General Canoeing Technique Advice

[magicmike]

Great video! It has so few plays because our northern neighbors spell canoe wrong.-M-

[jakke]

Thank you for pointing out the MKC - Open Canoe Technique Video
http://vimeo.com/96497429" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

It does a very good job of presenting the fundamentals of moving water or white water canoeing.

I'm surprised that its stats show only 30 some plays.

I haven't watched it completely, but I do miss a couple important keypoints that you'd better get in from the start. Just to mention a few:
- most paddling comes from the arms, hardly any torso musclles, not to mention rotation is used
- blade positioning, blades are not fully submerged to start, and for example the blade postioning for the bow draw is way too far to the back for a clean bow draw. The postioning that is demoed is awesome for a stationary bow draw on the move, but you'll lose quite a bit of turning momentum if you do the bow draw that far backward
- a good catch is often abscent, so an important portion of the movement is wasted in moving water, not moving the boat.

Concerning the river moves, there is a lot of tactical choices to be made. The ones I see are valid moves, but certainly not the "least effort" variations, or demanding the most from your paddling technique.

Personally I think there is better content out there when it comes to paddling technique videos (and yes, I do have plenty of comments on my own paddling videos). And even then no video can replace good instruction. But I'm a technique freak, I do realize not everybody wants to go into that much detail .

[ian123]

I actually think it's the best technique video I have seen. The focus of the video is understanding and manipulating the 4 variables involved in carving turns independently and then eventually integrating them into your own technique. There wasn't actually any attempt to describe the forward stroke at all…. or any other subtle aspects of canoeing.

You can (and should) chase the "perfect" forward stroke for your entire paddling career but it is impossible to achieve. A lot paddlers struggle to simply move their boat around river…. this video is directed at them…… and it's FREE!

This technique was a bit of an epiphany for me when I was learning and is something I should practice again.

If you are indeed a technique freak, I hope you have opportunity to talk with the gentleman in the video some day.

[jakke]

I actually think it's the best technique video I have seen. The focus of the video is understanding and manipulating the 4 variables involved in carving turns independently and then eventually integrating them into your own technique. There wasn't actually any attempt to describe the forward stroke at all…. or any other subtle aspects of canoeing.

You can (and should) chase the "perfect" forward stroke for your entire paddling career but it is impossible to achieve. A lot paddlers struggle to simply move their boat around river…. this video is directed at them…… and it's FREE!

This technique was a bit of an epiphany for me when I was learning and is something I should practice again.

If you are indeed a technique freak, I hope you have opportunity to talk with the gentleman in the video some day.

Ha, I didn't notice at first the video is actually featuring Andrew Westwood. (watched it a bit better, with sound now)

I'm not saying the 2x4 concept is bad, it has value, absolutely (even though I do not agree with everything that is stated, technically wise). But I guess we're entering teaching methodics here. 2x4 largely relies on a "feeling", cause you have to know and feel when to change one of these veriables. 2x4 is for sure a concept that all intermediate to advanced paddlers use up to certain variations.

Now 2x4 is no magic solution for paddlers who have a hard time moving their boats around on moving water. In my experience having difficulties to move the boat around on the river shows already in how people move their boat around on flatwater. That's why I take many of my students back to the flatwater, and work on these fine details, and get some of the fundamentals in place you need if you want to become a smooth paddler. Once they master these fundamentals, there is no need to explain the 2x4, cause they already know it, unconsciously, and apply it. (not saying teaching 2x4 first and apply it to the rest of the paddling later is a bad approach!)

And it's exactly some of this fundamental stuff I'm missing in the paddling in that video, and not "just" on the forward stroke. I'm not saying you can't paddle class IV or V without these fundamentals, there are many people running the large steaming pile of dog doo with important lacks in their fundamental paddling repertoire (from a very technical point of view that is). I've taken a fair bit of paddlers of all capabilities, including class IV boaters and ACA L4 instructor candidates, through more or less bits of what I consider fundamentals. And up till now, all have been very happy with the work they did and could directly transfer the newly improved skills to whatever environment they paddle in.

Now this is more an instructor point of view, and there is no one truth. So yes, if I ever make it across the pond I'd love the have a chat with Andrew amongst many others, and a paddle too, if I can keep up with him, cause he's paddling harder, more consequental stuff than I do at the moment. Andrew is clearly an experienced paddler and instructor and well known and respected within the paddling community. He displays for example really nice river reading skills and boat positioning in the somewhat harder bits of whitewater with the bigger waves.

Now I can write all I want, some video maybe says more. This video is from a 10 days paddling I did with some friends in Norway. The video is more or less chronological over the 10 days. You can see some of them having a hard time moving their boat around on flatwater in the beginning. Check out how these guys are moving their boats on the river by the end of the video. I have been very impressed by all of their achievements in those 10 days. As you'll be able to see, no 2x4, but back to the foundations first. And if you look carefully, you'll notice the 2x4 concepts in their paddling on the river, but I never spoke about them that way.
Enjoy: https://vimeo.com/75507670
I'm also very much aware that not everybody wants or can paddle at this kind of technical level. I also know it's not a popular approach for some paddler groups. I'm convinced that a certain amount of technicality needs to be there. If you're sloppy on easy rivers, you'll be even sloppier on harder whitewater. And the window in which you can work gets smaller and smaller the harder the rapids become.

I also invite you to have a look at Kelvin Horner's teaser video http://www.sweet-skills.com/index.html. I'm really anxious to see his instructional video's coming up. But in the teaser you can already see some display of really sweet (pun intended) and smooth paddling skills.

PS, I'm also very happy to comment upon my own paddling and the video's I have online. If you want to be strict for other people, you have to be strict for yourself in the first place