Set Up & Lock

Set Up
Following is a detailed breakdown of proper technique to enter the water correctly.

• Start your rotating for the stroke from hip.
• As you rotate your hip forward lock into your core and reach paddle forward. Reach by showing your chest to the opposite shore.
• Keep top arm high but with the shoulder down. Your upper armpit should be at 90 degrees to your torso.
• Bottom arm straight reaching forward for the plant. Think in terms of lower arm doing a punch.
• Paddle at 45 degree angle forward for catch.
• Head up to expand chest and see what you are doing.

Blade Lock
Following is a detailed breakdown of proper technique entering the water and getting a good “catch” of the water.
This is a separate function to the power phase.

• While rotated and with chest to opposite shore think about keeping the blade moving forward, the same direction as the boat, before you hit the water. Goal is to maximize your reach and stoke length upfront.
• Enter the water at 40 degrees. • Blade should be fully submerged before you pull back.
• Bottom arm remains straight.
• Keep rotation to maximize reach.
• Keep head up to expand chest and see what you are doing.
• Should be minimal noise on entry. If you make a loud splashing noise it means either the blade is not fully buried and/or you are pulling back early.
• Activating the catch before pulling back is essential. These are 2 separate functions and this one is called “locking” the catch (beware not to take shortcut).

Feel

As paddlers get comfortable they tend to concentrate less on technique and more on power. If you are trying to develop good technique to optimize your power you must learn good technique first. If you do so you will be stronger than just muscling through the stroke.

Feel your body as it moves through the stroke. Feel the water and the varying conditions that you are paddling in. Feel the people around you and how you are blending together. Feel where the crew is applying power through the stroke. Feeling what you are doing is an aspect of mental training that translate into better technique.

Feel each one of these points of technique as you are performing them.

• Rotation from hip (not just leaning forward).

• Straight bottom arm (not bent like “choo-choo” action of broken arm going in motion of arm on train wheels). Bigger paddlers especially fall into this trap.

• Use whole body (including leg drive, abs and back), not just arms.

• Keep paddle as perpendicular to water on 2 planes (as seen from side and behind) for as long as possible.

• Timing is crucial (look diagonal and in front, take timing from top hand).

• Exit at hip.

• Maximise reach. The longer the blade is in water ahead of your hip, the more you are contributing. Reach farther than you have been without leaning farther forward. Rotate deeply through your core.

• Head up at all times.

Feeling what you are doing while you are doing it is difficult. It requires concentration and separation. Concentrating on what you are feeling in each part of your body. Separation from your need to be powerful and muscle the boat forward. Try to incorporate a concious effort to see yourself. Take the time to realize what you are doing. Don't let habit take over. Stop. Look. Feel.

Observe Technique

If you watch a paddler with good technique you will see the following:

· The bodies large muscles doing most of the work

· Relaxation of the muscles not engaged during the effort

· Structurally sound body mechanics

These points are all intertwined and play an equal part in good technique. It's important to not only observe what you are doing but also to feel what you are doing while paddling. Without one of these items the others will, in time, fail and injuries or strained muscles will occur.

Rotator cuff injuries or strain

Coaches should be careful not to advocate technique that exposes athletes to injury. One of these injury causing movements is having the top hand above the head exposing the top shoulder to injury. Moving the arm up and down at the shoulder is asking for an injury involving the rotator cuff. Take the time to consciously look at yourself objectively while you are paddling. Where is your uper hand through the stroke? Can you draw on the above points during your stroke? Observation is key to improvement. You must observe and process to change.

The rotator cuff muscles control rotation of the shoulder. These muscles are put under a great deal of strain especially when your arm is above your head repeatedly. The rotator cuff is a group of muscles which work together to provide the shoulder joint with dynamic stability, helping to control the joint during rotation (hence the name). Due to the function of these muscles, sports which involve a lot of shoulder rotation – for example, dragon boating, outrigger paddling, kayaking, etc. – often put the rotator cuff muscles under a lot of stress. (notes from sports injury clinic).

While you are paddling concentrate on your shoulder and arm and feel what they are doing. Are they moving up and down instead of locking into your core and being an extension of your back. Watch the person ahead of you on the boat. What is their shoulder and upper arm doing during the stroke? Your shoulder should be down at all times and therefore providing a strong extension of your large back muscles to plant, pull, and move the boat forward.

Goble Goble

Happy Thanksgiving
Good food equals good performance.

Let’s Talk Technique

The best time to change technique is during the winter months or off-season. Fitting technique into a periodization plan is recommended. Technique training sessions fit well in the beginning/ends of cycles. Be sure to account for poor weather too when planning technique sessions. There is nothing worse than having a technique workout planned when one cannot feel the canoe because of many layers of clothing and numb hands.

Perfect technique is not the same for everyone. Different body types, different body geometries causes us all to move in slightly different way in order to achieve optimal efficiency. Water conditions, race distance, paddle length, boat speed, height above the water also change the best way to move the canoe.

Coaching technique is challenging. A Coach should not fix the symptom of poor technique but rather the cause of poor technique. Knowing what the root cause for an athlete’s non-optimal movement is the coaches’ challenge; communicating how to change is a joint responsibility; changing the technique falls to the athlete. Athletes must learn how to feel, how to change and adapt to different situations. Athletes ultimately own their technique, their success and injuries cause the athlete pain - not the coach. Coaches should not cast their perfect technique on their athletes. I find it best to try to get the athlete to tell me what they are feeling, how they are trying to work towards changing technical issues. A coaches’ roll is to enable the athlete to perform optimally. The athlete must learn how to adapt their technique to conditions on race day. One of the most challenging parts of technical development is getting the brain out of the way. Letting the body move in its most efficient way is, most often, the best technique. Learning to do this takes time, but without enabling the body to feel good technique the braining must always be working on controlling the body. This is non optimal during races, long training sessions etc. The technique must be natural.

Winter Workouts for Best Performance

What workouts should athletes perform on and off the water in the winter in order to be best positioned to perform next race season?

The classic winter training plan is to develop base strength over the off-season. Time on the water paddling is very important. But what workouts individual athletes should do really depends on the weaknesses the athlete has identified for themselves.

Workouts on the water might include
· distance paddles at low intensity
· paddles with resistance
· long intervals at higher intensity
· technical sessions

Workouts off the water
· running distance and intervals
· weight workouts for supporting muscle groups
· weight workouts for sport specific muscle groups
· mental training(technical, isometrics and nerve system)
· swimming distance and intervals
· cross country skiing
· the list is long – erg…

One needs to have a plan. One needs to have a WRITTEN plan.

To achieve success one must define for themselves what success means. Then one needs to put a plan in place to achieve it. In order to put a plan in place one should utilize all resources available. In Portland there are many resources to use.

Mental Training for Optimal Performance and Training

Have you experienced a time during practice or competition where you could not focus? Are there times when the chatter in your head is negative? Have you ever heard about athletes doing mental training for their sport and you are not sure how to implement it yourself?

Mental training is a huge component of training and competing. It is a tool that regardless of your sport, when used consistently, can help you stay focused, stop negative self-talk, improve your technique/skills, increase your confidence, prepare you for certain situations in your sport (like winter training), and much more. For example, Jack Nicklaus, one of the greatest golfers, would run his own color movie in his head before hitting a shot, even in practice. His movie was very sharp and in-focus like he had actually performed it. This helped him to become a champion golfer of his time.

February Seminar
In February you will learn some tools that will help you take your paddling to a whole new level by implementing mental training into your life. The benefits may even be beyond paddling and expand to your everyday life.