Tag: anxiety

Question of the Day

By readyallrow April 12, 2013

I’m so stressed out ALL the time, but when I get to crew, I feel like a massive weight has been lifted. I love it so much, when I’m not rowing, I feel like shit. But then 2k’s come around and it’s just paralyzing, I have no clue how to do a 2k, having come off of an injury and I don’t want to do poorly and I’m just scared?

Don’t be scared. Way easier said than done, I know, but honestly, that really does make it worse. Coming off an injury you’re not expected to pull some miraculous 2k that blows everyone’s minds. That’s what we tell ourselves we have to do but no one actually expects that of us. (And if you’re coach does, perhaps someone should direct him to the “priority” entry in the dictionary and remind him that this shouldn’t be one of them.) 2ks coming off an injury are just the same as any other 2k minus the goal of PR’ing (assuming that’s what you’re goal is each time you 2k). Just go out and do the best you can. As your injury heals more and you regain your strength, your 2ks will improve a lot.

It’s literally seven and a half to eight minutes of your entire day. That’s something like 0.005%. Are you really going to let something that takes up that little amount of time screw with your head?

Related: 2k test strategy

Have a plan. Get on the erg, close your eyes, deep breath, strap in, deep breath again, remind yourself you can do this, and then go do it. You can think when you’re done.

Coxing Novice Q&A Racing

Question of the Day

By readyallrow April 7, 2013

I’m a novice walk-on coxswain and I’m coxing a boat largely made up of walk-ons as well. We’re a pretty decent boat, but they have a tendency to just fall apart whenever they start hitting higher stroke rates. Races make them nervous and before we know it we’re rushing up those slides, our technique’s falling apart, and we’re hitting sprint rates at the 1000m mark. Being right next to other boats in particular freaks us out, especially when they’re making a move. Is there any way I can calm them down other than the obvious, “bodies calm, slow on the recovery,” calls? I’m having a hard time balancing the need to calm them down and keeping the intensity of a race piece. Thanks!

This is more of an issue you have to work on during practice over a period of time vs. being something you can fix with a few good calls on race day. They have to recognize that rowing at an unsustainable pace isn’t getting them anywhere and it’s not going to get them anywhere. I’ve said this before but rowing in a race is like driving. You’ve got to be aware of what the other cars are doing but in general not pay them any attention. I don’t know how they expect to have a good race if being by other boats freaks them out.

Why it freaks you out is the bigger question. Until you figure out the answer to that question, nothing else will do you much good. I know that sounds super shrink-like but whatever you do to fix the problem isn’t going to make much of a difference if you don’t know what the actual problem actually is. My first suggestion would be to sit down with them and figure that out. If their answer involves them saying “I don’t know” or anything about thinking they’re going to lose because people are beside them, feel free to smack them on the head and tell them to suck it up and get their shit together.

Call wise, telling them where they are in the race and what they need to do to maintain their position, make a move, or walk away is always helpful. Sometimes rowers get frantic like that because their coxswain isn’t telling them what’s happening so they assuming the race is going to hell and then they start freaking out and then the race really does go to hell. Keep them updated on their progress. Also tell them to FOCUS from the very beginning. As soon as you get locked on at the start, tell them to forget about everything else other than the other eight people in the boat and the oar in their hand. Deep breaths, focus on the goal of the race (whatever it is – winning alone is not a goal).

Talk to them about their technique – swinging together out of bow, moving eight as one, no weight on the legs on the recovery, smooth, controlled, and composed on the slides, rotating towards the riggers, getting that length, unweighting the hands, strong, sharp catches, jump on the first inch, drive the legs down, power through the water, layback, still maintaining the strong core and straight back, chin up, eyes forward, loose upper body, get the handle all the way in, clean finishes, tap down with the outside hand, aggressive with the feathering (you want to hear the oarlocks – one sound), smooth, quick hands away, sitting up tall at bodies over, patience on the slide, maintain the handle heights, building excitement to the catch, catching sharp, driving determined through the water.

The more you work on this during practice, the better you’ll be on race day. It can’t all happen during the race. Talk to them and figure out what’s up. From there, start working with your stroke on maintaining a good rate and not letting the bow 7 push him/her up the slide. Get the overall technique and slide control down, then start pushing them. When you know they’ve got it, demand more. Push them to push themselves. During the race, you’re not their friend, therapist, etc. – you’re their coxswain. The intensity has to be there 100% of the time, regardless of what is happening around you. If you’re confident, they will be too. Talk like you believe every single word that’s coming out of your mouth and they’ll believe you too.

