Mental preparation for rowing, and where to find great examples for pushing through pain.

Alas, our rowing stories are not as well publicized as other athletes' stories of other sports.  We could claim that our rowing market is smaller and there is not as big of a financial gain to be made or public interest in publishing autobiographies of rowers.  Maybe it is partly because the rowing archetype tends to not brag publicly about personal rowing achievements.  Whatever the reason, we as coaches need to come up with stories that illustrate what it takes to win no matter what.  In my case I can whip out personal stories to tell to the rowers I coach; I have a few, but telling the same story over and over would get old for me as well as to my audience, that is why I enjoy reading about other athletes' feats.

Here are three autobiographies that I highly recommend.  The beauty about the three books is that every epic battle can be found on Youtube by typing in the names of the athletes and the name of the event.  I enjoyed devouring, Andre Agassi's, Pete Sampras', and Rafael Nadal's, autobiographies.  Holy cow, it is amazing, what epic battles these guys endured in order to be victors in their own sports.

Pete Sampra's account of his 5 set match where he vomits and still wins here is the link: http://youtu.be/gIvxjjfCGvA  EPIC to read and EPIC to watch.

Andre Agassi finally winning the French open, an elusive feat for hard court players.  http://youtu.be/gIvxjjfCGvA
Hilarious is also how Andre found Brad Gilbert when he was looking for a new coach.

Rafael Nadal losing Wimbeldon http://youtu.be/4JwT5I2yt5A and then winning the next year.

These three books are entertaining to read and arm coaches with a delightful amount of anecdotes that can be used when rowers come to their weekly realization that the sport they chose is one of the toughest known to man :-).

Xeno Muller, Olympic gold and silver medalist, indoor rowing, rowing technique.