- February 2017
Personal Statement
My name is Blaire Fullerton-Smith and I am a passionate Coxswain in New Zealand. What makes me different to most coxswains is that I rowed for a season and a half and tried very hard in it and ultimately came out with results., I think this helped me coxing immensely. I used this knowledge when coxing in my recent years to push my rowers as hard as they can. Also when rowing, my winning novice eights coxswain won 'best cox' at the Maadi regatta. By listening to the cox I picked up on good motivational and technical calls. I have also experienced not so great coxs so I know what helps rowers and what does not help rowers get better because I have been in the rower's shoes myself. Last season I coxed the under 18 boys 4+ which was the hardest event (with the boys 8) in the New Zealand Maadi cup regatta. With this boat I made sure everyday I was mentally prepared to cox the boys by constantly searching coxing videos, eager to get better. This helped my progression of being a good coxed speed up fast. During that season I got asked to cox one of the boys during his 2k erg test, which he got 5:58.0.
During the off season of school rowing, I started to cox masters crews. I cox the Auckland St Georges club and have been to a regatta with them gaining several medals. I have been fortunate enough to have been asked to cox this masters crew at the World Masters regatta in April.
Going to an American University for coxing would be an amazing experience that i would not take for granted. I think going to America would amazing experience for me as America is a way bigger country than New Zealand which means there will be bigger competition which excites me a lot for the challange