Coxing Q&A Racing

Question of the Day

By readyallrow April 4, 2013

How do you stay calm during races? I freak out when our boat is down after the first 500 and my coxing goes downhill.

It’s hard to explain – it’s one of those things I just do. I know that my job is to think for the rowers when they’re too tired to think for themselves and I tend to focus so hard on the race and what we’re trying to accomplish that I don’t even have time to freak out once we’ve started. Plus, I can’t think for nine people if I let my nerves consume me. It’s just not possible. My time to “freak out” (internally) before we launch or at the latest, on the way to the starting line and while I’m getting locked on to the stake boat. As soon as the official starts the countdown, I’m focused on racing. When he says “go” all the nerves immediately convert to adrenaline which just makes my coxing that much more intense.

If you get down early that’s when you have to really have to maintain your composure and push your rowers to stay in it. If they sense that you’re falling apart, they will too. I don’t cox any differently when we’re down vs. when we’re up. I might push them harder if they’re down but my tone of voice, what I’m saying, etc. doesn’t change. The easiest solution would be to not get down after the first 500. The second easiest solution is to simply focus on you, your boat, and your race. You have to be aware of the other boats but at the same time you have to ignore them and focus on what you’re doing. It’s like driving…you aren’t actually paying attention to the other cars on the road but you’re aware of when they speed up or slow down.

Coxing Q&A

Question of the Day

By readyallrow April 1, 2013

Hey! How do you deal with loads of self-doubt and just self-deprecation as a coxswain? I know that’s my worst habit and it really is detrimental to my performance on the water. I go out there ready to go, and then I do one thing wrong (like this weekend I took a turn wide and that was def not helpful) and I feel like it’s the end of the world because I do a ton of little stupid things a lot, and I feel like I should know better after 8 years. Help?

This was one of my worst habits too but the mistakes I made when I started coxing I learned from and forcibly committed myself to not making again. That’s really all you can do – commit to not making them again. If you make a mistake and it’s the first time it’s happened, whatever. Note it, learn from it, and forget it. If it’s something you repeatedly do, sit your ass down, figure out why you keep making that mistake, and tell yourself to stop doing it. If you feel like you know better, act like you do. Don’t let over-thinking what you do ruin things for you though – one mistake is not the end of the world. You can’t doubt yourself otherwise your rowers will start to doubt you too. Confidence is key!

Q&A Rowing

Question of the Day

By readyallrow March 21, 2013

I get incredible lows from rowing. I’ll have a bad day at practice and suddenly freak out about losing my spot in the boat and I over analyze everything so much. It mentally kills me and it bugs my teammates as well. I get some of the best erg scores on the team and still always stress and they feel like I’m being selfish, etc. What should I do? I feel like rowing is my sport but that I mentally can’t compete, despite having good times.

Every sport is considered the ultimate team sport by the athletes who participate in them but rowing … rowing is the ultimate team sport. If you think about football, everyone has to work together to score a touchdown but each person has an individual responsibility. The responsibilities of a quarterback, running back, and lineman are all completely different but it’s still possible to get the touchdown if someone misses a block or runs a poor route. With rowing, everyone has the same job and if someone or multiple people don’t execute it right, the boat isn’t going to move. No one is out there for just themselves. You’re out there for eight other people or four other people or your pair/doubles partner. If you’re out there constantly thinking about yourself, you’re doing two things: hurting yourself and hurting the boat. I mean thinking about yourself in a negative “My rowing sucks, they hate me, I’m being replaced” way too, not in a “I’m concentrating really hard on making sure I’m not washing out at the finish” way. You have to get in the boat everyday 100% confident in your abilities You have to execute everything like you know what you’re doing is right until someone tells you otherwise.

Before you go to your next practice, take a few deep breaths and clear your head of every single negative thought you’ve had about yourself and your rowing up to that point. Wipe the slate clean and tell yourself you’re going to have good practice … then go have one. Repeat each day until you don’t need to repeat it anymore.

Coxing Q&A Teammates & Coaches

Question of the Day

By readyallrow March 17, 2013

I’m debating with myself whether or not to quit coxing (at the end of the year of course, I would never quit midseason) and I was wondering if you could listen to my reasons and offer some advice?

1. Although I get incredible highs from coxing, I also get fucking awful lows. The lows aren’t beaten by the highs, I actually go into depression. I get really negative and self loathing.

2. It’s making me paranoid. I’m constantly paranoid about everything, other coxswains, coaches opinions, rowers opinions, and its driving me crazy.

