A good cox can make the difference between success and failure. A cox has to be a combination of coach, motivator, psychologist, race tactician, organiser, emotional crutch for those sensitive rowing types, and be able to steer. In other words, it's a lot more demanding than just sitting in a boat and pulling! But if you're a control freak (c'mon, deep down) with a sense of direction and a willingness to learn, then its the ideal job.You should also have lots of drinks bought for you...

The Captain of Coxes is Sam Hannaford (samantha.hannaford@merton.ox.ac.uk), so please contact her if you're interested in taking up coxing.

Manoeuvring

Before rowing off, you may need to change direction the boat is heading. Alternatively, you may need to get close to the bank to meet your coach. The diagram below shows the plan view of a conventionally rigged 8.

To move to your right (down according to the boat above), there are a couple of ways of doing it:

Turning

There are two ways to turn the boat to your right:
1. "Tap it 2" means row a light stroke 2. This will push the boat forward and to the right.

"2 and 4, row on" will get the rowers at 2 and 4 to start rowing until you tell them to stop ("easy"). This obviously has more of an effect! "One stroke from strokeside" – should be obvious.
2. Alternatively, "back one stroke, 7" tells the rower at 7 to back down for a stroke. This will push the boat backwards, and point the bows to the right.

Getting 5 and 7, or all of bowside, to back down will obviously have more of an effect.
Turning left: get some or all of bowside to row on (go forward and left) or strokeside to back down (go backwards and left).
The choice of whether to get one side to row on or back down will come with experience, but it is a good idea to look where the boat is drifting with the stream or wind, and decide whether going forwards or backwards will help you stop drifting.

Spinning

Sooner or later you will run out of river, and have to turn round.
As we row on the right hand side of the river, to spin the boat we need to turn to the left as the cox looks. Looking above, to turn left, bowside could row on or strokeside could back down. If just bowside rowed on, you would turn round, but in a very wide semicircle: the most efficient way to turn around is to have bow side row on and strokeside back down on alternate strokes. Unsurprisingly, novice crews tend to get a bit confused, so clear commands are vital.
It is sometimes a good idea to use the momentum of the boat to start the turn. If the boat is moving forward, getting 2 to "hold it" by putting his/her blade square in the water (more below!), will cause the boat to turn to the right as it slows to a stop. If spinning in a confined space, it may be necessary to row and back down an uneven number of strokes. Eg:
"Spin the boat, rowing on bowside, backing strokeside, starting with bowside, GO!"
[row] [back] [row] bows are starting to get close to the bank
"Back it 2 strokes strokeside"
[back] [back]
"And joining in bowside again"
The most important thing is to be aware of where you are with respect to the banks and other river traffic, and be LOUD AND CLEAR when telling your crew what to do.

Getting Going

To get going, it is important that the crew knows who is meant to start rowing, and what exactly they should be doing. Setting off, the command should always be:
"(Somebody), (rowing in some way), from (a particular place), Are you ready? GO!"
Somebody: crews that are learning, or doing an exercise may only have 2, or 4 o r 6 people rowing at a time. You might specify:

• In pairs: "bow pair" (bow and 2) "stern pair" (7 and stroke) or say "3and 4"
• In fours: "bow four" (bow, 2, 3 and 4), "stern four" (5–stroke), "middle four" (3,4,5 and 6), or even "outside four" (bow pair and stern pair)
• In sixes: usually "bow six" or "stern six".
• All eight: "whole crew"

Rowing in some way: you may well be starting with an exercise, or at a certain side length, or doing several different things:

• "square blades"
• "hands only/fixed seat/quarter/half/three–quarter/full slide"
• "light/half/firm pressure"
• or even "normal paddling"

Starting from a particular place in the place. If you want the crew to row in time, it is a good idea to be doing the same thing, so tell them to start fromfrontstops (or just "come forward"), or backstops.
Are you ready? One of them may not be, so listen to see if they shout out! At this point, look to see if they're ready – ie are all the blades in the correct (and same) positions? Are the blades all at the same depth in the water (they should be buried in the water)? If not, remind them: eg "Bury your blade 3"
GO!
So a typical command for a novice crew in the first few weeks might be: "Bow four, square blades, hands only, from back stops; are you ready? {CHECK!} GO". If you speak clearly, then there's a chance they'll do what you want.
And finally, don't be afraid to speak to them rather than just shout orders. Particularly for a senior crew, who will know what you are telling them to do, don't be afraid to speak to them or inject a bit of humour. As long as you know your crew (bearing in mind sarcasm can easily be taken the wrong way) it can be possible to relax them after some slight mishap or if the boat isn't going at its best: "Ok, lets take it off light, whole crew, trying not to row like you're hungover 5, are you ready, GO". Coxes are allowed to be human as long as you're professional when it comes to the bottom line.

