Tips on Kayak Paddle Stroke from a Texas Water Safari Racer

I got this from Marek's Fit2paddle blog. Here's the link race.fit2paddle.com/C1450826492/E20070307102759/index.html

Tips on Kayak Paddle Stroke from a Texas Water Safari Racer


There was an interesting thread on a perfect marathon stroke with a double bladed wing paddle in the Texas Canoe and Kayak Racing forum.

Tommy Yonley wrote a few very good tips. They are quite general, not specific to wing paddles.

* The most important thing about your stroke is to pull hard (of course, in such a way that propels the boat forward). A typical description of "perfect technique" sometimes omits this critical bit of information. The whole point of everything about technique is so that you can pull harder for a longer period of time.
* You want to paddle in such a way that your elbows and wrists stay at basically the same angle (a slight bend most of the time, of course, a more advanced paddler will straighten his bottom arm to reach as far forward as possible, but for just getting the general idea, try to keep your elbows basically at the same angle). The reason for this is that if your elbows are bending a lot during your stroke, it means that you are pulling with your biceps--which are not a particularly big muscle (compared to your lats) and thus will tire out quickly. You want to use the biggest muscles to do the most pulling so that you can pull harder for longer.
* Now sit with your elbows mostly straight and your arms extended out in front of you, as if you are about to paddle--but have both wrists at roughly the same level. Try to make the motion of taking a stroke keeping the "top" wrist only a few inches higher than the bottom wrist. Either your paddle will make a rediculous sweeping motion, or you will bend your bottom arm--and either way, you can't pull very hard for long. The point here is that you can't really do a decent stroke with the paddle very horizontal. I don't think it is important to be perfectly verticle, but the goal should be to get as vertical as your body reasonably allows.
* You want to paddle with the blade perpendicular to the water such that the water resists the motion of the blade as much as possible--and propells your boat forward. Many people describe this as the paddle being "locked" in a certain spot in the water. It is surprising that when people are learning how to paddle, they don't always focus on this (especially when they are distracted by trying to do all kinds of rotations, and letting the wing "wing out" from the boat). This is really important. The more resistance you feel when you pull, the better you have judged the correct angle for your blade to be in the water.
* At the beginning of your stroke, while your blade is entering the water, you are at a very important time. If you begin pulling on the paddle while only the tip of the blade is in the water, you will cause cavitation that will continue as your blade goes deeper and deeper into the water and causes your blade to more easily slip through the water--a very bad thing.

On the other hand, if you simply relax, and let the paddle slowly sink into the water before you start pulling, you may find that your paddle has already reached your waist before you actually start pulling--once again, your stroke has been wasted.

The best thing to do is to make an effort to quickly burry the entire blade well in front of you, and then pull--but not in a way that seems "jerky". Getting this done, where you neither cause cavitation nor miss a large portion of the "power phase" of your stroke, requires deliberate action and some skill on your part. I think most paddlers refer to this as the "catch".

If your stroke makes any gurgling noises whenever you pull hard, you are not burrying your blade deep enough before applying power or otherwise screwing up your stroke.
* Pull hard and twist during your stroke. You will notice that at the end of your stroke, your twist has nicely set you up for the start of the next stroke on the other side (do not begin twisting in the opposite direction until you have gotten your blade into the water).

I should point out that I made these tips for a new paddler--and have very little to do with the "perfect" marathon stroke. With regard to technique, I am no expert (to put it mildly), but in my opinion, a lot of new paddlers (at least here in Texas) are not taught the concept that whole point of everything is to pull hard on the water (such that the boat is propelled forward).

Someone who already knows how to paddle and wants to learn good technique and turn to sources like the Barton Mould, or Mark Zollitsch's 14 tips on forward stroke dynamics--but I think that for a new paddler, complicated biomechanical details are of little value because they will neither be properly understood nor properly implemented.

I'd have to disagree and emphasize, learn to paddle correctly from the get go. Bad habits are sometimes harder to undo than the effort required to do it right in the first place.

I agree in principle. If you can learn to paddle with perfect technique from the beginning, you should do so. However, I have seen many beginning paddlers put a great deal of focus on learning "good technique" but none of them actually had particularly good technique. I have seen a slow group of technique obsessed paddlers get together and do little other than encourage each other to twist more or reach a bit further--as if good technique is the ultimate end goal. I guess for some people, good technique really is their goal, but in my opinion, the only real point of good technique is to help you go faster for longer. If you aren't going to bother pulling hard on the paddle, what is the point?

I honestly don't think that good technique is likely to be learned (by most people) until after the beginning paddler has built up some basic paddling strength, endurance, and skill. Rather than loading down a new paddler with technique lessons, I would try to teach them the basics--enough that they can have fun while paddling.

To demonstrate the validity of this point, let us say that a beginning paddler had a one time opportunity to get a paddling technique lesson with and expert paddler, say, Greg Barton. At what point, would the lesson be most useful? Very few people would propose that the optimal use of the expert technique lesson would be on the new paddler's first outing on the water--or second, or third. Why? Because a brand new paddler is not going to be able to comprehend, much less implement, whatever expert advice is given. Instead, let the beginner gain some experience first, then he will be much better equipped to benefit from the lesson.

From my perspective, it is not a matter of choosing between learning it right the first time or not. I don't think that new paddlers actually have that choice because they aren't going to "get it" right away. I don't think you can understand good technique until you can paddle hard. It is kind of a symbiotic relationship.

I don't think paddle technique is rocket science. Yes, with experience you gain more insight and maybe some more understanding of the effects of good technique but the concepts are basic. It's naive to think new paddlers can't understand paddling concepts. The first thing I did was get the Barton/Chalupsky video and study it. The concepts presented were layed out in a very user friendly format and Oscar and Greg were very thorough and straight forward in their presentation of that info. Combining that video with great tips and insight from the local guys I paddle with (who are students of good stroke technique) have made my introduction into the sport an enjoyable one. Much more enjoyable IMO than if I had just flailed away early and then decided to clean up my stroke later.

Fair enough. Maybe I am biased towards underestimating the capabilities of new paddlers. Maybe I am also biased against the value of learning good technique up front because while I was learning to paddle, I did not really have the opportunity of paddling with a group that could offer technique assistance.

In any case, I will have to get that DVD.

Fair enough. Maybe I am biased towards underestimating the capabilities of new paddlers. Maybe I am also biased against the value of learning good technique up front because while I was learning to paddle, I did not really have the opportunity of paddling with a group that could offer technique assistance.

In any case, I will have to get that DVD.

Learning good technique from the start is very important. Technique first before power. I started kayaking way back in 96 as I qualified to be part of our first national team in flatwater sprint kayaking. My event was the k4. Unfortunately, I was learning as my coach was learning. We made mistakes back then as information was limited. We didnt even get the proper equipment up to the time we competed in the Southeast Asian games and eventually the Asian games in 1998. Our national team has progressed since and has reached the semifinals of th world champs last year in Szeged. As for me, I retired in 98 and only started paddling again this year and its my first on a surf ski! : )

A lot of the technique I do know is due to the info and tips I got from Surfski.info Yes, the DVD of Barton and Chalupsky helps a lot. Also try getting the one by Brent Reitz. Watching the world championship videos help as well. You can get them here www.flatwater.info/

The best is to have training partners, important to get feedback. I dont have that luxury just yet.

Thanks for you contribution, article is well written and sure to help those who are relearning.