Heading into the Tokyo Olympics, the fastest crews in Rowing New Zealand weren't the men's. They were the women's. It was an amazing environment for the men's crews to be in, and I don't think we'd have won in Tokyo without it.
Who set the standard in Rowing New Zealand before Tokyo?
In the Olympic cycle leading into Tokyo, the women's team were absolutely setting the standard. We had a few men's crews that were starting to do okay, but mostly the women's team were monstering it. They set the standard for what excellence looked like in the whole team at the time.
And it wasn't one boat. The women's eight, the women's pair, the women's double and the women's single all sat above the men's crews.
How prognostics showed us the gap
In New Zealand we have a system called prognostics. Any time the whole team does a piece of work together, you time every boat and compare each time against the world record for that boat. It spits out a percentage of world record time, so a single and an eight end up on the same list.
At the top of those lists we'd see all the women's crews. Below them, it would be all the men's crews.
"But what an amazing environment for us, the men's crews to be in, where we realise, oh, that's the standard."
A list like that tells you exactly how far behind you are. I've written more about prognostics, and how any squad can run them, in why New Zealand rowing punches above its weight. The 6 x 2k that was the Kiwi eight's proving ground was one of the squad pieces we compared on.
The excuses we made when things were bad
When things were bad in our team, we made excuses for why we were behind the women's crews. We'd talk nonsense about how our world records were harder.
"Where in reality, we just weren't as good as the women's crews."
And things were bad for a while. In 2018 we were the slowest eight in the world. In 2019 two Olympic champions joined our eight, and even that didn't solve everything.
When the penny dropped that we were the problem
Eventually, over time, we stopped blaming the world records and accepted that the problem was us. Once we did, we started to close the gap.
"Once the penny had dropped that we were the problem, we started to see performances where we could equal or pass the women's crews."
We have the women's crews to thank for that. They set the standard in Rowing New Zealand through that whole period of time.
It still wasn't smooth. Even in Tokyo, we blew our Olympic heat before we won the final.
Try this: let your fastest crew set the standard
If you have a crew in your squad that's performing really well, use it. I think there's such a cool opportunity there to give the rest of the team complete transparency, so everyone can see how they stack up.
- Pick a piece of work the whole squad does together.
- Time every boat, and compare each time against the world record for that boat class.
- Put every crew on one list as a percentage of world record time: men's and women's, big boats and small.
- Share the list with everyone, and let the fastest crew show the rest what the standard is.
- If your crew is behind, look at yourselves before you look for reasons.
Common mistakes
- Making excuses. We told ourselves our world records were harder. In reality we just weren't as good.
- Treating a faster crew as a problem. Being behind a crew like that is an amazing environment to be in, because it shows you exactly what the standard is.
- Only comparing yourself with crews like yours. Our men's crews only saw the real standard because the women's crews were on the same list.
Team culture inside a single crew matters just as much. Here's why every fast crew needs a whip-cracker and a jokester.
"We wouldn't have won at the Olympics if the women's team weren't as good as they bloody were."
Send this to a Meataxe who needs to hear it.
