The Strength Coach Roundtable hosted a monster of a podcast about performance psych for rowing as we went nearly 90 minutes straight and all felt like we still had more to talk about. Will, Blake, and Joe were joined by guest Sara Hendershot for a discussion of performance psychology in rowing and how you can use mental skills in your training. Think about it this way–if you had to put a number on what percent of rowing is mental, what would it be? Now, do you spend anywhere close to that amount of time or attention actually training your mental skills? Hopefully this will give you the tools to put mental skills training into practice!

Hear it also on Soundcloud and iTunes

0:00 — Re-introductions and what we’ve been up to over the winter, welcome Sara

5:57 — What constitutes a strong mindset and why is it important for rowing?

• JamesLeath.com: “Defining Mental Toughness”

13:29 — Did you have a strong mindset when you rowed and what would you improve if you could do it again?

30:47 — What are some red flags that someone doesn’t have a strong mindset and how does it hold them back?

38:13 — Mental skills and how to incorporate them into your training and competing

• Carol Dweck, Mindset
• Angela Duckworth, Grit
• Paul Assaiante, Run to the Roar
• Will: Mental Skills for Rowers (3-part series)
• Will: Overcoming Erg Fear
• ABC Model of Cognitive Reframing
• Will’s energization visualization example
• StrongFirst: The Will to Happiness
• Application to the weightroom
• Sara joins #TeamNoBenchPulls

1:16:20 — Psych of injuries, from moment of injury to return

• Sara: Why I Am More Proud Of The Olympics I Failed Than The One I Succeeded
• Will: Stay Positive to Beat the Injury Blues

1:24:04 — Last words and advice

Thanks for listening! If you have a question or comment, please leave it below and we’ll respond. Until our next episode, you can listen to all of our old ones here in the Rowperfect UK archives.