I want to try coxing

Question
QUESTION: Today I was at a regatta and i finished my race when an announcement came
on asking if anyone wanted to cox for a club. They were desperate and
looking for anyone. I along with some other girls were seriously considering
this but i didn't and now i'm greatly regretting this because for along time i
have been wanting to try coxing and i missed my opportunity. I was
wondering if there were anyways to try coxing. I would try for my school but
everyone's pretty small so even though i am smaller i'm on the taller side of
my team.

ANSWER: Hi Danielle: Your question is one of the toughest to answer because you are asking me to make a life choice.  I never recommend to people to lose a lot of weight to make lightweight because of the health issues. This one is kind of the same.

I think it would have been a VERY bad decision yesterday to go and cox for another crew without any training.  First of all, your coach would never have allowed it.  What if you were involved in a collision that injured a crewmember.  Think of the liability issues.  

To help in your decision, ask yourself two questions:

1) Did your boat finish well?
2) Did you feel like you were contributing to the success (or failure) of the boat.

If your boat won or finished a strong second and you felt strong and confident in the boat, then you should be a rower.  Even if your boat finished dead last and you still felt you were contributing, then you should still row.  But if you are brutally honest with yourself and you felt you were physically struggling out there, but love and understand the sport enough to contribute as a coxswain, then be a coxswain.

I typically tell rowers when they ask me this question to stick with rowing.  If the coach evaluated your physical and mental abilities and thought you would best help the crew as a cox, he would have made you a coxswain already.  

If you really want the best of both worlds, try rowing pairs or single sculling.  That way you do the rowing, steering and strategizing.

Good Luck/AP



---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: AP
While yes i do realize what you are saying and agree with you %100, i already
am a lightweight the other girls are just lighter. And while if i had no idea
how to cox i would not have felt this way about it but over the summer for
some reason i was put with a boys 4 a lot and there were 5 of us so i would
often be the one to be switched out and into the launch and i have learned
how to cox i just have never received the opportunity to be in the coxswain
seat. It is not that i want to completely switch to being a cox i would just
enjoy the opportunity to try coxing.  

Answer
Hi Again, Danielle: Okay, that clears things up a bit. I would say NO to coxing on your girls' high school crew, but YES to your summer men's crew or maybe college crew in the future. Unless you just want to try it for a practice or two with your girls' crew, that's fine.  But it is simply not customary to cox a boat in a race where the coxswain is heavier than the rowers.

Just ask the coach you want to cox a practice.

I tried coxing once and hated it.  But I won't let my opinion dissuade you.

Good Luck/AP