Results
Name
Rafi El-Dabl
Team
Open Men's Eight
Club
University of London Boat Club
Category
Performance
Location
London, England
Meet Rafi
At the start of the 2026 season, Rafi found himself in the University of London's lowest ranked boat. By the end of the season, he'd climbed boat by boat into the top crew. He won gold at Ghent International, and made it through to Friday at Henley Royal Regatta.
Rafi credits the work he did on Cox Coach for the season he had. He's a 4th year medical student who started "properly coxing" in July 2025. A keen chess player, he sees the overlap between chess, coxing, and medicine. "There are a lot of similarities between coxing, being a doctor, and playing chess. You want to get the best out of your crew. You strategise. You motivate. You help them be great."
The Challenge
"At the non-professional level, there's a lack of support for coxswains. No one really understands how to help them," Rafi says. "You just get thrown in. You're in charge of a 60-foot missile, but nobody teaches you anything. Coaches don't have time for you, they're too busy with the rowers. In some clubs, people just don't care about coxes."
"I often felt clueless and demoralised. You don't know if you're doing a good job. You don't actually know what you're doing. There's no one to turn to. You want to get better, but there's nowhere to go. It can make you not want to do the sport. It really sucks."
How Cox Coach Helped
Rafi went from having no support as a coxswain to having everything he needed to thrive. "I really feel like the entire Cox Coach team became my mentors."
"One of the best parts was that I could work through a different lesson each week. I'd do the module on Thursday or Friday, take notes, then think about how to apply the lessons in the boat." That meant getting to sessions early to help with the blades, checking in with the crew, and building relationships with coaches of the boats he wanted to work into.
Rafi took detailed notes on "what to look for" across every part of coxing. Over the season, the lessons "added up and compounded," leaving him feeling "100% more empowered."
"The module on coxes being athletes was unbelievably empowering. It made me feel like I was there with purpose, and helped me understand I needed to perform like a professional athlete."
"It made the whole idea that coxes are placeholders in the boat go away completely. It's given me real purpose."
The Impact
Rafi worked his way from the bottom boat at University of London into the top boat. "The journey over the season speaks volumes about how good Cox Coach is. I went from the bottom boat to the top boat in one season."
"If there's one thing to take away: Cox Coach is the coxing bible. It's structured, it's informative, it's genuinely helpful. Even now, I keep working through the modules."
"There was no better feeling than progressing boat by boat. When you're in the bottom boat, nobody expects anything from you. Then I got bumped up for one regatta, then the next."
