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Here’s what the college rowing coxswain actually does on race day:

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This video from Wisconsin does a great job of explaining what a coxswain does while incorporating the importance of language.

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A short tik tok video explaining the role of a coxswain (GB National Team)

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All we wanna know it has so many letters 😭 #coxswainproblems #coxswainsoftiktok #rowingcommunity #rowingtok #coxswainlife #coxes #coxswains #watersportsnation

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A list of rowing terminology that will be used throughout the project (there's a lot)!

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Rowing Terminology 101: From Bow to Stern-Understanding the Lingo

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New to rowing? Learn the key rowing terminology to better understand the sport, improve your technique, and communicate effectively with fellow rowers.

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Cox Boxes: Connecting Coxswains to the Crew 

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Cox Boxes: Connecting Coxswains to the Crew 

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Cox Boxes are devices that give coxswains data on the speed of the boat. They have a microphone that connects to speakers in the boat to allow rowers to hear their coxswain. Fun Fact: some rowing boats are over 60ft long!

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CoxBox 101: Is This Thing On? — RowSource

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The CoxBox’s simple three-button design allows coxswains to keep tabs on important data including stroke rate, stroke count, and elapsed time.

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These are common commands that are used by all coxswains in the sport of rowing

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Rowing Commands — Oregon Rowing Unlimited - PDX

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Competitive rowing at Oregon Rowing Unlimited in Portland Oregon. Located on the Willamette near Oaks Amusement Park.

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Coxing Language and Tone: Steady State Work

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Coxing Language and Tone: Steady State Work

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Steady State is lower rate and slower pace than sprint work. It is important that the coxswain's tone and calls are reflective of that. The rowers react to the coxes' voice. Calls should be in more of a conversational tone matching the rhythm of the boat.

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Previously: Steering, pt. 1 || Steering, pt. 2 || Boat feel || How to handle a negative coxswain eval
As disappointed as I am that we got like, no snow this winter, I am pumped that we were able to get on the water a full five weeks sooner than we were last year. We've been out for about two weeks now and have been doing our usual mix of steady state workouts and shorter, higher intensity pieces. I know there are several guys that love doing sprint workouts and loathe the steady state ones so on days when we're doing 3-2-1 @ 18-20-24 for 19 minutes (like we did yesterday with the 1V) it's important that the coxswains do their part to keep the energy up in the boat. This is accomplished less by knowing what to say (though that helps, obviously) and more so understanding how to cox these types of pieces, which is what today's post is going to be about.

Science

Steady state (aerobic) workouts are long pieces at low(er) rates with short amounts of rest between each individual piece. In rowing, the longer you can go before the body experiences fatigue the better, so in order to accomplish that we focus the bulk of our training on workouts that work to improve our cardiovascular fitness. Simply put, the stronger the cardiovascular system, the better your endurance, and the further into a 2k you'll get before you start to get tired. If you can delay the onset of fatigue from, for example, 1300m to 1800m, that could be the difference in who crosses the line first.

Focus

These pieces are prime opportunity to focus on technique and incorporate in the things you've heard the coach saying to the crew/individual rowers, as well as continue reiterating the concepts they're trying to convey when you're doing drills. For example, this week we've really been going all in on the catch. Since that's the only part of the stroke we've really focused on, if I were our coxswains I'd make sure that was my main priority as far as technical calls go. You don't want to be bouncing around (i.e. making a call for the catch on one stroke, a call for the finish on the next one, etc.) because that's distracting so make a point to consider what your coach's main focus has been that day/week so that your calls incorporate and reinforce that.

You can also tie in your technical focus to your team goals. For example, last year we lost to GW at Sprints by an absurd 0.1 seconds, which ended up preventing the eight from going to IRAs. If you consider how minuscule 0.1 seconds is when spread out across 2000 meters, it's easy to see how all eight rowers consistently getting the blades in just a hair sooner at the catch and maximizing the amount of time they're in the water can make a difference.

Tone

Tone is an area where a lot of coxswains struggle during steady state. If your tone is passive then the rowing will be too so you've got to work to find a balance between the energy you bring during sprint pieces and not sounding like Ben Stein in Ferris Bueller (YouTube it).

When it comes to what you're saying during sprint pieces, you'll want to be moving between two types of calls - normal coxing calls and "coaching" calls. Your normal coxing calls should be said in a crisp, focused tone that gets the rowers attention without being jarring or too in their face. (If these types of calls are at an 8-9ish during a race, during steady state they should be around a 6-7ish.) Coaching calls are said in a more conversational tone - you're not necessarily trying to match the rhythm of the strokes or anything like that, you're just talking to the crew like you'd talk to them during a normal face to face conversation.

Calls

As with all your calls, you should keep your coaching calls as tight as possible and eliminate any filler words but don't get so hung up on the idea that a call is only right/good if it's five monosyllabic words or less. That's not how it works (but that's a conversation/debate for another post).

