Rowing Quotes - Page 2

• Weightless in water, swift as the wind, Subtle of purpose - a feather blown - I go with my oarsmen where they will, My beautiful body and theirs all one.

  Mark Van Doren

  Beautiful, Wind, Water

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• Follow the stroke - or be the stroke that the rest can follow.

  Phillip Thomas

  Strokes

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• Rowing is a simple sport stuffed up by experts

  Roger Moore

  Sports, Simple, Experts

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• When one rows it is not the rowing which moves the ship: rowing is only a magical ceremony by means of which one compels a demon to move the ship.

  Friedrich Nietzsche

  Moving, Mean, Ships

  Friedrich Nietzsche, R. J. Hollingdale (1996). “Nietzsche: Human, All Too Human: A Book for Free Spirits”, p.63, Cambridge University Press

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• You alone are responsible

  Mike Livingston

  Responsible

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• To improve the oarsman you must improve the man.

  Steve Fairbairn

  Men, He Man

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• So to the lyre of Orpheus they struck with their oars, The furious water of the sea, and the surge broke into waves. Here and there the dark brine gushed with foam, Roaring terribly through the strength of the mighty men.

  Barry S. Strauss

  Dark, Men, Sea

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• A rower knows the underlying presence that moves a boat; it is quite simply force and energy. The force needs to be penetrating, and the energy needs to be driving and uninhibited.

  Drew Ginn

  Moving, Energy, Needs

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• MCP, maximum controled pressure. No tomorrow, no waiting, nothing beyond the moment. We seek the perfect balance-total abandon on the drive, total control on the recovery.

  Brad Alan Lewis

  Recovery, Perfect, Waiting

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• Don't blow your load on the first stroke, fellas.

  Christopher Allsopp

  Blow, Firsts, Strokes

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• Sometimes you come to a fall and sometimes you come to white water. Your rowing has to adapt to the situation. You can't do the same stroke coming down a small stream as you would coming down Niagara Falls. Even if you're only rowing down a stream, different things happen: maybe the wind changes, maybe the current, and suddenly everything's different. So gently is really important. Don't power yourself or blast through; rock with the way things are.

  Bernie Glassman

  Fall, Rocks, Wind

  Source: onpoint.wbur.org

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• The window of X Factor opportunity opens up in the closing seconds of a race-you might be sprinting at the time or just hanging one, trying to get across the finish line. With a supreme act of will, you can prolong your effort, essentially fighting off the inevitable lactic acid shutdown. You'll have little time for contemplating the options: either wholeheartedly go for it, or back off. You must train your X Factor to unequivocally respond the way you want-go for it. Once the window is closed, it's closed forever.

  Brad Alan Lewis

  Fighting, Opportunity, Race

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• 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.

  Brad Alan Lewis

  Motivational, Race, Order

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• Once one has attained a high level of success at any pursuit and especially an unorthodox pursuit like rowing, one develops a number of generally self-congratulatory half-truths to explain how it happened that he ascended to that particular pinnacle. Often because original motivations don't seem to have much in common with the eventual success, the real and rationalized motivations are difficult to separate.

  Stefan Kieszling

  Motivation, Real, Self

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• I climbed on the rowing ergometer, and started to pull - losing myself in the rhythm of sweat and pain.

  Stefan Kieszling

  Pain, Sweat, Losing

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• Anyone who has not rowed in a really close Boat Race cannot comprehend the level of the pain.

  Daniel Topolski

  Pain, Row Boats, Levels

  "True Blue: The Oxford Boat Race Mutiny".

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• I watched them carefully, as always, searching for a sign of mental weakness. But there was none. Every man was coping well with the hardship, each one of them locked into his task. But it is one thing to practice, and quite another to race. And the trouble is, you never know who, on the day, will find it within his soul to give more than he has ever given before. It takes a kind of madness to compete like that, because of the will power and the ego, and his loyalty. And while some men have it, others have yet to find it. And a coach can only use his best judgement as to who those men will be.

  Daniel Topolski

  Loyalty, Men, Race

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• My two major faults are that I row too long and pick up too many women

  John Hersey

  Two, Long, Faults

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• You must purge yourself of all thoughts of self-importance, and all inclination to judge either yourself or others. You must go to power with humility and deep respect.

  Mike Livingston

  Humility, Self, Judging

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• Winning a rowing race is not like winning anything else. Here's my theory: you're facing backwards, so you're looking at the people you're beating--and there's something exquisite about that.

  Hugh Laurie

  Winning, Race, People

  "Rowing, or the Greatest Decision You Will Ever Make" by Amy Yao, www.huffingtonpost.com. September 12, 2012.

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• That evening, rowing on the quiet river as sunset turned to dusk, I saw an occasional smoky smudge on the towpath, always slightly ahead of me, like a dark star guiding me home.

  Deborah Harkness

  Stars, Home, Sunset

  Deborah Harkness (2014). “All Souls Trilogy”, p.63, Penguin

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• Take a look at your natural river. What are you? Stop playing games with yourself. Where's your river going? Are you riding with it? Or are you rowing against it? Don't you see that there is no effort if you're riding with your river?

  Frederick Carl Frieseke

  Motivational, Playing Games, Rivers

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• I met a solid rowing friend and asked about the Race. "How fared it with the wind," I said, "When stroke increased the pace? You swung it forward mightily, you heaved it greatly back. "Your muscles rose in knotted lumps, I almost heard the crack. "And while we roared and rattled too, your eyes were fixed like glue. "What thoughtwent flying through your mind, how fared it, Five, with you?" But Five made answer solemnly, "I heard them fire a gun, "No other mortal thing I heard until the Race was done."

  R. C. Lehmann

  Eye, Gun, Fire

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• I have been out again on the river, rowing. I find nothing new.

  Fanny Kemble

  Rivers, Has Beens, Nothing New

  Fanny Kemble (1863). “Journal of a Residence on a Georgian Plantation in 1838-1839”, p.80

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• Virtue dwells at the head of a river, to which we cannot get but by rowing against the stream.

  Owen Feltham

  Rivers, Virtue, Streams

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