How Ya Gonna Call? Ghost Racing!

One of the limitations of race-recording review is that coxswains have such limited opportunities to practice an entire race plan on the water. It’s likely that most of your chances to do so are races and therefore not necessarily the time and place where you’re going to be able to make changes easily.

This is where calling a race off the water—also known as a “ghost race”—can be a useful weapon in your arsenal. To do this, you call a race outside of practice and without a boat in sight. You don’t need to spend hours shouting into a corner somewhere; you can do this quietly—and even in your head, if that’s more comfortable at first.

Run a clock or set a timer to ensure that you’re not getting excited and condensing a 2K race into four minutes. You should know about how long a 2K in neutral conditions takes your crew; thus, you can use time to approximate meter markers and ensure that you’re calling your race plan appropriately. Feel free to use a few written notes at first to give yourself some structure. Call the race a few times, applying different solutions to the weaker parts of your race.

This method can be helpful particularly if you’re struggling to reconcile constructive criticism with your own coxswain voice in a way that feels authentic. This is the perfect place to take risks because the stakes are nil. Get outside your comfort zone and try new things. Borrow some calls from other coxswains and try them on for size. Modify, adjust, and adapt so that you can expand your repertoire of calls.

Cox the imaginary race well. If you make a mistake, practice recovering from it. If you have a race you felt you did well except for one part, you can listen to your own recording and turn down the volume and call over your own race, giving yourself a do-over on the weaker portions.

Calling these ghost races can help you prepare also for all possible outcomes and every eventuality. This is a good way to practice especially calling a race where you’re either up or down off the field by a large margin.

If you compete in dual races primarily, you can practice racing six boats across (can you call the simulated action of the other boats and also manage your own race plan?). You can also test yourself with unexpected circumstances (what do you do if your boat catches a crab, loses the rhythm, or has an ineffective move during close racing?).

Challenge yourself and practice different responses. You won’t get the real-life feedback of your rowers but you can practice your tone, voice, demeanor, and think through some technical focuses that might help your crew. The real benefit of practicing this way is that you’re compelled to think through your race and envision what tools to call on in the moment.

Plenty of race-day anxiety can be driven by the uncertainty of handling unforeseen circumstances. Calling races this way can give you the confidence that you’ve prepared for a multitude of different scenarios and help you be mentally and emotionally flexible.

Ultimately, this should help diminish anxiety, increase the number and type of calls you make, and build the ability to call a great sprint race—any time and any place.

Hannah Woodruff is an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator for the Radcliffe heavyweight team. She began rowing at Phillips Exeter Academy, was a coxswain at Wellesley College, and has coached college, high-school, and club crews for over 10 years.

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