This summer, I decided to think outside the box.  What if we could coach only coxswains directly on the water for a week or so? I’m not talking about minimally involving the rowers; I’m talking about not coaching them at all and focusing actively for the first time on coxswains. Would it be too intense? Or would it up coxswains’ game beyond belief? Sparks may be willing to bet on the latter.

In my own coxing career, I’ve recently been in a lot of different boats with a lot of different people.  Knowing that there is no ‘magic’ call that works for everyone, I try various things to improve boat speed and the rowing of the guys in my boat until something works.  The biggest mistake that most coxswains make is they keep saying the same thing over and over to a particular athlete.  They expect a change, but never get one.  “Johan-Stop skying your blade…stop skying your blade…stop skying your blade.”  The problem is that Johan continues to sky his blade or maybe fixes it for a stroke or two then go back to the way he was rowing. The coxswain keeps repeating themselves, making everyone in the boat a little more frustrated and tense.  How about switching it up?  “Johan-carry those hands a little higher.”  And all of the sudden it clicks and his blade is at the proper height.  This sounds simple, but I have seen very few coxswains actually do this.

Simply, there is so much going on that it is hard for them to stop and think about saying something new or different.  Before practice, prepare a few new and different calls.  Or think of a different way of saying the same things you are already saying in your boat.  Then when you hit that rough patch of the row where you are not getting anywhere, try your new calls.  You’ll see an immediate difference for two reasons.  The first is that you are paying more active attention to an issue in the boat and addressing it in a multifaceted and purposeful manner.  The second is that you will generally be directing athletes on what to do as opposed to what not to do.  Telling someone to carry their hands a bit higher is directional, specific and helpful.  The goal is to make things easier on your athletes and you.

As for what I mentioned about trying something new in terms of actively focusing on coxswains, stay tuned…we all might be about to make a major jump in speed.

The number one problem that coxswains face is that they never receive any coaching. And in the rare case that a coxswain is at a program where they receive a little coaching, it is only in the form of being told what to or not to do. I have yet to meet a coxswain attending a program who is actually told how to do something. This is the major hurdle that we all face as coxswains.

So how do we improve as coxswains if we never receive any instruction on how to improve? Simple, we become our own coaches. This is a simple concept but something that very few coxswains are willing to follow through with. The first part of making any change is being diligent and keeping track of any attempts in trying to improve. This means keeping a log. It is the easiest and simplest way of keeping track of your improvement, or lack of them. The second part is trying something new. This is the hard part, as so many coxswains are afraid to step out of their comfort zone. But this is something that we need to do in order to change and improve. I learned this from my high school coach when he would encourage me to “reinvent” myself regularly. I would try steering a different way, or a new call. I would listen to my coaches and athletes to see what calls that used to liked. Then I would put them into my own words.

I would then try the new item I was working on and keep a detailed description on how my crews responded to the change. I would regularly revisit this new call/method to see if I could enhance its effectiveness. If I could, it would stay and become a more regular thing. If not, it would get dropped.

So every day I would be trying new things. We can work on our coxing whether we are doing steady state, drills, taking out the novices, racing…whatever. We learn the how by trying out new things that we have never done before. You will see a whole realm of combinations and possibilities on how to improve if you are ready to step out of the comfort zone. If you have any questions…just let me know.

The majority of us have been out of a boat for quite some time now. Even if we were fortunate enough to race during the summer, our season likely ended at the conclusion of Canadian Henley which was a month ago. Now it’s time to shift gears as we prepare for our fall racing season to begin.
There are a lot of things to consider when making the transition back into the fall season. Depending on where your team trains wardrobe and any other specific equipment (I coxed in Boston and always made sure I had safety lights, extra clothing, and something to help loosen wingnuts and oarlocks in case of ice/cold hands) should be at the top of your list. It is also important to place a higher premium on steering since our course can have a much greater impact during a head race than a 2k. There are obvious differences between fall and spring racing: the course is longer and the cadence is generally lower, there are usually turns to navigate, etc.
What about the not so obvious ones? How does our tone change in the boat? What sort of calls should we be making that would be different than sprint racing? What is our role in practice and how does it differ? Is there really that much of a difference between the fall head racing season and the spring/summer sprint season?
All of these things should be considered before we hit the water again. The best coxswains are typically the most prepared and it is important to anticipate a change and be proactive as opposed to reactive. Be sure to put some thought into how you want your fall season to play out before heading back to the boathouse so you can hit the ground (water) running this season.

