Despite NSR being just around the corner, it feels like we embarked on a new season only a moment ago. All the miles – many of which were rowed alone – will now be tested on the national stage.
Everyone will be looking to carve out as much speed from their crew as possible over the coming weeks. However, the elements for performance aren’t just what crews and athletes are doing: it’s how they do it.
As crews have begun to form, there has no doubt been a honeymoon period where it felt like you were never out of the boat. The raw speed and power are there, there’s a great vibe, and with this trajectory, you’ll be on to good things for racing.
Momentum, good vibes and speed are all great things, especially for producing fast crews.
Yet, as with everything, the limiting factor in you producing your fastest performance isn’t the competition – it’s you.
To see this in action, let’s dive into a case study*
Mary was in the run-up to one of the biggest races of the season. Her boat had been going well. It felt like everything was coming together perfectly. They had shown great speed; she had been doing some practice races with another club – these had proved that what they were doing was working.
Or did they?
Another fixture was on. Mary’s crew was growing in confidence; they went in with the approach that they wanted to blow the competitors out of the water and expected that much of themselves.
Lining up on the start, they thought, ‘we have this, we’re fast, let’s do this!’
They had their start and found themselves one length down after 500m. The other crew took them off the blocks and appeared to be inching away. Mary’s crew worked extremely hard to keep contact and lost out in the fixture by two lengths. A race they were sure they were going to win.
When they discussed the fixture with their coach, the feedback was they gave their all and more. They couldn’t see what they could change.
Upon catching up with the crew, they were unsure what could be done apart from train harder. However, doing this would have resulted in burnout before the race.
During our conversation, they mentioned several times that they expected to win. Expectation or assumption isn’t the same as making your performance happen. Plus, when they didn’t follow through, it was a significant fall from where they were.
An expectation of an outcome doesn’t deliver it.
As a result, along the way, complacency crept in, and as a consequence, they expected a result to take care of itself. Thankfully, they learned this lesson a few weeks before their big race.
Once it was identified that complacency had crept into their crew, they doubled down on how they had started the journey.
– Focus on themselves.
– Stay internal.
– Keep complacency in check.
– Make the performance happen.
– They turned up each day in the weeks leading up to the race as if each day was race day.
By resetting and keeping things simple, they turned over the crew they had the fixture against and every other team in the country to go on and win the National Championships.
Notice how you are building your performace. Only by doing this can you create a sustainable model for victory.
Good luck at NSR!
Stephen
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
*All athletes mentioned in this article have been anonymised.
