On 7 Sep 2004 at 0:33, Dave Kruger wrote: > Caveat: any backward-pushing force from your body to the boat negates > some of the forward-pushing force. For example, if your lower back is > simultaneously pushing hard against the seatback (or backband), that > force drives the kayak rearward. This isn't quite true. If you push your feet hard against the footpegs and your back against the backband, all you're doing is stretching the kayak (infinitesimally, but it can be measured with a strain guage). It would be impossible to move the kayak backwards this way. It does waste muscle energy and can contribute to fatigue if you keep it up. The key with pushing on the footpegs is to make sure that the resulting force causes your body to move relative to the kayak. If it isn't moving, then no work is being done (in physics, work = force times distance moved). You can expend a lot of muscle power, and tire yourself out if all you do is push with your feet and cause no motion. The forward motion of the kayak is influenced by the total of all the forces transmitted between your body and the kayak, That means all contact points as Jim pointed out. In my Ellesmere, the bucket seat prevent me from getting any effective motion in my butt - I can't slide around much. Hence, I only push on the footpegs enough to ensure that I am secure. If I'm paddling normally, that means virtually no pressure on the footpegs at all. Only if I'm paddling hard does the foot pressure get noticable and that's only to secure my body. Any muscle action above that would be wasted. The moral of the story is that if you want to use foot pressure to increase your paddling speed, you have to have a seat that allows your butt to slide, just like the K1 racers. If not, you're just tiring yourself for nothing. I haven't met very many instructors that understand this, hence they teach pushing on the footpegs regardless. Mike PS - The most of the foot pressure I exhert is when rolling. I've popped off the footpegs this way and eventually replaced the plastic footpegs with aluminum. Boreal Designs no longer uses plastic footpegs in this kayak, so I guess I wasn't the only one. *************************************************************************** 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 Tue Sep 07 2004 - 09:13:44 PDT
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