Name
Zoe Walker
Team
u17 4x+
Club
Brisbane & GPS
Category
Performance / Wellbeing
Location
Queensland, Australia
Meet Zoe
Heading into 2026, Zoe remembers “thinking that” her crew “might get a couple of medals, but not do too well”. At the Australian National Championships, Zoe crossed the line first. Claiming gold in one of the regatta’s most prestigious events: the under 17 women’s coxed quad. This topped off a successful season where she claimed two gold medals at the Queensland State championships, and took a huge step forward with her coxing.
The Challenge
When Zoe first started coxing in Year 9, she "didn't really get told what to do." As she progressed through year levels, coaches started to “give me more feedback, but I wanted more structured cox-specific development.”
“I’ve always really liked my coaches. I spend a lot of time with them, and value these relationships a lot.” However, “once we get to a certain point in the season, coaches tend to focus only on the rowers. They think that the cox is at a good enough level, and that means that they don’t prioritise developing us.”
So, when it came time to move into the senior end of the program, Zoe "really wanted to make the first eight, but wasn't sure if I was at that level yet." She reached out to one of her coaches, who pointed her to the Cox Coach Instagram. After looking through it, she headed to the website and booked a meeting.
How Cox Coach helped
From her first encounter with Cox Coach, Zoe found it "really reassuring to see a platform built by coxes for coxes." She hadn't expected something like it to exist. "I didn't think that Cox Coach was something that anyone would make. It was so nice to see that lots of coxes felt how I felt."
Zoe worked through her modules weekly, occasionally catching up on weekends when she became busy. "It depended on the week, but the lessons typically took me thirty minutes to an hour."
She really connected with the content, saying these were "the type of lessons you wouldn't learn anywhere else, because there aren’t many opportunities specifically focused on cox development.” The technical framework stood out most. "It wasn't something that I had thought about before, but as soon as I learnt how to structure my calls I felt so much more confident."
Zoe took what she learned and focused on applying it in training every week. It gave her training sessions the structure she needed to see her skills tangibly increase. "It was helpful because it opened my mind to different ways I could call things, or explain why we were doing things in the boat."
She "liked the way that each module was different and helped to teach you a different part about coxing." As the season went on, her progression compounded. "As I got better I felt like I was putting my crew in the best place."
The Impact
"Cox Coach definitely helped me develop my coxing a lot." In turn, "this helped my crews to row better, and then race faster." Crew members noticed too. Rowers told her that she "was able to tell what they needed and when they needed it." Coaches were telling her she was "coxing really well".
Leadership
"It got the rowers to trust me a lot more, which meant that I was able to get them where they needed to. They trusted what I was saying."
At the national championships, that trust was put to the test. "All the races got moved around, which made recovery between races a lot harder." But because "the girls trusted me," Zoe was able to step up and lead through it.
Confidence
"I became a lot more confident in my coxing and felt that I was actually getting good at it." For Zoe, the biggest shift was that "I stopped doubting myself." That opened everything else up. "It allowed me to think about what the rowers needed from me instead of thinking about myself. It was like a weight off my shoulders."
Coxing Skills
"My technical knowledge got a lot better. I also got a lot better at being conscious of how often I was calling different things. I was staying on one thing until they had fixed that one thing."
Looking back on her progression this season Zoe shared that “small improvements over time make a big difference”. Zoe shared that “Cox Coach is valuable because it gives coxes the opportunity to keep learning and developing as the season goes on.”
