Excerpts from “The Coxswain Encyclopedia” by Laura Simon, Stew Stokes, and Margot Zalkind
1. Race Plan and Execution
One key to being a great race coxswain is to remember and execute your race plan. Prepare your calls before the race and have everything written down or memorized. Plan ahead and have your Cox Box® charged and ready to go at the start of the race.
2. Steering
Coxswains are trusted to steer the boat from start to finish. Make sure your crew is clean on the first 3 strokes in order to keep the bow from being thrown around at the beginning of the race. Steering can add meters to your race, slowing down your overall time, and putting you a competitive disadvantage.
3. Voice Control
Talk calmly and with a rhythmic tone. Crews do not want to be yelled at. Speak clearly into your microphone and stay controlled, confident and excited without sounding frantic. Make sure that you save those loud intense calls for when they really matter. You don’t want crews to tune out important calls because you’re constantly yelling.
4. Voice Intonation
Coxswains need to be able to adjust their voices based on their surroundings. Stay away from a monotonous tone. You can maintain your crews attention by constantly changing the way your voice sounds. Practice and track your voice intonation to see what works best for your crew.
5. Motivation
As a coxswain, it is your job to motivate your crew throughout practices and on race day. Be sure to attach your motivation to a technique. Make a call with an action attached to it, and let your crew know when they’ve succeeded.
6. Judging Distance and Speed of Other Boats
This skill will develop throughout your coxswain career. One technique is to pick a landmark and start counting when the crew passes that mark. Now, in seconds, you know how far behind you are. Three to four seconds is a boat length, so do the math to calculate how far behind you are.
7. Identify, Correct, and Give Feedback
Being able to successfully identify mistakes and give proper feedback is a crucial skill as you advance in your coxswain career. When you notice your crew making a mistake, give them specific feedback and instruct them on how to fix it.
“Example: 500 meters into a race, your crew is starting to lose seats to another crew and begins to panic and starts rushing their slides.
Call: “All right 8, we feel the other boat. Let’s hold them off with patience on our slides. Keep our boat running between strokes. Stern pair(or whoever is allowing the panic to creep in), lead us with length and sending. We’re going to hold them off. On this one!”
Then follow up with feedback
Call: “Yes, 8 we held them to 4 seats with patience on our slides. Excellent. Let’s carry that focus over as we make our move.”
8. Eliminating Filler Comments and Speaking with Purpose
Eliminating filler comments is extremely hard to do, but it will improve your ability to successful motivate and keep your crew “in tune” with your calls. One tip is to record yourself and count how many times you use filler comments. Set goals at each practice to reduce these words. For example if you don’t know why you’re saying it you probably shouldn’t be.
Examples:
“That’s it!” ̶ Possible filler word
“That’s it, we just increased our spacing half a foot!” ̶ Knowledge behind what you are saying”
Source: “The Coxswain Encyclopedia.” 3rd ed. The Foundation for Rowing Education inc, March 2009. Print.