<div dir="ltr"><div><div><div>Dear Captains,<br><br></div>Sophie Shapter has agreed to give a talk to any interested college coxes on WEHoRR and/or ManHoRR. I've attached the message which went round the coxes list below, but could I please ask you to pass it on to any of your coxes racing on Tideway this year? I'd especially recommend it to any cox who has not raced on Tideway before, since the stream and the scale of the race/river present problems which are very unlike racing on Cam. Purely personally, I've raced there somewhere over thirty times, and i still don't feel as comfortable as I'd like about steering the optimal line.<br><br></div>Best of luck for the last week of training ahead of Lents,<br><br></div>Isabel<br><br>-------------------------<br><br><div><div><div><div><div>Dear coxes,<br><br></div>This is only really of
interest to those college crews planning to race WEHoRR or ManHoRR this
year. Sophie Shapter has kindly agreed to give a presentation on
steering, racing and navigating on the Tideway in Emmanuel college at
7:30pm on Tuesday the 6th of March (i.e. the Tuesday after Lent bumps).<br><br></div>I've
attached a quick note from Sophie below. Speaking personally, I really
can't recommend this enough. Racing on the Tideway is a fantastic
experience, but utterly unlike racing on-Cam, and steering well to take
advantage of the stream can reduce your time by tens of seconds. Please
do consider sticking it in your diaries.<br><br></div>Best of luck for the last week of training ahead of Lents, and hope to see many of you there,<br><br></div>Isabel,<br></div>CUCBC Committee<br><div><div><div><br>---------------------<br><br>I'm <span class="gmail-il">Sophie</span> Shapter, I've been coxing and
coaching for almost 10 years now (probably too long) and up until this
year, all my experience has been on the Tideway. I started coxing aged
13 at school when my coach told me I was small, pointed to the coxes
seat and said "sit there". So I did, and have never looked back since
(not literally, it's always good to look behind you once in a while).<br>
<br>
After a couple of years coxing at school, my coach sent me to Thames
Rowing Club, where I started to cox the senior men. This was an awesome
experience as I got to compete at a high club level at events like Men's
Head and Henley from the age of 16.<br>
<br>
By the time I left school I decided I'd had enough of full time coxing
and started to coach the junior squad at multiple clubs along the
Tideway. Meanwhile I kept up my coxing by subbing into crews here there
and everywhere for training and racing whenever needed. After three
years of coaching my hunger to cox came back and I joined Tideway
Scullers full time again, and now here I am at Cambridge coxing for
CUWBC, heading for the Boat Race in a few weeks time. I never thought
I'd ever get the opportunity to do The Boat Race, and it's been a dream
of mine since the age of 15, so it's mad to think the dream will come
true.<br>
<br>
Anyway, I'm going to be talking about coxing on the Tideway for those
all important head races coming up, as well as how to structure a race
plan, marshalling, and anything else that might be of interest to
people.<br></div></div></div></div>