Re: [Paddlewise] Southwest Kayak Symposium Report

From: Joshua Teitelbaum <teitelba_at_post.tau.ac.il>
Date: Mon, 07 Oct 2002 10:33:28 +0200
At 05:54 07/10/02, you wrote:
>  What amazed me most about the instruction was the
>varied opinions, particularly from Nigel Foster, Derek Hutchinson and Brent
>Reitz, who were each teaching his own very different style of forward stroke
>and paddle type.


I can relate to this.  As one who is tired of being last and therefore 
constantly trying to improve his forward stroke, I bought Brent's 
tape.  Brent paddles with bent elbows; he does not straighten the top elbow 
when pushing.  With Brent's stroke, the hands are positioned on the paddle 
just inside of 90 degrees (this is not mentioned on the tape, but I 
confirmed it by email from Brent).

On the other hand, my instructors use a very different stroke, involving a 
nearly straight lower arm, and full extension of the top elbow and arm when 
pushing.  Hand position is greater than 90 degrees.

I'm always going back and forth between these strokes.  My gut feeling is 
that if you can do anyone of them really well, you will paddle well.  Torso 
rotation is key, and this is easier said than done.  Many of us, I think, 
may be rotating our shoulders more than our torsos.  IMHO Brent's 
bent-elbow push stroke is more conducive to good torso rotation.  As a 
result, however, it is more tiring.

See you on the water.

Josh


==============================================================================
Dr. Joshua Teitelbaum, Senior Research Fellow               Tel: [972] 
3-640-6448
Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and                 Fax: [972] 3-641-5802
   African Studies
Tel Aviv University
Ramat Aviv, Tel Aviv 69978  Israel
E-mail:teitelba_at_post.tau.ac.il
www.dayan.org
==============================================================================

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Received on Mon Oct 07 2002 - 00:36:36 PDT

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