s an effort worth making.

Image via // @fergybill

Coxing Q&A

Question of the Day

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I’ve only been coxing for three years but I feel like it has changed my voice .. .do you feel like that? Like, I feel like I can’t hit as many high notes when I sing in the car (haha) or is there something I’m doing wrong?? I lose my voice easily in races now, especially during the spring when we have like 3 races in a day. What can I do about this? Should I change the way I cox?

YES. I felt the same way when I was in high school. I’ve only completely lost my voice twice and neither came directly from crew, although I don’t think coxing helped. I did notice, and still do occasionally, that I can’t hit the same notes when I sing in the car. I don’t think it’s anything we do wrong, per se, I think it’s more so that over the years we’ve inflicted little bits of damage on our voices from all the yelling and tonal changes, which has led to minute changes in how we talk, sing, etc.

When I was in high school we were a big enough team that we were able to everyone in multiple races which was awesome, but for the coxswains – between heats, semis, and finals – by the end of the day we were lucky to still be able to talk. I have a naturally loud voice that, for the most part, seems fairly indestructible but whenever the weather was bad (cold, windy, rainy) my throat would always hurt a lot more than when the weather was nice.

One of the things that I started doing midway through high school was instead of “yelling”, I started projecting, meaning instead of using JUST my voice, I started using my diaphragm and core to make myself louder. That’s another reason why I really recommend coxswains do core exercises with the rowers during the winter … it helps our voices, odd as it may seem. When you’re on the water though, if your abs are on fire at the end of a piece or a race, you’ll know you’ve done it right. You know when you’re yelling you can kind of “feel it” in your throat? That’s why coxswains lose their voices. If you instead project from your core, you aren’t straight yelling as much, which gives your voice a break.

Make sure you drink lots of water so that your throat doesn’t get dry. I’ve never tried the hot water and honey trick that people tell you to do when you have a sore throat, but I’ve heard it works so that’s an option as well. When you’re not coxing, especially at races, try not to yell or unnecessarily raise your voice. Save the loud stuff for when you’re on the water.