SCBC

Coxing

"Most people follow their hearts, but we follow our cox"
Welcome to the innuendo-filled world of coxing

Want to try something new? If you’re bossy and have a vague sense of spatial awareness, then coxing is for you. It doesn’t matter if you’ve never been in a boat before, SCBC will train you up in no time. In novice term hardly anyone has rowed or coxed before, so you will not be alone!

Your main job as a cox in novice term will be to steer your crew across the (surprisingly) treacherous waters of the cam. Beyond that, a little encouragement for your boaties would not go amiss, and they actually like it if you go crazy-mad shouting at them in a race.

Once you get a taste of coxing, we’re sure you wont want to stop, and there’s lots more to keep up your interest in the boatie world. As you learn more, you’ll become the ‘coach in the boat’, picking up on things that the coach may not be able to see from the bank. You’ll get a really good feel for what works and what doesn’t, and the better you get at that, the bossier you can be with it! A good cox really will make the difference between winning and losing a race. Of course you’ll want to make a good race-plan, and steering a good line will cut the course shorter, but most exciting is the split-second tactical decisions you have to make. When should you do a push for instance? Whatever you decide, your crew is dependent on you…they’re all tired and a bit brain-dead, and will respond to whatever you say. It’s so satisfying when you’ve called it at the right time, leaving your opposition behind, demoralised, and ultimately beaten…

More than anything else though, coxing is fun. You’re part of a great team, and make loads of really good friends, there’s many an accidental innuendo-filled coxing call (my worst moment was probably ‘I WANT THEIR COX’, which I hope terrified the unfortunate men we were racing more than it did my own crew), and of course the most fun bit: you are in charge! I have to say, many of my friends (and particularly my mother) were very jealous when they found out I was spending my time bossing around 8 burley men on the river. (For some reason they were less impressed when I switched to women’s rowing.)

SCBC currently has fewer senior coxes than it needs and so there will be opportunities for novices to cox top college boats later in the year.

Click here to contact our Lower Boat Captains