The Independent Rowing News

Fourteen years of training and dedication helped Mary Whipple drive the U.S. women’s eight to a dominant gold-medal performance in Beijing. Now she’s tapping her experience to enhance the training and dedication of those who might follow in her footsteps. Whipple recently launched The 9th Seat (www.9thseat.com), a blog and coxswain coaching service for one of the sport’s more undercoached populations. We caught up with Whipple to learn more about her efforts.

RN: How did you come up with the idea for The 9th Seat?
MW: Over the past couple of years coxswains have approached me for advice and to see if I would listen to their race tapes. I was so focused on Beijing that I didn’t want to take any coxswain students on and not give them the time they deserved. So now I have the time and energy to focus on giving clinics, one-on-one coxswain coaching, and the time to go to teams and work with their coxswains during practice. The name came from always having to explain what a coxswain is and does. I would always begin by saying, “Well there are eight rowers and I’m the 9th person in the boat.”

RN: What were the important factors in your development as a coxswain. How will those show up on your site?
MW: I’ve been very fortunate to have had the opportunity to sit alongside some excellent coaches, Tom Terhaar and Jan Harville. I’ve learned during my launch time that rowers are very capable of navigating their pairs and straight fours so I always made sure to pay attention so when it was my turn in the eight everything ran smoothly. Over the past eight years on the national team I’ve learned that coxing is less about cheerleading and more about execution and giving the rowers information they need to move the boat to win. That is what is going to show up a lot in my blog and in my Whip’s Tips and also when I’m working with coxswains on a one-on-one basis. It’s all about delivering important information in a motivating way.

RN: If a tape of your call of the Olympic final were submitted to The 9th Seat, how would you critique it?
MW: I’ve listened to my recording of the Olympic final quite a few times now. The first time I heard it I was shocked how many times the four little “F” word crept in. I usually do not swear when I cox, but I knew that I said it once or twice. When I heard our third 500 I was a little embarrassed by how many times I said it. That third 500 was amazing in our execution and I was stoked at how no one was moving on us. So a little too much feistiness came out I guess. What was really embarrassing was that my parents came to my Mwhip+ Coxswain Clinic in Berkeley. I played the tape for the coxswains and every time I said that word I turned a little more red in front of Mom and Dad.

By Topher Bordeau