Learn to be a Coxswain
Tips and resources on how to learn to be a coxswain and continue to build skills and experience club, collegiate and national levels.
Lots of people will tell you how to cox. Izzi Weiss will teach you how to learn to be a coxswain. Izzi would know. She has coxed for about a decade at the club, collegiate and national levels. Her coxing resume includes a gold medal in the USA women's four at the World Under-23 Championships in Poznan, Poland in 2018 and bronze medal in the USA women's eight at the World Under-23 Championships in Sarasota, Florida in 2019. In 2022 she launched Inside Turn, a coxswain's consultancy. The business has grown to 30 clients in just over a year, with team live presentations, and an active blog. The focus is relentless. As she summarizes in a post written to novice coxes: "The important thing is to keep learning and growing as a coxswain.”
Izzi's approach to coaching her clients reflects her philosophy of continuous learning and improvement. There is no formula, she tailors each one-on-one program so coxswains receive instruction and feedback to help them improve in specific areas. What is a success is different for each, depending on their goals. After the recent San Diego Crew Classic, Izzi got a call from a client, ecstatic because she knew what calls to make, executed her race plan, and was confident making adjustments as needed. She had made positive changes and met her goals.
Encyclopedic Knowledge
It is remarkable what a coxswain needs to learn, understand and do.
The Coxswain's Encyclopedia: From Racks to Racing
Written by elite coxswains, coaches, and referees, the manual packs a wealth of detail into 200 pages. It is a place for a novice to start to learn to be a coxswain and a central resource for experienced coxes to refer to as they continue to improve.
The Encyclopedia is divided into three sections. Part One, "Are You Ready?" consists of six chapters on the basics, including an essential one on safety. Part Two, "Row!" delves into greater detail, adding chapters on building relationships and trust, plus how to become the best coxswains for practices. Part Three, "Race!" covers what a coxswain needs to learn to race and win, including 8 fundamentals to race coxing. Quick summaries of essential tips are scattered throughout, plus useful appendices. Instructions on how to use and care for the NK Sports Cox Box are also provided.
To give you a hint, the 8 Fundamentals of Race Coxing are:
- Race plan and execution
- Steering
- Voice control
- Voice intonation
- Motivation
- Judging distance and speed of other boats
- Identify, correct and give feedback
- Eliminate filler comments and speak with purpose
Learn to be a Coxswain on the Water
We learn best by doing, and so it is with coxing. Izzi identified seven fundamentals for novices as they begin to learn to be a coxswain:
1. Familiarize yourself with the basics of rowing. The NK Sports blog has a great post about this, too, offering seven reasons why coxes should row, including making better technical calls, having more credibility with your crew and staying fit. Izzi adds that it helps a cox to interpret what the coach is saying to the rowers. "Six seat, you are dropping your shoulder" means more when the cox sees them skying their blade.
2. Learn how to communicate effectively. As Izzi writes: As a coxswain, your primary job is to communicate with your crew and provide direction and guidance. This means being clear, concise, and respectful in your communication, and using your voice to convey your message effectively. Practice speaking clearly and confidently, and work on developing your own unique communication style.
3. Get to know your crew. While Izzi explains the why, another NK Sport blog post explains the how, including going for meals with the crew, asking for anonymous feedback, making friends with the other coxswains and definitely avoiding drama.
4. Understand the importance of safety. It is the role and the top priority of the coxswain to always ensure the safety of the rowers and the boat both on and off the water. This includes knowing and following patterns of travel, ensuring the crew and the boat have the mandated safety equipment, and knowing what to do in the event of an emergency.
5. Practice, practice, practice. As much as Izzi emphasizes the need for learning, she also says that it is essential that a cox gets into the boat and executes, implementing plans, trying new ideas, testing small changes and evaluating. Learn, grow, try new things. Repeat.
6. Seek out coaching and mentorship. During the pandemic, row2k interviewed a series of coaches on various topics, including cox education. An excellent example was provided by Susan Chu of William Smith Women:
Mentors helped Olivia Mencias find her coxing voice and Kristen Kit, a gold medal coxswain from the Tokyo Olympics gives back to the sport through mentoring young coxswains. Izzi makes another important point relevant to all rowers: for a coxswain to improve, they need to be open to feedback and advice.
7. Have fun! As Izzi writes: The more you enjoy your time as a coxswain, the more motivated you will be to keep improving and learning.
More Ways to Learn to be a Coxswain
Izzi is clear: if you care enough, do the work. Time on the water, with your crew, with the coach, at the boathouse or gym is invaluable. Camps for coxswains, whether in person or online, offer concentrated doses of training and learning. Experiencing different coaching styles and instruction can be invaluable in building confidence as a cox.
There are many ways to learn to be a coxswain off the water and away from the boathouse. Here is a distilled list of some top resources.
- Videos. A short list of coxing basics on YouTube.
- Race recordings. Ready All Row has an extensive list, including what she considers to be the gold standard of Pete Cipollone coxing the 1997 Head of the Charles Men's Championship 8+.
- Interviews with other coxswains. Row2k.com offers a regular feature called In the Driver's Seat. In addition, Izzi interviewed a series of international coxswains in Rowers Choice podcast series called Around the World with Izzi.
- Blog posts. Check out Izzi's blog posts on the Inside Turn, tuned to seasonal information. Also, the Rowing Academy offers a series of posts for coxswains, delving into great detail on things such as saying less and meaning more in your calls.
- Podcasts. There are many rowing podcasts, most of which touch on coxing periodically. For example, the Coxpod offers monthly casts specific to coxswains. Their primary goal is to promote ongoing skills development. Sounds like a great way to learn to be a coxswain.
