Rowing is a strange mix of dogged aggression and cunning accuracy. This is true of a single stroke, an outing, a week's training, one's school rowing career or even rowing in later life. So if you are doing things right there should rarely be a dull moment. You simply can't afford to switch off. At school it is difficult fitting in rowing, academics and a social life, but as always with rowing a balance has to be found.

School rowing is a huge commitment. You can't just get in a boat and force it up and down the river for a few hours each day. You have to work on a whole host of physical challenges, all of which are vital for rowing, and require specific land training. We need to understand how our bodies work, what we're doing wrong, and how to eliminate our faults. It takes patience and determination to be self-critical, and to switch between punishing yourself on an ergo and methodically stretching each muscle. A good training attitude is about more than brute force. We need self-motivation, control, intelligence as well as a masochistic attitude to become good rowers.

We are told that people our age are under too much pressure, which is true. Rowing helps us to deal with the pressures of being a modern teenager, but it can't get rid of them. As rowers we need to be relaxed; too much stress distracts us from training, disrupts our sleeping pattern or even causes illness. I can speak from experience when I say that illness, sleep deprivation, and heavy training do not mix well. All of our physical improvements in performance are made when we are recovering from exercise, especially when we sleep. This means that eating, sleeping, and avoiding excess stress are all important parts of a successful training programme.

Balancing academics, a social life and rowing is one of the greatest challenges we face as rowers, especially when teachers, friends and coaches all want you to justify your other interests, seeing their own as dominant. To to get the most out of our time at school we need to pay full attention to all of our commitments, friendships included. It's important you don't let anyone convince you that one of your commitments is more worthwhile than another; we just have to fulfil each as far as possible, and find the right balance.