What would you give?

Rowing hurts... it blisters your hands, chews at your calves, fills your muscles with lactic until they burn and go numb, deprives you of sleep, puts you at the mercy of seemingly sadistic coaches in the heat, cold and wet... it disappoints and disheartens, defeating you so much sometimes and kicking you when you're down so hard that you don't want to get up even if you could...

Why do we do this to ourselves? Do we like being sore and tired all the time?What's in it for us? The rewards are fleeting... so distant and uncertain that is it ever really worth it?

I've noticed that a few of the girls are asking these very questions and not finding any answers. We know that we're faster, fitter and more technically efficient than we all were at camp, but without some guide or measure as to how we are really performing relative to the competition, it's difficult to keep focused on what we're trying to achieve.

The girls need to understand that this season is a journey... taken one step at a time. We need to concentrate on what's happening now and stop worrying about where we will be next week or next month or next regatta or next year. Each session needs to be broken down stroke by stroke, making sure that every movement and every sequence is as perfect as they can make them at that moment. If things go wrong, a missed catch or an out of synch leg-drive, they need to learn from it and move on, making sure that the next one is better. If we carry on like this, everything will start coming together and the girls will start finding answers to some of the questions they've been asking themselves.

Sure, rowing hurts. But it hurts even more when you know you could've done better and didn't. Training's been tough over the past few weeks since camp. The girls are tired and I'm even feeling the early mornings and long sessions a bit. But if we get to SA Champs and lose by a bow-ball, what would we give to have trained that little bit harder or longer - just to be that split-second faster?

Letting Go...

Within any sport or fraternity there is a certain amount of animosity and friction amongst participants and coaches... whether because of past grievances or just because of the nature of the activity - it is always present.
When I started this blog, I was determined that it not become a medium to voice unconstructive frustrations and complains of others, but rather that it be a means of communicating to those reading my love of sculling, rowing and coaching and to get some feedback on what I'm doing and thinking. Writing about the great times I've had (and am having) is becoming an ever more amazing experience... it seems to solidify the good times and enable me to reflect objectively on the bad. Frustrations do seem to creep in though, and I sometimes find myself obsessed very negative thoughts and ideas that are counter-productive to the objectives of training, racing and this sport in general. I just have to regard it as an outsider... objectively... learn from it and let it go.

A few things happened last season (I'm not going to mention them... there are those that know what I'm talking about) that made me take a good hard look at why I coach and row. It was the first time that politics and underhandedness in sport had affected me in such a personal way. I lost some good friends (if they were ever friends to begin with) and began to coach and row for very different reasons - to get back at those few people and out-perform them.
I began to projecting my frustrations through the athletes I coached, and I realise how unfair and selfish it was of me. All I can ask of the kids that I teach are to do their best and if we come out on top... awesome. If not, I hope they have fun competing and partaking in the sport that I love.

I had a talk with the some of the crews (the two that I'm coaching) about 2 weeks ago where I asked all of them to list their goals for the season... not just performance targets, but what they wanted to get out of the season and what they expected to get out of me. I was impressed that all of them defined success and accomplishment as something other than winning a gold medal at Champs. Less than 10% of those that race at SA Champs in March every year win a medal... so by defining success as winning at that regatta, we're implying that 90% of the junior rowers in this country are losers and failures.

Every discussion came down to us enjoying the competition and having fun... and that included me. No more trying to beat those that have wronged me in the past ... it's water under the bridge (karma's a biaatch, so it's out of my hands). We've all got to learn to let it go and carry on... it's the only way that we'll stay sane and the only way that we're going to get enjoyment and accomplishment out of this season. If we do this, we'll have an awesome time and fond memories of our experiences together. The good performances will come in time... without us even knowing it.