Leading when you need to be led: Sitting bow in a pair

Bow seat of a pair is a difficult seat to row.  You have to be in perfect sync with the guy in front of you and you have to be on top of it mentally at all times.  Your responsibilities include, setting the boat, making steering calls, pulling hard and making technical calls.  The technical calls are what can get you in to a bit of trouble in the boat. 

When I’m rowing I’m constantly thinking of things to correct.  Self criticism is the best criticism in my book.  I try to hold myself to a high standard of rowing or anything else for that matter.  However, when I’m rowing in bow I’m not going to make calls to myself.  That would sound ridiculous and is a waste of energy.  “Jimmy, reach from the hips and sit up.”  My stroke seat would probably stop rowing and ask if I needed to talk to someone.  On the other hand I am responsible for making the technical calls for the entire boat and that includes stroke.

It’s a hard business making calls to someone other than you.  People can get defensive or begin to say to themselves, “why is he only making calls for me?  I know he’s not rowing perfectly.”  In order to have a solid pair relationship and create speed this needs to be avoided.

I try not to harp too much on one singular thing the stroke is doing and if I do feel something I usually try to come up with a drill that will fix it.  The drill helps him feel the difference instead of hearing me “complain.”  Another great tool is the “royal we.”  We need to hold the legs down a bit more while the bodies come over and let the boat run out.  We need to be a little more horizontal at the catch.  The thing is I see him doing it and 

I’m supposed to follow his every move so the collective is very relevant and a great tool. 

Stroke seats remember, your bow seat is not just berating your technique solely.  He is still trying to better his own stroke as well and these calls only create positive speed, so deal with it.    

On another, more defensive note, I have not had any stroke seats flip out on me.  I was discussing this point with another guy I train with who usually sits bow and stating how difficult it is to not sound like an elitist while rowing bow.