It is important for us to improve every time we hit the water but what do we do when we don’t have that luxury?  Unlike rowers we require a crew in order to get time in the coxswain seat and can’t go out in a single or hop on the erg to practice our technique.  As we approach the summer, the majority of coxswains will spend little, if any, time at the helm between now and the beginning of the fall season.  At the very least, coaches expect their rowers to show up in the fall fit and ready to go to work and encourage them to row over the summer whenever possible.  Do they not have similar expectations of their coxswains?  They expect us to come back mentally sharp and at weight but how can we ensure that we don’t come back rusty in the fall if we haven’t coxed all summer?

Fortunately, there are several resources at our disposal to help us ensure that we come back at least as skillful as the previous season and in most cases we can come back even sharper if we are committed to doing so.  There is a ton of literature about rowing that is worth looking into from a coxswain’s standpoint.  There are several “textbooks” on rowing that cover the rowing stroke in great detail and also teach several things that may seem unrelated to the rowing stroke but can actually be very enlightening, such as rigging.  There are also blogs and rowing magazines, such as Rowing News, that feature articles with theories from some of the top coaches in the country and around the world.  In our position, knowledge is power and there is plenty of knowledge out there, you just have to know where to find it.

Another good resource is video.  There are several rowing DVD’s that can be very useful tools but if you don’t feel like shelling out ten bucks per DVD, you can always search YouTube.  Search for channels that are related to rowing and see what you can find.  You’d be surprised at the amount of free advice you can find on the internet.  The other easy way to learn in the offseason is to watch video of different levels of rowing (from novice, all the way to world class) and compare and contrast the different levels of rowing.  Again, it should be very easy to find rowing videos online that cover a wide range of skill levels.

The other main way to stay sharp and learn during the offseason is to listen to recordings.  If you don’t record yourself in races or practices at least a few times per season, it is a very good habit to develop.  It may be difficult to listen to ourselves at times but being your own critic is a very important step to improving.  There are also examples of good coxswain recordings that can be found online and used as a comparison to your own.  It is important to listen not only to the calls but also the tone, verbiage, inflection, word economy, etc.  There are other ways to stay sharp when you don’t have the option of hopping into the coxswain seat but I’m sure there is enough here to keep you busy this summer.

Notice how the subject line of this Blog has the word practice in it?  It is there for a reason.  Coxswain after coxswain complain about how they want to get better but are not getting any attention from their rowers or coaches.  Well, are you practicing every day?  If you are in a boat, then the tools are there for you to improve yourself.  There is a lot going on each and every practice and knowing how to harness the knowledge and have the proper awareness of what is going on around you is the tool to succeed.

If you want to get better…it starts with practice.  Before we even begin, what kind of preparation have you done for practice?  Rowers need to eat and sleep right to prepare.  Are you doing what you need to be able to perform each and every day?  Have you prepared your calls, drills and focuses?  Then we can talk about the actual practice secession.  The rowers are using their tools around them to get better.  They are pulling on the oar, and pushing on the foot boards.  They feel the boat and listen to their coach.  They feel the athlete in front and behind them.  They take it all in and process it very carefully as to make sure they are making the requisite improvements.  As a coxswain, what are you doing?  Are you feeling the boat to see how it is moving?  Are you practicing your steering to make sure you are going razor straight?  Do you even know how to do these things?  What about listening to what is being said around you and how that affects the boat?

