In each of our past two discussions with US men's pair stroke Dariush (Tim) Aghai (here and here), he mentioned how cool and collected his pair partner Mike DiSanto is, so I spoke to Mike to find out if he saw it the same way, and what his thoughts are about the obvious boat chemistry that this crew has. Read Mike's comments below.
row2k: I have talked to your pair partner a couple times now, and your rep has become that you are the soft-spoken, very calm guy who runs the business of the boat. So I wanted to get your thoughts on your new rep, because he's doing all the talking so far, and your experience maybe different from that.
DiSanto: Well, I would say he definitely has the harder job in the boat. He has to worry about the rhythm of the boat, the steering, the rate. So I just have to follow him, which makes things a lot easier. Because of that, maybe during a race I can be a bit more alert to what's going on.
Tim is a great guy to race with; we met in 2011 at the U23 camp, and we were pretty quickly good friends, and that is even more the case now having spent all this time together this summer. We come from very similar family backgrounds. I think both our families preach similar principles, that you put your head down and work hard. So we come from very similar backgrounds with the family and what they instilled in us as children, and we're both still extremely close with our parents and our siblings.
So I guess off the water, we come from very similar places. We had both taken time away from the team to pursue master degrees. We have had these other pursuits that we enjoy, and it's nice now to have done that and be back in the boat. We have a great relationship off the water, and I think that only helps with on the water.
We both have different ideas about rowing in some respects. But at the end of the day, we both agree on, in my mind, what's the most important part of the stroke, and that's the front end. Just getting the front end, getting the immediate suspension, it doesn't necessarily have to be powerful, it's more of a finesse.
I think that's something that when we do it together that makes us, well... people probably look over at us at the starting line and see these two guys, six foot nothing, and I'm about 195, Tim's 180. They probably don't think much of us. And we're able to go out there and at least hang with some of these bigger stronger guys.
row2k: Your races have been among the most impressive performance of the week of the week so far.
DiSanto: Thanks; It would have been nice to make the finals, but I think we're keeping a good perspective, just qualifying this boat and ideally just doing as well as we can will be a testament, not to just Tim and I, but there were a lot of people that helped get us here, like our families and coaches along the way.
row2k: Have you ever been in a boat before where it was two really different personalities that actually kind of meshed up; or maybe been in a boat that should have but didn't mesh up? There seems to be something going on in your boat, as you said with your similar backgrounds and being old friends - but sometimes can it be that doesn't really have to be the case?.
DiSanto: Tim and I, we put everything to the side and figure out what we think is going to make us go as fast as possible, and then it is both of us checking our egos, and saying look we want what's best for the boat. Nothing else really matters. If we came here and don't do well, then we fail. The object is to come here and qualify the boat, and do as well as possible.
I'm not going to say every day is perfect; we've had our fair share of bad rows. But I think at the end of the day, we are always trying to figure out how it's going to move us forward. I can think of a few times where maybe we've gotten into it on the water, but we both remember, look I'm out here trying to do the best I can. I know he's out here trying to do the best he is.
I know I can get frustrated in the boat, and I have before and I'm sure I will again. But some really good advice from a teammate, after I had a little bit of an outburst at Oxford. He said look, what do you think that is going to accomplish? Everyone is out here giving it their all. You yelling isn't going to help anything. If you have something to say to make a constructive comment, and we can work towards it to help the boat.
And then small boat rowing can be incredibly frustrating when you're not getting it,and it's not coming together. So that's a perspective I've tried to bring with me, not so much in terms of how to row the boat, but in terms of the mentality. I trust that he's out here with 100% focus to get better. So you go out there, maybe you are a little frustrated, but you work with him in that framework. You're both out here and it's 100% effort mentally as well as physically. Because the mental side is so important.
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