When I got feedback from my rowers this year and last year, some of the words that described me surprised me. In a positive way, a number of rowers shared that I was forceful and authoritative. Some wrote that they feel safe when they are in my boat or that they liked it when I shut other voices up on the race course or on a windy day in order for our boat to stay safe and controlled. Positive feedback, of course, makes the coxswain fly with the wings of happiness. However, I remember feeling a little perplexed at some of the comments because I didn’t feel like I was a demanding or assertive person in general. Hmm…

Then I did the AthleteDISC Profile (took about 15 minutes), and light bulb light bulb light bulb!

At first, when I saw that doing this test was an assignment for the cox camp, I was thinking, “I’ve done so many personality/leadership style tests in my life. Not another one!” I am an adult with a strong sense of identity who knows herself pretty darn well, but whoa, this was a different ball game.

Bo Hanson came to the camp to help us analyze our results. First, I loved how he used rowing analogies to help us understand. It was easy to visualize what “being a D (dominance)” or “being an I (influence)” meant in our coxing lives.

My result was that I am a “natural I” but am an “adopted D.” I have a 44-page report on the whole thing, and it’s not just about these words that describes your behaviors but also how and when you perform the best. Absolutely fascinating.

In addition to the awesome guest speakers, I also got to meet some of the other campers in our small group. One of them shared her recording from a race for us to dissect, and we had a blast doing it! It was a competitive race, and we were dying to find out who crossed the finish line first. This coxswain had an awesome tone of voice and was great at informing rowers of the distance left. She not only recorded herself during the race but also took the next step to listen to it with the coach to improve, and it was helpful to hear her coach’s perspective and what she’s done since then to make herself a better coxswain on the race course.

My idol Katelin Guregian spoke us about racing, and it gave me chills watching and listening to her race at the 2016 Olympic Games. We all know the rigorous training these athletes go through, but hearing about it from someone who worked tirelessly made it very real to me. I think I was more anxious watching this video during the camp then when I watched it during the Olympics.

I absolutely admire Katelin’s style and respect her impeccable execution. This is her recording that I listen to before my races.

On race day, there are no surprises coming out of the coxswain’s mouth. It’s all about executing the race plan and staying simple. There aren’t constant split and status updates because you need to offer solutions rather than reading the numbers off gadgets and cursing the names of other crews.

If the split is too high, think first, “What is going on? How are we going to fix it?” Simply shouting numbers over and over does not make the boat go faster. Also, here’s an obvious point that I didn’t think about much until Mary said it out loud: Splits do not necessarily provide the information the rowers need because on the race course, there are too many variables like the wind, current, etc. If I see that my crew is rowing three seconds lower at the stride than we usually did during practices, are they flying and dying or are we feeling goooooooood cuz we killin’ it?

Another lesson I learned is not being afraid of repetition. Simple reminders like, “sit up,” “legs,” and “hold the knees” will make all the difference you need when said at the right time.

The last guest speaker was Susan Francia (Crew XV, represent!) and she was an exceptional storyteller. My gosh, we laughed so hard at times, and she ended with very encouraging words. It was a lovely finale to our extraordinary online cox camp that made me miss coxing sooooo much.

9th Seat: www.9thseat.com