Chances are, no.  Most coxswains just jump into a boat and go along for the ride like a sack of Twinkies.  Some try to observe what is going on around them, but are always a step behind because they are not prepared for what is happening.  Many space out for periods at a time or just do not say or try anything new the whole practice.  They expect that they will get better when racing and will be good race coxswains.  This could not be further from the truth.  If you want to be a good race coxswain, you have to practice like one.

Basically how are you, as a coxswain, practicing and training every day?  When coaches talk about giving it your all everyday…they are talking to you too.

As coxswains, we are constantly being evaluated by coaches, rowers, and other coxswains.  The frustration is that the rubric by which we are being evaluated is inconsistent, even down to each individual rower in our boat.  If we’re lucky, we will get occasional feedback from our coaches and rowers but more often than not it comes in passing, or worse, in a team meeting as the coach is naming the boats for the season and it’s too late for us to make any changes.  The most irritating thing to hear from a coach or rower is “coxswains won’t change much over the course of the season (or summer/selection camp).”  How can they expect us to improve when we have to beg for feedback at the end of each session and the most valuable response we hear is “just shut up and steer straight”?  We give our rowers feedback at least once per minute (some of us significantly more…) and we might get one form of constructive feedback per hour.  To be fair, rowers have enough to worry about without coming up with feedback for us after every practice.  The main issue is that there isn’t a system in place to objectively declare one coxswain as better than another.

It is much easier to objectively qualify one rower as better, or faster, than another.  There are several tests we use to determine the physical profiles of rowers, starting with your standard ergometer tests: one stroke max watts test, one minute average watts test, 500 meter test, 1k test, 2k test, twenty minute or 6k test, thirty minute test, 10k test, hour of power, the list goes on and on.  Each of these tests tells us a unique physical attribute about our athletes and can be used to directly compare one rower to another.  Beyond that we have on the water results: time trials, pairs matrices, seat racing in straight fours, seat racing in coxed fours, seat racing in eights.  I have been coxing for over a decade and I have been “seat raced” twice.  TWICE!  And not only that, the reason for the switch was “not to determine which coxswain can make the boat go faster over 2,000 meters, but an opportunity for the rowers to experience both coxswains under racing conditions, one immediately after the other.”

So how do we improve?  How do we know what qualities are more desirable than others for coxswains?  Sure, anyone standing on the shore can tell the difference between a terrible coxswain and a great one, but how do we distinguish a great coxswain from a phenomenal coxswain?  Most importantly, how do we develop the skills required of our position to make the leap from average to good, good to great, or great to phenomenal?  Ultimately, we want to acquire the skills necessary to make any boat we cox perform to their highest potential.  The first step is to come up with a list of skills that can be assessed quantifiably for each coxswain.  The next is to create a hierarchy of these skills to determine which attributes have the greatest effect on boat speed.  The third step is to have our coaches and rowers use this standardized rubric on a regular (monthly?) basis so that we can track our improvements over the course of the season or from one year to the next.  The hope is that we can establish a consistent method of “rating” coxswains which can be used as a teaching tool and a selection tool.  Just as rowers who pull faster 2k’s aren’t guaranteed a seat over someone who pulls a slower 2k, a higher rated coxswain isn’t guaranteed to win out over a lower rated one, but… it’s a start.

Why do you think coxswains can learn to teach themselves?

Trial by fire.  That is how all coxswains learn.  There are few out there that are actually getting any coaching, let alone specific coxswain coaching.  We all know this, yet we as coxswains embrace the challenge anyway.  At an early age I realized this and set out to learn as much as possible.  I did this mostly by shadowing the coxswains around me.  Then when I was better than them, I followed the best athletes, then the best coaches.  I tried to learn as much as possible from those around me to better improve myself.  The results are clear and eventually led to an Olympic medal.  The downside is that it takes a lot of time to improve and there is a lot of unnecessary trial and error.  But what I did find out were ways to guarantee that I improved myself by paying attention to what is going on around me. Read more