Spokesman | Josh Butler
Josh Butler rowed in the Great Britain Lightweight Squad between 2012 and 2014. Today, he’s the head coach at Westminster School, where no fewer than 6 of his charges have progressed to the national team — and he also cycles up very steep hills, professionally fast.
So, as we approach Olympic season, we thought we’d ask: how do you squeeze world class performance from an athlete? What’s the formula?
These are Josh’s …
Ten Ways to Go Faster
1. Find a Coach
Of course my rowers need a coach. But even as an amateur cyclist, I use one. It’s less about honing technique, or constructing a programme — and more just a case of accountability. If I have a date in the diary with a coach, I feel like I need to make good use of the time, and explain my performance. It keeps me honest and hungry.
2. Train
You need to train, and train hard. We all have good days — days when everything just clicks. But when you train properly, and with regularity, you don’t just get better — you also minimise the variation in your performance. You limit the bad days. And ask any athlete — that consistency, that rhythm, is the key to winning.
3. Sweat the Detail
You might have heard about Dave Brailsford obsessing over “marginal gains” at Team Sky. I have to take a similar approach. A rowing boat looks like a simple piece of kit — but I spend hours every week, fine tuning the rigging, optimising it for the different rowers in each seat. The height of the swivel. The angle of the pin. No detail is too small — races are won & lost by seconds, and those details can make all the difference.
4. Test & Learn
I don’t find the best eight for my boat through guesswork or even good judgement. I test different combinations for weeks, and analyse the results exhaustively until I know. 20% of my day is spent pouring over numbers, Moneyball style.
5. Break the Problem Down
I may be coaching an eight — but at the start of a season, we do a ton of work in pairs. You can put down some soft strokes in an 8, and no-one will know — but in a pair, there is nowhere to hide. That’s how I uncover my best athletes.
6. Work on the Weakest Point
If you’re a big powerhouse, chances are I’ll be working on your endurance. If you’re more of a lean, long-distance type, I’ll be working on your strength. To win, I want complete athletes in every seat.
7. Eat Colourful
For 2 years as an international athlete I ran a negative calorie balance — and I was in the shape of my life, performing at my peak. Let’s just say I’ve long since abandoned calorie counting as a total waste of time. Dietary rules need to be simple to work — and the one piece of nutritional advice that has stuck, is to eat colourful — to make sure there’s a bit of green, yellow, red, white and brown on every plate. If you are training hard and looking for physical performance, there’s no better recipe.
8. Sleep Early and Often
When I was rowing full-time I’d aim for 8–10 hours a night, as well as a 20-minute power nap in the early afternoon. There is simply no substitute for sleep. Even now I am shamefully bad on a night out — by 9pm I’m in pieces.
9. Relax
I have my headphones in when I ride — but they’re not smashing out ‘Firestarter’ on loop. I don’t have any ‘powersongs’. Most of the time, my goal is keep my heart rate as low as possible, so I’m more likely to be playing Cafe del Mar than Tiesto.
10. And Just Occasionally, Get Angry
Sorry to go all Darth Vader on you, but when you are pushing through intolerable pain, it does help sometimes to feel a bit of anger or frustration. And I do find myself picturing the people I don’t want to lose to. It’s nothing personal. But you always have a point of view on who you should be beating.
To check out Josh’s fine-tuned trouser-wear for yourself, visit the SPOKE store.
