RowingRelated

Grobler at the 2010 Crash-B World Indoor Rowing Championships  (Photo courtesy of Ursula Grobler) Every great athlete was lucky enough to find the sport for which they were best suited. This takes a little bit of luck, the proper attitude, and decisive nature. Although pure chance or happenstance is often a large part of the discovery of one's natural talent or prowess for a certain sport, there are other elements that play a role determining opportunity. You must be smart enough to first look for and be open to opportunity, if you are going to discover the sport at which you'll become most successful. This requires not only an open mind, but also awareness and perspective, so that opportunities are noticed and interpreted as such. Secondly, the athlete must have the wherewithal to take advantage of the opportunity when it is presented . This often requires risk and the unknown, including the risk of failure and dealing with not being great immediately (increasingly problematic...

Many athletes and coaches want to know what workouts an elite level rower has completed before a major breakthrough in training, or a major success in competition. They want to how the athlete got to where they are by finding a special workout or a special formula for success in terms of the best training plan. The problem with this is that they are often looking in the wrong places. No successful endurance athlete became successful by doing one or two "special workouts" repeatedly, yet people are often trying to find such magic training sessions in an attempt to take their own performance to the next level. There is no magical workout or training plan that makes Mark Hunter and Zac Purchase the fastest lightweight double in the world. Consistency is the key. They have trained well over a long period of time and allowed their bodies to adapt to the training. Gradually, they have become stronger and fitter, handling more training each and every year. When the duo came togeth...

We all know that the greatest athletes in the world are blessed with a great deal of talent and natural ability. Rowing is a sport which favors those that are tall and have long arms and legs because rowing is a sport of leverage. It is also a sport of strength and endurance and thus those with a large lung capacity and large hearts that can pump a lot of blood have a natural advantage. However, there are other aspects of an athlete's arsenal: 'talents' that are often overlooked when it comes to this subject, or characteristics not commonly thought of as 'talents.' These are things that people can practice and improve over time. It is my belief that mental toughness, discipline, work ethic/dedication, intelligence/knowledge and confidence, all of which are born of both experience and perseverance. These are the things that can be controlled and therefore are the things that we should focus on in our own pursuit of greatness. The first example is mental toughn...

Many say they want to be the best, and claim they want it more than the competition, but very few actually do the work along the way. Similarly, many athletes can have the desire and the focus required to be a champion on race day, but not nearly as many have that same focus and drive day in and day out, when it's the middle of the offseason/they are tired/sore/busy/emotionally drained, or it is freezing cold and raining/snowing outside. At a certain level, the dedication required seems uncomfortably similar to a semi-weird, all-consuming obsession, like chess with the addition of physical abuse and exhaustion. Weird or not, it is this tenacity, this unrelenting force driving them, that causes the greatest athletes to prepare with such zeal and attention to detail. > Although the bread-and-butter of any athlete's work is goal-oriented training, managing the "small stuff" is what separates the great ones. As the legendary Bob Knight, who racked up the most wins ...

Great athletes find a way. Even when they are not at their physical best, they manage to come up with a performance that changes the game. The language is full of clichés about this phenomenon: "when the going gets tough, the tough get going," and, "great players make great plays in big games," to name a couple. The funny thing about clichés is, they exist for a reason. There are two aspects to performing at your best despite the odds: one is physical, and the other mental. Maybe this seems obvious, but the two must be in perfect harmony for the athlete to find the success that he or she seeks when it counts most. This harmony creates a balance, though the relationship is one that can fluctuate depending on the circumstances. First, let's talk about the physical aspect of performance. The best athletes in the world are also the best at preparing for their athletic endeavors. The arc of their training sets them up perfectly for the most important day -- that ...

How can we define confidence? What separates it from arrogance? Where are the lines blurred between positive and negative personality traits? Arrogance, or cockiness, in an athlete and in the sporting world more generally, is most often viewed as a negative trait. However, the very qualities that can result in arrogance clearly help to make the great ones great at their craft. We often regard athletes who seem to think very highly of themselves, or who even go so far as to speak about themselves in grand terms, as far from the ideal. But, undoubtedly, it is the belief that no one on earth is more capable than they that allows them to achieve at such a high level. Perhaps without such belief and behavior they might lose the competitive edge that allows them to reach those extra few percentage points that separate the 'great' athletes from those who are 'very good.' This is not to say that every athlete that demonstrates outward signs of total self-confide...

Announcing a new, six-part series coming to RowingRelated on the characteristics of great athletes across all sports, and what we can learn from both their actions and personalities. Once a week, the RR Staff will look at one aspect of the successful athlete's character, making use of examples from mainstream sports as well as rowing. In so doing, we will delineate the athletic mindset and provide the reader with a new perspective on how to view professional and amateur athletes, as well as how to make the most of his or her own competitive drive. We believe there are six common traits among all great athletes in all sports. In this weekly series we will provide an in-depth analysis of each of these qualities and why we think they are necessary components in all great athletes. 1. Confidence What separates belief in yourself and your abilities from arrogance, and how can cockiness and self-confidence possibly serve to enhance your performance physiologically? 2. Ability t...