I love following sports and seeing fantastic competition that requires talent, dedication, intelligence, and execution. We're in the thick of baseball season and I've heard a number of well-known and respected sports radio hosts and actual managers of baseball teams talk about the "swagger" that their athletes exhibit when they're winning. I heard manager Joe Torre of the Los Angeles Dodgers say, "we have to get our swagger back..."Does this type of comment not bother anybody? As far as I know, there aren't any baseball "swagger" drills...there's better pitching, better health, hitting practice, visualization, scouting, situational baseball play, video analysis...But no "swagger" practice. Having swagger demands that you show excellence or are continually winning...I guess it would be fun to try the "winning drill" over and over again too.
I do know what they mean though - I'm not taking what they say literally but I wish they would actually talk about what they're going to try and do to help improve their team.
I believe that in order to become an excellent rowing team you have to be able to meet an excellent physical standard, demonstrate and understand the fundamentals of blade skill and body movement, and then have the courage and trust to execute this with your teammates. Once you have these things you'll deserve to have "swagger" and be able to attack the season.
Whether you have enough athletes that can meet the standard, are willing to go after it, or are willing to give it their real best shot to get there, is another question entirely.
