Through my third season coxing, I learned that it was possible to control a crew too tightly.

By attempting to be the coxswain that was on top of it all, I managed to somehow squash the individual character of my crew. Still experimenting with my style, attempting to follow the good example set before me by our varsity cox, I went too far in one direction. I never realized until I was told the next year that this happened.

Like I was taught by example, I asked my crew for tips on what they wanted to hear from me every Friday before races and after heats before finals. All I ever heard in return was that I was doing fine, or, just once, that my girls liked hearing "You're walking like crazy!" No more. Only later did I learn that the lack of feedback wasn't because I was doing fine. No, it was because they were scared of my reaction.

Now, it is something of a power trip to be able to totally cow into silence people who are around a foot taller than yourself, and only in crew would such a thing happen. Some of that mystique is totally essential to coxing. However, the tight reins on the flavor of a boat can go too far.

A coxswain exists for the crew alone, to make the boat faster.

This is done through straight steering and through your words. Through what you say and the way you say it. By repressing feedback from your crew through too-tight a control, you lose some of the essential understanding of your crew, you can be lulled into imagining that they are totally with you, when they aren't. In all you do, make sure that you are receptive to learning. Your rowers, especially those who have experience with other coxswains, are probably your best source of growing, and certainly they are the only ones who will determine what those magic words are.

Be open to comments. Experiement. Some day, you will find the perfect balance of control for your individual crew.

Ninthgirl

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