Book review: Mind Over Water - Lessons on life from the art of rowing

It is not your usual story about a top athlete. Instead it looks at rowing from the perspective of someone who has come into the sport at a later date with essentially limited talent. This makes it a refreshing read as author Craig Lambert is completely willing to describe his shortcomings and failures. At the same time Lambert writes with the same passion and zeal of an elite athlete.

The book follows Lambert’s view of rowing in terms of life itself under the backdrop of his own life experiences and the USA’s rowing hub, the Charles River in Boston. He takes the sport far beyond what most rowers would surmise from their average workout on the water. This meant that sometimes the book seemed way too far out on a limb and a trifle grandiose.

Here’s Lambert describing the coxswain steering the boat: “To steer does not mean imposing your will on your surroundings, but rather being so fully in touch with the proximate forces that, almost without effort, you enlist them in your chosen course.” This certainly seems a rather full way to say, ‘steering the boat means taking into account the water conditions and not hitting anything.’

For people who love wading through colourful language, even if it may not seem to be related to rowing at all, this book is for you. Take the very first page for example. Its opening sentence; “In the darkness, deep in silence, the lights – green, red, a few of white – surge ahead, in the rhythm of breathing.” Then further down, “As waves of dread wash through my gut… I am about to become the heart and muscle of one these sleek water birds.”

Sprinkled with self-help-type phrases, Lambert manages to insert Qi and some Zen proverbs (“at all times be true to yourself”), Michelangelo (“Attention to trifles is what makes for perfection, and perfection is no trifle”), and even a few of Lambert’s own (“Hire the right people for the right jobs and manage with a long, loose leash.”)

This is definitely a book for plucking out quotable sentences, even if they really have nothing to do with your own view of the essence of rowing.

Published in 1999, the book is still in print and maintains its popularity.

The book is available through the World Rowing Library at Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk