Carey Parks wrote: > I'm not able to make any statements about absolute efficiency of one > stroke vs another, I'll leave that to you physics types. If it were just physics, it wouldn't be that hard - but since there's physiology involved, we'd need to measure the oxygen-usage of paddlers with different strokes. Lacking that, we'd better not talk too much about efficiency, but about the ability to _keep it up_ for any length of time. Which is convenient, since both of us ARE talking about that. It's the main question in my video: "How _do_ we keep it up?" > But I can't paddle like that all day. In fact, I can't paddle any > particular way all day. Neither can I, now that you mention it. Mostly, I don't WANT a single best stroke: Other strokes allow me better to enjoy the scenery, smoke, photograph and talk to my dog while paddling, and just feel more relaxed - which is what I paddle for. The stroke I teach has a very specific purpose for me. Whenever I find myself late in the afternoon, hungry, tired, with just an hour of daylight left and 5 kilometers to paddle to the car, _this_ is the stroke I turn to get the job done. > It is easy to demonstrate our muscles work best in pulses, not steady > output. Just hold the paddle at arms length and see how long it is > comfortable. About 1 minute... I've tried. > Yet we somehow manage to paddle for hours without > "stopping" (if you are the kayak.) When trying it, in my living room, I could keep it up longer if I moved the paddle in a paddling-like style. I could keep that up for perhaps 5 minutes, but nowhere near an afternoon of paddling. There might be a placebo-effect involved though: I _wanted_ to keep it up for only a short time. > I know I have several different > strokes, some of which look the same from outside, but internally I can > be pulling my low hand one time and pushing my top hand the next, > sharing the work and allowing for some recovery. Hmmm... I don't think I have different strokes that look the same. I'll check, next time on the water. > So there may be physiological reasons to favor a stroke, or strokes, > which are different from the pure mechanical advantage of one stroke vs > another. I do use the "vertical rest stroke" every time I go out, but it > is not the only stroke I use, and it probably isn't the one I use most > during a 10 mile paddle. "Vertical rest stroke"... I like it. ;-) Niels *************************************************************************** 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 Thu Apr 28 2011 - 09:29:32 PDT
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