[Paddlewise] Skills

Peter Treby said: "And the one piece of equipment that many people
really don't spend enough time learning to use is the kayak paddle! And
the body that operates it."

So do you think any training course for kayakers should start by
emphasising paddling fitness and paddle skills?   


My delayed reply:

I was paddling in the Everglades for Spring break [with seven teenage
girls and three other adults, an experience worthy of a story in
itself!], so my apologies for the slow reply.

I don't think any training course should ignore the body and the skills
of paddle use, but I would guess that the meat of that training should
be somewhere along the progression from intermediate to expert. 
Beginners need motivation and safety skills. Once they commit to more
adventerous paddling, then the fitness, flexibility and higher skills
should be empahsized.  Higher skills being rolls on both sides, rudder
strokes that work in many angles, braces in a lot of situations and
directions, a quiver of forward strokes.  The rescue and re-entry skills
are critical, of course, but my balance and fitness make me less likely
to need the back-up stuff.  Not to dismiss the rescue/re-entry skills,
but just to put fitness, flexibility and paddle skills above rescue in
my daily paddles.

I do things like paddle without a paddle while edging my boat in order
to challenge my balance so that nature's challenges will not surprise
me.  I was a successful slalom racer living in Chicago (no whitewater
within a hundred miles).  I think the success was, in great measure, due
to fooling around in my boat without a paddle while the boat is on edge.
 My slalom workouts in flatwater gates would include one run through the
course using only the left blade, one using only the right blade, one
using only my hands and one doing all the gates backwards.

I have paddling obsessive-compulsive disorder.  I know better than to
expect everyone else to be as committed (disturbed, insane) but I think
a little of that isn't so bad.  When I teach "Balance and Felxibility in
Your Boat" at symposiums the more advanced paddlers seem to learn a lot
and like the class.  I have attached it so you can see what I'm talking
about.

Jim Tibensky

[demime 1.01e removed an attachment of type application/pdf which had a name of WeirdStrokesFullBest.pdf]
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