Cox Jargon

8/2/2019 Cox Jargon

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© TOMMIHIMBERG 2005

ROWING JARGON AND COXING CALLS

Equipment and people

In the boat, each rower has a set position, a “number”, and everyone also belongs to various subgroups.It’s vital to know your number, and identify the groups you belong to, as the cox will often givecommands to only part of the crew, and will use the numbers and the names of groups to direct thesecommands.

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 onthe same side as bow; bow, 3, 5 and 7.Stroke side: Those rowers who have bladeson the same side as stroke; 2, 4, 6 and stroke.Cox: The person who steers the boat and givescommands. Cox is always in command of theboat, and the crew must be ready to executehis/her orders immediately.

Bow

Bow sideStroke side

Bow

2

3

4

5

6

7

Stroke

Cox

STERN

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Positions

Backstops: A position with legs straight so that you are sitting at the back of the slide with the oar handlein your lap.

Frontstops: The opposite of the previous, you are legs compressed at the front of your slide, armsstraightened 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, whenthe 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 strokesexercise as a stopping point. Also the motion of extending your arms in the beginning of the stroke.

Foot

Stretcher

Handle Button LOOM BLADE

Rigger

Seat

Gate

Inboard Outboard

Pin

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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 justbroken. 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 alsofollow the line of the blade handle.

At half slide: Position at the halfway of the slide. Arms are extended. Similarly with quarter slide, threequarter 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 individualrower, 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 when-part is obviously very important, as things need to be done synchronously. Most calls are executed whenthe 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 theslide.

Ratio: The drive and recovery are not equally long; in general, the recovery should take longer than thedrive. 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 beforethe 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 thefootstretcher 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 squaredblades.

Arms and backs only: As previous, but using body swing as well as arms. Important to maintainseparation 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 stintof 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 dropthe 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 areimportant. 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 tothis 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 itto 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 tap’s.

Trailing blades: Used to find balance. On recovery, blades are skimming on the surface of water, as insetting the boat, thus keeping it in balance during recovery. The blades are then gradually lifted up insubsequent 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. Bladesare 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 boatdown.

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 boatreally 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 instrokes, and an inbuilt pattern of stroke rates. A pyramid piece is a piece where stroke rate first rises inregular intervals (for instance in every 20 strokes) and then drops back down. When starting a piece, thepressure 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 speedand catch up the boat in front etc. Usually in power ten, the rating stays the same but the rowers putmaximum pressure during those ten strokes.

Individual strokes: When moving, to improve balance and timing the continuous rowing motion issometimes 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 pushincreases. Thus the ratio in a stroke is changed, by shortening the drive and lengthening the recovery. Coxcalls: “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 doneat frontstops (where the catch usually takes place) or at backstops (where the boat is easier to balance forthe exercise). Rowers are supposed to follow stroke’s 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 firstpart, tap down , you just lift the blade off the water and feather it. In second part, hands away , in addition totap 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)

Cox Jargon

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