Be the Inspiration: Eric Murray and Hamish Bond

Synchronicity the quality of recurring at exactly the same time lies beneath the unparalleled success of Olympic champion rowers Eric Murray and Hamish Bond.

No other team sport requires its athletes to be in constant, perfect synchronisation with each other. Much of it comes down to simple physics when two rowers are in a scull they must apply exactly the same pressure to achieve speed. If one athlete is stronger than the other, there must be some compensation.

Having rowed together for almost a decade, and with eight world championship titles to their names, Bond and Murray are now almost naturally in sync, helped by a true understanding of each others strengths and weaknesses. But there is always work to do to - maintaining this level of harmony is the difficult part.

Its all about balance:  Murray has more power, but Bond has fantastic endurance. So each athlete works on improving their weaknesses.

And its all about practise, say Bond. For us, its time in the boat, and practise makes perfect.

Their training schedules are built around the international events calendar, and the 2012 Olympic gold medallists estimate they row 10,000km in training each year to fine-tune their synchronicity. They are constantly working on breaking bad habits like poor stroke technique - as soon as they appear.

We reached a level of perfection and synchronisation to achieve Olympic gold, so whenever were struggling, we go back and work to recreate that approach, Murray says.

On-the-water training makes up 50 percent of their workload, while the rest is of the effort is off the water eating right, stretching right, understanding the science of their sport. Its a full-time job, six days a week. Although they must be exactly in tune on the water, on land they have completely different training schedules, diets and exercise routines to balance out their differences.

It doesnt always come easily. Hamish and Bond began training for the 2012 London Olympics three years before the games, and need constant inspiration to carry on.

On a daily basis, we need to be inspired ourselves - to get up, to train at 100 percent, Murray says.  We have to train to put ourselves in a position to go out there and win. If people can see that and see the work weve had to do to try to achieve a gold medal if that can inspire them, they can put that in to moving forward and trying to win their own gold medal and achieving their own dream.