3. Pressure. I feel this incredible pressure from everybody, everybody expects me to be this amazing cox but in reality I’m not, every time there’s a race I feel like I’m disappointing everybody, and however hard I’m trying to become better I feel like it’s not coming through.

4. Weight. I’m naturally about 92 lbs (or was last year) and everyone knows (coaches, rowers). Its become a source of teasing. Summer races are coming up, so I will need to weigh in. I’m paranoid that I’m going to be over and as a result of this I’m starting to cut down on how much I eat. My friends already say that I don’t eat enough but I’m just so worried I’ll be over.

I enjoy coxing, I enjoy winning (we rarely do though), I enjoy the training, I like the people, I like the coaches, I like the jokes. I’m just concerned about how this is affecting me psychologically, and making me this paranoid, negative person. Thank you.

When you’re involved in something, whether it be sports, a relationship, etc. and you start thinking all of that, it’s time to take a break. Not necessarily quitting but taking a pre-determined amount of time off to clear your head and look at things more rationally. Not that you’re being irrational right now, but when you’re consumed by something 24/7 you don’t look at it the same way as you do when your head is clear.

To address each of your reasons…

1. I’ve been in this position, so trust me, I get what you’re saying. I’ve definitely engaged in a little self-loathing behavior, especially if I get off the water knowing our practice didn’t got as well as it should have or that I could/should have done better. I try to never let myself get too low though because the last time I got to that point I completely walked away from rowing with no intent on ever returning. If you’re getting to the point where you’re actually experiencing depression-like symptoms, that’s not healthy and would definitely warrant taking some time away.

2. I think it’s OK to be a little paranoid but in the “aware of everything going on around you” sense, not the “conspiracy theory” sense, if that … makes sense. The opinions of the rowers and coaches are really important to me but I’ve definitely put more weight on them than they’re actually worth sometimes. The thing to keep in mind though is that you think about other people’s opinions of you way more often than they’re actually thinking about you. It’s good to care what they think but don’t dwell on it or try to find some hidden meaning in everything they say. Like you said, it starts to drive you crazy after awhile. If someone tells you good job, 99% of the time, they mean it. If someone asks you to do something differently, it doesn’t mean they hate you, think you suck, want you out of the boat, etc. They’re trying to think of ways to help the boat and obviously, as the coxswain, you are the catalyst for change, which is why they’re coming to you.

3. Most of the time, the pressure is a good thing. If you’re not feeling any pressure (the good kind) then where’s your motivation to get better? Unless people are pissed with you after a race, you made common sense mistakes that you know better than to make, etc. there’s no (or little) reason to feel like people are disappointed with you. People say “oh, don’t let the pressure get to you” but they tend to forget that the pressure we put on ourselves is way higher than most outside pressures. Sometimes though you do have to get away from everything so you can clear your head and alleviate not only the outside pressure but the pressure you’re putting on yourself too.

4. I hate when people tease you for your weight, regardless of whether you’re under, over, or at a normal weight. I weigh 95lbs and people make comments about it all. the. time. You don’t have to make negative comments about someone’s weight either for it to irritate them and most people don’t get that. You’re 18lbs under the minimum right now – being over it is not the end of the world. I’d venture a guess that about 85% of coxswains are over the minimum. For most people, it’s not realistic to weigh 110lbs – it’s definitely not realistic for me so I tend to not think about it. If you want to be the best coxswain for your boat, you have to take care of yourself. Don’t be that hypocritical coxswain who walks around preaching how the rowers need to do this and do that to be healthy yet look like a skeleton yourself.

If you have a good time and you enjoy the people you’re with, don’t let anything damper that. Based on #1 alone I’d say you definitely have cause for taking a break so if not rowing this summer is an option, I’d consider it. The summer is your time. For three months out of the year you aren’t in school, you aren’t obligated to any extracurricular activities, and you can do whatever you want. Don’t let your coaches or teammates guilt trip you into coxing this summer if you decide you want/need to take a break. If I was your coach, I’d tell you to take the time off and then come talk to me in August because – and don’t be offended by this – I don’t want someone coxing my boat who isn’t excited to be there, and right now you don’t sound excited about it.

