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From: James Tibensky <jtibensky_at_msn.com>
subject: [Paddlewise] Paddlewise] Paddling efficency
Date: Wed, 16 May 2001 15:40:18 -0500
Mike wrote:
Will the human with the higher cadence be more efficient? Not
necessarily. If we limit ourselves to the typical range of paddles, the
human with the higher cadence will be operating more efficiently, but he
or she will only be paddling more efficiently if the paddle is designed
to take advantage of that.

Mike, I'm not a physicist, I can barely count all my toes and fingers 
without using paper and pencil, but I raced kayaks for thirty years and won 
a lot of sprint races.  You are absolutely not correct in this.  In every 
single race I ever entered I had the slowest stroke rate.  At the Marathon 
Nationals in 1975 I was the butt of a lot of jokes.  By the people who I 
beat in the race.

If your higher cadence comes from lily dipping and my slow one comes from 
deep, long strokes, do you really think you're going faster than me?  Six 
inch long strokes at 100 strokes a minute will never beat two foot long 
strokes at 75 a minute, will they?  Not in my 300+ races experience it 
won't.  And it has nothing to do with the paddle, I'm sure. Or are you 
saying that speed and efficiency are separate?

The best way to never be wrong is to say "all things being equal".  They 
never are when humans pick up paddles.  Identical twins paddling identical 
boats with identical paddles will never be all equal.  Unless their hearts 
are beating in unison, they had the same food and sleep and water for the 
last few weeks, they were thinking the same thoughts and occupied the exact 
same place at exactly the same time.  I think a physicist might say that 
those conditions can't be met.  So why not stop discussing how many angels 
can dance on a pinhead's paddle and spend more time with practical stuff.  
Like how many cans of root beer does a day hatch hold?  Or like general 
paddling principles that lend themselves to good strokes?

Jim Tibensky


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