Going the Distance

I've been neglecting the web site a bit. Here is an article I wrote during our trip to the Adirondacks in September.

On the first day of paddling after arriving in the Adirondacks, our group of 16 did a 15-mile paddle. Although I would consider that a medium-length paddle, many of us had not done that kind of distance all season. The result was that several people lagged the group, and after we arrived at our destination I heard various complaints of aches and pains.

The following day I had the opportunity to help a couple of the women in the group to improve their strokes, and observed several things about their paddling technique. I was able to suggest improvements that they said helped them, so this article was inspired by lessons learned from those two days.

As always, a lot of this stuff may seem like common sense, and you keep hearing it over and over, yet paddlers keep making the same mistakes. My hope is that some of these suggestions will help sea kayakers to improve their stroke technique so that they are both better able to keep up with the group and arrive less fatigued. The ultimate goal is to develop an efficient, natural forward stroke that you don’t have to think about.

First, here are some of the mistakes that I observed:

• Not enough torso rotation – This is probably the most common mistake, and is often the hardest to correct. As many times as you hear people tell you to rotate your torso, it’s really hard to develop proper torso rotation unless you really concentrate on it. Eventually you will develop natural torso rotation because it’s simply easier than paddling with just your arms, but in the beginning it’s very difficult.
• Pushing the top hand too far – Many people recommend pushing the top hand to help improve power, but a lot of people wind up pushing the top hand too far. My belief is that if the top blade of your paddle pushes more than a couple inches over the deck of the boat, you’re pushing the top hand too far.
• Pulling the bottom hand too far – This is related to pushing the top hand too far. Since many people have problems with proper torso rotation. They try to compensate and take longer strokes by pulling the blade that is in the water past the point where it is effective. My belief is that if your elbow goes farther than your back, then you’re pulling the bottom hand too far.
• Paddling air – This is something I didn’t notice before, but both of the women I was working on the second day with were doing this and I’m guessing that this is true of many paddlers. Basically, paddling air means that as the paddler reaches forward with the bottom blade to take a stroke, she starts the stroke before the blade is in the water.

I like to call my paddling technique “lazy paddling” because I tend to take low-angle and relatively short strokes, yet I am still able to paddle faster and with less fatigue than many people. Therefore based on the observations over those couple of days, I would like to suggest a number of improvements that may help a large number of paddlers.

• Use your stomach muscles to rotate your torso – There are a couple of techniques that may help with torso rotation. The first is to practice rotation on dry land, without a PDF, to see and feel what your torso is doing when you don’t have to concentrate on the water and everything else around you. The second technique is to more or less lock your elbows at a 90-degree angle, and use your forearms to just raise and lower the paddle into and out of the water, without a lot of reaching or extension. This basically forces you to exaggerate your torso rotation in order to take a stroke, and is where most of your power comes from. The thing to think about when you're doing this is pushing the paddle with your stomach muscles. If your stomach muscles are sore after a day's paddling, then you know that you're doing it right.
• Paddle with your legs – This one comes from my wife Barbara. It’s something both of realized that we’re doing automatically when paddling, but it should be pointed out because it’s not taught and it may not be obvious. Basically, in order to rotate your torso, you need to brace your feet against your foot pegs so that you can get the proper leverage. The trick here is to actually push a bit on the left foot if you’re rotating to the left, or push on the right foot if you’re rotating to the right. This requires that the foot pegs in your boat are properly adjusted so that your knees are slightly bent in the sitting position. Pushing your feet forward has the effect of improving your leverage when you are trying to rotate your torso, and therefore it also increases the power of your rotation, which leads to more powerful strokes. If you have a rudder, I recommend pushing with both feet, just slightly more with one or the other to get that extra leverage.
• Sit up straight – Hey, I like lazy paddling, but leaning back while paddling is a bit too lazy. Sitting up straight allows better paddle placement and more powerful torso rotation.
• Low angle strokes – Higher angle strokes are good for power and acceleration and give you more of a workout, but can also wear you out. I like to take low angle strokes just because it takes less energy. Why lift your arm to your forehead if lifting it to your chest will get the job done just the same? If you have to take higher angle strokes just to get the entire blade in the water, it probably means that you need a longer paddle.
• Take shorter strokes – You’ve heard this before: Put the paddle in at the toes and take it out at your seat. But as I observed, many people overestimate the length of their legs when they are inside the boat. On the stroke initiation, if your arm is extended and your elbow is nearly straight, or your paddle blade goes over the deck of your boat, then you are definitely reaching too far forward. My recommendation is to bring the paddle parallel with your chest, then rotate your torso about 45 degrees, keeping the paddle parallel with your chest, then put the bottom blade into the water. That is approximately where each forward stroke should start. As far as where to remove the paddle from the water, try to do it when it reaches the back of your seat pan. Also, pretend there is a 2x4 attached horizontally across the middle of your back, and you do not want to pull your arm so far that it hits the 2x4. This means that if you want to take a longer stroke, you have to rotate your torso to change the angle of the 2x4.
• Stop paddling air – Paddling air is a big energy drain, probably second to only paddling with your arms, because of the extra body movement that does not translate into forward motion. My recommendation is to watch when your bottom blade reaches its furthest point (at your toes, remember) and immediately place it in the water before starting the stroke. This actually extends your stroke by several inches, giving you more power and speed.

I would recommend that paddlers practice “conscious paddling”, which is to actively pay attention to your own paddling technique as you paddle. See if you can find yourself slipping into any of the bad habits that I pointed out, then see if you can apply any of the suggestions I made. Even one or two of these improvements may help your stroke enough so that you are better able to keep up with the group and less tired after your trip, which leads to a more enjoyable paddling experience for everyone.