Best Rowing Drills: 7 Questions with World Champion Coxswain Phelan Hill

Phelan Hill at the helm (Photo: Pete Reed)

As a reigning world champion and Olympic bronze medalist coxswain of the British men's eight, Phelan Hill knows a thing or two about what makes boats go fast. And, because coxswains are people, too, we wanted to track him down for a few quick questions about how he guides his crews through a training session. Here, he shares a little of his expertise, on and off the water.

RR:When you first arrive at the boathouse, what's the first thing you think about/do?

Phelan Hill: Before I even arrive at the boathouse I’ve been thinking about the day. I’ll always read the training program in advance and will have given thought to how the sessions should be structured and what I want to achieve/deliver. When I get to the boathouse the first thing I then do is get the blades for the eight out and start getting changed.

RR: Do you meet with the crew before each outing? How are those meetings structured, if so? For racing, how do you go about building your race plan?

PH: Before each outing we will always meet as a crew and discuss the session, it’s not long but a few specific points from Jürgen [Grobler] before the session stars always helps.

When racing our meetings are much longer and more structured, we will usually meet the night before so everyone can go to bed clear in what we need to do. Developing the race plan is quite a long, organic process with a number of iterations throughout the season. I’ll start by putting forward a template, and then as the season develops and we race more, we will review and modify—it probably isn’t until our pre-world champs camp when we finalize our plan.

RR: What's the first drill or exercise you'll typically do with the crew when you launch? Does it vary depending on the session to follow, or by time of year?

PH: I have no particular fixed drill—I personally like building from the front, but generally the effectiveness of all drills will be dependent on a crew-by-crew basis. I’ll always try to vary the drills, too, as you don’t want the warm up just to be a routine you want to feel some positive impacts and make sure the drills are setting up the crew for the rest of the session. If the drill is poorly executed and the paddling after isn’t particularly good, then I’d probably say it isn’t the right drill or you’ve done it too much!

Hill (right) and Constantine Louloudis in Lucerne (Photo: Pete Reed)

RR: Do you have the same approach on race day? Or do you vary the drills/warmup during racing season?

PH: Drills/the warmup will vary significantly between whether we are racing or paddling. I have a race season/race warmup which is very much routine—I never feel you should mess about on race day.

RR: How often do you single out individuals versus having the whole crew focusing on something? Is it possible to focus too much on an individual/take away from the group focus when talking about technique?

PH: I think that varies, if the crew is new I’ll turn to focus on crew rhythm, get the pattern of rowing strong, get people confident in the boat. Once that is done I think it is far easier to focus on individuals once the boat is going strong. I’ll then focus quite heavily on individuals but it’s still about fitting into the crew rhythm.

 Yeah, I think it is very easy to focus too much on individuals and before you know it the crew rhythm is bad because people are just worried about their own thing rather than what the boat is doing, you have always got to be aware of that balance.

RR: What are your go-to drills for rhythm in the crew?

PH: Not sure I have a go to drill as it will really depend on what is happening in the boat but if I had to pick a single drill it would be a front end exercise and some legs only rowing, get the legs firing together and the boat seems to come along very quickly!

RR: As the session winds down, what are some ways to keep the focus on sharp rowing on the way back to the boathouse?

PH: I guess on the bigger sessions to keep the focus going, I’ll still be on the guys about holding the splits, reminding them of the importance and desire to keep improving, being better than when we started. I may also put in a few rolling drills to keep things fresh, e.g. square blades, cutting the cake— anything like that can work.

Thanks very much to Phelan for taking the time! You can follow him on Twitter @PhelanHill. Thanks as well to Pete Reed for the photos—you can check out more of his photography by following him on Instagram @PeteReed. 

 And, while we're talking coxing, take a look at the coxswain resources section on our Coaching page—know any links that we should include? Email us.

 You can check out the rest of the #BestRowingDrills series on our Rowing Drills page.

