True success lies in operating just below the “red line” and never going beyond it, according to former elite rower and associate director at protection advice firm John Lamb Hill Oldridge, Holly Hill.
Last summer, ahead of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, Hill spoke to Health & Protection about how London 2012 inspired her to take up rowing, medalling in major competitions, making the Tokyo 2020 team but missing out and overcoming that disappointment to build a career in the world of protection insurance.
Elaborating on her story at Health & Protection’s Protection Forum, Hill spoke about finding rowing addictive, the importance of a team all pulling in the same direction, her training and diet routine and why it matters to find the “red line”.
Hill also explained how she had applied this into her new career and how fellow protection advisers could do so as well to ensure they and their teams were operating efficiently.
Finding rowing addictive
“I found rowing completely addictive,” Hill said.
“All sport brings people together but rowing in particular creates very strong bonds between athletes.
“One of the main reasons for that is before you get into a boat for a race, you look at your team mates in the eye and not verbally, but effectively what you’re saying is I’m now going to really hurt myself. I’m going to endure a lot of physical pain for the next seven minutes for you because I trust that you’re going to do the same thing for me.
“And when our legs and our lungs are burning, we’ll keep going one stroke at a time together until we cross the finish line.”
No time off the ball
But Hill also maintained that a key differentiator with rowing is that – unlike ball sports – participants never have any time “off the ball”.
“You don’t have a chance to catch your breath,” Hill said.
“From the start line to the finish line, you are operating maximally – both physically and mentally.
“And if you take your foot off the gas for a second or even a stroke, you’ll probably lose.
“And I found trying to get to that perfect race, I’m not sure I ever did it, but it’s there to strive for.
“Putting that perfect race was very addictive and doing it alongside crewmates was absolutely fantastic.”
Pairs success
A banner year for Hill was 2017 as she and her pairs partner finished fourth in the world – just three years ahead of the Olympics.
“We’re competing here trying to break into the Tokyo Olympic training squad for GB,” Hill explained.
“We just found a great rythmn to life. We were pushing each other very hard on the water, really supporting each other off it and it culminated in us completing this race as the fourth fastest pair in the world.
“So I’m three years away from the Tokyo Olympics. I’m fourth so I’ve got three years to make up just one place and end up on the Olympic podium in Tokyo. What could go wrong?”
This was also the year Hill finished university and she made the Team GB Olympic squad.
Making the team
“What does life start to look like?
“Well first off, all the training happens on this nice stretch of water here. We’re about half a mile north of Reading, just about an hour outside of London, and the National Training Centre is home to about 70 athletes and 30 support staff.”
The centre, Hill added, was home to two gyms dedicated to weights and rowing machines respectively.
“Rowing machines make a horrible noise endlessly,” Hill said.
“The rowing machines are all laid out in a perfect grid formation with just enough distance between the rowers that the coaches can walk along the back sometimes rather menacingly and can offer you support when you’re training and shout encouragement when you’re doing a test.
“We used to jokingly refer to this room as as the Watt farm as in watts of energy, because when you’ve got 70 athletes all lined up making this noise for 90 minutes, it made you feel that you were in a field ploughing for power.
“Then there’s a boat-racking room. It’s probably as big as this auditorium and you’ve got probably 30 bright yellow carbon fibre shells backed up into the ceiling.
“It’s a very visual room because all the training boats are on one side. All the Olympic boats are on the other side and you’re not allowed to touch those unless you’re going to the Olympics.
“So it was very clear, a very visual environment that whenever you walked out through the boat room to go out to the water, you picked your boat up from the training side and it was only if you made the top seats that you could go over to the other side and get into one of the racing hulls.”
“But it was upstairs where the group would relax and eat between sessions.”
Second breakfast
“I did have to manage my first breakfast on my own, make my own toast,” Hill said.
“But after that, pretty much all of the food, second breakfast etc, we had a professional chef that would cook for this building of 100 people.
“And second breakfast was pretty much an enormous fry up – everything was on offer.
“We had eggs, bacon, sausages, but we would also start to have a bit of salad at breakfast. We also started to get a bit of fresh fruit and veg in the morning as well.
“But it was always amazing to watch Martin, our professional chef. This man had to cook 250 eggs in about 30 minutes.
