ADVICE to Tasmanian rowers in national crews heading to Europe for the coming World Cup and world championship races was simple, coach Brett Crow said yesterday.
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Rowing Australia's senior lightweight men's coxless four and men's lightweight pair gathered in Hobart yesterday for their final training session before flying to Switzerland on Saturday.
Competing in the senior lightweight coxless four crew are Blair Tunevitsch (Tamar), Sam Beltz (Lindisfarne), Tom Gibson (Huon) and Nick Silcox (Queensland).
Ali Foot (Tamar) and Darryn Purcell (Brisbane) will compete in the non-Olympic lightweight pair.
The men will race at the World Cup in Lucerne, Switzerland from July 11-13 and the world championships in Amsterdam in August.
Joining them will be Australia's men's heavyweight eight, women's lightweight fours and under-23 women's lightweight double crews.
Watching his crews as they trained in and out of water yesterday, Crow said he had ensured the athletes remained focused on the basics.
``It's about focusing on a basic stroke, relaxing and pushing yourself as hard as you can,'' Crow said.
``It's the people that can relax, be loose and lever the boat that are going to come out on top.''
Crow said his instructions would be the same in the final moments before main races.
While Crow has drilled the importance of relaxation into his crews ahead of the competitions, he said strict discipline was key during their tilt at the titles.
``We're over there for eight weeks and it's not a holiday,'' he said.
``You've got to eat well, you've got to sleep well, you've got to train well and you've got to take care of yourself.''
Crow said he was keeping an eye on Danish, British and New Zealand crews, but was confident of strong results at the meets.
``Training has been going extremely well for us and I rate our chances very highly,'' he said.
Foot narrowly missed out on a spot in the national four, but said he would race hard in the pair and work towards his goal of competing at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
He said his teammates expected stiff competition at the titles and standards were set to rise with the Olympics in sight.
However, Foot said his teammates were all extremely competitive and nobody was likely to back away under pressure.
Foot said his focus at the European competitions would be on long-developed race plans and strict body movements.
``It's just about trying to stay in the right mindset and keeping that pattern we've been working on the last couple of months,'' Foot said.