Winter: A Coxswain's Role

It’s below 30 degrees outside, there’s snow on the ground, and your rowers are putting in their hours sweating it out on the erg.  You may be thinking to yourself that you have now become completely useless to your team but you are surely mistaken!  During winter season you are just as much a part of your team as you make yourself.  Here are some tips for surviving winter training! 

Workout! 

Use this time to get your workout on and maintain your weight…or lose those holiday lbs.  Although I cannot run I do love to do circuits and abs with my team.  I’ll even hop on an erg sometimes for a few pieces if I’m feeling ambitious!  Your rowers will appreciate you 10x more if you’re participating in workouts with them. 

Correct Technique

Correcting technique on the erg can go a long way in translating to technique on the water.  Rowers who dip their hands at the catch or slouch on the erg are likely to do the same on the water.  Drilling this technique into their heads while on land can give them the time they need to fix the problem and make the correct technique a habit. 

Take Scores

Continue to take scores after all of your erg pieces.  I like to do this to keep everyone accountable on every piece we do so nobody gets the feeling like they can ever slack off.  My fellow coxswains and I take the scores and keep an updated Google Documents spreadsheet of all of the erg pieces we do so the rowers and coaches can look at any time at the hard data.  Also keeping these scores gives you a good judgment of maybe who came into winter season out of shape, who is improving, and who is just holding steady and not pushing themselves…all of which can be used to determine boats come spring.

Set & Work towards Goals

Last winter season the rowers completed a coxswain survey for every coxswain on our team.  It was a good time to get feedback from the rowers to see what we were all doing well and what the girls thought we could improve on.  During winter is a time when you can still be listening to tapes and trying to improve.  During this time you can also improve rower relationships.  Before every major test piece I always ask the girls what they are aiming for and try to help them achieve their goals.  This shows that I care about every girl and their individual goal and also gives me insight into what to say during their piece.