Tag Archives: sports

The Firsthand Athlete – Daily Challenge 5/1

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The Firsthand Athlete

Sarah D's Firsthand Experience with the Air Squat

A firsthand athlete has the competence and confidence to rely on personal experiences to prepare for, execute, and learn from a performance both as an individual and as part of a team.  Rowing is a unique sport in that there is no coach calling plays, talking you through the pre-race warm-up, or cueing you on that one technical or tactical fix during a race.  The same goes for fitness, when an athlete is away on vacation there is no coach to walk them through a workout.  When a rower shoves off the dock on race day or goes home for vacation it’s up to them to know what to do, what to think about, what to fix, and what to focus on.  The firsthand athlete actively communicates with their body, teammates, and coaches to continually learn and work towards their goals.

Daily Challenge 5/1:

Perform a Cook’s Squat for 5 minutes.

Infants do cook's squats all the time!

This challenge is to give you a chance to experience what parts of your body might be tight, limited in range of motion, and need some extra focus in the coming weeks.  To perform a cook’s squat imagine you are out in the woods camping.  There is nothing to sit on but wet, muddy ground.  To rest your body while cooking over a small fire the easiest thing to do is drop into a deep squat and try to relax all the muscles in your legs and back.  Notice where you start to feel a stretch, an impingement, or pain.  That might be an area to work on.  If you can’t hold the Cook’s Squat for 5 minutes just hold it as long as you can and then come out of it.

Share your Firsthand Experience and let us know how it went!

What is Competition?

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Competition

Competition is the basis for all sport.  People play sports because they’re fun.  Sports are fun because every participant is given a chance to compete.  It’s not the outcome or the opponent that matters.  People enjoy competing because they’re given an opportunity to test themselves and their abilities in order to experience the thrill of an improvement toward a goal.  Competition can be both individual and team oriented.   By incorporating competition into everyday practice, Renegade Rowing allows us to track progress toward our goals, but more importantly to have fun and experience the journey.

In order to compete, athletes must develop mental toughness.  Firsthand athletes are developed through competition when they harness the power of the mind.  Our thoughts affect our feelings and our feelings affect our actions.  Anyone can develop an ability to do work with regards to fitness and rowing, but when work capacity is combined with mental toughness, athletes can control their actions and reach their goals.  Mental toughness is an athlete’s ability to commit to competition with a belief in oneself, to have a positive focus on the things they can control, and to embrace challenge as an opportunity for learning and self-improvement.

While the thrill of intrinsic motivation should be what drives us, we should not forget about the power of the opponent or the teammate in competition.  We can push ourselves as individuals, but the opportunity to push ourselves against others will only make us better.  I’m a competitive guy and I like being pushed and challenged and testing my abilities against others.  There’s honesty in giving it all you have against others, especially knowing they’re doing the same.

Rowing is an Olympic Sport that elite athletes train for year round.  Some athletes may only compete 5 to 6 times per year and of those competitions they might only peak for one race.  Most other sports have seasons filled with games allowing for learning and development during competition.  Renegade Rowing incorporates daily competition so that athletes have the same opportunities that other sports have.  Renegade athletes will have the confidence needed to perform on race day.  By providing many opportunities to experience race day competition in practice, athletes will have a wealth of experiences to draw from when race day arrives.

Daily Challenge 4/27:

Compete!  Challenge the next person you see to a thumb war!

Let us know how it goes and why you enjoy competition…