Re: [Paddlewise] Torso rotation

You've already got some good tips [paddle with locked elbows, concentrate 
the rotation at the waist instead of shoulders], but let me add my two 
hundreths of a dollar worth.  This rotation thing was a big deal for me when 
I took up sprint racing.  It was in 1966, so maybe what I learned is a 
little outdated, but here it is for what it's worth. [Exactly two cents 
probably]

The Scandinavian stroke had very little arm flex, it is almost all torso 
rotation.  The paddle doesn't go very far from horizontal, both hands stay 
quite low.  If you exaggerate this, you will get the kinetic "feel" of the 
stroke that uses more torso than arm:  Lock your elbows, as Gabriel 
suggested, swing at the waist, as Joe suggested, keep the paddle low, and 
push forcefully with right foot and leg on the right side stroke, left leg 
on left stroke.  Close your eyes and pay attention to what you are feeling.  
The goal is to feel these same trunk muscles working in your normal stroke.

It is very important that you lean very slightly FORWARD, not back.  A butt 
band instead of a back band helps, it allows the forward lean.  Even if you 
have a high back band or your rear is held in place by the cockpit coaming, 
don't lean back. It really shortens your stroke, it pulls the bow up [which 
shortens the boat and slows it slightly], and it makes the quick freeing of 
the blade from the water at the end of the stroke harder to do.

The pressure on the backband comes from the legs, so the more you use them, 
the more pressure and the more important the band becomes.  I had mentioned 
in an earlier post that I knew a 500 meter world champion from Poland who 
routinely broke footbraces and ripped seats off their moorings [sprint boats 
have seats with very high backs that act as a backband], that's how hard he 
pushed with his legs.

The way I learned to use my torso was to stand in front of a full-length 
mirror and paddle with a light iron bar [a short paddle would do, or even a 
broomstick, but I was also developing my shoulder muscles].  I made a 
paddling motion and aimed by top hand directly at my nose reflected in the 
mirror.  I exaggerated the rotation a lot. I found my hips doing a "hula" 
motion up and down, which is not good in the boat [but quite OK for this 
mirror exercise], so I then had to learn to keep the rotation in a 
horizontal plane.  In the boat you will find your legs "bicycling" - it 
shows that you're using them strongly as well as rotating well. After two 
months of this my style in the boat caught up.  When I taught at the 
Madawaska Kanu Centre I was always the poster child for torso rotation, so I 
must have learned the lesson well. And I was successful in sprint, slalom, 
downriver and marathon racing, so the proof is in the pudding.

Hope this adds something useful to your growing library on the forward 
stroke.

Jim Tibensky
ps
Being flexible really helps.  Bob Anderson's wonderful book "Stretching" can 
help with that.

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