As a coxswain, your ability to “feel the boat” is one of your most valuable skills. It’s an intuitive sensation that you translate into words. It is then about choosing the right words that will act as verbal cues to get the intended response from the rowers. For example, adjusting the speed the blades cover may result in a more synchronised crew, a smoother running boat, and a faster moving hull. Being zoned in on reading your boat unlocks the toolkit to action any process necessary to win a race.
Stern-loader or Bow-loader
First things first, you need to know where you will feel the boat from. If you’re in a stern-loaded boat, your connection points are your feet, your glutes, your lower back, and your fingers. In a bow-loaded boat, that connection runs all the way up your posterior (chain the back of your body) including your neck, shoulders, and fingers.
Noticing these spots helps you feel what the hull is doing and when your crew is in sync. Since both seat types feel different, learning to pick up on those subtle vibes is a real skill.
Connecting Your Senses
You can develop boat feel both on and off the water by getting your senses in tune. Think of it like patting your head and rubbing your tummy at the same time; you need to be aware of the boat’s movement, the crew’s timing, your steering, and the data in front of you, all at once.
On the Land
- Listen to feedback: Pay close attention when coaches and rowers talk about rowing. Ask rowers what a well connected and therefore, fast stroke, feels like compared to one that isn’t as connected. This helps you build a vocabulary to describe what you’re feeling on the water.
- Watch the erg: When a rower is on the erg, watch their form and listen to the sound of the machine. Notice how the sound of the fan changes with their timing, rhythm, and power. This helps you connect the sound of a good stroke to what it looks like.
- Use a static erg: If you can, sit on an erg to feel how the power transfers through the handle and into your body. This hands-on experience helps you understand the physics of the stroke. Better yet, try rowing yourself, you’ll gain a huge amount of insight into how the boat moves and maneuvers.
- Drive anything: Whether you’re driving a car, riding a bike, or driving a coaching launch, pay attention to your spatial awareness and how the vehicle responds to your movements. This will help improve your sensory feedback in general.
In the Coxing Seat
- Listen to the stroke: Close your eyes for a few strokes and just listen to the boat. Listen for the timing of the catches and finishes and the sound of the wheels on the slides. Do both sides sound the same? Can you hear the subtle differences? Once you can, you’ll know what to listen for when it’s good versus when it’s not.
- Feel the rhythm: Tune into the subtle sensations in your core and glutes. Can you feel the boat “check” (slow down) at the catch? How long does that check last? (The shorter, the better.) Can you feel the boat glide smoothly between strokes? Does the hull actually speed up after the separation phase?
- Connect what you feel to what you see: Pick a specific rower’s oar. At the catch, does the oar hit the water at the same time you feel the load on your body? At the finish, does the oar come out of the water at the same time you feel the hull stay buoyant? Does that feeling of buoyancy continue as the crew separates, or does it jerk? This helps you link your physical sensations to the visual cues you see on the water.
By practicing these techniques, you’ll train your body to be a finely tuned instrument, making you a more intuitive and effective coxswain.
Identifying Areas to Make the Boat Faster
Once you know what a good-feeling boat is like, you can start to notice what’s making it slow down or feel “off.” This is where your boat feel becomes a powerful tool. By spotting imbalances or issues, you can give your crew specific calls. For example, you might feel a “check” in the boat, which is a sudden jolt. This could be caused by timing issues at the catch, one side not pushing as hard, or the crew’s ratio being off (the speed of the drive versus the recovery). Check is a natural part of changing direction, so you need to notice how long the check lasts. By feeling where the check is coming from and how long it lasts, you can make a specific and effective process driven call. In a scenario where check was followed by a delay in the change of direction you would want to articulate a process that reduces this window of delay. This feeling is even more critical in a bow-loaded boat, where you can’t see the rowers behind you. You have to rely on what you feel and hear to know if the crew is working efficiently and what’s holding them back.
Articulation
After you’ve identified a process that will help you make the boat faster, the next step is to tell your crew about it. This is a huge part of developing boat feel. At first, you might just state what you see, hear, and feel; “the boat is stopping at the catch”, or “the blades are skying into the catch”. Then you’ll progress to turning those sensations into clear, concise, and actionable feedback.
Articulation is a skill that comes with practice. It means using the right terminology and calls that your crew understands. Instead of saying, “the boat feels unbalanced”, you could say, “bow pair support the bows by keeping the handles moving around the release”. This gives them a clear instruction on how to fix the timing and, therefore, the balance.
It’s also important to talk about what the boat feels like when it’s good. When you have a clear understanding of what a fast, efficient boat feels like and can put that into words, you can reinforce good habits and help your crew replicate that feeling. This can be as simple as a call like, “that’s it, that feels powerful!” or “enjoy that run”.
Finally, your voice isn’t just for commands; it’s for creating a sense of rhythm and confidence. A calm, controlled voice helps a crew find a smooth rhythm, while a rushed or frantic one can do the opposite.
Conclusion
So, there you have it. Boat feel isn’t some magical sixth sense that only a few lucky coxswains are born with. It’s a skill you can totally learn and get better at, just like anything else. It’s about being dialed in, paying attention to all the little things such as, the sounds, the movements, the feelings, and then connecting the dots.
Think of yourself as the central nervous system of the boat. Your job is to take in all the info and translate it into a language your crew can understand. It takes time, practice, and a bit of trial and error, but the more you work on it, the more you’ll feel that amazing connection with your boat and crew.
Happy coxing!
