Freud used to say that confidence of success often produces success.

Put a crew into a new shell and make them confident that they will be
faster in the new shell and chances are they will be faster.

The lesson here is that confidence in oneself is more important than one's
choice of shells. It goes to prove the old adage: nothing is but thinking
makes it so.

I have lost count of the times people have asked me how can I scull Carl's
shell. I just tell them that Carl's shell is easy to scull. It is
surprisingly stable and it stays level. But I admit that even before I ever
set foot in my magic Carl Douglas I believed this. I was completely
confident that his shell would be very easy to scull ...

Cordially,

Charles