Re: [Paddlewise] Control hand that's most efficient

Margot said: I'm curious about whether there's much support for the
following comment, from Lightning Paddle's Web site:  Budding
competitive paddlers might want to think about left control if they are
right handed (and vice versa) as there is informal (unsubstantiated?)
anatomical / physiological and kinesthetic evidence that paddling with
the "wrong" hand as control hand is most efficient.



When I learned to kayak it was to be a sprint racer.  The two Hungarian
guys who were my coaches both said that a person whose right arm is
stronger should use a left-handed paddle.  They, being old-fashioned
Hungarians, would not give an explanantion.  Someone else, though, told
me it was because it took a teeny amount of time to flip the paddle with
the control hand.  It was assumed that a right-handed person would take
his or her first stroke on the right at the start of the race.  By using
a left-handed paddle, one would take two strokes before having to change
blade angle with the control hand.  To this day, forty years later, I
still use a left-handed paddle.  What was funny was that when I went to
the sprint World Championships in 1970, all the Hungarian paddlers, and
they were great racers, were using right-handed blades.  

So it's really amazing to see that old idea pop up again.

Jim Tibensky
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