My Mental Game: 220 Strokes

Say you were going out on the water or even on the erg to do a 220 stroke piece. That's not too bad, 220 of my best, hardest strokes. You can break it down by 20's and it doesn't seem that long. But then when say your going out on the water or the erg to do a 2K... that's like a whole different work out!

One tough thing about rowing is getting over the mental part of it and becoming mentally tough. On 2K erg test days, it may not look like it on the outside, but on the inside a little part of me is FREAKING OUT! I've done plenty of them through high school and in the first year of collegiate rowing but for some reason the thought of 2K puts some kind of fear in peoples minds. I think it is not wanting to fail or let yourself down, or at least that's what it is for me. Although it could be the idea of willingly putting yourself through physical pain that surrounds every part of your body and never gets easier no matter how fast you get. But there is a lot of pressure in the sport coming from your coaches, your teammates, the members of your boat, and yourself.

I had one 2K in the beginning of the year, my first one in college, where I dropped 17 seconds off my last PB. It was so great to pull splits on a 2K that I had never pulled before! And it felt so great that I hardly hit any wall during the piece. It was one of my best 2K's ever and I strive to make all the ones that follow that the same way. Obviously though, trying for better splits every time!

Tonight I was rowing with the masters at my club and we were doing 25, 50, 75, and 100 stroke pieces. This obviously works out to be approximately 250m, 500m, 750m, and 1000m pieces but counting each and every stroke and trying to make them all perfect seemed to make the workout go by faster and more effectively for me. Taking a new look at it completely changes it mentally. I still work on finding the best method to calm my nerves before pulling a 2K erg or a race but thinking of it differently helps.

You can do a timed piece, you can do a metered piece, but no matter what you do, your still taking strokes so why not focus on making each one count. Yea, not every stroke is going to be perfect, but I figure you've got hundreds, thousands of stokes to practice before you go out to take your best 220 strokes.