Take the summer to clear your head completely before revisiting the idea of quitting. If you make the decision now it’ll be based more on all the feelings you’re currently experiencing instead of logical and rational thought, if that makes sense. The best comparison I can think of is when you break up with someone – the break ups that happen mid-argument always tend to be regretted in one way or another down the road vs. the ones that end after a mutual discussion and agreement. Sometime before school starts, look back on the spring and how you felt vs. how you feel now after having a break. You’ll either realize that you still feel the same way about coxing and maybe it’s best that you not do it anymore or you’ll feel rejuvenated and excited to get back on the water. Either way, the decision is completely yours and there is on right or wrong answer. Whatever you think is best for you is what you should do.

Q&A Rowing

Question of the Day

By readyallrow March 5, 2013

I’m very sensitive to pressure and negativity and being stroke that obviously doesn’t help my boat. Tonight’s outing was horrendous for me but the others said they didn’t even realize I was having such a bad time because they thought it went great. This outing we were chased by another boat and they’ve come dangerously close to us at the last testing so obviously our whole crew, but especially me, is being affected. How do I keep calm, especially when chased?

I’m similar. I’m pretty hard on myself so even when I know our boat had a good practice, I’ll still nitpick everything I could have done differently to make it even better. I don’t mind races because I’m super competitive so I tend to look at every one as a challenge. That’s my suggestion to you. If they want to chase you, fine, let them, but be thinking the whole time “just try and catch us, keep trying, whaddaya got…”. Instead of letting the pressure get to you, accept their challenge. If the other boat(s) have come close to you in practice, don’t be intimidated by that. Instead, go out and row your ass off to intimidate them. That was always one of my favorite things when I’d race was to have a crew get close to you one day and let them think they’ve cracked you and then come back the next day and handedly beat them.

Confidence is huge. Communicate with your coxswain, keep the stroke rate steady, and focus. Concentration is key. Let your coxswain worry about the other boats and where they are. Your job is to focus solely on setting the rhythm and pace for the other seven rowers. If you’re spending too much time thinking about the other boat your boat is gonna be the one that suffers. When that happens the other boat wins, regardless of whether or not they came in first because psychologically, they’ve got you. Before each practice, piece, race, etc., take a deep breath and think about what you’ve gotta do. If you’re experienced enough to be able to maintain your rhythm and everything with your eyes closed, do that. I had a stroke seat once that would row the middle 1000 of a race with her eyes closed, which forced her to pay attention to only our boat when she couldn’t get herself to do it mentally.

The biggest thing is to just find a way to be motivated instead of intimidated. How you do that is completely up to you but once you get in that boat, all the nerves have gotta disappear. It might seem like a lot of pressure to have seven other rowers relying on you, but ultimately you were put in that seat for a reason. Your coach clearly thinks you have what it takes so just embrace it!

College Coxing Q&A Teammates & Coaches

Question of the Day

By readyallrow March 3, 2013

How did you balance crew, classwork, and a social life while you were in college?

I didn’t at all. My college experience could be equated to Murphy’s Law – everything that could go wrong went wrong. Looking back I should have advocated for myself a lot more than I did when I talked to my coaches, I should have gone to my professors sooner when I realized I was falling behind, and I should have avoided my advisers entirely since they ended up steering me in the wrong direction more often than not. The way things panned out with rowing and college in general is without question the biggest regret I have.

College itself wasn’t a shock to my system or anything so there really wasn’t an adjustment period there but as soon as classes started I got smacked in the face with crew from every angle. Practice twice a day, weights in the morning twice a week after a row (7-8:30am before classes), not to mention having a teammate as a roommate (alarm clock going off every five minutes for an hour starting at 4:30am … I wanted to kill her) was a lot to deal with on top of the usual college stuff.

I started taking classes over the summer and already had an incredible group of friends before the year even started. I went from seeing them every day to never seeing them. I was way too exhausted to go out on the weekends so I missed a lot of opportunities to hang out and stuff. I justified missing out by saying that rowing in college was what I wanted to do and I knew there were going to be sacrifices and if this was one of them, fine. All work and no play is not healthy.

Classes were a whole separate issue entirely. I was excited about my major and most of my classes but it’s hard to maintain that excitement when you’re late to your morning class every day because you get held over by 20, 30, 40 minutes at practice (and then have to wait for the shuttle back to campus) and are so exhausted at the end of the day that you can’t manage any brain waves when it’s time to actually do your work. I’d come back from afternoon/evening practice around 6-7pm, maybe grab something to eat (justified again by not having enough time, I didn’t feel that hungry anyways, etc.), take a quick break to wind down from the day (usually in the form of a shower, which was the only time during the day when I felt no pressure to do anything), and then start my homework. That’d go from 8pm-2am usually before I’d set my alarm and go to bed. If I got more than 3 hours of sleep a night I was ecstatic. I was constantly running on empty.

