I hope I haven't sent this twice. I sent another version yesterday but it hasn't appeared. Anyway... The push vs pull for the forward stroke: Put the blade in the water at about your knee or so. Hold the lower hand and arm absolutely still and push hard with the top arm. Use the lower hand as a fulcrum, don't pull at all. What happens? The boat creeps forward about ten inches. Now take a stroke using only the lower arm and no push. Start the stroke with the top arm straight and don't bend it at all. A clumsy stroke, but the boat jumps about a boat length forward. So which does the most work? When I raced and coached sprint kayak [in the 1960s] the Scandinavian style stroke had no push at all. It was called the "sway-impulse" stroke. Both arms were pretty much locked straight, the shaft never went higher than an inch or so off the cockpit rim and the seat was very high, almost to the deck in some cases. The guys who paddled this way, with no push, won a lot of world championships. But so did Stefan Kaplanik, the Polish 500 meter specialist. He told me that the push was 75% of his power. And he was so powerful that he sometimes broke his footbraces or snapped the seat off its mounting. The sermon is: There is no such thing as a perfect forward stroke. Different body types, different musculature, sense or lack of balance; these all affect the forward stroke. In rowing there is a perfect technique because the oar is fixed. Paddles are free ranging, like those tasty chickens. A good instructor/coach will be flexible in this area and not try to shoe horn everyone into an idealized technique. Watch the racers, you'll see some really ugly strokes done by the guys wearing the gold medals. Analysis might show that the ugly technique is perfect for the individual using it. End of today's sermon. Bless us all. Jim Tibensky _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Fri May 11 2001 - 09:37:36 PDT
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