During steady state the bulk of my calls tend to be coaching calls but I try to follow up with coxing calls as necessary to reiterate the main point of whatever I was just saying. (I wanna say I do this ~50% of the time.) Below are two examples of some coaching calls based on some of the notes I've taken this week and in the case of the first one, what coxing calls I'd follow them up with.

"Let's get the blades locked in behind us here ... making sure we're accelerating through our full arc. Unweight the hands in the last second of the recovery, find that resistance, ... and prrry through. Pick off the catch ... and accelerate. Lock, squeeze ... lock, squeeze ... lock, squeeze. "

"The goal is to let gravity do the work so let's sharpen up the catches by relaxing the outside shoulder and unweighting the handle before the slides turn around."

Compared to your normal "lock, send" type of calls, these take a lot longer to say which some of you might try to get around by saying them as quickly as you can force them out of your mouth. Don't. One, no one can understand you when you do that. Literally no one. Two, as you run out of breath you get quieter so by the time you finish your sentence your bow four probably assumes that you just trailed off because they can't hear anything you're saying. Three, in situations like this there's nothing wrong with taking three, four, five strokes to say something to the crew. You're rowing for 10+ miles, I think you can spare a few strokes to make a single call.
Related: Since were still waiting for the river to be ice-free, I've been thinking about what I need to work on when we get back on the water. I've decided that coxing steady state pieces are harder for me to cox. I think it's because I don't want to talk to much but I'm also scared of not saying enough or being too repetitive. Do you have advice for coxing steady state workouts?
Another important thing to remember is that you don't have to talk the entire time, nor should you. Not only is that the easiest way to run out of things to say and set yourself up to become a repetitive parrot, eventually the rowers are just going to tune you out because you're annoying and not saying anything substantial. Not talking gives you a chance to focus on the bladework and mull over in your head what calls you want to make while also giving them some time to process what you/the coach have been saying (and/or just enjoy rowing in silence for a bit). I try to break up my calls by doing 30 second internal focuses if there's something specific I want them to think about ("Let's take the next 30 seconds to listen to the catches and tighten up the timing...") or I'll just ... stop talking for a bit. I don't think you not talking always needs to be planned or announced but try to keep an eye on the clock anyways so that you don't go for more than a minute at time without saying something (unless otherwise instructed).
Related: Today during practice we just did 20 minute pieces of steady state rowing. My crew gets bored very quickly and their stroke rating goes down, so I decided to add in various 13 stroke cycles throughout the piece, but I regret doing it because it wasn't steady state. I'm just confused as to how to get them engaged throughout without sounding like a cheerleader but at the same time keeping up the drive and stroke.
Miscellaneous reminders

When you're doing these pieces you want to be aware of any time restrictions that are placed on the piece or the amount of rest since they usually correlate to a specific heart rate zone that you're trying to stay within. (For example, if you've got three minutes of rest between pieces, make sure that it's actually three minutes and not ninety seconds or five minutes. This is also why you need a working cox box and/or a watch - your phone doesn't count.) The time between pieces is usually going to be spent paddling, spinning, getting water, discussing the previous piece, or a combination of all four so you've got to monitor your timer and not let them sit for too long or waste too much time getting water or lined up because this can mess with how effective the piece is.
Related: (Another reason) Why you need a working cox box
Also keep in mind that when you're doing steady state with another boat, you're not racing or competing against them. You can go off of them as positive reinforcement ("yea guys, we took three seats over the last ten strokes just by focusing more on maximizing our length through the water..." or "we're side by side with the 2V right now, let's see if we can push our bow ball ahead by getting a little more connection off the front end") but you shouldn't be going out and saying "OK, they're seven lengths of open ahead of us, let's take ten to walk back a seat". Like ... no. I've listened to way too many recordings where coxswains do that.
(Loosely) Related: My girls really like when I cox off of other boats, even if we're just doing steady state. I'm in the 2V boat so they all want to beat the 1V at ALL times. I find it easy to cox when we're next to another boat/in front of it. However, I never quite know what to say without being negative and annoying when we're CLEARLY behind another boat. Yesterday afternoon we were practically three lengths behind the v1, and we STILL didn't catch up even when they added a pause. What do I say at times like these? I always end up getting rather quiet since the overall attitude of my boat is pretty down. I feel like whenever I call a 10 or get into the piece at this point it does absolutely nothing, since my rowers have practically given up.
If I'm doing a long row with another crew then I'll spend 98% of it focused on us and then maybe get competitive with them if they're nearby (while still staying within the confines of the piece as far as rate goes) for the last few hundred meters, just to tie everything together and make sure we end on a high note. It's not the main, secondary, or even tertiary focus of these pieces though so don't go out there when you're doing 12 miles of steady state with the sole goal of "beating" the other boat.

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Coxswain Skills: Coxing steady state workouts

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Previously: Steering, pt. 1 || Steering, pt. 2 || Boat feel || How to handle a negative coxswain eval As disappointed as I am that we got like, no snow this winter, I am pumped that we were able to get on the water a full five weeks sooner than we were last year.

