Margot Shumway
The "t" is silent
Not writing when you feel the need to write is like adding all of the layers of an onion back onto the onion one at a time with super glue. Then the onion becomes much more difficult to peel the next time around. Sometimes you forget about a layer. Sometimes you can’t remember the...
Continue readingI started coaching at the Pocock Rowing Center in August 2015. My very first on the water experience was riding in the launch with Bill Clifford, the Varsity Junior Boys head coach. The weather was incredible. We took a few eights out into Lake Union. The sun was glistening off the water, partially blinding...
Continue readingThe goal of seat racing is not to win your seat race. Blasphemy. But how do you expect to make the boat if you aren’t trying to win? The problem is you are focusing on what’s good for you and not what’s good for the team. Most of us don’t understand that seat racing...
Continue readingI can feel it still. I see video of myself rowing when I was in my prime. I can feel the impulse, the rhythm, the power. I don’t row much at all anymore. I’m on the water coaching too many hours of the day to have the energy to get out and put in...
Continue readingWhen I was in first grade I was a major tomboy. Not really a surprise considering I grew up with two older brothers that I was either in competition with, being chased by, or being taught sneaky tricks to win a game. In gym class we would occasionally have a substitute teacher. Most of us...
Continue readingLet’s recount the past three weeks of life as context: car accident resulting in a totaled car and severe whiplash. Missed work. Miss job interviews. Botched spring break for my wife. Fear when driving through intersections on a daily basis. Two ER visits. A torn rotator cuff. Wearing an f-ing sling on my arm...
Continue readingI was listening to an interview with Ryan Holiday today on the James Altucher show and was inspired by the topic of finding value in obstacles. To quote Ryan Holiday “the stoic way is that all of those obstacles are teachable obstacles and they’re valuable obstacles if you let them be so.” As I...
Continue readingCoaching is a tough occupation. The hours are odd, the days are long, and talking and communicating all day is exhausting. I get sick of hearing my own voice. I think that’s why I like writing so much. It’s a way to communicate quietly and subtly. The toughest thing about coaching is keeping your...
Continue readingI have just two minutes to tell you something. Something that will make clicking on my blog worthwhile. There just isn’t enough time for me to sit down and write a lengthy post about rowing or life or whatever. I only have these two minutes. This is the squeeze. No time. Frantic. Need. Fear....
Continue readingThere are four more weeks left in the season for the Pocock Junior Novice Boys. This week we are doing final preparations for the Brentwood Championships, which are in Victoria, BC. We will travel by ferry early Friday morning, race that afternoon and through the weekend, ending late Sunday morning. Then we are back...
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