Today I was putting into practice some information and training I received at the ISKA Symposium last weekend. It went very well and I now want to document my progress up to now in a separate post, which I may keep updated in the future; or maybe add more posts as a series of updates.
When I got my first kayak and paddle I knew basically nothing about the forward stroke and just assumed I understood the mechanics. I can recall (having recently re-read most of this blog) that I found myself gripping the paddle too tightly, to the point of discomfort, before I joined the club. My forward stroke then must have been very bad and was certainly all about pulling with my arms, with little or no shoulder-rotation.
Once I joined the club I started to get useful bits of information. (Surprisingly I don’t remember getting much info from the Shearwater course; it moved on quite quickly from stuff like grip and stroke bio-mechanics). The main things I remember being told early are: Use a looser grip on the paddle; push with your feet for power; keep your arms quite straight; and rotate your core.
I concentrated on the looser grip first and after a while it became second nature, but rotating my core was a bit of a head-wreck, along with keeping my arms straight. That had a lot to do with not fully understanding the mechanics of how the stroke works. I was basically trying to implement all these tips while still predominantly trying to pull with my arms. Later, being told to make sure your forward hand crosses the centre-line of the boat by Mick Carroll was the start of figuring out a much better technique.
At some point around then (can’t remember if before or after), I had an inkling that I should be using my forward hand to push a lot more. I had a real “aha” moment when I realised that I should think of the paddle as a lever; my stroke hand as the fulcrum and my forward hand doing the work of moving the lever around it, thereby pushing the other end against the water.
Combined with crossing the centre-line of the boat, this technique resulted in much more efficiency. It was much easier to keep my arms straighter and to rotate my shoulders as my forward hand pushed. In reality I probably did less actual levering than I first thought, but the concept helped me develop a much better feel.
My stroke improved immensely after some trips switching back and forth between a Greenland paddle and a euro-blade, as documented in other posts. But in all this time I never really put much thought into using my feet.
I knew people said you can gain power by pushing with your feet, and I sometimes did that if I was struggling or need to turn quickly. But it never made much sense to me because I just thought “I’m in the boat, so all the power I put into my stroke must get transferred to the either the boat or the water anyway”. And in truth I still don’t fully understand how it works, but I now know that it does!
One of the descriptions of using a Greenland paddle that I read included something about feeling that the blade “sticks” in the water as you move yourself past it. This is something I never felt, even when my GP technique improved a lot. And I couldn’t even sense the beginning of that because I had this lever idea in my head; I couldn’t see how it would feel like it was sticking if I was constantly pushing against it with my forward hand.
This month I attended a “strokes clinic” at the ISKA symposium, which taught me a lot and I think will have a huge impact on my forward stroke; in particular on how I use my feet. One of the most illuminating things we did was to paddle as though our paddles were “made of sugar”. The idea was to be as gentle as possible with the paddle and assess the results. For me (as was the point) the result was that by placing most force on my feet I was able to make a lot of progress in the boat using minimal arm effort.
Right now, after my trip using this technique today, I finally have a sense of the paddle “sticking” in the water. The best way I can describe it is that it feels like all you do is put the paddle in the water and the rest takes care of itself. Instead of my attention being focused on the effort of using my arms and shoulders, it is mostly on the effort of my legs. The result is a huge shift in how much strain is involved in paddling forward. Up to now, there has always been an element of “hassle” – sometimes it has been very background, in benign conditions, and sometimes very foreground. This new focus-shift feels so much more relaxed and calm. It also seems to be much better for my back, though it’s early days yet.
I could write a lot more about the strokes clinic, but I’ll limit it to two more things: One – a real lightbulb moment was when Keith pointed out that water resists increasingly with force applied. Obvious, I know, but the whole “sugar paddle” thing makes so much sense when you realise that a small amount of force efficiently applied will have a significant effect, and that a large amount of force against water will be less efficient; Two – A really useful suggestion of Keith’s was to relax your forehead when you realise you’re struggling a bit. It sounds comical, but it has a noticeably calming effect and really helps to shift your focus back onto a relaxed, methodical stroke.
So that’s where I’m at with my forward stroke now – I went from knowing nothing to knowing the components without being able to put it all together; then I had a period of realisation that made most of it click; finally I had an injection of new information and ideas that felt like the final piece of the puzzle.
Now I feel I’m at the cusp of a much more enjoyable paddling experience and can’t wait to see how the performance of this improved technique compares with a wider range of paddlers. No matter how that turns out in the short term, I think I’m further along the right track for the long term 🙂