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Language and Tone: Steady State Coxswain Recording Analysis

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Language and Tone: Steady State Coxswain Recording Analysis

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This is a recording from a collegiate steady state workout. The coxswain's tone of voice is relaxed and conversational. The language she is using rhythmically in time with the boat. She increases the intensity of her voice when she wants her crew to add more power during what are called Power 10s (10 strokes of hard pressure).

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Steady State UCSD 2015 Coxswain Recording

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Sprint pieces are high-rate shorter pieces where the main focus is power. The coxswain's tone of voice is aggressive and assertive, but not frantic. If rowers begin to get out of control during the race, the coxswain will often slow down and soften their voice.

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Coxswain Skills: Coxing sprint workouts – Ready all, row

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Previously: Steering, pt. 1 || Steering, pt. 2 || Boat feel || How to handle a negative coxswain eval || How to cox steady state workouts

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Language and Tone: Sprint Coxswain Recording Analysis

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Language and Tone: Sprint Coxswain Recording Analysis

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This is a recording from the US National Team coxswain that set a world record during this race. The coxswain's tone of voice is aggressive and strong. The language used is mainly focused on power. He is letting his crew know where they are in relation to the other boats and constantly pushing them for more. There are times where he controls and slows down his speech in order to calm his rowers. The tone of voice directly matches the power and speed of the rowers.

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U23 World Championship Cox recording - U.S. 8+ 5:22.480 (World Record)

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Going from Coxing a Women's Rowing Team to a Men's Rowing Team

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Going from Coxing a Women's Rowing Team to a Men's Rowing Team

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The author of this blog post discusses her experience going from coxing a women's team in high school to a men's team in college. The men's team responded best to more aggressive calls that demanded her respect.

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How a collegiate coxswain earned her crew’s respect – Ready all, row

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After yesterday’s post on respect went up, I got an email yesterday from a coxswain that I wanted to share. I think most of can say “yup, been there…” and relate to what she’s saying. She brings up a lot of excellent points so I hope everyone is able to take something away from reading this and apply it to your own situation.

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What Gets Them Rowing?: A study of gender-specific motivational tendencies in rowing

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What Gets Them Rowing?: A study of gender-specific motivational tendencies in rowing

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This scientific study found that male rowers tended to be motivated more by what is called ego-centric motivation (outperforming their competitors and personal best), while female rowers tended to be more motivated through social orientation (group support and the team dynamic).

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What gets them rowing?: a comparative study of the achievement motivation of male and female elite rowers when training and racing

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Elite athletes are highly motivated people. and need high levels of motivation to prevail through the tough training sessions and through set backs (Hardy, Jones & Gould. 1996). Therefore. research on motivation and specifically what contributes to a rower's motivation becomes significant from both a theoretical and practical view.

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What Do Rowers Like to Hear?: World Rowing 

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What Do Rowers Like to Hear?: World Rowing 

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These are calls that coxswains would typically use to get the rowers motivated during a sprint race!

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Whats the best call you have heard in a race?

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Importance of Consistent Language: Technique  

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Importance of Consistent Language: Technique  

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During steady state rowing, coxswains and coaches will often correct their rower's technique in the boat. It is important that they use the same language and vocabulary, but also that the tone of what they are saying coincides with the result they want

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Coaching tips - consistent language is the key - British Rowing

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Here’s some top tips on how to get the most out of your sessions from Coach Consultant Robin Williams

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This is a podcast episode that goes into detail with tips and tricks about how coxswains should be coxing their sprint races. From before the race starts until after it finishes with multiple different race day scenarios.

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CoxPod 025 | Sprint Racing: Start to Finish Line

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During steady state rowing coxswains are constantly giving rowers feedback on their rowing. This podcast episode talks about the importance of tailoring your communication style for the people for the audience, using vocabulary that everyone understands, mirroring the coach, but also the importance of silence.

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When a coxswain creates their race plan, studies like this one is extremely important. As a coxswain who has coxed both men's and women's teams the way I motivate a boat changes. On a women's team they typically respond more when I make a call like "we're all pulling for x person" or "let's take ten for x all together". On a men's team they typically respond more when I make a call like "let's take a seat from x team" or "let's drop the split by x amount".

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What do Rowers Like to Hear?: Fairfield Men's Rowing Interview Quote

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What do Rowers Like to Hear?: Fairfield Men's Rowing Interview Quote

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"I typically respond best to hearing numbers: my split and rate. I like to know my location, where I'm at in relation to other crews, and what I can do to take a seat"

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What do Rowers Like to Hear?: Fairfield Women's Rowing Interview Quote

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What do Rowers Like to Hear?: Fairfield Women's Rowing Interview Quote

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"Something our coxswains do that we respond to is pinning us against each other. She calls us out by name and makes us compete as a pair in a boat to see who can go the fastest. It gets the split down and gets us working together"