I’ve always been a good student but my grades were awful and having never experienced that before, I was constantly kicking my own ass and telling myself to get it together. I was nervous to talk to my professors because I figured they would look at me as an entitled athlete expecting special treatment so I didn’t go to them for help (until it was all but too late) and instead committed myself to figuring out how to fix things on my own. Needless to say, that didn’t work.

Midway through the semester, I hated crew. Like, absolutely hated it. I didn’t feel like I was getting any opportunities to do anything useful when I was at practice and I (and some of the other coxswains) always felt like the coaches were pretty “meh” towards everyone but their “favorite” coxswain. Whenever the subject of crew, the team, etc. would get brought up by friends, family, professors, etc. I could feel the look of disgust on my face. If I never saw another oar, boat, or cox box ever again it would have been too soon. It went from being something that I loved doing more than anything to a job that I despised waking up for. I was stressed beyond belief, I was constantly getting sick (I ended missing nine straight days of classes at one point because I was so run down … the doctors I saw were horrified and almost made me check into the hospital for treatment), I had no energy, and the energy that I did have was spent convincing myself that this was what I wanted. I wanted this!

When I had conversations with my coaches or athletic advisers, I got nowhere. My athletic advisers, instead of finding ways to help me, only offered the suggestion of “just pick an easier major”, which I ignored because that’s literally the most lazy, bullshit piece of advice ever. My coaches guilt tripped me because I had committed myself to the team and I had to fulfill that, blah blah blah. I sat in their offices ready to punch the walls at a moment’s notice because it was like … do you think I don’t know that I made a commitment? Why do you think I’m running myself into the ground right now? I’m doing it because of this commitment!

Eventually it came to the point where I knew I had to walk away. My grades were the number one reason but my health (physical and mental) was another. I had never felt before what I felt my freshman year. I was in a perpetual state of fatigue, hunger, anger, stress, anxiety, depression, etc. that no one understood. The people I did talk to about what was going on knew maybe 1% of everything – the rest of it I kept to myself. People aren’t joking when they say doing that eats away at you. I could feel myself becoming less and less of the person I was before and that only added to everything I was feeling.

Walking away from crew was the hardest decision I’ve ever had to make. I know it doesn’t seem like something that a normal person would agonize over but for me it was. I knew that quitting (something I had never done before) would put an end to my dreams of competing at the elite level. I was back home when I got a call from the assistant coach who said that she could tell something had been going on. No shit, really? Do you think maybe you should have said something beforehand instead of rubbing my “commitment” in my face? I told her I needed some time to figure out what I wanted but I didn’t think I was going to be on the team next season. It wasn’t until I took a step back and realized how miserable I was making myself that I realized the choice was already made. I called my coach back and said I was done.

I hate that I’m that person who is the anomaly and couldn’t make things work out. There are thousands of collegiate rowers out there that do and on some level, I’m envious of that. I’ve realized in the years since that I should have stuck up for myself and I should have told my coaches at the very beginning that something wasn’t right. Whether they could or would have helped me is something I’ll never know but I should have made the effort to at least see what they had to say. Asking for help as a coxswain is something that’s really easy for me but asking for help in “real life” is really hard and it bit me in the ass here.

The simplest piece of advice I have is that the moment you start to feel the ground under you getting a little shaky, figure out why and then go talk to the appropriate people until you’ve got things stabilized. Even if you don’t think you need someone else’s help, down the line you will. If your professors know ahead of time that you’re juggling a lot and struggled a bit with a certain topic, problem set, etc., they can at least throw out a “Hey, how have you been doing since we last talked?” at the beginning or end of class one day. I never had any professors like this but maybe you do. They can’t help you if they don’t know there’s a problem though, regardless of how minor it is.

Don’t ever let anyone tell you to “just switch to an easier major”. In the short term that might solve the problem but in the long run you probably aren’t going to be happy. Also, don’t let your coaches guilt trip you, make school seem like an interference to crew, or make you feel like your concerns are invalid. Don’t let anyone else invalidate your concerns either – family, friends, significant others, teammates, etc. How you balance crew, classes, and having a life is different for each individual too. There’s an experimentation period of trial and error where you find out what works for you before you settle into a routine, but the key is making sure your routine is dictated by you and not someone or something else.

Coxing Q&A Racing

Question of the Day

By readyallrow January 29, 2013

So nervous for spring races! I’m so worried that we’ll start and I won’t keep straight, crash into another boat and not only ruin our race, but another boat’s. I know practice makes perfect but how do I take down the anxiety attack?

