If you ever get asked to cox someone at an indoor race, I highly recommend it. Sometimes rowers don’t think about having a cox, so let them know that you’re available if you hear your rowers are thinking about entering an indoor race.

When rowers are training for an indoor race, they might be erging in a quiet and comfortable environment, but some indoor championships can be hectic and loud from other coxswains. Think about a normal regatta. You might have been rowing on glassy water during the quietest hours of the day, but on the regatta day, there are more boats on the water and a lot more distraction you have to consider.

Here is a summary of the tips I learned from Kayleigh Drum of Ready All Row. When I emailed her a couple of years ago, she was kind enough to share so much valuable information.

• Make sure whoever you’re thinking of coxing actually wants to be coxed. Some people need it, and others get completely thrown off by it.
• What level of intensity do they want you at on a scale of 1-10? Some people perform best with a mellow, controlled coxswain (5-6) and others do best when their coxswain goes hard throughout the piece (8-9.5).
• If you’re only coxing one person, then you can tailor everything a lot more than you can in the boat because you only have one person to please vs. eight.
• Practice whatever they want you to say during the race and then get feedback afterwards on if that was too intense, not intense enough, do they still want that 20 at 1,250m or do they want to try it at the 1,000m, etc.
• Like a normal race, it’s easy to get caught up in the moment and then overwhelm yourself on race day trying to remember everything you wanted to do.

I was able to practice with my rower only once before the race, but applying these tips helped us a ton. On the day of the race, I was asked to cox a few more people on the spot, and being able to ask about their desired intensity level and sprint plan was crucial.

Also, if there’s a coxswain division (usually 1K), you should do it! I had so much fun preparing for it and having my team captain cox me.