Knee action

I just watched a youtube video titled Paddling With Szolt.

I cannot paste the link here.

In the video Szolt's knee action is very pronounced. It looks like he is actually pumping them almost like riding a recumbent bicycle !
Now I know the footboard is not moving so it must be a result of his torso rotation. Yes he has some great rotation.

Being new to this I cannot hope to become proficient in a month or so. However i know that I am engaging my torso quite a bit yet my knees do not move . Thinking it was a matter of moving the footboard toward the bucket I tried that. Result was a cramped feeling and a bit less stability.

What am I missing here?

BTW: out in the Gulf this weekend. Did a couple of miles without a swim. I am getting there bit by bit.

It's odd. I never did lose weight in light of the fact that my obesity was bad for my health, adversely effected my mountain biking, adversely effected my horseback riding and adversely effected my sex life!

Now having taken up ski I am committed to losing the gut.
So does this mean i am an addict?

Getting good leg drive (knee action) is a result of proprt hip rotation.

See Greg Barton's youtube video:

Jon A.

Try swinging your torso to the side and pulling on your offside rather than pushing yourself back in the bucket on your drive side, you should move in your bucket rather than jamming yourself back in the bucket, then your knees will move. You might even find that increasing your distance to your footbed will help you to achieve this.

SDisle07* wrote: Getting good leg drive (knee action) is a result of proprt hip rotation.

See Greg Barton's youtube video:

Jon A.

Jon:

I have Greg's Forward Stroke DVD and have watched it many times. I just cannot get the knee drive yet.

It will come over time. As a setup in my Epic V10 Sport, when I sit facing forward with knees together and heels on the foot board, I have space for a full fist under my knees. That's both of my knees are bent in that still position. I get about 3.5" between the hump and the underside of my knees. I have a 36" inseam, if that's any indication - I think shorter folks would need to lift their knees higher to get the same level of rotation. I suppose, narrower hips would require less knee lift too - (simple geometry at work, so don't take the absolute measurements)... The width of the boat's catch area also matters to some extent and wider boats limit the need for extreme rotation, I suppose.

If I go higher, I can't utilize the extra leg drive, if I go lower (straigher legs) I don't have enough leg drive for a full rotation.

As suggested, part of the rotation comes from the pulling leg contracting, part of it comes from the pushing leg straightening. The point is that you do not want to use your leg action to push yourself to the back of the bucket, but to rotate your bum on the seat.

Some hip joint flexibility might be restricting super big rotation though - I know I personally can't sort of cross my kness like K1 racing paddlers do it during the stroke (as seen from the front)...

Just to add, the lumbar region of the spine should be stable, not rotating, so the rotation should come from firstly the hip movement in the bucket, then the thoracic spine, do not try to rotate the lumbar region, you will loose a lot of power and stability doing that and the lumbar region is designed for leaning forward and backwards, not rotating.

Helps to practice your rotation by getting on the floor on your knees, lift up so you are not sitting on your heels, so like your standing but have been cut off at the knees, then rotate just your thoracic spine while keeping the lumbar region stable and facing forward.

Stretching this thoracic area daily is a good idea for the added flexibility and easier rotation.

Thanks all. I'll try your suggestions.

drjay9051 wrote:
adversely effected my horseback riding and adversely effected my sex life!

you might want to try keeping yr tongue in yr gona bite that thing off on horseback.

Are you using footstraps? If not, do so. It's pretty much impossible to get hip rotation if you are using jamming yourself against both feet and the back of the bucket to get stability. If you are using footstraps, try to get the feeling of pushing on one (the stroke side) while pulling against the other.

Also, as you are applying pressure through your stroke side foot preparing to plant the paddle, try leaning the boat over a little to the stroke side. I found my hips wouldn't really free up and rotate if they were only doing it in one plane. Do this in an exaggerated way, then gradually ease off. Whether you eventually use roll as part of your stroke doesn't actually matter, but it's a good way of getting the motor programming started.

Try each of these things as training drills, ie 100 strokes at a time with a few repeats.

This is just stuff I have discovered for myself. Hope it works for you.

Sit on the carpet upright torso at 90 degrees with both legs straight in front. Using your sit bones - the bones in your butt - "walk" forwards. Use your arms too, like a marathon walker, swinging them as you push one leg forwards and then the other.

Now do it with your legs bent as they would be in a ski or kayak, knees up slightly.That's the motion.

Now do the same thing against a wall and pushing with your heels. You're not going anywhere of course but you have activated your legs, glutes (big butt muscles), abdomen, lower back and hip flexors (lots of references in forums on this site - google hip flexors to see that). You should feel your backside swivelling under you on the floor (pelvis rotating).

What you should feel is a something to work against with your heels (the wall); all that energy you're putting into that transfer point (apart from effort energy lost farting, belching and getting your tongue out of the way) should be transferred to your paddle stroke in the boat.

As comments above, takes time to get it right, but once you get that wiggle going there will be no stopping you.

Watto:

Great tip !! I will try that tonight after work. The dog will think I've lost my mind !

drjay9051 wrote: Watto:

Great tip !! I will try that tonight after work. The dog will think I've lost my mind !

Nah the dog will be thinking "oh, poor bugger has got worms"