By Emma Crump

Coxes Captain

 

I started off at BUBC in my first year because of my flat mate having rowed for years before back at home and she highly recommended the sport. She sold it to me to be a really rewarding and I wanted to get involved with more than just normal university life.

 

 I started off with the intention to actually row myself and soon learned that my lack of coordination and height meant I was much better suited to being a cox and was soon encouraged to give it a go! After trying it once I fell in love with it, I loved having that loose authority over the rowers and knowing that my calls were making a difference to their performance. It also meant getting to know everyone in the club rather than just my crew, and as coxes we're few and far between.

 

 I was often asked to train and got to grips with it quite quickly. Peterborough training camp made all the difference for my knowledge of coxing as we trained all day, every day and we all gelled with our crews ready for BUCS in the following weeks, which was one of the most enjoyable races of the year! Myself and the club have every hope that this year's training camp in sunny France alongside the strong squads will deliver an experiance to better last years! The adrenaline of side by side racing at BUCS really pushed me as a cox to max out my crews performance, and it goes without saying I enjoyed every stroke of each race.

 

Following BUCS we had Henley women's regatta and I was chosen to cox the women's second 4, it was such an amazing race giving me experience to chase down our competitors and really try for the big leagues. Although we didn't qualify, just being there was exciting for the crews and for myself having only coxed for a few months prior. After all that excitement last year I started this year as the cox captain and have been working with new crews and will soon be training our new coxes as soon as the weather lets up!

 

I strongly reccomend coxing, no matter you ability or exprience. I also look forward to building on my positive past experiences and I am excited to see just how far BUBC can go this year!