you must follow the stroke's (the person in front of the coxswain) lead. In practice that means you do what the person in front of you does otherwise it doesn't work. If you're the stroke you have to keep in mind that there are seven people behind you, so you can't change the rate too suddenly or things go badly. Setting up (balancing) a shell with 8 guys each with a 12ft(? I don't remember any more) oar is far harder than it looks. There can't be any "stars"; everyone must work together all the time.

The sight and sound of a strong crew moving a boat through the water is poetry.

I was on the [link|http://web.uvic.ca/atrsweb/vikes/MensRowing/index.html|UVic rowing crew] in 1983-84. Man, was it really so long ago...