I got asked a really good question recently: what is the best personality type for rowing? I think any really good crew needs a mix of personality types. There are two ends of the spectrum, and a great crew needs both.
What is the best personality type for rowing?
For a crew, it's a mix. At one end of the spectrum you need the person who cracks the whip. At the other end you need someone who doesn't take the sport so seriously. I think both are pretty common in most great crews, and both are required.
The Kiwi pair were complete opposites
Look at the Kiwi pair, Hamish Bond and Eric Murray. Those two guys were complete opposites.
"Hamish Bond was super high standards, super professional, just like tunnel vision on rowing, while Eric Murray was a bit of a jokester."
Eric was super relaxed about the sport. And their contrasting personalities are part of the reason they were so successful. I learnt a lot from both of them. Here's why Hamish Bond rows simple, and the lats tip Eric Murray gave me.
The whip-cracker: the standards guy or girl
At one end of the spectrum you need somebody in your crew who is the standards guy or girl. That's the person who cracks the whip and makes sure you're setting really high standards for yourselves, not settling for anything easy or comfortable.
In our Kiwi eight we had two guys who filled that role, Hamish Bond and Tom Murray. They worked in tandem and cracked the whip on the entire crew, to make sure we were always striving for better.
"We had guys like Hamish Bond and Tom Murray, who were very serious and wanted to crack the whip and wanted to push the standards."
They wanted to bring the whole crew up. Standards work the same way across a whole team. Heading into Tokyo, the women's crews set the standard for the men's crews in Rowing New Zealand.
The jokester: it's a silly sport
At the other end you need a personality type that's more jovial and doesn't take the sport so seriously. In our Kiwi eight, Tom Mackintosh was really good at that. T-Mac would bring it down to earth and make you realise that this is just a silly sport we're pursuing, that nobody really cares about apart from us.
That may not be totally true. But it's really important to have someone reminding you it's not so serious.
"Yes, we want to go fast, but we can have a bit of fun while we're doing it."
Why a crew needs both
Having those two ends of the spectrum gives you good balance. It helps you realise that yes, we need to crack the whip and we need high standards, but let's also have fun.
"You kind of need both of those things to go really fast."
Enjoy it, have fun, and keep really high standards. An eight is the ultimate team sport. Even when two Olympic champions joined our eight in 2019, that didn't solve everything on its own. The whole crew had to work it out together.
How to be a good crew member
I think there are four pillars to going fast in rowing: your physiology, your technique, your ability to work with others and be a genuine good teammate, and your mindset. Every athlete is strong in some areas and a bit weaker in others.
Being a good teammate was the thing I was really good at. Out of ten I'd give myself maybe a nine there, while my technique was around a six or a seven. When I was younger I put way too much weight on the physical and technical side and undervalued the team side. I wish I'd known earlier how much it was worth.
If you're weaker somewhere, you can make up for it by being the team player, the glue in the team. Being strong somewhere else means you're important to the team, you contribute, and you'll go faster.
Every seat in the boat has a job as well. Here's what each seat in a rowing eight does.
Common mistakes
- Having only one end of the spectrum. Both are required for a great crew. You need to enjoy it and have fun, and you need really high standards.
- Taking it all too seriously. Yes, you want to go fast. You can still have a bit of fun while you're doing it.
- Undervaluing the team side. I did this when I was younger. Being a genuine good teammate is one of the four pillars of going fast.
Send this to a Meataxe who needs to hear it.
