The Power of Small Wins

The last fall races have wrapped up. Many teams are transitioning to land training for winter. As coaches, we’re staring down the tunnel of months of indoor training ahead—that critical period that will lay the foundation for spring success. It’s a moment that can feel both full of possibility and daunting.

For many athletes, and coaches, the transition indoors marks the biggest mental hurdle of the year. Gone are the distractions of beautiful mornings on the water, the immediate feedback of the boat, the natural motivation of upcoming races. Instead, we’re faced with the steady hum of ergs and the monotonous work of building fitness.

This is precisely why winter is the time to establish a personal practice of celebrating small wins.

This is a concept that is likely not new to most coaches. We are accustomed to encouraging our athletes to celebrate the small wins of a well-paced piece or a seemingly minor technical change. But how often do we practice what we preach? We need our own small wins, too. By focusing too much on the big picture or the ultimate outcome, we lose the ability to find sustainable joy and satisfaction in the day-to-day of coaching that will build our own confidence and momentum.

When we look for the small wins, we set a positive tone for the winter season, sharpen our own observational skills, create opportunities for meaningful connections, and establish practices that will sustain us not only through the winter but also throughout a career.

Early in my career, as I moved from coaching at Stanford, where we were able to row year-round, to Ohio State, where winters were long and gray, I began to develop some practices to help keep me positive and productive throughout the months on the erg. Though I didn’t realize it at the time, I was cultivating a habit of celebrating small wins.

I kept a detailed coaching log to track progress, my athletes’ and my own, no matter how small. I took videos of athletes on the erg at the beginning of the winter and compared it to footage from later in the season to be able to quantify improvement and show them.

I set clear challenges for myself: to check in with a certain number of athletes per week; to spend time mentoring a coxswain’s technical eye each day; to push myself to be engaged and develop my relationships with the team.

Ultimately, I came to believe that those winters spent on the erg in Columbus were what made those teams so resilient. I regarded them as a secret weapon for building grit and perseverance rather than a burden to be endured. Encouraging a positive attitude toward them bred mental toughness.

As you prepare to guide your team into winter training, consider how you might begin celebrating your small wins now. The habits and mindset you establish in these early weeks will echo through the months ahead, creating a more engaging and productive indoor season for everyone. And you might be surprised by how many victories you find when you really begin looking for them.

Madeline Davis Tully competed as a lightweight rower at Princeton and on the U-23 national team before coaching at Stanford, Ohio State, Boston University, and the U-23 national team. Now a leadership and executive coach, she is the founder of the Women’s Coaching Conference.

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