What do Olympic coxswains have that others lack?
Introducing Sparks’ revolutionary coxswain eLearning courses
Coxing is a sport with no little league, so it's not uncommon to fall in love with coxing at an older age. However, this presents an issue where the passion is there but the timeline is really short for you to go from a novice to an expert. Not to mention how daunting it can be that you’re responsible for the safety of your crew while trying to steer an extremely expensive boat to victory.
Over the past 10 years, Sparks has continually helped new coxswains excel through camps and coaching. With the help of three Olympic and six National Team level coxswains, we developed a world-class eLearning coxswain curriculum.
At a high level, coxswains will learn:
- Awareness - how it keeps the boat safe and improves performance
- Proper steering - how it is essential to keep your crew safe and build trust
- Effective commands - how they are structured and refined
- Principles of management - how to be indispensable and make the calls that lead to victory
Take a glimpse at the results of our coxswain training:
"Our son is a junior year coxswain. When we first heard of Sparks, we were a little caught off guard by the idea that coxswain coaching could happen off the water. Thing is, our son is so involved in the execution of his role when he's on the water we decided this could help - it has exceeded our best expectations. Coxing is an art to be learned, and then much like art it's to be executed by the artist. As we began to buy in to this philosophy, our son experienced tremendous progress instead of just saying 'what he should say' on his tapes. He actively learns the sport his time with his counselor and then executes his way - much to enjoyment of his crew and his coach. We're very happy to have found Sparks."
Parent of Coxswain from Connecticut
How is Sparks revolutionizing coxswain training?
One of the first things we've noticed about coxswains is that they get overwhelmed with all the information out there. Seeing various teams that seem to be doing contradictory things leads to confusion and makes it impossible to know what truly works.
This is why we created the course to demystify the role of a coxswain and instill the skills necessary to be successful.
Our Principles of Coxing course is jam-packed with hours of videos that will teach you everything you need to go from a beginner to an intermediate level coxswain. Many of our members are already raving about the results they are seeing from the course. Here is what some of our subscribers have to say…
“I certainly saw an awareness and understanding of their space and role daily. We only had a month on the water once we completed the course, but during that month they were more advanced at the start of the season than they had been during previous seasons.”
A current national team and Division I collegiate coach and former coxswain
We didn't just stop with the Principles course. We dive deeper into the role of coxswain with supplemental courses that focus on different obstacles coxswains will have to overcome to become experts. Currently two different national teams are using our eLearning course in their pursuit of gold medals.
This should come as no surprise as our curriculum is created by National and Olympic level medalists that have reached the highest echelons of coxing.
Who is this course for?
We developed this eLearning course with you in mind if you are:
- A Rowing team seeking to improve your coxswains
- A coxswain who is constantly thriving to improve
With this course you will have an Olympic-level coxswain curriculum ready to plug into your current program. We've spent the last 10 years understanding coxswains - we know what it takes to train great coxswains.
What makes a coxswain great?
A great coxswain is an aware coxswain.
Aware of what? Everything! As a coxswain, you must be able to understand your surroundings and relay this information back to the crew in a concise way that everyone can understand and react to.
As a coxswain you must be organized.
Having a plan for every step of the race is the only option for victory. An organized coxswain is not thinking on the fly – you should have an action plan for various conditions. With the right training, you will be able to execute the game plan effectively.
In short, coxing is an intellectual sport, and great results can be seen with both our on-water and off-water training methods.
Join now to gain immediate access to our growing library of courses:
In Working with Coaches you’ll:
- Learn why a coxswain is considered an extension of the coach
- Work with your coach to improve the skill of the crew and accomplish team goals
- Learn various communication styles that will help you work effectively with difficult coaches
- Understand what a coach expects from you and how you can meet expectations
- Learn why commonalities are crucial to understanding what coaches want
- Learn how to get feedback from your coach on a consistent basis
In the Principles of Coxing you’ll learn:
- Your role as a coxswain
- How to make more effective calls
- Learn how to plan for success
- In-boat footage with the Canadian women’s national team
- Animated technical illustrations
- Learn to deal with pressure and build confidence
- Know what to work on in-boat
- Create race plan from templates
- Learn why you should never make new calls in a race
- Interviews with Olympic coxswains
- Get better at steering
- Increase your awareness
- Drastically improve with off-water training techniques
- Evaluate you race plan
- Understand how fast your boat is traveling
- Understand how fast your boat is traveling
In Motivational Commands you’ll:
- Develop a deeper understanding of the role of coxswain
- Understand what advanced commands entail and how to perform them
- Learn how to plan for success
- Learn the one skill that separates great coxswains from good coxswains
- Build trust with your athletes so they will gladly execute your commands
- Learn to be consistent with your calls and build credibility
- Develop your own style of coxing
- Learn how to prepare and improve your calls off water
Included in your Subscription
New Courses Added Seasonally
Seasonal courses will take deep dives into popular subjects with experts and will be 1-1.5 hours in length
Access to Experts
Courses may be delivered on their own or with one on one coaching
Coxswain Community Forum
Join a growing community of coxswains that share your love for the sport
Join the Sparks Coxswain Community Today!
How much would you pay for professional advice from an Olympic coxswain?
Sparks coxswain camps have been held for approximately 10 years. We encourage you to read the many reviews here to understand why our customers are more than satisfied with paying $1200-$1800 for a 4-day coxswain camp.
Along with our camps, Sparks offers consulting with Olympic level coaches at $400 an hour.
While these options offer tremendous value to our clients, we are fully aware of the difficulties posed by logistics and the limited slots available for our camps.
This is why we are proud to announce that Sparks is now able to offer our eLearning course for $299 for the first month and a 10% reduction in cost per month for our loyal customers (lowest monthly price of $99).
For just $10 a day you have access to Sparks eLearning with hours of training footage and an ever-increasing library of courses.
Learn at your own pace, review the materials as often as necessary for complete mastery, then jump on the monthly call to join our coxswain community for answers to any questions you may have.
Rowing teams, we haven’t forgotten about you! We offer special pricing for teams. Click the link below to see our pricing plans.
Meet the minds behind the Principles of Coxing Course
Peter Weirsum
Peter is a bronze Olympic medalist coxswain who represented Holland over three Olympic cycles: 2008 in Beijing, 2012 in London, and 2016 in Rio. During that time, Peter also coxed the Dutch men in seven World Championships, winning multiple medals. He currently coaches the Dutch men’s Under 23 national team and serves as head coach at Skøll, a rowing club in Amsterdam. He has worked with Sparks since 2015. He is a coxswain with a level of racing experience that less than five coxswains on the planet have enjoyed.
Marcus McElhenney
Marcus is an American three-time World Champion and bronze medalist Olympic coxswain. He is the first US athlete to have won medals in two events at the same World Championship regatta. He also has one silver and two bronze medals from the World Championship level, and represented the United States from 2002 to 2009. Marcus hails from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and has worked with Sparks since 2010 as director of coxing education.
Kristen Kit
Kristen started with Sparks in 2013 as she worked to cox the Canadian women's national team. After coxing with Canada’s Paralympic program, Kristen was selected for the Canadian women’s coxswain’s seat in 2017 and won a silver medal at her first World Championship regatta. She won silver again at the World Championships in 2018. She coxed Canada again in the World Championships in 2019 and is competing to represent Canada at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
Terry Paul, Special Guest
Terry is a gold medalist Olympic coxswain and current national team coach who represented Canada in the 1988 and 1992 Olympic Games. After his time as an athlete, Terry went onto coach in the US collegiate system at Cornell University prior to moving onto the national team level of coaching. Terry has been an Olympic coach for Switzerland and Canada, and his 2008 Olympic crew won a silver medal in Beijing.