John wrote: >>>>>After learning the conventional practice of keeping a constant grip on the control hand and cocking it back to stroke on the opposite side, I noticed that my natural response to controlling a feathered paddle was to rotate and re-grip the paddle on both sides, so that neither hand has a fixed grip. Is there any downside to this? Orienting the paddle doesn't seem to be a problem with an oval shaft.<<<<<<<<< It is interesting that you picked this up naturally. My advice to you is to ignore most instructions regarding physical skills and trust your own body's natural feel. You are a "Natural". The following is from the "Paddling" manual on our website (about a third of the way through--the last paragraph after the "Paddling Your Kayak" heading.) All of the strokes and braces are the most powerful when you are pulling one arm back as though your forearm is a rope tied to the paddle by your fingers and your pushing hand pushes directly in line with your forearm and wrist. The paddle shaft, your wrist and your elbow should all be in a straight line with your elbow leading (when pulling) or pushing directly behind your hand much like making a straight punch. Any bend or angle (more commonly seen with the pushing arm) will weaken a strokes power and effectiveness. Think of it as giving your strokes and braces an added punch. Worse, bending your wrist either back or side to side can lead to repetitive stress injuries. To minimize the stress on your wrists do not bend the wrist back to "control" a feathered paddle (as is almost universally taught) and also hold the paddle with as loose a grip as you can. With any feather your wrists should also not bend side to side to follow the changing shaft angle throughout the stroke. In other words, the shaft should pivot in your hand and not bend your wrist. This is important whether you paddle feathered or unfeathered. With any feather angle control the blade with the hand nearest the water and relax the upper hand so the paddle can rotate in the hand that is pushing. This way you don’t bend your wrist when paddling feathered and you do not have to lift your elbow out like a boxer’s hook if you paddle unfeathered (to take out the 45 degree rotation you put on the blade by lifting the upper hand from your elbow). With any feather it is more efficient to push with your elbow starting at your side and the key to doing this is LOW HAND control. [Tip: if you hold the paddle loosely between strokes the rotating moment you put on it while lifting can be used to spin it a little further into position with needing to bend your wrist at all.] A good paddle will also make this adjustment to the angle if necessary as the blade enters the water. If you have to physically immobilize your wrists with braces or tape until you learn to paddle without bending them, do it.. They will thank you for it later. Matt Broze http://www.marinerkayaks.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/ ***************************************************************************
About 5 or 6 years ago we stopped teaching the ol' school push and punch out the top hand forward stroke as it was discovered that using a push/ pull action moves the pivot point of the shaft to the center, causing the working blade to travel in a small radiused arc . If you move the pivot point of the shaft up and away from the center of the paddle to say the top hand, the working blade would have a flatter, more efficient path. This involves NO pushing or punching out , but a rotation of the top hand to the side. It's like planting with the fish stab, then looking at a wrist watch and keeping the watch 8-10" away from your eyes. That way the blade stays buried at the same depth throughout the stroke. Then as the blade passes your knee, a wing paddle style side release, as was mentioned, works great. ah.....rotation, that's the ticket and that's what goes away with a p/p stroke. Like the difference between swimming with a dog paddle (p/p) and a serious crawl stroke (high pivot). The arms only could get the p/p to work, where if you use the high pivot point the shoulder rotation must happen for the blades to move. It's more effecient to use less push/ punch/ pulls and use more high pivot and rotation. Steve *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
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