C-Forum

Hi all,

Wondering if anyone has any recommendations for online or written resources on flatwater gates. The English Gate is the only one I can recall from my canoe camp days.

Looking for something (useful) to do on cottage mornings, any suggestions appreciated.

Thanks

http://www.daveyhearn.com/Coaching/Tech ... hnique.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Flatwater gates have their uses, and their limitations. The English Gate method really doesn't duplicate what you have to deal with in the real world, especially since reverse gates are gone. Working multiple gates in even a little current is ultimately preferable. The "trick" is to maintain speed through the gates as opposed to the non-efficient start/stop/turn process. You can do that even in flatwater.

A classic pool slalom configuration is to erect five gates in an "hourglass" pattern: two gates on the same wire about a boat length from one end of the pool, a single gate in the middle of the pool, and two gates on the same wire about a boat length from the opposite end of the pool. Within the confines of a typical indoor pool, you usually don't have enough space to install many more functionally useful gates than this and still have room to paddle, but this configuration does provide paddlers with a variety of useful gate combinations for practicing typical slalom moves, and thus will also work in other flatwater practice sites if you want to keep the number of gates erected to a minimum.

There are a lot of different ways that you can traverse through this small number of gates to practice upstream gates, offsets, etc. Visit http://www.daveyhearn.com/Whitewater%20 ... course.htm for an example of how to combine several such patterns together to make a 3-phase course. However, there are many different patterns of gate combinations that you can put together for training on a similar five-gate course.

John

I can second the Davey Hearn slalom drills, they are simply awesome. I've added some extra variations and exercises to it. Can't link to it for the moment since my site is down for maintenance