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Rowers? pfffft. Any other coxswains out there??

yes me. im a cox...senior cox fot city of leeds rc. ive coxed for years and train and coach new ones.

drop me a line!!

It's very impressive see cox's willing to participate in something rather than just sitting back and watching others do all the work...

lol well i coxed men's varsity as an undergrad, but don't do it anymore. past the ideal 125 lbs for male coxswains. I still enjoy watching races though... hoping to drop by the head of charles this coming weekend.

vlas: "...past the ideal 125 lbs for male coxswains..."

Pardon my ignorance about crew, but why is 125 lbs the ideal weight? ...also, what is the ideal weight for female coxswains, and why does that differ from the weight for males? Thanks.

In the UK its a minimum weight for a cox. For light weight mens crew its 60KG (c.120lbs) and if you are lighter you get a sand bag with you in the boat. Some clubs treat that as the ideal weight for a cox...there is no way on earth I could get down that light. I managed to get close to it but looked ill.

The ARA and FISA only recommend a minimum cox weight not a max.

Im not sure whats its like in the US

Hey hey!!! I'm not the only one! Coxed in undergrad at Wesleyan and then for the few years I remained at a decent weight at Riverside Boat Club in Cambridge.

But yeah - I'm 30# past the ideal weight now. Never thought I'd see the day! I'd still love to hop in a boat and call a few power tens if I could find anyone to haul my ass around!

Rowing Ant, you forgot to explain to PDSurfer why 125lbs is the ideal weight...the world of coxies is foreign to me, but from my cheap seat in the bow, 125lbs still feels kind of heavy.

What Starboard is trying to say is that rowers like to bitch and complain about the freeloader in the cox seat. What he might neglect to mention is that the cox is also the person who steers their butts down the course and motivates them to commit suicide in the pursuit of glory.

But yes, in the race for an edge, crews were always getting smaller and smaller people and coxswains were subsisting on water and bread crumbs. So rules were put in place that mandated a minimum of 125 pounds.

You can go higher but, as I found, you will always have coaches asking you to shed a few pounds and just drink a lot of water before weigh-in so you can drop it off in the urinal.

LOL! Yeah. Amen to that dude!

As Im a coach at my club I generally dont bother getting the coxes to struggling with weight - I thank God we actualy have some as at one point it was just me.

I was in one club who wanted their coxes as light as possible but thats never been an issue with most of the crews Ive been with. I remember at one regatta seeing a crew coxed by their coach who was a bit on the tubby side and also quite tall! That just didn't make sense.

Starboard, in my experience, the Bowman always complains

If any coxes here would like or contribute to a coxes manual I wrote drop me a line

RowingAnt, I'd be happy to.

Cheers dude. I can email you a copy - Im afraid the orders might be confusing as they are the English ones.

As yet I have found NO standard orders/calls in use in England. I have chosen to use the Oxford & Cambridge ones...but variations upon Royal Naval terminology are used by some clubs and in others the same order can have two or a differant meaning.

I am pretty sure they all stem from those used by the Royal Navy and have been bastardised on the way.

125 is ideal because it is the minimum requirement for racing. Any heavier then the oarsmen will have to pull more weight, which is bad. When I coxed, I weighed 122 lbs and in order to avoid carrying sand, I'd drink a ton of water before my weigh-in and piss it all out before the race.

Ive never had to do that and at my last race I came in at 67kg. whic was over by a few kg over but no big deal. I dont think at the level we were racing at that weight was a big issue - some very young girl coxes did have sand bags tho.

Hey all! I coxed heavyweights in college and coached my senior year.... waaay past the weight to cox anymore, but in a good way.

Nice one!