-RR

Popular posts from this blog

The 30 Best Rowing Coaches of All Time, Part 3: The Top 10

Image
The top 10 best rowing coaches, including guess who (Photo © Iain Weir / Rowing Photography ) It's time for the third and final part of our 3-part series on the best of the best in the rowing coaching ranks. These coaches not only command respect based on performance, but have also shown the ability to adapt to new circumstances, build dynasties, and ultimately help shape the trajectory of rowing as a sport. Honestly, it would be easy to extend this series into 10 more posts... But we wouldn't do that to you. As we've said before, the hope is that the following may serve to educate and spark discussion, as both an appreciation of history and of the coaching craft. Also note: As we stated in Part 1 and Part 2 of this series, there are few women in this list, but that is a reflection of a general underrepresentation of women in the head coaching ranks in our sport—and indeed (as has been well documented ) a growing number of NCAA sports in the United States.
Read more

"I Row Crew" — Rowing in 'The Social Network'

Image
Like many of the rowing faithful, I've been keeping up with the saga penned by Dan Boyne about the filming of the rowing scenes in David Fincher and Aaron Sorkin's The Social Network , and I must say I had high hopes going into the film. The first problem I encountered: the phrase, "I row crew." It was uttered so many times before anyone "rowed crew" on the water that I had trouble buying any of it later. It's understandable that the character of Mark Zuckerberg makes that mistake, since he has no idea about the sport. But when the Winklevoss twins themselves utter the phrase several times, one begins to wonder where Boyne was when these lines were not being chopped or changed. Seriously, who says that? As far as the actual rowing goes, the first scene, which has the twins out training in a pair along with the rest of the Harvard squad, is not all bad — it just ends that way. The line, "Those guys are freakin' fast" is certainly every b
Read more

RR Interview: Nick Trojan's New Feature on Yale Men's Rowing

Image
Nick Trojan's latest feature documentary is twice as long as his previous work—but leaves you wanting more, just the same.  There’s a new feature in Nick Trojan’s series, taking an inside look at top-tier college rowing programs in the US. This time, Trojan focused his project on Yale and the legendary coach Steve Gladstone, blending outstanding camerawork with one of rowing’s most compelling stories.  Having uploaded the video to YouTube only two weeks ago, it’s already approaching 70k views. And for good reason.  RR sat down recently to talk through it all with Trojan in an exclusive interview, from origins to development and finally a finished product—as well as what might come next. Here’s what we learned. Navigating shifting waters Elite rower turned filmmaker Nick Trojan’s new feature, titled simply, “Yale Men’s Rowing,” was years in the making.  “The initial idea was to do the same kind of rinse-and-repeat that we had done with Harvard and Cal,” Trojan says, “but I think wha
Read more

Video Of The Week: Holland Beker 2013

This week's video comes to us from the Bosbaan, where the 2013 Holland Beker saw truly elite, international competition over the weekend. Perhaps the most outstanding racing came in the women's single, where the A Final closely mirrored a world championship or Olympic final in recent years—the lineup included two-time Olympic champ Ekaterina Karsten of Belarus, Kim Crow of Australia, New Zealand's Emma Twigg , reigning Olympic champion Mirka Knapkova of the Czech Republic, another two-time Olympic champion (albeit in the women's eight) in Eleanor Logan , and 2012 Olympic bronze medalist (also in the eight) Chantal Achterberg of Holland. As it turned out, the final was a wire-to-wire victory for Kim Crow, who looks to be on top form and may be the athlete to beat in this event for the foreseeable future, holding off both Karsten and Twigg in the closing stretch, with Knapkova finishing fourth. Elle Logan had another solid race in a great field, finishing just over
Read more

Best Rowing Drills: 5 Favorites of Olympic Champion Esther Lofgren

Image
Lofgren training in the single (Photo courtesy of Esther Lofgren) Olympic gold medalist Esther Lofgren is no stranger to success on the water. In addition to her podium-topping performance with the U.S. women's eight in London, Lofgren also won two world titles (2010, 2011), with her first international medal—a bronze—coming in the women's straight four in 2006. Here, Lofgren shares some insight into the drills that have helped her progress technically along the way.
Read more