John Kirk-Anderson wrote: > My conclusion, after two paddles, one a couple of days ago in flat calm > water, and one today in 15 knots, was that the idea of allowing the > paddle to "drop" was a good way of getting a relaxed entry and > encouraged a flowing motion. For this reason I may use part of this > explanation when instructing. Thanks for trying it out, John. When all's said and done, there's just one thing that matters: Does it help in instruction? > I think your way of looking at the stroke may be a good way to teach the > fundimentals, but I would then rapidly move the student to getting more > bang for their buck. I usually have a guest-instructor doing the forward stroke in lesson 3, while I handle lessons 1 and 2 with getting in and out of a kayak, going forward without going in circles, capsizes and rescues and a demonstration of what _can_ be done with a kayak. In lesson 3, they'll get the normal instruction anyway, so I plan to include my vertical-rest-stroke in lesson 1, just to see if they pick it up. > Regarding using the smallest muscles necessary to get the job done, your > example was scratching your head, I wonder how you would scratch your > head if you had to do it for several hours? I suspect that the shoulder > and back muscles would soon come into play rather than the fingers. Luckily, I have no reason to scratch my head for several hours. ;-) But if we look at light activities that ARE performed for long durations, like typing, channel-surfing and playing musical instruments, you'll find that the more experienced the performer, the smaller the movements. I'm talking about _classical_ musicians: Rock-artists tend to go the other way, making their movements as large as possible. I don't think they do the same in the studio, though. 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/ ***************************************************************************
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