“Talk about high performance, he was an absolute machine.”
The challenge for this “absolute machine” was ensuring that these elite athletes took in enough calories, Hill explained.
“We had a professional chef and we’ve got this nice section of food through the day and of course we had to make sure that we were absolutely eating the right things and enough of those right things.
“Having said that, we used to have to hit somewhere between 4,500 to 5,000 calories a day. And for men, this could be 6,000 to 7,000 – so enormous quantities of food.”
Eating 12 chocolate eclairs
But Hill recounted one particular day where the team had gone “pretty hard”.
“So the first session we rowed 24km on the water,” Hill said. “The second session we rowed 20km on the water.
“And then we’d done 90 minutes of weights in the afternoon.
“At this point it’s 7pm. I rowed quite literally a marathon. Then done weights. Finished my dinner. And then my wearable tells me I’m still 900 calories short.
“And honestly, this is not a joke, I ran a bath, got into the bath and I ate 12 full size chocolate eclairs from Tesco.
“And I’ve honestly never felt so good. So yes, it’s very specific in the first half, but once you’ve eaten everything you need to, you freewheel on top and make it up.”
Not going to the Olympics
But Hill’s trajectory of success was halted five years ago by the global pandemic and a WhatsApp message telling her she was not going to the Olympics.
“So that was quite tough to take.
“My Olympic dream was over pretty quickly. And to cut a long story short, in 2020 I was on a high, I was selected for the Tokyo Olympics. I was being sized up for my Olympic kit and then 48 hours later the Olympics got postponed because of the Covid outbreak.”
In response Hill redoubled her efforts over the next 12 months, training really hard – too hard.
“I tried to keep going at that peak level that we reached, trying to maintain it for another 12 months, but the thing about a peak is it’s probably not a year long,” she explained.
“It’s got a top so I overdid it and ended up becoming ill in January 2021 and staying too ill to be able to get back in my seat for the actual games.”
Win or learn
This experience taught Hill three really important lessons.
“I suspect that this experience will remain the hardest and most valuable of my life and it taught me three things,” Hill said.
“The first is try. You can only experience what you’re willing to have a go at. And there will always be something good or useful that comes from it.
“There’s a corny sport phrase that says, it’s not win or lose, it’s win or learn. It’s awful, but it’s absolutely true.
“I learned so much about myself trying to go to the Olympic Games, how to control nerves, push my limit, develop my body, become strong and I ultimately grew as a person.
“So I feel a better human for having tried and failed to go the Olympics than I would have been if I hadn’t tried at all.”
Celebrate the little wins
Hill also called on delegates to celebrate little wins.
“People in this room will know that to take on a big journey, you’ve got to break it up into small steps. That’s not new advice, but for about eight years, I forgot that’s what I was trying to do.
“So here’s your reminder. When I look back over the last eight to 10 years, I do look back fondly, but I do think it’s a shame that I didn’t sit in the joy of some of the small wins in the smaller moments.
“In 2018, I became a European silver medallist. It was a home championships in Glasgow and it was brilliant, but at the time, we thought we might win, but by coming second, all we could think about is how does this work for the Olympic Games? Where are we positioned etc?
“And so I wish I’d sat in the smaller moments for longer. I know you know this, but just don’t forget it.”
Look after yourself
And it is equally important to look after yourself, Hill maintained.
“To make success sustainable, you have to be in control of both your body and your mind,” Hill said.
“In rowing we used to talk about finding the red line. Where’s that red line? and don’t cross it.
“Finding the red line is quite easy. You probably all know what it feels like when you’ve overdone it. If it’s sprinting and you feel you can’t carry on, if in a work context, you’re burned out or whatever it might be.”
Operating below the red line
The secret is to operate below the red line, Hill said.
“The trick is operating just underneath it so you find a rhythm without tipping over and finding that your only option is stop.
“And of course not doing that cost me my Olympic dream, so I will try and not do that going forwards.
“The sweet spot just below that red line is where success is built and ultimately mastered.
“So life sometimes comes at you pretty hard and that ties in with the protection industry trying to help people prepare for.
“But as long as you feel like you’re going from your experiences and not feeling like you’re overshadowing your enjoyment of day-to-day life, then you’ll have found your balancing point just like the Olympics Men’s Eight.”