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Performace Styles

Know Your Perfomance Style

Every athlete and leader has a unique style under pressure. Understanding yours is the key to unlocking consistent performance when it matters most.

Rowing Intensity Styles

Your natural intensity style shapes how you think, pace, and respond during competition. Most rowers try to force themselves into a style that doesn't match their wiring – and wonder why they can't find consistency.

Fire - High Intensity

Explosive power & aggressive
  • Excels in: Starts, sprints, power moves
  • Warning: Risk of burning out too early
  • Mental approach: Channel the intensity, don't fight it

Ice - Steady Intensity

Persistence & endurance
  • Excels in: Middle 1000m, tough conditions
  • Warning: Finishing power, sprints
  • Mental approach: Build controlled intensity throughout the race

Flow - Adaptive Intensity

Adaptive & responsive
  • Excels in: Tactical moves, changing conditions
  • Warning: Overthinking under pressure
  • Mental approach: Trust instincts, simplify decisions

Coxswain Leadership Styles

Your leadership style under pressure determines how effectively you can guide your crew through the chaos of competition.

Thunder - Commanding Leadership

Explosive power & aggressive
  • Excels in: Motivating & decisive calls
  • Warning: Burning out crews
  • Leadership approach: Strategic intensity, know when to dial back

Compass - Steady Guidance

Persistence & endurance
  • Excels in: Focus & race plans
  • Warning: Missing tactical opportunities
  • Leadership approach: Stay adaptable within your steady framework

Conductor - Adaptive Orchestration

Adaptive & responsive
  • Excels in: Adaptability & tactical moves
  • Warning: Overthinking under pressure
  • Leadership approach: Prepare key decisions in advance
Understanding your style isn't about limiting yourself – it's about working with your natural wiring instead of against it. When you know how you naturally respond under pressure, you can:
Build on your strengths:

Develop race strategies that leverage your natural intensity patterns
Prepare for your challenges:

Create specific tools for the situations where your style typically struggles
Optimize your training:

Practice mental skills that work with your brain, not against it

The Integration Advantage

Most mental performance training treats everyone the same. But a Fire rower needs different tools than an Ice rower. A Thunder coxswain leads differently than a Conductor.

When you understand both your individual style AND how different styles work together in a boat, that's when breakthrough performance happens, for both individuals and crews.

Ready to discover your performance style and develop the mental tools that actually work for how your brain operates under pressure?

“Easy to understand talks that break down are mental performance into understandable categories. ”

-Lillian, High School Rower

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David Schary

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