canoe training & lost topics

[jakke]

Hi CBoaters,

Using the search function, I found a link to a nice flatwater slalom exercise. The problem is, I can't find it again. Anyone that does? Not that I'm intending to do slalom, but it's a great exercise to work on the basic strokes!

I also saw a topic with an Ikea gadget, used for balance exercising. Unfortunatly, again, the link is dead. Does Ikea stil have this thing and can someone provide a name/link of it? Or perhaps there are other tools / home-made training tools? We're planning to make something, but maybe we're reinventing the wheel.

I'm learning to roll my canoe at this moment, but I always forget my hip movement. I get up on arm-power, almost far enough, and I tip over again. I can only go to the pool once a week, so I'm searching for an exercise that I can do at home, staying dry. I think I'm missing the movement and also the arm-hip coordination. Anyone who has tips/exercises to work on this area? I tried google, but nothing so far.

Thanks,

J.

[Sir Adam]

A few notes:
1) Look under the "Technique" section (just below the ads) - there is a lot of good information there
2) Old posts links may or may not be good anymore...such is the nature of the internet, unfortunately.
3) Search feature and all old posts are still there, BUT we have removed the word "boat" as a search item (believe it or not there were several million entries of the word, and we believe that was contributing to the posting problems we had over the weekend (when the database tried to catalogue the contents of the post for searches, and found YET ANOTHER instance of the word "boat") So, depending on what search terms you used, you may need to alter them a bit now to find the link again. Though I think what you're looking for (not positive) is up under Technique as well....

[jakke]

I've seen the "technique" section, and there is indeed a whole lot of good info there. Lot's of balance exercises on the linked sites and so on, but nothing for the coordination needed when rolling.

Though the flatwater slalom setup is not linked in the "technique" section, and that link was stil good.

The pity about the Ikea thing is that there was a picture via a link, so the picture is also dead. If I had the picture, I could search for it, but probably we'll end up making something ourselves.

I can see you dropped "boat" as keyword. When indexing you end up with about every post ever made I guess. I'll search some more, and if anyone has a tip, feel free to comment

[madmike]

http://www.slalomtechnique.co.uk/c1technique.php

[Jim Michaud]

I'm learning to roll my canoe at this moment, but I always forget my hip movement.

Forget the hip snap. The bottom of your canoe is connected to your knees, not your butt. Stick your paddle out to the side and concentrate on hitting your head with your knees.... hard!

[watrwzrd]

Ditto,let your face which is looking right at the bottom of the river be the last thing out of the water other than the blade

[knu2xs]

For balance, forget all those gadgets. Get yourself a 55cm ball at wal-mart. Now kneel on the thing. Once this gets easy, have people throw stuff at you. Get creative. It really works.

[Alden]

You can all thank me for Joel's message.

(Hangs up jacket and large, wooden object.)

Like I always say,

"You can't wait for Joel to post. You have to go after him with a club."
- Alden

[jakke]

I still haven't found my wanted lost topic...

We don't have a Wall Mart in Belgium, but we do have that kind of balls .

And last week I did do my first pool-roll .
The times I managed, it was quite easy, the times I failed, I did some things wrong. As far as i figured out it comes to:
- don't push down with your arms and head "just"float.
- timing is everything
- keep your nose sticked to the paddle shaft

I did 2 or 3 succesfull rolls on 1.30h, in my 3th week of trying. I hope to pull up that success ratio by the end of the year, so I can start rolling on whitewater . And since I'm still making lots of mistakes, I hope to develop a reliable roll on the river soon .

[jakke]

For balance, forget all those gadgets. Get yourself a 55cm ball at wal-mart. Now kneel on the thing. Once this gets easy, have people throw stuff at you. Get creative. It really works.

Man, I got myself such a ball. I think it's dam hard to keep your balance on that one. I can imagine your balance improves when you manage to stay in balance while people throwing things at you. I can last 3sec in "un" balance, then I drop.

[jakke]

YES, found it back!
http://www.daveyhearn.com/Whitewater%20 ... course.htm

hopefully my flatwater gets a bit less boring now

[knu2xs]

Man, I got myself such a ball. I think it's dam hard to keep your balance on that one. I can imagine your balance improves when you manage to stay in balance while people throwing things at you. I can last 3sec in "un" balance, then I drop.

Stay with it, you'll be surprised how fast it comes. Continue to challenge yourself. Play with shifting your weight forward, back, side to side etc. Creativity rules here. Have fun.

[jakke]

I try to have a sit every day, 10 minutes or something. It already starts to go better. Once I have a steady sit, I can start bouncing, weight-shifting, playing with my powerball, whatsoever. I can even swing my paddle around .
But I do agree it helps, it get's the shocking motion out of my movement. When I shock on the ball, I drop, it has to be a smooth movement. That's also good for when I'm in my canoe.

Plenty of possibilities to improve my paddling:
- the ball for balance
- I'm finally getting a grasp on rolling
- I found back the flatwater slalom drills
- I discovered a slalom setup on a mild current nearby
- and of course we also paddle some rivers .

It will be a nice winter, hopefully with a lot of progress!


Cheers,

Jakke