C-Forum

Who has some good pointers on keeping my cross stroke forward?
It often tapers off into a cross draw when i'm trying to do a pure power stroke. I have tried shortening the stroke and paying attention to where my thumb is pointing. I guess I just need practice. I'll save the flatwater drills for when everything else has dried up this winter.

Lean out to start the stroke. Further than you might think. The stroke will keep you upright. Keep the paddle perpendicular at the outset. This will set you up for a straight stroke.
In many cases, you want a slight draw as the bow has swung to the onside a bit which is why you went to an offside in the beginning. This requires more of a lean to get the blade away from the boat a bit.
The main thing, though, is to push with the upper hand. If you pull with the lower, the blade will naturally turn a bit sideways and pull the boat in more of a draw than a power stroke.
Bill

To be able to drive my top hand forward, do I need to rotate my torso to my onside to start my cross stroke and simultaneously pull my t-hand back? I also notice this weekend in the flats that making sure my left hand is further away from the boat helps.

Search on the term "Hulk Hogan" in this forum for some interesting discussion on the cross forward

I've actually got Joel's response to the last time I was asking about this printed out and posted at my desk....

Oops - didn't remember that was *your* thread - LOL

I always rotated my torso toward the offside, not onside, but the main thing is to lean forward. When you make the cross over, the upper hand will have to move backward, but this requires no conscious effort as the torso rotation will move it to the correct place.
Try it sitting in a chair. Hold your hands at paddling position on the onside right beside your waist. Rotate the torso to the offside without moving your arms beyond what the torso rotation requires. You'll see that they move to the offside with the lower hand forward of the upper hand. This puts you in position to initiate an offside forward stroke by pushing the top hand forward with the back.
Bill

I try to look people eye to eye and show no emotion. Keeping a straight face in buisness is always a good idea.

JIM

I will be posting a YouTube video on offside paddling in the next couple of weeks.

I wondered myself about the little stern draw myself - until I saw Martikan do it too. We must be doing something right.

Bob P wrote:I wondered myself about the little stern draw myself - until I saw Martikan do it too. We must be doing something right.

I think most of the time, the stern draw is a natural correction on a cross-stroke. I'm thinking more in situations where you really need a couple of quick crosses to excellerate or to correct without losing and forward momentum.

I'm pretty sure this is one of those things that would be alot easier to talk about if we were all together in our boats and not sitting at desks.....

Take a look at the strokes around 1:45 in this YouTube Video. A little different because I am also doing a cross-sweep on some but...

Plant your paddle way up front, like a stick in the mud. Then bring the boat forward with your hips and thighs. Keep it short, and up front

Craig hit the nail on the head. What you are doing with your paddle is not half as important as what you are doing with your body to a)tell the boat where you want to go, and b)keep the boat running. In all reality, once you master these body mechanics, your need for the offside will be dramatically reduced.

The boat will go wherever your hips tell it. This is inclusive of both forward propulsion and rotation. The difficult part is learning how to accurately communicate with the boat. Sometimes this works better than others. My session tonight for instance, apparently I was speaking Latin or some trash, because my boat made sure to punish me a couple of times.

The best way to practice this is again flatwater. Wait for it. There it is. Now, after everybody has performed their synchronized vomiting routine, we can continue.

With a close second being the forward stroke, this stroke is easily one of the most difficult skills to master. As a result, flatwater removes the inherent variables present in whitewater, allowing exclusive focus on technical nuances which can then be transferred onto moving water where there are more variables to contend with.

To learn how to direct and run the boat on your offside with your pelvis, first get the boat running. Next place your blade into the water perpendicular to the boat and try to keep the boat running in a straight line. This will take some time to figure out and can be an elusive skill even once mastered.

Once comfortable with this, begin to place the blade in different positions, behind your hips, then in front of your hips, forward toward the bow. The entire time this is being performed after getting the boat running, then with the boat running attempting to keep the boat running in a straight line.

Once comfortable in various static positions, then perform the same drill moving the blade fore and aft, slicing it from behind the hips toward the bow and back. Again this is with the boat running and keeping it running straight.

While performing this drill, also shift gears and put your attention to how the boat is running. Experiment with your posture to find the posture which keeps the boat running the best. Play with separate componets of your posture, rolling your sholders forward and back and rolling your pelvis forward and back. How many differient componets of posture can you isolate from your head to your knees?

These drills develop the fundamental skills necessary for an efficient cross-power stroke. With the core mechanics mastered, what is done with the blade will fall into place.

My instructor at MKC told me to kiss the floatation bags when doing a cross-forward stroke. She said that when done that way, you'd have the most powerful stroke on the offside that you'd ever want to have. I think it's good advice.

The other good advice I've gotten is to plant the paddle and pull myself to the paddle rather than to pull the paddle to my hip. I think it's basically the same thing as what my MKC intructor told me.

Personally, I love cross forward strokes. I don't quite know why, but it's pretty much my favorite way to paddle. I used to think it was because I wore out my paddle so much that I had a better bite on my offside, but I have a nice new paddle and I still like the offside stroke. I find myself going to them almost more than onside strokes.

Deb

Thanks Joel. Thats what I was looking for. A reminder that in order to get better at something I love, I 'm going to have to do something the bores the $3it out of me. I've been paddling the Riggins section of the Salmon the last few weekends as not much else less than 5 hrs away is still in. Drops about 12 ft per mile and has huge pools, so hopefully working on my technique there counts as flatwater.

Level looks like it has dropped enough for some good Idaho park and play at Cat's Paw this weekend.