Get yourself out of the slough of winter training demotivation with these top tips from Brad Alan Lewis, Olympic Gold medallist 1984 2x.

Each is taken from his latest book, >Lido For Time.  A> training diary of his Olympic year.

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 1 – “The ability to row in any conditions, raging crosswind, two-foot tall jet ski wakes, torrential downpour, is absolutely essential in order to be a champion sculler. It all comes under the heading of boatmanship. Some races are won on nothing more than superior boatmanship.”(Tweet This Quote)

 2 – “One training device is the ergometer. I never owned one, never trained on one, and practically never used one. The few national team tests I took on ergs were dismal failures, which worked wonders to further my dislike of these beastly creatures. Boring. Tedious. Noisy. Ergs have greatly cheapened rowing. Graceless. Greasy. Grim. The erg is to rowing what having sex by yourself is to having sex. Stop it!”
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 >3 – “Long live the elite rower’s motto:’early to bed, early to rise, never meet the regular guys.’”
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 4 – “Good technical coaching is extremely rare. Some of the most respected coaches in the country have no eye for technique whatsoever. As in, none. Basically, a ‘good-eye coach’ needs to have the correct idealized image of good rowing technique…must be able to watch a rower and determine what he or she is doing wrong…communicate what the sculler is doing wrong…offer methods / strategies / drills that will allow a sculler to make the needed changes…be willing to share their expertise…and once in a while they must pay a visit to Newport Beach to watch me scull. Last but not least, they must be able to secure a coaching launch from one of the local college programs.”
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 5 “As you become more proficient, fewer people can offer you advice, although in truth, that’s when you need it the most because the stakes just keep getting higher and higher.”
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 6 – “To miss a workout (for no good reason) when you’re training for the Worlds or Olympics is utterly devastating. You know that you’ll never again have that unique window of time: Wednesday, November 9, any year, 3:17 PM – 5:58 PM. You Missed it. Your opponent on the other side of the country (or planet) however, did not miss it. He rowed his 20 kilometers; he managed to make a tiny little improvement, (which will then grow like a weed in his skill-set), and in eight months time he will kick your ass. No matter how you cut it, you are fucked! Grind your teeth, curse the idiot coach who changed the locks, who couldn’t have made the national team if his life depended on it.”
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 7 – “You need flawless balance on the recovery. You need white hot focus and the concentration to row square blades cleanly for seven miles. Smooth water doesn’t hurt either.”
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 8  – “If you want to be your best, spend a lot of time exploring what is more than enough. Push yourself until the bar is lying immobile across your chest. Push yourself right off the edge of your capacity.”
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Buy Brad Alan Lewis’ book