coxmate Tips from USA Olympian, Mary Whipple
As a coxswain, you need to be a motivational powerhouse to get your crew performing at their top levels to push past competing teams into the final win. But if you’re not quite sure how to motivate 8 tough rowers, we know someone who can help you out.
Following up on our last post – ‘How to get the most out of Twitter as a Coxswain’, we bring you Olympic coxswain Mary Whipple (@9thseat). Twitter is one powerful tool for connecting with other coxswains, especially when it leads you to their blogs. Packed with info, Mary Whipple offers advice for coxswains at every level.
So when you’re feeling like you just don’t know what your team needs to hear to give that final push, our advice is: get personal. Use inside jokes, bring up one amazing practice that you all had together, repeat your team goals. They key is that every rower is unique, making every team unique, and as a coxswain, use Mary’s advice below and apply it personally to your team members.
Mary says: “So when I’m sitting in the coxswain seat and need to pull out some motivational phrases I…
- Think about what you would want to hear if you were in a world of pain and needed encouragement to finish the workout.
- What are your team goals?
- What are the goals of the workout?
- What are the personal goals of your rowers?
- Do you have a race coming up? If so start calling seats off of your upcoming competitors boat. Make scenarios of walking through your rivals boat.
- Are there any practices that you all talk about because it was so good. Remind them of that memory during the workout.
- Use inside jokes.”
This advice really resonates with coach Rebecca Caroe, she says “I remember Jemma Fearnside who coxed me for a couple of seasons at Thames Tradesmens Rowing Club. We were practicing for the womens 8s head in London and she called “Let’s push past this driftwood”. So the crew pushed on. Later we talked about it and asked Jemma what she meant. She explained we were passing a moored barge called “The Driftwood” so she mentioned it - the whole crew burst out laughing. When she asked why, we told her that we thought she’d meant the very slow crew in a wooden boat training beside us - she thought they were rowing so slowly they were driftwood!
An inside joke that became a race call and worked for us.”
Read Mary’s blog post in full for more motivational techniques
