Longer paddles make a mess of it for sprinters. It is a game of explosive force, in which you make the most of the big muscles of your legs and torso. The best way to do this in a sprint kayak is through hip and torso rotation. If your blade is off somewhere past Kansas, you won't be rotating much at all, and therefore you won't be exploding much at all -- about all you will be doing is turning your boat off course with each stroke/sweep. Another way to look at it is to start with an optimal explosive stroke. Don't worry about the paddle length at this point -- just focus on what you have to do to blow everything you have into one stroke (be it a conventional blade based stroke or a wing blade based stroke). Now consider that you have to maintain this level of explosion for each stroke for the distance of the course. What sort of recovery time do you need between each stroke so as to be able to maintain the intensity for a particular course length? Once you have a handle on the recovery time needed, you can then set your optimal stroke rate. Only at this point should you start playing about with shaft length and blade length, so as to determine what paddle will best permit your optimal stroke. If your paddle is too short, you will over-rev and run out of beans before the finish line because you are skimping of your recoveries, and you will not rotate far enough forward for your catch, so you will not have an optimal explosion due to lack of rotation. If your paddle is too long, the stroke rate will be too slow to permit optimal explosions each stroke (unless you are the Six Million Dollar Man, who explodes in slow motion with that nifty music), and you will be sweeping too much. In particular, if you are using a wing blade, you need to keep the shaft more vertical as compared against a conventional blade(OK, I exaggerate, but you get the idea), so although you tend to use a longer paddle with the wing stroke (when compared with a non-wing stroke, the wing stroke takes the blade further away from the boat as you stroke, so it goes a longer distance, so a longer paddle is needed), if the paddle is too long, you can't catch in a fairly vertical position close to the boat, so the stroke goes to hell and a hand basket at the catch, putting a nix on your stroke before you even get to the pull phase. -----Original Message----- From: owner-paddlewise_at_paddlewise.net [mailto:owner-paddlewise_at_paddlewise.net] On Behalf Of MATT MARINER BROZE . . . . If anyone could deal with a longer (higher gear) paddle it would be the sprint racers, but I think you will find they are using paddles in the 215cm range. . . . . *************************************************************************** *************************************************************************** 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 Fri Jul 16 2010 - 21:36:51 PDT
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