I have said before that the coaching of coxswains is one of the most overlooked areas of this sport.  Many coaches assume that coxes will just sit there and figure it all out on their own.  Although a large amount of becoming a good coxswain is sitting there and figuring things out, it is imperative that the cox get pointed in the right direction at least periodically (no double-meaning intended).

The most important aspect of coxing is steering.  It may also be the hardest to teach.  It is one thing to teach a cox how to think about racing or how to make calls.  Teaching a cox to steer usually just entails the coach sitting in the launch and yelling “steer straight!”

One U.S. university cox wrote me this winter for my advice.  She was doing some research, and realized that she could find no resources about how to steer on the web.  I am not sure I know of any either.  I hope this month’s letter can help remedy that absense.

That said, steering is not something which can be learned from a textbook.  It is something coxes just have to learn from experience.  Unfortunately, it is also easily overlooked by eager coxswains who want to do and learn too many things too quickly.  If a cox cannot steer, nothing else matters.  So, coxswains, learn to steer.

Novice boats, where novice coxswains usually start, can be a bit tricky, because no matter how good a cox may be at steering they don't tend to go straight.  I've stepped in to steer some novice boats from time to time, and just tried to keep them vaguely straight.  The problem comes from novices not knowing how to row, and not making every stroke the same.  The variations from stroke to stroke are often unpredictable.  If this is hard for an experienced cox, then it is even harder for a novice cox who is unsure which steering problems are the crew’s and which the cox’s.  From a coaching standpoint, it is worth looking for trends, and to provide feedback to the coxswains to help them overcome what they do not know.

However, by spring racing season, even novice boats should go reasonably straight - by then, the rowers should know how to row well enough to row with some regularity.  As crews prepare to get back on the water after the winter, this should be less of a problem and the emphasis can certainly be on making the cox keep the boat straight.

After a while, steering becomes a matter of feel.  I rarely think about it - in fact, I could probably steer a straight 2000-meter course with my eyes closed, just from the feel of side-to-side water pressure against the rudder.  It is one of several reasons that steering a stern-coxed boat is much easier than steering a bow-coxed boat (bow-coxed boats did get trendy for a time with U.S. colleges in the 90s because they look sleek and are theoretically faster, but they really suck; they remain trendy in Britain).

Until a cox learns that feel, and it takes a while (even for some good coxswains it can take a couple of years), then the cox will need to be conscious of steering.  I'd advise being conscious but not obsessed.  My high school coach used the example of driving a car on a highway.  The driver needs to stay in his lane, but should look ahead up the road instead of down at the ground in front of the car.  The car may slide a little from side to side within the lane, but it will stay there.  If the driver looks down and tries to keep the exact same number of inches between his wheels and the dotted lines, then he'd go crazy and start weaving severely and lose control of the steering.  In coxing, the cox should look ahead - making sure to keep course and check on it, but not obsessing with staying pointed on the same tree or building or mark on the horizon with every second (just making sure to remain generally pointed on the same mark every couple strokes).  If the cox obsesses, he will start to over-correct.  Once a cox starts the sine-curve caused by over-correcting, it is very hard to get straight again.

Keep in mind that, in an eight, the rudder is in the stern nearly sixty feet from the bow.  It is like steering a bike with the rear wheel.  So, when steering, the cox is not swinging the bow around.  Instead, it is the stern which is swinging out.  That means that when the rudder comes off, the boat will continue off in the direction it was steering for about three strokes before settling into a course.  This is what makes hyper-correcting dangerous.  The bow gets pointed, but the stern keeps swinging, so the cox has to go back the other way, and so forth.

Perhaps the trickiest steering skill for novice coxswains to pick up is what to do when they are side-by-side with another crew (as they will be in spring training and racing).  The cox will obviously be looking at the other crew to gauge margins.  The tendency, however, is that when the head moves to look at the other crew, the shoulders also shift slightly, and then the hands follow.  That means the boat will start veering towards the other crew.  If the other cox is also inexperienced, the other cox will do the same, and the two crews will eventually clash oars.  If they both adjust before clashing oars, then they will both likely steer away from each other.  As they drift too far apart, they will both adjust and head for each other at a now sharper angle.  The sine-curves will have taken over again.

It is generally best not to steer off the other crew.  Keep a point on the horizon and head for it, regardless of the other cox.  If the other cox steers into you, let it be that cox's fault.  Don't get pushed around either.

Also, coxes should avoid the natural tendency to follow the shore.  It is usually not straight.  Not only will that generally produce a longer route, but if another crew is alongside and a cox cuts into the shore, the other crew may follow alongside and not leave enough room for the first crew which cut in to cut back out when the shoreline comes back out.

My advice for the best way to steer straight is for the cox to hold the gunwales with his hands and the rudder rope between the hands and the gunwales.  If I am steering a boat with wooden handles on the rudder, I usually brace my outer three fingers on the outside of the gunwales, the index finger on top pointing forwards, and my thumb on the inside, with the wooden handles in the crease between my thumb and index finger (not holding them, just resting them there).  I steer by sliding my hands along the gunwales and putting pressure on one or the other handle.

If there are no wooden handles but instead are loops in the rope, then I put all of my fingers on the outside of the gunwales, put the loops around my thumbs, and hold my thumbs on the top inside of the gunwales pointing forwards.  I still steer by sliding my hands along the gunwales.

I find this method has several advantages.  First and foremost, I find that it braces my hands.  This way, if I look around (at a crew alongside, for example), my hands do not slip and my course remains true.  Second, I find that it gives me more control over exactly how much rudder I am using - when the hands float freely holding the rudder ropes, there is a greater tendency to use too much rudder.  Third, it provides me with two extra braces for my body weight, which helps keep the boat stable.

Incidentally, if coxing a boat which does not have any handles or loops on the rudder rope, then the cox should immediately talk to the coach and get some put there.

The cox who wrote me was afraid that one side might start pulling the other around.  That, I explained, is a problem for the coach to solve.  If, after line-ups are set, the cox finds that the ports are substancially stronger than the starboards, or the other way around, then the cox should certainly bring it to the coach's attention.  This can usually be solved by some tinkering with the line-up or even the rigging of the boat, or even by switching the sides of the rowers.

Basically, in a boat which has this problem, if left unsolved the only way for the cox to deal with it is to have the rudder on a lot.  And every time the rudder goes on the boat slows down from the drag.  If the rudder is on the whole race in order to keep the boat straight, the crew would also be going down the course diagonally in its lane, which is not exactly efficient either.  So it's better to talk to the coach ASAP if the boat constantly tends to one side or the other.

Talking to the coach regularly is generally a good idea anyway, as I have explained in other articles.  The cox needs the feedback, and the coach also needs the feedback.  Also, the coach is the one who is physically there watching the cox and the crew, and so is best positioned for specific critiques.

As for steering a bow-coxed boat, I am afraid I cannot help much.  I have very little experience in bow-loaders, and I have a very hard time steering them - mainly because I cannot feel the rudder.  There is also another issue: because the rudder wires cross over themselves it is easy to get the rudder wrapped around on itself since there is no feel for how much to use (not to mention that the logic is backwards from stern-coxed boats, since sliding the bar to the right makes the boat go left).  There are several funny stories out there about my brief experience coxing bow-loaders in England.  All of the stories that have so far made it back to me are true.
 

Back to Charles Ehrlich's Letter from America.