Info on crew coxswains?

Question

I was recommended to be the coxswain on my high school crew team.I have never done crew before and all i know is that is the person that commands the boat. can anyone tell me more about what a coxswain is? or recommend any good websights?

thanks:)

Answer 1

You'll steer the boat, but give orders from the person rowing stroke (right in front of you), until you know what commands to give.

Steer a straight course, and motivate guys working their butts off to give just a little more.  Be sure you train with them off the water, so that when you ask them to do what they think is impossible because of muscle pain and their hearts pounding, they've seen you do the same.

Until you've had your thighs on fire for 3 minutes while you row 36 strokes a minute on an erg, and need to do another 3 minutes before you can stop, you won't appreciate what they try to do to win.  Your job is to be smart enough to make it easier for them, because they'll push too hard some times, and their rowing technique will get sloppy.  Keep the technique sharp, and they will use less energy more productively and have a faster boat.

A bad cox'n will p**s people off, and they'll hate to row.  A great cox'n can ask for more, get it, and win.

Answer 2

http://www.southcrew.org/cox.htm

Thats a pretty good website, although most likely you won't use all those commands. I was a rower for a few years in college and loved it. A coxswain controls the boat, and the rowers. You'll be facing forward and have control of the rudder. The rowers will help you and the coach will generally be in a launch right there helping. You'll also have to be able to motivate your rowers and keep them going during the races. Depending on the race sometimes we'd hook up the rock music and row with that, which worked pretty well. Its alot of fun and is a great sport to get into, esp if your the coxswain, cuz you don't have to do much, haha! Hope that was semi helpful!! Give it a try, its really not hard.