It’s now a well-debunked myth that coxes just shout at their crews to keep rowing. Instead, they observe every technical detail, coaching rowers to micro-improvements that can be the difference between winning and losing, all while steering the best lines.
It’s not surprising, therefore, that the switch from cox to coach is a well-trodden path. Figures like Team GB’s Harry Brightmore OLY and Henry Fieldman OLY have both worked as coaches at university and school level; Mary Whipple OLY (who runs training camps for coxes) and Yasmin Faroq OLY (head coach of the University of Washington women’s teams) have coxed for Team USA at two Olympic Games each.
But the move does raise some questions: is it an easy adjustment to make? What challenges might coxes face making the change? And what would motivate someone to swap roles in the first place?
To find out, I caught up with two legends of the sport. Morgan Baynham-Williams (British Rowing 2013-23) is a world champion and Boat Race and Henley Royal Regatta winner, whose more recent coaching positions have taken her to the University of Virginia and Oxford Brookes University. Olympian and world and European medallist Matilda Horn OLY is now Assistant Women’s Coach at Cambridge University Boat Club.
The desire to make the change
For Baynham-Williams, the change from cox to coach was “the natural transition at the end of [her] coxing career”. She certainly didn’t follow a linear path into coaching. She’d done some coaching alongside competitive coxing, did a year on the coaching launch, took a job in finance, and then returned to coaching this season.
The world champion didn’t see the move to finance as a hiatus from the rowing world, but rather as an incredible learning opportunity about how corporations operate and how to conduct business, something that is incredibly important in the sporting world and massively overlooked. She credits it as helping build up a wider portfolio of skills and showing her how to conduct herself as a coach.
Matilda Horn’s journey was similarly non-linear, having previously mixed coxing with coaching, viewing the latter as “a tool that made [her] a better cox”. During her competitive career, it became a way to gain more perspective on her own journey and view situations with greater clarity. However, when transitioning into full-time coaching, Horn began to take satisfaction in the learning, development, and growth of others.
A “switching of lanes”?
With athletes, there’s always crossover between roles: some coxes jump at the chance to go for a row, and some rowers dabble in coaching from time to time. Does full-time coaching, therefore, signify a permanent “switching of lanes”?
Horn’s answer to this question was simple. A coaching career marked the end of her coxing career. Although she “wouldn’t say never”, she views her role in the sport differently now, particularly with the work that she (along with Baynham-Williams and four other renowned coxes) does with The Winning Cox.
Baynham-Williams, too, believes that her international coxing career is over, but noted that “fun coxing” is never finished. She did point out, though, that coxes do “come back in”. They don’t tend to retire because of a physiological peak, and an end doesn’t always have to be permanent.
The transition
With the decision made to switch to coaching, I wanted to hear about how both athletes found the transition.
Both saw the transferability of the skills gained from coxing into teaching rowing. Having a solid foundation in the more complex technical elements of the sport and knowing how to make practical changes to the stroke set both set you up well for time on the launch.
Baynham-Williams pointed out that “coxes are coaching within the boat”, and that, to be a good cox, lots of time must be spent on land, coaching small boats, big boats, in the erg room, or in the gym, helping you to build up the technical understanding of how to develop boat speed.
Likewise, Horn believes that coxing gave her the ability to quickly analyse a situation and “find diverse ways to explain technical concepts to capture a varied audience”.
Equally, both coaches encountered challenges in the switch. While I expected both to mention that diagnosing problems within the boat without using boat-feel was a hard adjustment, it was interesting to hear that wasn’t the only issue.
The Cambridge assistant coach found it hard to adapt to “not being able to feel what was going on in the boat”, but learnt quickly to focus on the whole hull, not just the individuals within. She also cited adjusting to the fast pace of the Boat Race season as particularly difficult.
For the Henley winner, one of the things she found the most challenging was the actual changing of roles. A cox is an athlete on the team, working with their teammates. Meanwhile, a coach has a similar level of influence, but they are responsible for selection decisions and writing training programmes. The boundaries are very different, with a huge level of power and responsibility for the coach, with lots of expectations. As Baynham-Williams put it, “once you become the coach, it’s your decision – the responsibility and consequences fall with you”.
A natural choice?
As Baynham-Williams put simply: “Good coxes make good coaches”.
She told me that, as her career as a cox was ending, it certainly seemed like the natural transition. She’d spent her coxing days teaching rowing, a skill which she’d habitually built up, and one that comes in handy if you wish to coach at the highest level. In short, “If you have ambitions to coach on a national team, you have to be a really good teacher.”
Her parting remarks on the matter stayed with me: “Rowing is the longest chess game you’ve ever played, and athletes look to the coach to learn. We have to create that learning environment – every day, be mindful that everyone is trying their best. Look at ways to create that learning environment.”
Horn, too, called the transition between coxing and coaching natural. Despite having begun plans to work outside of rowing, the sport “pulled [her] back in”.
Describing her philosophy as a coach, she said: “I see my role as leveraging my strengths in perspective, organisation, and life lessons to help athletes navigate their careers. I am deeply passionate about promoting free-thinking, resilient individuals and demonstrating that high-performance sport provides powerful, transferable lessons for life outside of rowing. Ultimately, the shift to coaching felt like the most complete and satisfying way to use my experience, not just to win races, but to build people who will lead long after the finish line.”
It was great to speak to Morgan and Matilda about their journeys from coxing to coaching, and to hear that, for them at least, it was a transition that felt natural and challenged them in positive ways. As someone who coxed throughout my school days and has recently made the move to coaching, I can truly say that Morgan and Matilda’s experiences fill me with hope for the journey ahead.
