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Getting the job done on race day with your rowing

​In this video, Olympic gold-medal winning coach Rhett Ayliffe takes us through how coaches and athletes need to think about getting the job done when it matters most.
Video Transcript
​This is more for coaches and about what
people need to get the job done. So Jodi

Henry missed out on the Sydney Olympics by
0.07 of a second so obviously she didn't

quite make the relay team she was 16
years of age she said in hindsight that

was a blessing in disguise her coach and
her identified that her nerves were a

problem so she used to vomit herself
silly in the pre-race you know and they

just see the TV and they'll sitting
around she'll be just vomiting just

constantly vomiting prior to race as a
16 year old. So her coach then addressed

said well what are you going to do to
try and overcome this issue okay

They raced everywhere they could against

all the best people in the world to get
her to actually handle her nerves she's

telling this story yesterday to get her
to handle her nerves. So she makes the

Olympic team fast I think she was
probably the fastest in the country but

she's a first time
Olympian and the story goes that not

very many first-time Olympians can win a
medal or in a gold medal. Usually you

need to go and experience it learn what
it's actually about and then you do it

second time. And the crew that I had had
that had that experience there are there

are exceptions but that's the general
rule. She goes in a semi-final and she

swims the world record that night and
everyone says oh she's peaked a day

early right she's got to race her final
the next day and she's a day early but

do you really lose form in a day I
wouldn't have thought so

but the expectation goes up you're
supposed to win your now gold medalist

you just swam the world record you should win this

race so she got out of the pool and said
to her coach at the time one more day

didn't think about the world record
didn't think about then the next day they

had a plan she wasn't going to go to the
pool at the competition venue

she was going to swim in the village
pool and she told us the story that

she's in the village pool and there's
people with big blow up dolls and it's just like a
playpen and she's just dodging people

and just doing her thing just relaxed
not stressed not meeting up with other

people they're gonna talk to her about
how good she's going just doing her thing

she goes to her warm up, set warm-up, set
routine she does 25 meter pace laps

which they time and those laps 0.15
seconds in that 25 meters slower

than what she swam in the semi the day
before so she's stressing out that she's

going to be 0.6 seconds slower which
could take her from first to fifth or

six and this is where coaching becomes
important so she goes to the side of the

pool and she thinks something's not
right here this is I'm not swimming fast

enough it's not good and her coach says
it's not about the time now you just have

to win the race and she goes oh goes
back and just finishes her warm-up so the

coach said the right thing at the right
time to allow her to be comfortable and

confident about her performance. You guys
can get in athletes' ways. I can get

in the athlete's way because my
expectation sometimes it's not the

athletes expectation positive or
negative and the same thing happens with you

guys. You limit your athletes or you over
overestimate your athletes just let your

athletes be athletes and say the right
things at the right time to allow them

to perform their best whatever that
happens to be whether it's a master

racing at champion Lakes in the
thousand or whether it's your novice

quad racing at the club regatta it
doesn't matter they just go out there

and I can execute to the best of their
ability what can you say that

contributes to that. So the rest is
history she goes on and wins three gold

medals as a first-time Olympian but if
that coach had a panic with her yeah

that's way too slow don't do some more
we'll get it right that's a problem for

her. Thanks for watching our video if you
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