i try to warm up every paddle
by doing some tyrannasaurus rex paddling.
With a euro I would put my hands way down the shaft near the blades and lock your elbows, try to warm up by paddling that way for about five minutes forwards and reverse, (if you don’t capsize when you paddle this way in reverse on your first try you’re doing better than I did).
And then choke way in on the blade and lock your elbows in at your side and try to paddle this way for about five both forwards and reverse.
When you can’t use your arms to any great effect it forces you to use your torso and you start to feel those muscles in your obliques and your back going to work.
Beach ball – terrific!
This sounds like a great teaching technique. I can’t wait to try it. Air paddling at my desk, I’m not sure I understand the no-ball, hand/elbow thing, but presumably it will make sense when I get on the water.
I have a similar technique I use to achieve the same effect. In brief, it starts by asking the student turn in their boat, paddle held out in a box, as far to the side as their body will allow, especially locking the hips. There’s more, but that’s the idea.
–David.
convergent evolution
Yeah, the rotation to the side maintaining the box also works well.
Here is something amusing- many years ago I saw Nigel Foster demonstrating some paddle drills that had no real function other than stimulating body movement, and paddle awareness. His favorite was something he called the “goon” stroke. With the body rotated as much as possible to one side, both hands over the water (sound familiar?) the paddler then performed draw strokes alternating each blade. First a bow draw, then a stern draw, etc. Great for balance, torso rotation, blade control.
In a different place, a different time, and a different boat, I saw the same thing being done- by Greg Barton! For him, it was a great drill to hone balance in an ICF kayak (it is!). What was amusing was that I was already doing this for the kids I coach in sprint boats, having observed the value of it from Foster.
Sort of back to my original premise- many things that are used to teach torso rotation in reality focus on the paddle or the shoulders. The first step is to make the student initiate movement at the hips. Sounds like you are already doing it with the turn to the side maintaining the box.
karl
oops
Talk about context… if my last reply doesnt seem to make sense, it was becuase it was meant to reply to Bob Haley’s (roller) last post, the one titled “Karl, what do you have against…”
hips hips hips
– Last Updated: Jul-04-05 10:07 PM EST –
Yes, it's all in the hips. In fact, I've taken to calling it "paddling from the hips" rather than "torso rotation". Torso rotation, IMHO, is an ~effect~ of paddling from the hips, a diagnostic symptom. Concentrating on "torso rotation" as the root causal movement has, IMHOA, impeded good teaching of forward stroke.
Interestingly, a whole lot in paddling is about or concerns "paddling from the hips", not just forward stroke... edging, rolling, bracing, sweeping, even drawing to some extent ("face your work")
In fact consider sweeping. As I was trying to teach forward stroke from the hips to a particularly difficult student this weekend (my wife; not difficult per se, but you know what I mean) I realized that the exercise of turning the paddle parallel to the boat and out over the water, hips maximally cocked and then unwinding is pretty close to... ta dahhh... a good stationary reverse sweep stroke. The differences is paddle placement and trajectory -- out beside the boat, rear blade in the water, sweep the blade out -- which makes it a reverse sweep. It's still unwinding the hips that spins the boat just as it propels the boat for a forward stroke.
So, reverse stationary sweeping might make a good exercise to induce the feeling of winding the hips and unwinding them to move the boat. But you can finesse the (rather complex) mechanics of placement and trajectory of the paddle for a good forward stroke. Of course, forward stationary sweeping would work too, but then you get back into paddle placement as for a forward stroke.
Make any sense?
--David.
Sirius- I’m not really qualified
– Last Updated: Jul-04-05 9:52 PM EST –
to give you advice. However I will. Lift the opposite elbow up, spear the water for the catch, rotate the torso while pushing the back arm forward (without much bend) like you're delivering a punch, cross your body with the forward arm, take out when the back paddle side reaches your hip, then start over on the opposite side. Keep looking forward and sit straight.
Good luck.
OT-Is That Ski Screwing Up Your Stroke
yet? Freakin’ thing is so tippy. If I rotate as I do in a kayak, over I go. Quick “lillydipping” strokes seem to allow me to stay up on the ski.
sing
Torso Rotation
I agree that “torso” rotation is a misnomer, but I think hip rotation might also be misleading. I consider the rotation to start from the feet. With the foot braces positioned correctly the paddler should have the ability to nearly straighten one leg at a time. The straightened leg then forces the hips to rotate and that in turn rotates the lower back. One little simple excercise that demonstrates this clearly is to place paddle behind back with arms over the shaft.Try to paddle. Now try the same thing without contact with the foot braces. Usually a fairly concrete demonstration that needs little explanation.
Falcon
Not “hip rotation”, but…
– Last Updated: Jul-05-05 10:40 AM EST –
... "paddling from the hips" is the way I like to say it. What I mean is that it should feel like the unwinding hip is actually connected directly to the opposite paddle blade and is propelling the boat.
Yes, the force does also seem to emanate from the feet on the pegs or bulkhead. But in my experience, that follows from "paddling from the hips". If you unwind the hips strongly and drive the opposite paddle blade backwards with the hips, your paddle-side foot will instinctively press the peg, and you will push back with the paddle-side leg, by straightening and tensing it.
So, if we teach "press the footpegs," we also have to teach "rotate the torso" since it's easy to press the footpeg without rotating the torso (I did for years). But if we teach "paddle from the hips" the other two follow naturally. You'd almost have to work consciously to have them not happen.
At least that's the way I experience it. I used to have to keep reminding myself to press the footpegs, and would frequently forget for many minutes or longer. The day I started consciously paddling from the hips, instantly I no longer had to keep muttering "press the footpeg" to myself... it just happened naturally. Of course, I did have to mutter "paddle from the hips" but that just seems more at the root of the action. In fact, after a mile or so of concentrating hard on paddling from the hips, I finally directed my attention to my legs, and was amazed to find they were pumping, tensing and pushing the feet into the pegs with the proper rhythm -- on their own!
--David.