TOMMI HIMBERG 2005

ROWING JARGON AND COXING CALLS

Equipment and people

Bow

Bow

2 3 4 Stroke side 6 7 5 Bow side

Stroke Cox

STERN In the boat, each rower has a set position, a number, and everyone also belongs to various subgroups. Its vital to know your number, and identify the groups you belong to, as the cox will often give commands to only part of the crew, and will use the numbers and the names of groups to direct these commands. Bow: The rower closest to the front (bow) of the boat. Stroke: The rower closest to the back (stern) of the boat. Bow pair: The two rowers closest to bow; bow & 2. Stroke pair: The two rowers closest to stern; stroke & 7. Bow four: Bow, 2, 3 and 4. Stern four: 5, 6, 7 and stroke. Bow side: Those rowers who have blades on the same side as bow; bow, 3, 5 and 7. Stroke side: Those rowers who have blades on the same side as stroke; 2, 4, 6 and stroke. Cox: The person who steers the boat and gives commands. Cox is always in command of the boat, and the crew must be ready to execute his/her orders immediately.

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Inboard

Outboard

Handle

Button

LOOM

BLADE

Pin Seat

Gate Rigger
Foot Stretcher

Positions
Backstops: A position with legs straight so that you are sitting at the back of the slide with the oar handle in your lap. Frontstops: The opposite of the previous, you are legs compressed at the front of your slide, arms straightened out and ready to catch Ready position: The ready position is at backstops, with blade at 45 degrees angle half buried in the water. At the catch: Blade buried in the water, ready to drive (usually fronstops, but could be at some other part of slide as well) At finish: The stroke is a continuous motion, but the defined finish point is at the end of the drive, when the blade comes out of the water. So at finish, you are at backstops with the handle at your lap, out of the water, in feathered position, body leaning slightly backwards. At arms away: A position being at backstops but arms extended. Often used in the individual strokes exercise as a stopping point. Also the motion of extending your arms in the beginning of the stroke.

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At bodies over: The position at backstops, arms extended and the body leaning forward. At poised position: The position where arms are extended, body rocked forward, and knees have just broken. This is the most stabile position, and also important because from this position onwards in the stroke, your upper body position virtually stays the same, all the way forward, and then during the drive, until you extend your back again at the end. From this position onwards, your shoulders should also follow the line of the blade handle. At half slide: Position at the halfway of the slide. Arms are extended. Similarly with quarter slide, three quarter slide etc.

Coxing calls
Most coxing calls consist of three main parts: who, what (where, how), when. First the cox tells who the call concerns. This could be all eight, bow four, stroke pair, or even individual rower, e.g. number three. Then, the cox tells what needs to be done and how and where it should be done. This could contain a number of things, for example, light paddling, from backstops, with feather. The whenpart is obviously very important, as things need to be done synchronously. Most calls are executed when the cox calls are you ready - - - GO, on the word go. Sometimes, to prepare the crew, cox might say on the next stroke . The call is still executed after the cox calls go. An important exception to this is stopping the boat or stopping rowing. These calls, easy, hold it and hold it HARD are executed IMMEDIATELY, and always by the whole crew.

Components of a stroke
Drive: The part of the stroke where the blade is in the water and the rower is putting power in by pushing with legs and moving backwards on the slide. Recovery: The part of the stroke where the blade is off the water and the rower is moving forward on the slide. Ratio: The drive and recovery are not equally long; in general, the recovery should take longer than the drive. A starting point for training purposes is ratio of 2 to 1 (2 time units in recovery, one in the drive), but in lower stroke rates the ratio is even bigger, closer to 3 to 1, while at higher rates (more strokes per second) it gets smaller, i.e. closer to 1 to 1. Catch: The moment when blade is put in the water and the drive begins. The catch takes place just before the rower reaches frontstops in recovery. Finish: End of the drive when the blade comes out of the water and the rower is at backstops ,body leaning backwards.

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Hands away: Extending your arms in the beginning of the stroke. Bodies over: Body leaning forward after hands away. Moving on the slide: In recovery, after bringing the arms forward and moving the upper body, rower starts moving forward on the slide. This should feel more like letting the boat glide underneath and the footstretcher coming towards you, than you moving towards the front.

