This is a cox recording of the British Men's U23 Eight in Racice, Czech Republic, 2021 Under 23 World Championships.
Yes my people,
I just wanted to chuck in a little bit of a commentary about how I felt about this recording and my general philosophy regarding coxing - as originally, I wasn't going to post this video as I was not happy with the recording against the standard I set myself at an individual level. After some thought, I decided it would be better to show a raw recording of winning a world championship, rather than not posting it. As I know how helpful it can be to listen to races and different coxes making calls, even if it's only a small insight.
At the start line, we had a rough race plan, with a number of calls the guys wanted throughout the 2000m course and certain areas of focus we knew we needed as a crew to stay in the race and start to lead it. My job (as with every other cox's job) was to get the guys from A to B as fast as possible, with as much helpful information and motivation/chat as possible - the 'Jockey role'.
When we were still in the middle of the pack after about the 2nd minute I realised we wouldn't be able to keep our initial race plan and that if we were going to win this that it would be pretty close (but not that close) up to the buzzer. Instead of keeping more structure and calm clear calls, I was going off the dome keeping the boys in it mentally as well as technically. Resulting in what you hear as more of a 'hectic' set of calls throughout the race. It got the job done and you can hear the emotion and belief however there are definitely areas for improvement for the next one.
In an ideal race where you're leading from the start, you can fluctuate the tone, the calls and most importantly the chat. But not every race is going to be a pretty one. I think it's important to have races like this for myself so I know how I can step on individually and pick apart what I think I can improve on as well as the 8 blokes in front of me. Essentially my philosophy in calling races and coxing is to have a balance between areas that the crew need to know throughout the race. You want to be as efficient as possible as well as being as confident and personal as possible. It's so rewarding when you know you've given the crew the information and incentives they need to execute the race. This one is deffo one to remember and that's what makes it so memorable to me. We had better pieces in training and even prior to the final but it isn't about that it's about stepping up on the occasion and that's what we managed to do, even if it was in the last 3 strokes.
0.21. World Champions.
Scotty x
*DISCLAIMER* We do not own the race video footage or photos. it is courtesy of World Rowing Official.
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Cox - Scott Cockle (Oxford Brookes / Kingston RC / Molesey BC)
S - Michael Dalton (Oxford Brookes / Molesey BC)
7 - Joshua Bowesman-Jones (Oxford Uni)
6 - Callum Sullivan (Cambridge Uni)
5 - Felix Drinkall (Oxford Uni)
4 - Tobias Schroder (Oxford Uni)
3 - Simon Nunayon (Tideway Scullers)
2 - Miles Beeson (Yale / Molesey BC)
B - Noah Norman (Yale / Molesey BC)
Coach - Brendan Gliddon (Oxford Uni)