I actually feel similarly before most races. It’s not so much that I doubt myself but the adrenaline building from the time I launch all the way up to the start gives me the jitters. When we get locked on to the stake boat I usually take a second where I close my eyes, take a couple deep breaths, mentally run through my game plan, and tell myself that I know what I’m doing, my crew knows what they’re doing, and all we have to do is execute. As soon as the start marshal says “GO” everything gets channeled into the race. The adrenaline that gave me jitters before fuels me during the race – I literally think I run on nothing but pure adrenaline for those six minutes.

You have to trust the face that you know what you’re doing, your coach trusts you, your crew trusts you, and you trust them. Assuming you’ve been having good practices and your crew is well-prepared, you’ve got nothing to worry about. You know how to steer. If you didn’t, your coach wouldn’t keep you with that boat – he’d put someone who know what they were doing in there.

If it’s something you’re not 100% confident about, practice your steering every time you go out. Have your coach watch you and give you feedback. Most likely you’ll have buoys when you race so you’ll have a guide on either side as you go down the course. When you get to the starting line, take a second to breathe, remind yourself of the plan, and get ready to go. When the starting marshal says “GO”, let your instincts take over. When the race is over you’ll wonder why you were ever anxious in the first place.

Coxing Q&A

Question of the Day

By readyallrow January 15, 2013

I’ve always been that insecure person but according to my rowers and coach, I’m a “good coxswain.” Problem is that I always find fault in whatever I’m doing. I’m positive towards my rowers but negative towards myself. Any tips on how to be more self confident?

Most people are really surprised when I say this but I’m the same exact way. I’ve been told I’m a good coxswain and a great coxswain but I will never fail to find fault with at least 10 things I did during practice. When my rowers or coach ask me about it and I tell them whatever is bugging me they basically tell me I’m insane because I’m the only person that notices stuff like that and it’s not even anything that has any effect on the boat. I get very OCD about my coxing, how I call things, etc. and after we finish a piece I’ll think of something to say and get so annoyed at myself for not thinking of it earlier. I wonder if that could have been the call that resonated with the rowers or if waiting another 50 meters to call a burst would have made the difference in the end. It’s stupid, trivial stuff but I really do beat myself up over it. There have been times where we’ll have had a great practice but I’ll leave furious because I feel like I did terribly, even though I know deep down that I didn’t.

I think you just have to accept the fact that you ARE in fact, a good coxswain, and if you ever do mess up to the point where someone other than yourself notices, they’ll say something. I try and make it a point to be as routinely perfect as possible so that when I do make a mistake or someone asks me to adjust how I call something, I know they’re calling me out because what I did was out of the norm, not because I actually am terrible at coxing. I don’t know if that makes sense (it does in my head – everything always makes sense there) but it really has helped me to be less hard on myself.

After Head of the Charles I was beating myself up for days about the race because so many things went wrong but it finally took one of the women in my boat sitting me down and drilling it into me that the unpredictability of it all is unavoidable. Shit was BOUND to happen and it just so happened to occur during our race. I did everything right and that showed when I was the only coxswain to not be penalized during said mishaps. You have to realize that there are things you have control over and things you don’t. Focus on what you do have control over and let everything else go. The stuff you do focus on, focus on it the necessary amount…if you feel yourself getting really wound up over something, take a deep breath, look at the situation neutrally, and ask yourself if this is REALLY something you need to concern yourself with or are you just being overly-sensitive to the issue?

I’m a perfectionist at heart when it comes to rowing and coxing so not having things be “perfect” can really drive me nuts. I started to realize though that all my over-thinking was making me miserable, which obviously is not something you want to be as a coxswain. I’d already gone through the period of hating rowing and I didn’t want to do it again, so I decided one day that the next practice was going to be different…better. Instead of beating myself up over something I didn’t do or could have done differently, I made a serious effort to do whatever it was on the next stroke or the next piece. It wasn’t anything that anyone but myself noticed but it made SUCH a huge difference. Letting the anger of not doing something fuel you to actually do it is a wicked good stress reliever.

Don’t ever let anything get in the way of you enjoying being in the boat. I’ve been there and I’ve done that and trust me, it’s not worth it. Whatever you’re finding fault in, instead of letting it bother you, do something to fix it. Even if it’s something only you will notice, it does make a difference. Ultimately you can either CHOOSE to keep being hard on yourself or you can CHOOSE to make yourself better, but whatever option you go with, in the end it’s always your choice.