The erg can, at times, take on the form of a mythical creature. Many have set out to conquer it, only to be destroyed by it after a few minutes in the seat. Others take it on, battle and walk away the winner; whilst others still, have a more loving relationship. 

I see the same stories unfolding in every space and each level. The thing that a lot of people don’t realise is that the story doesn’t have to be some arduous journey full of drama and complexity, to the point where they feel they’re going to melt upon the arrival of “threshold day”. 

We will unfold one such tale that many of you will be familiar with, and show you how you can change the journey and – in turn – the outcome.*

The Story:

David always used to get stressed out by ergos. It had been the case since he was a J14, and it seemed that as the years progressed, the bigger of a beast the erg became when it came to threshold day. The coaches had discussed this fear with him, but nothing ever seemed to change. 

In the run-up to threshold day, he would become increasingly stressed; he found that at four days out, the impending feeling of dread and doubt would kick in. He and his mates would discuss how much they disliked threshold day and downplay how they were feeling. David found himself always thinking about the erg pieces and how he didn’t want to do them. He was afraid he wasn’t going to do well. He doubted if he could execute what he intended.

Threshold day. 

He started doing his warm-up; he was thinking about how he didn’t feel strong or ready today. The test got going, and he told himself that it’d be fine. As the trial progressed, his thoughts started to become a reality. The split began to creep off target, yet despite putting in a squeeze to push it down; a few strokes later it would crawl back up. Each time the coach walked past he’d look to put in another squeeze. He was feeling that things were not going well, and it was only going to get worse. 

A few hundred metres later and he was several splits above his target. The fear started to flood his thought processes; he knew he wasn’t going to hit his score.

He began questioning himself: ‘What’s the point?’ ‘Maybe I’m not good enough to be doing this, he told himself.’ It dawned on David that although he was just as devoted as his crew-mates, he never seemed to get any better 

The handle went down before the piece had finished. It wasn’t that he didn’t have the physical capability to complete it, instead, mentally he’d had enough. 

This story shows that everything you do creates a process, and the more you practice that process, the more it starts to define you and your motivations.

David’s process for performing was:

• Get stressed at the thought of ergos.
• Three to four days out, ramp up the intensity of dread and doubt.
• Remind himself constantly how he didn’t want to do the erg.
• Develop a fear of failure.
• Downplay his fear and pretend things are fine.
• Tell himself that he’s not robust, ready or able to do this. 
• Focus on his belief that his training wasn’t going well.
• When it comes to test day, put a few squeezes in to drag up the split
• Reinforce to himself throughout the erg that it’s getting worse
• Flood his thoughts with fear
• Tell himself, ‘I’m not good enough.’
• Inevitably, give up

You don’t need to be an expert in human thinking to see how this will impact someone’s performance. 

Also, it’s essential to recognise the fact that he gave up mentally, irrespective of the split; physically, he could have finished the ergo. 

Adapting:

If you recognise some of these patterns in your thinking, the first step on the road to improvement is to realise that this is an unhealthy process, that is detrimental to performance. Many athletes will feel how David does and find that by rehearsing the pre-erg ritual for years, they unwittingly create a perfect recipe for disaster. 

To break this cycle, we need to simplify the process

Imagine how you’d feel if the Cox in your boat used David’s process as race calls – it wouldn’t go down very well at all. However, it’s this process that has been driving many athletes’ unfortunate relationship with the erg for years.

David was very capable as an athlete, and despite putting the time and effort in. He was pushing himself back each time he wanted to perform on the ergo. He didn’t look at his water performance in the same unhealthy way—quite the opposite, in fact. 

On the water, he looked at how he could keep things simple and be attentive to a few technical elements, whilst remaining composed when doing pieces. 

So, we sat down and identified what mental processes he was using on the water, and soon he began using the same process on the erg. Several weeks later, he began swimming against the current. Two months after our initial conversation, he was where he was always capable of operating: his best. The change wasn’t in his physical strength, but in the application of said strength, and what process he was using to drive his performance. Over time he built one mental process that delivered the results he wanted, both on and off the water.

Be careful what process you build; they will significantly impact your performance and consistency.  

*The athletes mentioned in this article have been anonymised.

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This article was written by Stephen Feeney. To find out more about his story, head over to our content partners page, or read more of his work here.

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Images by Roesie Percy

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