As the final flag dropped on Henley Royal Regatta, we at The Winning Cox (WOX) are looking back on our first year together.
In mid-July 2023, via an epic WhatsApp group, WOX was born. Now, 12 months on, we have gathered together an incredible community of coxes, coaches, and athletes, with thousands of individuals from all over the world engaging in our content via social media, webinars, and in-person events.
When WOX began, we didn’t know what the rowing community would make of it, and what they most needed from us. We’ve learned lots of lessons, and in true coxing fashion have tried to use our feedback to refine what we are offering and how we are delivering it. We’ve even had the pleasure of partnering with some of the biggest races the UK has to offer, from the Tideway Heads and National Schools, to Henley Women’s Regatta (HWR) and Henley Royal Regatta (HRR).
Our mission from day dot was to create a community for coxes, their coaches, and the rowers who wanted to support their coxes’ development. While our webinars have given us the opportunity to impart our knowledge to a geographically diverse audience, we still wanted to find a way to bring people together in real life, to really cement that community feeling. Our first big opportunity to do this came from our Henley course walks.
Over 100 WOXers joined us to stroll the Henley towpath over the two events, whilst learning about the iconic course and meeting other like-minded individuals. We then went on to see some of those coxes take home purple and red boxes respectively at both HWR and HRR, all while putting on a great display of their learnings from our content. We all got a great buzz from seeing Henley finalists racing in WOX caps, and wearing their WOX winners badges with pride.
Throughout the year, we have been thrilled to hear from those who have benefitted from WOX words of wisdom, and are excited to be working on what we can offer for the 24/25 season.
One of the biggest takeaways, though, is just how much we have learnt from the other WOX mentors. We have helped each other develop our own leadership styles, analysed each other’s recordings, and coached one another on our presentation skills. We have supported each other through selection, trials, racing, exams, job and educational applications, sleepless nights, how to make reels, and, of course, the choosing of the correct sock length to not look like a boomer.
There have, predictably, been challenges, but the power of the group has kept the project moving forward. We are excited for what we can bring to our community in the next year, and, as ever, are keen to hear from any coxes, coaches, or rowers who would like to work with us or offer suggestions for what we offer next.
If you would like to support WOX in our mission, please consider helping us cover our costs at buymeacoffee/WOX1.
We can’t wait to hear from the WOX community and to meet even more of you over the next season.
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