Common rowing mistakes: the ones I made so you don't have to

I made plenty of mistakes in my rowing career. Some were technique, some were training and some were in my head. These are the ones I'd most like you to skip, from a big strong rower who wasn't a natural.

What are some common mistakes people make when rowing?

Here are the six I see most, and that I made myself:

1. Hunting for the catch when you're already at the catch.
2. Loading up your shoulders when you want to work hard.
3. Making sure your crew can feel how strong you are.
4. Warming up for a 2k at a split you'll never hold.
5. Easing off on the erg because you're already good at it.
6. Letting your standards drop when the boat isn't going well.

If you want the basics done right instead, start with how to row properly, or browse the technique for powerful rowers page.

Mistake 1: thinking about the catch at the catch

Tell me if this sounds familiar. You're coming to the catch and you're thinking, where's the catch, where is it, I need to put it in now. And then you miss it, because of course you miss it. If you're thinking about a fast catch when you're at the catch, you're already too slow. I made this mistake heaps.

The catch is all set up from your setup. Your hands move away off the back, you rock over, your knees break. That's your set position. From that point on your body position shouldn't change at all. All you've got to do is roll into the front and put your blade in.

Where people get tripped up is reaching for a little bit more at the front because they weren't fully set up off the back.

"don't go for any extra reach don't try get a little bit more on it because you'll be slow you'll put yourself in a vulnerable position and you'll slow the boat down."

There's more on this in how to get a quick catch.

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Mistake 2: loading up your shoulders

When you want to work really hard, it's super easy to load up upstairs, through your shoulders. It feels like effort, but it's all just wasted energy. Eric Murray gave me a tip when we raced together at national champs for Waikato some 10 years ago: hang off the handle and feel that hang right in the lower part of your lats. Your arms are just holding on, and you're hooked up through your lats and core and down to your legs. Over time that helps you get more power down to the water. The full story is in hang off your lats.

Mistake 3: showing the crew how strong you are

I fell into this trap too. I had a big erg, I was strong, and I wanted my crew to feel how strong I was and how much effort I was putting into making the boat go fast. That's a trap.

Yes, you're going to be strong, and you need to be. But you don't want everyone in the crew to feel your leg drive. That generally means you're out of time.

"You need to almost camouflage your power into the boat."

When I rowed with some of the biggest, strongest and fastest athletes, like Eric Murray, it never felt like they were laying down a massive amount of watts. The boat just went faster, because their power sat within the bounds of the rhythm. Think about blending your power with the rest of the crew and letting the rhythm drag it out. I go deeper in how a big, powerful rower should use their power in a crew boat.

Mistake 4: warming up at a world record split

This is the funniest thing about rowing. Watch rowers warming up for their 2k and you'd think every one of them was about to break the world record. They're all practising world record splits.

"Just settle down, I know you're excited, but warm up on the split that you're trying to hold."

Don't be the one warming up at 1:23 like you're about to take down Olli Zeidler. In my warm-up I'd creep closer and closer to my target split, with the final piece right at my 2k split, and try to make it feel easy. Just tap it along. Right before the test you might do a 10 stroke burst where you pump out some splits, but that's optional in my eyes. The whole routine is in how to warm up for a 2k erg test.

Mistake 5: easing off on your erg because it's good

At 22 I was pulling a five fifty on the 2k erg, which was a pretty good score for my age, and later I got down to 5:45. The trap I fell into was thinking I've got a good 2k, I'm strong, I don't need to focus on that so much, I just need to focus on moving the boat better. There's some truth in that. You do need to move the boat better. But I de-emphasised how important it was to be absolutely monstrous on the 2k erg. I reckon I had a couple more seconds in me if I'd kept it as a very important metric for my performance.

The trap with that is you stop emphasising your own strength. You've got to play to your strengths a bit, and being monstrous on a rowing machine, and finding ways to get better there, is always a positive thing.

"I feel like big ergs give big opportunity."

So if the erg is one of your strengths, double down. That erg is important, so stay on it. Keep knocking splits off and wear that hat. You're the big erg guy or gal in your crew. For the erg work itself, see the two sessions I did before every big 2k, and my 2k erg times by age shows how my score moved over the years.

Mistake 6: letting your standards slip

This one is in your head, and it might be the biggest. When our eight wasn't going well, our standards kept getting lower.

"When our boat wasn't going well our standards kept on getting lower."

I remember racing at World Cup and World Champs events when our eight was going badly and sitting on the start line hoping I wouldn't embarrass myself. If I could at least not embarrass myself, I'd be happy. What a piss weak mentality that is. That is the definition of your standards slipping.

It's cliché, but you've got to aim high and absolutely go for it. That's the beauty of the sport: going hard, getting after it, chasing the dream. You become the stories you tell yourself, so tell yourself a better one. I wish I had when I was younger. There's more on this in what Mahé Drysdale taught me about self-belief.