Rowing
Arms only: Rowing at backstops, body upright and using only arms for the rowing motion, and squared blades. Arms and backs only: As previous, but using body swing as well as arms. Important to maintain separation of arms and back movements, so that one body part moves at the time, but they are seamlessly connected together to one, fluent motion. Light pressure: Keeping the technique together but using very little power during drive. Wind up / wind down: Speeding up, slowing down. For instance, starting and finishing a piece, a stint of rowing at full pressure and higher rating. With the call wind up, the rowers increase the rating gradually, following the stroke, and in the end of the piece or a race, with the call wind down, they drop the pressure and rating, again following the stroke, but maintain good technique to keep the boat moving. Setting the boat: Balancing the boat. When rowing, you can balance the boat by keeping your body moving along the centreline of the boat, and using your feet to balance. Also the handle heights are important. When not rowing, setting the boat means holding on to your feathered blade that is on the water, and balancing the boat with holding the blade firmly and at the right height. Squared blade: Blade in vertical position, orthogonal to the water. Blades are squared during the drive, when in water, and during warm up and squared blades exercise. Squaring the blade means turning it to this position. Feathered blade: Blade turned to be horizontal, parallel to the water. Blades are feathered during recovery, when blades are off the water, to minimise wind resistance. Feathering the blade mans turning it to this position. Tap: a small stroke just using your arms, used to align the boat before start. Touch: a little bigger than tap, but still not using the slide, usage same as taps. Trailing blades: Used to find balance. On recovery, blades are skimming on the surface of water, as in setting the boat, thus keeping it in balance during recovery. The blades are then gradually lifted up in subsequent recoveries until a normal height with balance is reached.

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Stopping the boat

Easy: On the command easy, rowers stop rowing and move to backstops, hands away position. Blades are feathered and off the water to give the cox maximum manoeuvrability of the boat. Drop it: From easy position, the blades are dropped to the water. The drop should be simultaneous, making a bang sound. Take the run off: When blades are resting on the water, turn the blade towards squared, to slow the boat down. Hold it: Stop the boat by burying your blade in water and squaring it Hold it hard: Same as previous but with more urgency. This is called only in emergency, when the boat really needs to be stopped immediately to avoid collision.

Pieces, exercises etc.

Pieces: Sections of hard-pressure rowing. The pieces have a predetermined length either in distance or in strokes, and an inbuilt pattern of stroke rates. A pyramid piece is a piece where stroke rate first rises in regular intervals (for instance in every 20 strokes) and then drops back down. When starting a piece, the pressure is lifted first, and when that happens stroke starts to wind up the rating to the decided level. Power 10: Within pieces bursts of heavy pressure and maximum effort are injected to keep up the speed and catch up the boat in front etc. Usually in power ten, the rating stays the same but the rowers put maximum pressure during those ten strokes. Individual strokes: When moving, to improve balance and timing the continuous rowing motion is sometimes broken down by taking individual strokes and pausing at some point(s) of recovery. Ratio shift: When moving, an exercise where the rating is suddenly dropped while the power and push increases. Thus the ratio in a stroke is changed, by shortening the drive and lengthening the recovery. Cox calls: Ratio shift in two, one, on this one. Chopping: When stationary, tapping the blade up and down to practice timing of the catch. Can be done at frontstops (where the catch usually takes place) or at backstops (where the boat is easier to balance for the exercise). Rowers are supposed to follow strokes timing. Cox calls: Chopping exercise, backstops, are you ready, go. Roll-ups: When stationary, building the stroke section by section to improve balance and timing. In first part, tap down, you just lift the blade off the water and feather it. In second part, hands away, in addition to tap down and feather, you move your hands away from your body. In bodies over, lean your upper body forward in addition to the previous parts etc. Each roll-up starts from the ready-position, i.e. at backstops with the blade in the water. Cox calls: Ready for roll-ups, tap down, backstops, are you ready go. Ready go etc. (Picture copyrights: Oarsport and BigBlade.net)