By Don Rickers
I have participated in many athletic endeavors over my lifetime, and enjoyed the friendships and camaraderie developed through spirited competition (what ABC Sports famously referred to as “the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat”). My experiences in sport, running the spectrum from joyously ecstatic to bitterly painful, no doubt helped shape who I became in my personal and professional lives.
The sport which likely had the deepest impact on me was rowing (alternatively referred to as “crew” in the USA). I grew up in Niagara, a part of Canada which has a long tradition in the sport. (The Royal Canadian Henley Regatta is in St. Catharines, just off the south shore of Lake Ontario.) I dabbled a bit with rowing in high school and college, but it was not until later on in my life that I truly embraced the sport.
The physical training, both on and off the water, was grueling, but masochistically satisfying. I became acutely aware early on that rowing demanded a critical mating of body and brain, and that the focused mind could successfully resist the body’s imploring to quit.
There is a Zen-like experience to rowing...the rhythmic movement of the blades, the sun’s warmth and wind’s caress on your body, the sound of the boat skimming through open water, the scenery that passes by. There is a calmness to your effort, as you focus your concentration on the technical aspects which keep the boat balanced and running true, as your legs and core muscles propel the shell forward.
The father of the modern Olympic Games, French educator and historian Baron Pierre de Coubertin, made sure that rowing was included in the 1896 Games (although bad weather delayed the first racing until the 1900 Olympics). He declared his love of the sport, and practiced what he preached, rowing regularly himself beyond 70 years of age. “Rowing is the most perfect sport in existence ... It is the rower's pleasure to feel himself a thinking machine, to experience at each stroke how strength wells up within him, spreads out and flows away,” he wrote.
Enough of the intrinsic beauty of rowing. It also teaches valuable lessons to navigate through life.
Rowing is the quintessential team sport. Yes, you can row in a single scull, but it is more fun to feel the speed and power of the larger boats. Collaboration and teamwork are crucial. Harmonious rowing dictates the speed, and speed determines who wins the race. Just like in the working world, getting ahead and meeting your goals is often determined by the quality of teamwork, like the congruous strokes of the oars.
Teamwork is the collaboration of different minds and personalities, steering in one purposeful direction. Trust and inspiration are key elements. You need to be confident in your team’s ability to take on that responsibility together and share a belief that each member will do their best to contribute to and motivate the group.
Sometimes you have to look back to move forward. When rowing, you sit in the boat facing the stern. You can’t see what’s ahead of you. You know the direction you are headed, and you can gauge the speed of the boat, but you don’t have your eyes set on the goal. Crewmates rely on the coxswain to be the eyes, to steer the shell to the finish line. You trust that team player to do their job. Looking back at what has been achieved to date helps understanding what it takes to reach the next level.
Working as a team requires focus. Rowing has taught me to clear my mind and concentrate on the nuances of the task at hand. It’s easy to sometimes allow your mind to drift, distracted by the scenery, or the vagaries of the weather. It also requires training, and patience. Not every day is perfect. You have ups and downs. Rowing involves building endurance and strength over time.
You pull for the other people in your boat. You work hard during the off season, lifting weights and logging copious hours on the rowing ergometer. Why? Because you're not just affecting your own performance, but that of your crewmates as well, come race season. Thinking of selfishly sleeping in and missing that 6 AM workout on the water? Do it, and your crew stays on the dock....you need a full crew to row. You quickly learn it’s a sport so much bigger than any one person. The same goes for the real world. If you lead a self-centred existence, people will realize they can’t rely on you, and will look for others for collaboration.
Being a leader isn't about telling people what to do all the time. It's about learning how to communicate, listen, delegate, and at times step back to let someone else lead. Whether it’s rowing a race or navigating the boardroom, that’s how group endeavors are successful.
How you handle defeat speaks volumes about the kind of person you are. You can choose to be angry and demoralized or you can accept defeat with dignity. You tried. You lost. What’s done is done. Let it go. Look to the next opportunity to prove yourself. Rowing doesn’t just test your physical limits of muscular exertion. It is also a very technical sport, which requires extreme exactness: how you swing with your crewmates through the stroke, the level of your hands at the catch, and many other subtle nuances that non-rowers don’t appreciate.
Apply the same discipline in your career, and to your personal work ethic, and success will follow.
To do your best, you’ve got to look after yourself. That means eating the right food, going easy on the potent potables, and getting plenty of sleep. You’ve got to be fresh for the fight.
And finally, never stop learning. Because getting better never stops.
Don Rickers is a retired educator living in Niagara, who worked in university and boarding school enrollment management for over three decades.
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