Snappy Exit

I want to try this and see how it works. I have this video of Tom and I want to offer up my analysis. If you agree, or disagree or want to add your own comments, feel free. Tom, you may not want to read on in case the comments aren’t good. For those who don’t know Tom, he is a great Canadian contender for the C-1 entry this year, and one of the nicest people in sports. Good luck at the trials.

Here is what I think of Tom’s technique from last fall:

• The exit and recovery are awesome. Good push from the hips when the paddle is still in the water.
• The pull is obviously good and seems to be very efficient.
• The setup right before the catch is a little bit high.
• There is not enough body weight dropping on the catch. This means that there is too much emphasis on the top arm driving down and that some angle is lost between the setup and the catch.

Add your comments to this post.

If you have your own video and you want a bit of analysis, post your video to YouTube and tag it with “snappyexit”. Then just send me an email and I will get it on the site.

The purpose of canoe racing is to make the boat move forward as quickly as possible. There are two basic parts to this:

1. Get as much force as possible on the paddle in a way that puts the majority of the force helps your forward motion.
2. Don’t let the boat slow down during the recovery.

The way you finish off your canoe stroke has a huge effect on keeping the boat running between strokes. This is equally true in any canoe, C-1, C-2, C-4, War Canoe, Dragon Boat, OC-6 or Coleman Canoe. I want to look at the exit today in terms of momentum and the action-reaction forces.

Imagine that at the end of the stroke you are sitting still in the boat. You need to move forward to get into position for the next stroke. Going from sitting still to moving forward requires an acceleration. Acceleration requires force, and physics says that for every force applied there must be an equal and opposite reaction force. From a practical perspective, this means that if you want to push something forward you have to have something to push against.

When you are in the boat the only thing you have to push against is the boat. Whether its your knee or your bum, the point that connects you to the boat is what you are pushing against to move your body forward. Now obviously the boat is not fixed, so what happens when you push against the boat to move yourself forward? The boat wants to move backwards.

We all know this. We can see it especially on the startline - the paddle goes up, the boat moves back. It is even more pronounced in boats like the Dragon Boat with more people all moving at once. When the boat is moving your body cannot cause it to start moving backwards but it will certainly slow down. The best way to minimize this effect is to get as far forward as possible while the paddle is still in the water.

Think back to the rocket ship effect. Making sure that the body is leaning forward before the paddle comes out is actually ensuring that your boat maintains its momentum in between strokes. Try thinking about that when you are learning about the exit.

It has been fairly well agreed upon that in the sprint canoe stroke the hip should move forward towards the paddle before the exit.  This allows the body to set up for the next stroke and also provides a fair amount of force if you can maintain the connection between the hip and top arm.  However, it is a very difficult concept t o teach and if it is done incorrectly it can really hamper a young paddler’s stroke.  So the question often arises, “when should a coach start trying to get their athletes to use the proper exit technique.”

In my opinion the teaching of exit technique should evolve based on the ability of the athlete.  Right from the start the athlete should be concentrating on a proper setup and getting enough confidence in their balance to drop their weight onto the paddle at the catch.  Even at an early stage though, athletes should be told to keep their bottom leg from going too far back.   Eventually this should evolve to trying to keep a forward angle with the bottom leg.

Only when the athlete is confident in their balance and has learned to feel their body motions should they be encouraged to start trying to push the hip forward on the exit.  Even then, it tends  to be a counterintuitive motion and can throw an athlete’s focus completely out of whack.  They should be encouraged to keep it up and make the breakthrough because it can make a significant difference in boat speed.