Staying Focused as a Competitive Rower

Video Transcript

"Hi! I'm Anna Marie and I am a Canadian Olympic rower. In this clip, I am going to talk a little bit about the psychology of competitive rowing. When you get to a high level of rowing whether it is the national level or international level, everybody at that level, every athlete you will be competing against is extremely fit. Everybody is extremely motivated, everybody's technique is very very good and the thing that is going to separate most people is the ability to shut off the noise upstairs. Being aware of the sport psychology side of rowing is extremely important to success in the sport. Sure everybody watches the Olympics every 4 years and looks at the athletes and thinks wow, how glamorous that must be and how great that must be and oh, I would love to do that some day but what about the 4 years in between every opening ceremony, every medal ceremony. What about the people that never make it to the podium? You've got to figure out why you want to do this. Is it an intrinsic reason? Is it something that you want to be able to prove to yourself? Is it something that fuels you or is it something external? Is it that gold medal? Is it the fact that people are going to be looking at you on TV? Because you know what, those things might not ever happen and even if they do, it's not going to be like you dreamed it would be. Most of the time when athletes get to other podium for their feeling so nauseous from their race they can barely stand up and hear a national anthem. This is all stuff to be considered. Set your goals, know why you are doing what you are doing, keep checking in with your goals, jot them down in that training log and on a day to day basis remind yourself why you are doing what you are doing. It will really help you keep on track as you row towards your dreams."