The Best of Times
Ever wonder what a coxswain is really saying to his/ her crew during a race?
My friend and teammate posted and MP3 of his recording of him coxing our 1999 race at the Head of the Connecticut. That crew was my all time favorite bunch of guys. Matt is/ was a top caliber coxswain (spent time at US national team training camp).
The audio clip is about 20 min. You can hear the rhythm of the blades going into the water togther and coming out together. You can hear him slowly escalate the urgency in his voice through the piece. You can hear the "colorful language" used, not as much to get other crews to yield as to get us to back up with muscle what our "mouth" has just thrown down.
For those not in the rowing world, Head races are races against the clock in which crews cross the starting line in sequence with perhaps 10 seconds between them, best time between start and finish wins. So if you catch and or pass a crew, you're beating them. You can hear the starter calling bow numbers at the start of the race. You can hear how Matt gets us to catch, pull even with and pass the collegiate crews in our race. We're always chasing a crew. The back story: Peck's boat club was actually about 4 lenghts up on us at the start, not 2. Matt missed the first call, and had to continue to tell us we were moving, but lie about the distances. We did finish about a length down. But we moved 3.
1999 was one of the best years of my life. I love every single guy who was in that boat with me.
Step back in time and re-live 20 minutes of my life?
My friend and teammate posted and MP3 of his recording of him coxing our 1999 race at the Head of the Connecticut. That crew was my all time favorite bunch of guys. Matt is/ was a top caliber coxswain (spent time at US national team training camp).
The audio clip is about 20 min. You can hear the rhythm of the blades going into the water togther and coming out together. You can hear him slowly escalate the urgency in his voice through the piece. You can hear the "colorful language" used, not as much to get other crews to yield as to get us to back up with muscle what our "mouth" has just thrown down.
For those not in the rowing world, Head races are races against the clock in which crews cross the starting line in sequence with perhaps 10 seconds between them, best time between start and finish wins. So if you catch and or pass a crew, you're beating them. You can hear the starter calling bow numbers at the start of the race. You can hear how Matt gets us to catch, pull even with and pass the collegiate crews in our race. We're always chasing a crew. The back story: Peck's boat club was actually about 4 lenghts up on us at the start, not 2. Matt missed the first call, and had to continue to tell us we were moving, but lie about the distances. We did finish about a length down. But we moved 3.
1999 was one of the best years of my life. I love every single guy who was in that boat with me.
Step back in time and re-live 20 minutes of my life?
posted by Kenneth at 8:19 AM
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