Changing course

Sometimes, you might need a bit of help getting round a bend. Getting one side to row hard, or the other side to row light, can help. Eg:

• "hard on 2" or "firm strokeside for 2 strokes" or "VERY light bowside" followed by "even pressure" when you've finished the difficult part of the turn disrupts the rhythm of the boat, but is sometimes unavoidable.

Going slowly

You may find that you are coming up to a slower–moving crew and not have enough space to get round. In this case you have several options:

• "very light" or "NO pressure" will take some of the speed off your crew
• "drop out stern/bow pair/four" will do the same, but is disruptive to the crew
• Going to single strokes (in the coaching section) is a useful exercise, and also slows the boat.

Stopping

Either in the usual way:

• "Next stroke, [stroke] easy oars (or easy all)"
• [The boat should then be sat level with the blades off the water, and will continue to run forward]
• "Drop" tells the crew to lower the blades to the water, which will help slow the boat down.
• "Take the run off" tells the crew to dig their blades into the water to bring it to a stop quickly.

Or in an emergency:

• "HOLD IT UP" tells the crew to dig their blades well into the water and stop the boat as quickly as they can!

Landing

The most important thing to learn about landing smoothly is to approach at the right speed – ie slowly!Depending on the strength of the stream, change to stern four or stern pair when a few boatlengths away from the raft. Turn in at a slight angle, aiming near the middle of the raft – you will get a feeling for how the speed of the boat and strength of stream affect where you aim for. Tell the crew to easy when about 1–2 lengths form the raft, and then start to turn left to bring the stern in. It may be helpful or necessary for stroke, or stroke and 6 to hold it up (either gently or hard) to slow the boat down and bring the stern in. You may also need to remind the crew to lean away from the raft so that riggers and blades don't get caught. If you mess it up, don't be afraid to ask for help!
If there is a very strong tailwind, you may have to aim at the near end of the raft, and come in very slowly, being ready to reach for the raft, or jump out. This is also true when landing downstream, eg at Univ, or at Long Bridges boathouses.
When landing in a crosswind, take care to leave plenty of room if the boat is being blown onto the raft, or come in at a shallower angle if being blown away from the raft:

Once on the raft, you should get out and hold 7's rigger. Bowside should then get out, and hold their riggers. Once bowside is out and holding on to the boat, strokeside can take their blades out and get out of the boat, and then you can go and unlock the boathouse. On other rafts, the side with their blades over the raft should get out first and hold the boat while the other side gets out.

OURCS rules on Coxwains

R6. Registration and Status of Coxswains:

1. The cox of each crew shall be in possession of an OUCS coxing permit.
2. The Captain of Coxes shall keep a register of all college coxswains with a permit to cox college crews, which shall detail:
   1. The name of the cox.
   2. The date of registration.
   3. The number of terms of active coxing experience.
   4. The status of the cox: "novice", "experienced" or "senior".
   5. Any penalties imposed on the cox by OURCs
3. Newly registered coxes with no previous experience shall be designated "novice".
4. Coxswains will achieve experienced status after 3 full terms coxing, upon confirmation from their college captain. Exceptions for early promotion to experienced status may be considered upon written application.
5. Coxes wishing to be accorded "senior" status must apply in writing to the Captain of Coxes, detailing their experience. Applications will normally only be considered from coxes with at least 6 full terms coxing.
6. The Captain of Coxes shall assign newly registered coxes with previous coxing experience an appropriate status.
7. Coxes with "novice" status may not take part in an outing without the presence of a coach on the bank or in an accompanying launch, who shall be held responsible for the safety of the crew.
8. Coxes with "experienced" or "senior" status shall be held responsible for the safety of their crew. An experienced/senior status cox who puts their or any other crew in a situation where damage or danger results is liable to have their permit endorsed or suspended.