I come from a bicycling background. I bring that mentality to the boat. On the bike you keep your upper body relaxed and fairly still and let your lower body power you forward. The exception is if you’re standing on the pedals.
If your kayak has a nice smooth seat you may be able to comfortably slide your butt around some and get some of the power that a rower gains from leg action. If your seat isn’t designed for that any leg push is just wasted energy. You use torso rotation for power.
In short… if you’re pushing with your legs and your butt isn’t sliding around it’s just wasted energy.
I didn’t get anywhere when I tried using my legs. Part of the problem is I’m bowlegged, and the other is my butt doesn’t swivel on the seat of any kayak that I’ve ever been in. Having said that, it does feel natural to push my foot on the side with the stroke, and I probably do have a bit of hip rotation as I twist my torso even though my butt is planted.
IMO a technique that is best for sprint racing may not be the best technique for whitewater or long expeditions, any more than a Formula 1 is the best car for going on a road trip. The techniques that I’ve seen on videos are configured to maximize the amount of power that you can deliver from the blade to the water in the shortest amount of time. Doing that will tire you quickly.
For example, pushing instead of pulling can definitely get you going fast, but after an hour or two my muscles get tired and I switch off with other techniques. The one that actually gets me going the fastest is a power stroke where I am bending to catch as far forward as possible, pulling the longest possible distance using torso and arms, and even pulling the blade up hard at the end to catch that last bit of power from the flip out of the water. Then its just a matter of minimizing the amount of time between strokes that you aren’t pulling.
This is a good point. Unless you’re a competitive racer, you probably aren’t using a race stroke all the time. But I would never equate it to a Formula 1 car on a road trip. A car analogy I might use is an 8 cylinder engine that runs on only 4 cylinders during easy driving. When more power is called upon, 8 cylinders are activated. With a bit of room in a sea kayak, that power can be available to you. It’s very useful for bursts of speed. You’ll do better in a race. Doesn’t have to be official. You could just be racing Bill in his canoe to the shoreline. You’ll be able to make meaningful progress against stronger currents. You’ll keep up with faster paddlers. And it simply can be satisfying to be able to attain higher speed. And I can’t overemphasize what it contributes to comfort for me on a long day on the water to just utilize it periodically.
It can take a bit to figure out how to relax the right muscles while engaging the right muscles. The hips as a whole to me have to feel pretty relaxed. If you have a kayak that produces a gurgle at the bow as you reach higher speeds, I’ve found that very useful. Don’t do the things that provide a “feeling” of applied strength. Arms are great for that. What conveys strength better than an image of a bulging bicep? But arms just aren’t the source of the greater power. Instead, do what allows you to maintain the consistently strongest gurgle - the most speed. The racing stroke tends to be short, out at the hips, not because you can’t arm paddle and remove the blade at the hips. But because that’s about as far as you can get while engaging your powerful muscles, without using your arms. And using your arms to extend the stroke ends up just taking away from the time that you’re engaging more powerful muscles, or if you’re still out at the hips, arms replace using more powerful muscles that you could have been using.
For myself, trying to figure these things out as best as I’ve been able up to now, the things that provided the fastest speed were not the things that “felt” like I was applying the most power. So I think for many, it’s a pretty complex learning process. But since figuring bits and pieces out, a restrictive cockpit tends to become a source of frustration after some miles.
