Rowers, like many athletes, are used to dealing with challenging conditions. These conditions can dictate whether you will simply survive, or even excel under trying circumstances.
Much like heading to a race, all can seem well to begin with, yet it only takes a small slip-up to send the day into a downwards spiral
If you can’t change the conditions (for example, the ongoing pandemic), what can you do?
Sometimes even the best can succumb to adversity, most prominently with the recent mix of international athletes retiring before the Olympic Games. It seems uncertainty, lack of direction and doubt planted seeds of adversity that even the best in the world can struggle to deal with.
It can be the same for any athlete, especially when things feel like they are perpetually evolving. You do not have to be a victim to the environment or be dictated to by the conditions.
See below one of our case studies.
Rebecca had established a straightforward process of keeping things in perspective, which she saw the real value in having a stable structure to her life when the world’s pandemic kicked in. From the outside, she appeared unbreakable. She was highly disciplined, becoming more effective with her training and schoolwork, and even moving on technically, pulling P.B.s and away from her peers’ benchmarks.
It wasn’t the case with some of the other physically healthy athletes of her squad. They were feeling the pinch of training on their own, the ongoing uncertainty and doubt about where it would lead to; in other words, they had trained hard but honestly struggled with ever-changing circumstances.
Taking a close look at Rebecca’s peers can allow us to take home a few lessons about dealing with adversity:
It’s not about thinking ‘How can I survive this?’ or ‘How am I going to get through this?’ Similarly, there’s no use to wishing the winds of redemption would prevail over the current circumstances or wondering ‘Why do I deserve this?’
You are shaped by your experiences and your perspective of them.
Focus on what you can do.
1. Anything outside of your head is outside of your control. So where is the value in spending time thinking about it?
2. The only thing you can control is what you do, so focus on that.
Very few athletes train these elements of their mental agility, whilst those that do find themselves able to perform above their competitors.
Conditioning the above points will enhance your performance, and allow you to pull through in adverse conditions whilst those around you are held back.
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.
If you’re hungry for more, check out any of our other pieces from The Catch, listen to our latest podcast episode, or flick through our race previews.
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Images by Roesie Percy
*All athletes mentioned in this article have been anonymised.
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