Best Ever Coxswain Recordings

Ready to go, on this, here we go.

(Urgently)

Push, send.

Push, send.

Push, send.

(quietly now)

Fo'

Fi' chaa

Six chaa

Seven cha

Eight -

(much stronger and louder)

In two we shift

One we're at 36

Power... now shift!

Push send,

2 chaa

Three

Fo'

This is Pete Cipollone, Olympic gold medalist, coxing the U.S. Rowing entry to its win at the 1997 Head of the Charles regatta. This recording has been dubbed the gold standard of coxswain race recordings. Experienced coxswains will tell you that it has it all - the right calls, perfect tone, clear strategy execution, and engagement of individual rowers throughout the race. Read the transcript and listen to the edited recording to appreciate great coxing.

With more than 27,000 views, the World Rowing recording of Kristin Kit coxing the Canadian women's eight at the 2022 World Rowing Cup III in Lucerne is also considered one of the best-ever cox recordings. The video shows the race, but rather than a commentator, you listen to Kit commanding her crew. As Kaitlyn Sill, University of Delaware coxswain and 2024 intern with NK Sports, explains: “Rowers love that one for how energetic and aggressive she is with her calls and how much she is hyping up the boat and giving position calls.”

Why listen to or make coxswain recordings

The audience is broader than you might think. Any rower will be caught up in the immediacy of being in the boat with elite athletes at famous regattas. Non-rowers appreciate the excitement and urgency of experiencing the race as the coxswain does. As one reviewer said of a cox recording, “If this doesn't give you goosebumps, check your pulse.”

For coxswains, recordings serve multiple purposes. It is inspirational to listen and learn from the best or to review your own races and reflect on what worked or what could be improved. Voice recordings of your practices are helpful for you, your crew, and your coach. If you want to get recruited into college for coxing, you must submit audio recordings to the coaches and recruiting staff for review.

The most extensive listing of coxswain recordings is found on Ready All Row, a website that, unfortunately, is no longer adding new posts. Check Reddit forums, coxswains' forums, or social media groups for other suggestions, although the rationale for why these are good recordings is not always provided. A different approach is to listen to different coxes from the same regatta, such as the San Diego Crew Classic, to compare how different coxswains handle the exact location. If you are coxing a head race for the first time, listening to other coxswains steer the course can be invaluable.

Here are two recordings that Kaitlyn listens to before races to get herself in the right mindset. One is the US men's eight from the 2018 U23 World Championship, and the other is from the Henley Royal Regatta in 2022, the semi-final race between Leander and Yale.

What makes these all good recordings are the communication style and skill of the coxswain, as well as the clarity of the sound. This brings us to the topic of how to make recordings.

How to record using your CoxBox

Despite its immense popularity, the audio function of NK Sports CoxBox is not well known amongst coxswains and coaches. Even Kaitlyn was not aware until her intern role at the company. Until then, Kaitlyn did what many coxes do - she used the voice recording app on her phone. Perhaps a simple solution, but it is not easy to get a clear and useful recording. There is the challenge of where to put the phone so that it picks up your voice clearly without being muffled by clothing or waterproof pouches. External noises are picked up by the phone and can override or distract from the coxswain's voice. In some events, officials do not allow phones to be with you during the race.

To get clear audio records using your CoxBox, you need an inexpensive R2 Auxiliary Input Adapter from NK Sports plus a digital audio recorder. Go to your local electronics store or check out options online. Kaitlyn illustrates how the CoxBox, auxiliary input adapter, and voice recorder all connect to record, whether during a practice or a race. Just as you would download an audio recording from a phone app, you download the recording from your digital recorder.

How to analyze and improve your coxing with recordings

Recording and listening is the first step. Analyzing and interpreting what you hear to improve your coxing is the next. It can sometimes be surprising what you hear. Are you being repetitive, boring your crew and losing their focus? Are you too shouty, yelling at the rowers and discouraging them rather than motivating them? Are you providing enough constructive feedback, either generally or individually? During the race, do the rowers know where they are in the field, are they executing the race plan?

Your coach and crew can assist you in interpreting your coxswain recordings but there are additional ways to lean how to improve. Rachel Freedman of RowSource and Steady State Network offers her five top tips for coxing a race along with a race recording where she practices what she preaches. A YouTube video by Aram Training shows race footage from the 2021 U23 World Championship men's eight. The race is a nailbiter with Great Britain winning by 0.21 of a second. The video has both the voice of Scott Cockle the coxswain plus additional analysis and interpretation by Aram Training of what makes for great coxing.

A blog post by the Rower Academy titled The Rower Whisper takes an even deeper dive into what a cox sounds like and can aspire to. Reference is drawn to the famous Pete Cipollone HOCR recording - it really is one of the best ever coxswain recordings.

The final word goes to Kaitlyn Sill:

If you are recording your practices and races, you have the best chance to help yourself improve. When you start coxing it is really hard to become really good really fast because you're not always given direction. Rowers turned coxswains usually turn out the best because they have been on the other side and know what they like to hear in the first place. But people that start out as coxswains are flying blind, so the best way to learn is to listen to other coxswains' recordings and sort of try to mimic until you find your own style that works for your crew.

You have the ability to become your own biggest critic with your recordings. You can listen back and decide what you liked and didn't like, find places you feel you can improve. You can also send it to your coaches, and they can tell you more places where you can change your calls that can help with boat flow. Also you can ask your crew for places they feel you can improve and with your recordings you can go back and look at what they are talking about with fresh ears. A great boat needs a great coxswain. If you putt in all of this time to go over these recordings you know your crew is going to work hard with you.