Name
Mia Solomons
Team
Schoolgirl 1st VIII
Club
Pymble Ladies' College
Category
Performance
Location
Sydney, Australia
Meet Mia
In the 2025 rowing season, Mia Solomons was the second ranked coxswain at Pymble Ladies' College. Twelve months later, she was the top ranked under 19 coxswain in Australia.
In the 2026 season, Mia coxed the First Eight at Pymble to a record-breaking Head of the River win, shattering the NSW schoolgirl eight record in a time of 6:33. By the end of the season she was Australia's leading U19 coxswain, and the only individual invited to trial for the Under 19 Australian Rowing Team.
"The coaches had a vague idea of what I needed to do, but no idea how to develop my skills in a deliberate way."
The Challenge
Throughout her school career, Mia's never received any direct coxswain development. As a keen cox, she would proactively pursue feedback. "I would go up to my coaches and ask what I could have done better," however the feedback always left her wanting more. "The coaches were rowers who had a vague idea of what I needed to do, but no idea how to develop my skills in a deliberate way."
Neglecting coxing development has become the status quo at the school level, and it's extremely harmful to rowing programs. Mia spent seasons "unsure if what I was doing was right," with no way of finding out.
As Mia puts it, "a coxswain's performance in training and racing can make a huge impact on a crew's performance over the course of a season." When programs forget about their coxes, "boats go much slower than they could."
"I was so excited to see that the best coxes in the world had built a learning platform for people exactly like me."
How Cox Coach Helped
When Mia first heard about Cox Coach, "I was so excited to see that the best coxes in the world shared my experience and had built a learning platform for people exactly like me." Mia enrolled in an individual Cox Coach account, and quickly became a high-performing cox with a clear understanding of what she needed to do to get better.
On nights off, and between training sessions, Mia worked through Cox Coach lessons. "I loved learning about the importance of setting the context with my calls. It's essential for getting your crew on the same page to make sure they buy into the call."
Cox Coach quickly became an integral part of her development. "As I grew in confidence I started to work really closely with my coach." Mia also took her learnings from the platform back to her own race recordings. "I would review the recordings a lot, working out how I could work better with my coach and the crew."
"Rowing programs should definitely use Cox Coach. It takes high school coxswains to the high-performance level."
The Impact
In one season, Mia took her coxing from being a 2nd Eight coxswain at her school, to the top ranked under 19 coxswains in the country. She broke the NSW schoolgirl record four times, won the Head of the River in 6:33, placed 4th at the Australian National Championships in Tasmania, and was the only coxswain invited to trial for the U19 Australian Rowing Team.
Reflecting on the opportunity for schools to engage in Cox Coach, Mia shared that "rowing programs should definitely use Cox Coach. It teaches fundamental and impactful skills to younger coxswains and is extremely effective in taking high school coxswains to the high-performance level like national teams and other pathways beyond school rowing."
