Every athlete, in every sport, at every level, will occasionally have a bad performance. It’s an unfortunate fact of life. The sky is blue, grass is green and at some point, you are going to have a bad session. Sometimes you will know from the start that you’re not exactly going to be hitting those PBs. Other times, you get part-way through the outing and you could swear that someone had turned up the resistance on the river. The boat feels unbalanced. Your technique is a puzzle missing its key pieces, and you’re just hoping to get through the next hour casualty free. Whatever the reason, don’t panic. Everyone has bad days. What’s important is how you respond and how you prepare yourself for your next outing. And remember, with the right mindset, you can maintain confidence and quickly bounce back.
Undoubtedly the most important thing you can do is identify what went wrong. REMINDER: This doesn’t mean obsessing over every miniature detail until you end up in a spiral of negative thoughts. Simple questions can go a long way. If you need some help, start with these;
Are you managing your nutrition well?
Nutrition can make or break you when it comes to performance, so make sure you are getting enough calories to last you through the outing. I would definitely recommend bringing a small snack in the boat with you to keep your energy up throughout the session. Ideas for this could be granola bars, energy gels/chews, or fruit.
Also ensure that you’re keeping hydrated during the outing. Bad hydration can lead to decreased endurance, muscle cramps and (especially in the summer months) sunstroke. Exertion from training will also lead you to sweat more than normal, which will cause electrolyte loss. You can maintain your electrolyte balance through energy drinks and electrolyte substitutes.
Post-outing nutrition is equally as important for an athlete, as nutrition is crucial for good recovery. Make sure that after training your having lots of carbs and protein to replenish your glycogen stores to promote muscle recovery
Are you well-rested?
Your sleep may have more effect on your performance than you originally thought. On a physical level, sleep, especially deep sleep, is a time of recovery and repair for your body. Did you know that the vast majority of muscle repair and growth happens when your body is asleep? This means that having no recovery between workouts will lead to you starting the session at a disadvantage, causing quicker fatigue and increasing chance of injury.
Are you overtraining?
It’s not uncommon for athletes to take on too much and end up exhausted. The most apparent effect of overtraining is physical fatigue. Fatigued rowers will find it hard to maintain correct form/technique when rowing, increasing their risk of injury. Over time, this will accumulate and cause a decline in speed and strength.
Less noticeable, but equally as impactful is mental fatigue. The exact cause of mental fatigue is much harder to pin down. It can have one large root cause, or can be the result of dozens of small issues. Often we can summarise these causes into two umbrella factors: stress and anxiety. Mental fatigue is a particularly vicious cycle, an exhausted mental state will inevitably lead to the breakdown of technique, and consequently, a bad performance. This bad performance will lead to more stress, which will lead to more mental decline and the cycle resets.
How is your general mental state?
As previously mentioned, stress can cause mental fatigue, but that stress can also directly affect your physical well-being. Stress hormones can lead to increased muscle tension and decreased coordination, making it much harder to row efficiently.
As athletes, we are often our own harshest critics. If you have ever been sitting on the way back from training, still thinking about a dodgy stroke you made during the warm-up, you are not alone. This often stems from a fear of failing to meet the expectations of yourself, your team or your coach. This can affect your confidence and, in any sport, self doubt is a major road-block in improvement. Remember that rowing requires a balance of focus and fluidity, and overthinking will disrupt that flow.
If you’re still unsure what happened, ask your coaches! Their main goal is making sure that you’re making the most improvement possible from session to session. This means that they’ll be more than happy to help you figure out what went wrong, so both of you can work together on improving it next time.
Helpful Reading:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5371639
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