Rowers are coached to keep their eyes up, not on the blade. Some moves you make by trusting your training.

Watching your own hands undoes the thing practice built. The stroke is already stored somewhere that does not need supervision, and dragging conscious attention onto it breaks the timing while telling you that you are being careful. Eyes up is not a confidence slogan. It is a technical instruction about where attention has to sit for trained movement to run properly.

In your next performance or test, pick one thing outside yourself to hold your attention: the back of the boat, a point on the wall, the person you are talking to. Let the training do its own job.