FireBoard Site Syndication http://www.coxswain.com Mon, 06 Sep 2010 13:23:12 -0400 FireBoard 1.0.5RC2 http://www.coxswain.com/components/com_fireboard/template/default_ex/images/english/emoticons/rss.gif http://www.coxswain.com FireBoard Site Syndication http://www.coxswain.com/forum?func=view&catid=6&id=12193#12195 I have always been told that the catch is the most difficult part of rowing to teach. Are their blades square early enough? If they are not (rowers squaring when they should be catching), well, no chance of the catch being good. If they are square early enough, three possible problems (at least! that's jus what comes to mind right now)! 1- the rowers have a hard time "reading" the stroke and don't really know when he/she is going to catch. It took my about a year to get used to my current stroke, so let's say it's mostly a matter of practice and habit there. Or of the coach taking a little more time on the stroke's stroke. 2- the rowers reach too far forward, as a result their arms and back are overextended at the catch, so they can't catch properly, and they have to "relax" back into a less outstretched position, resulting in "empty" movement and a shorter in-water stroke. Actually it mostly happens with shorter rowers (I did it myself when I started rowing varsity) who try to compensate. Solution: tell them not to try being taller than they are. 3- the rowers are "shortening" their stroke to save energy - they don't have what it takes at that rythm, so they go into a "lower gear" by rowing shorter. Those are possible causes for that shortening. If you want to attack the symptom (regardless of cause) you can practice rowing with all rowers making a good foreplash (do it while it's still warm because they're going to get wet), to make sure nobody has the oar going backwards before it's in the water. Fri, 03 Sep 2010 16:44:15 -0400 http://www.coxswain.com/forum?func=view&catid=8&id=12125#12194 thank you so much everyone for your tips :) we managed to take out 3rd place by 0.06 seconds! nearly got them :) it was so great for our squad, the eight hasnt meddled since 1978. thanks again. Fri, 03 Sep 2010 11:04:24 -0400 http://www.coxswain.com/forum?func=view&catid=14&id=10491&limit=6&start=6#12192 I'm currently attending UCF and have personally seen the women in action. They are very intense and have a good dynamic but most importantly, the lake is less than 10 minutes away from the campus. Also note that I am a male coxswain and have only seen the girls from picnics and shared lake time back when the men's club and women's varsity team were on the same lake (not anymore though). As far as UCF academics go, they're generally pretty good, extremely good for business and engineering, but as far as activities go, nothing's better than a campus 30 minutes away from 4 international tourist attractions (sea world, disney, universal studios and islands of adventure), and less than an hour away from 5 beautiful beaches. Go knights! Wed, 01 Sep 2010 14:35:46 -0400 http://www.coxswain.com/forum?func=view&catid=7&id=12190#12191 I started as a rower before cox-ing but even after coach forced me to cox I continued doing every land workout my rowers did (erg, run, calistincs...) but after 3 years I didn't gain too much more weight than expected from getting older. Granted everyone's different and you may gain a lot of weight or become really bulky but if that happens you can either scale back what the rowers are doing or just stop. Something I want to add, doing the same workouts your rowers are doing will do two things. First, it'll give you a very clear idea of their fitness level allowing you to know exactly how hard to push them. And second, it'll allow you to know exactly how much they hurt when y'all get to the 1600 meter mark of a 2000 meter race wich is an advantage very few other coxswains have ;) Wed, 01 Sep 2010 14:19:24 -0400 http://www.coxswain.com/forum?func=view&catid=5&id=11848&limit=6&start=6#12189 I know this is an extremely old topic, but I find it oddly amusing that there exist trolls on forums for coxswains. Oh internet, you amuse me to no end. Mon, 30 Aug 2010 03:01:33 -0400 http://www.coxswain.com/forum?func=view&catid=5&id=12184#12188 The best coxswains, like he best drivers or the best cyclists, can get into crashes. Sometimes it's a mental lapse. Sometimes it's another boat doing something wrong and you can't avoid the crash. Sometimes it's just plain bad luck, although these factors usually work in combination: if everyone's in his lane, it's unlikely you suffer from bad luck. Once I was rowing bow in an eight which crashed into a coxed four (both sternloaders). It was a head-on collision; we only noticed the incoming boat when we heard them, so even though we checked our oars, the collision was inevitable. I was ejected from my seat and landed on the bow, but just had a few bruises (I do have a scar in the lower back, and since that happened in 1997 I guess that's going to stay); quite the same for the 4's bowman. Both coxswains claimed the collision was unavoidable because they were going head on, so each boat was in the other coxie's 'blind spot'. Another collision of that type occurred last season, the most scandalous fact being that a coach was rowing in one of the boats as a replacement. Why the horror story? Well, because here there is little bad luck involved. Both coxswains were being complacent with not being in their lane. Had they been in their lane, even without seeing the other boat, they would have crossed each other with several hundred feet to spare. They were smack in the middle of the lake, and were not in a hurry to correct their course. So, trust yourself as foxycoxie said, but that also means that when you see you are in the wrong spot, or veering towards it (it often happens in relatively inexperienced boats, where often one side, usually bowside 'gains the upper hand' on the other side), instead of thinking "uh, starboard is pulling harder than port, I can't do much about it, that guy in the stroke seat has 40lbs on me and will strangle me if I stop the piece / drill", you have to be confident enough to say "screw the drill, hold it guys, we have to get back into our lane first". You also have to trust the other boats around you will have the same discipline, but at least if you are disciplined you won't put yourself into a position where bad luck can happen. Sun, 22 Aug 2010 13:15:08 -0400 http://www.coxswain.com/forum?func=view&catid=9&id=12173#12187 www.rowcoachmedia.com has some from olympic coxswains i have them and they were really useful! Tue, 10 Aug 2010 22:36:17 -0400 http://www.coxswain.com/forum?func=view&catid=5&id=12160#12186 Hey I'm from MN as well! Lately, it's been pretty warm so i just wear shorts and a t-shirt during practice (normally I do wear spandex under my shorts). Just try to stay comfortable. Oh and wear sunglasses. They will save your life! Mon, 09 Aug 2010 22:33:18 -0400