Focusing on ourselves... the only way to perfrom when we need to!

In competitive sculling, as with most other competitive things in life, there are no second chances. Nobody's going to re-run a championship event because you didn't have a good race, no-one will let you re-take an exam because you screwed up or didn't study... everyone has a bad day once in a while, and if that bad day happens to be the day of your Olympic A Final... tough shit, nobody cares but you.

We've had a bit of a rough start to the season. The girls have not performed as well as I thought they would, but we're learning alot from every race, even if we're coming in the lower 50% of the field. I keep telling myself that I'd rather we have our bad races now and learn from them so that we can get to Champs or Boat Race knowing what not to do, but we need to have some promising performances now, and I'm not seeing them.

Our erg scores are not good and some of the girls are having trouble grasping technical concepts, but based on the performances from last season we should be up near the front of the pack fighting for 3rd at least.

I think that we're worrying too much about performing. If the girls (and myself) just relax and focus on our own preparation instead of trying to beat the others all of the time, the performances will come when we need them, and we'll start having fewer bad outings and races.

We need to set a goal and get to work achieving it... and saying we're going to come 3rd in the next regatta or at Champs is not going to cut it... that gets us focusing on the competition again and not on ourselves. We need to aim for something like improved erg scores or improving our max squat every week... if we get caught up stressing about other crews, we'll have pretty much resigned ourselves to bad performances.

One of the parents filmed some of the starts at the sprint regatta this last weekend, and I noticed that all of the girls have their eyes on the crews to the left and right for the majority of the first 500m... even in the coxed events where they don't have to even look at the lane buoys.

Rowing is not a sport where strategies and game plans play a huge role in winning or performing well. Athletes have to perform the same motion about 250 times over a straight 2000m course with no obstructions or obstacles, and the most efficient one reaches the line first. Race plans and tactics play a role in the outcome of a race, but there are only so many things that you can do differently... going out fast and holding on, or racing from behind and conserving a bit to come through in the final stages are about all there is to it. So why do we constantly feel the need to look at the boats next to us if all it will do is screw up our concentration and rhythm?

We should be happy to row our own race and let the coxes worry about where we are in relation to the rest of the field.

This also extends to erg assessments. Many of the girls rely heavily on some 'superstitions' when doing an erg test... the right music or only certain people talking to them. As far as I'm concerned, you push your feet through those footplates regardless of what is going on around you and you focus on what you're doing then and there.

2000m races are a crazy time for anyone... there are coxes screaming into their mic's with the speakers turned up too high, umpires calling for crews to stay in their own water and a general atmosphere that the world is crashing down around you. Add to this the stress that you are putting your body under... and you are not in a very happy place. There is no inspirational music nor is there your favorite cox or fellow athlete at your side guiding you down the course... so why should we spoil ourselves on the erg? Practice being in a race under proper race conditions, and you'll more likely be accustomed to that stress by the time you experience it for real.

It's great to have fun and enjoy rowing but in terms of performance, John and I are only asking for about 4 hours of intense training and performance out of the 8 or 9 hours you spend a week in the gym or on the water. You can have 4-5 hours of fun with your friends and good music in your ears a week... and if we start to get into it, the performance part will be fun as well... that's when all that time you spend training will be worth it and you'll really start to love rowing and racing.