Snappy Exit

Well, the weather is definitely changing here in Nova Scotia and I am sure that a lot of athletes and coaches are starting to think about winter training and transitioning from the lake to the weight room, track and pool. I was always a big fan of spending a good chunk of time in the winter off the water and away from thoughts the physical stresses of being in the boat. It gave my body time to recover, my mind time to think about other things and my coach time to work on fitness components that had been neglected over the summer.

But there was always the dilemma of how long to take off and how to best prepare for the on-water season that was coming. Those of you from Canada will know exactly what I mean when I say that the first week in Florida can be extremely painful; muscles are not ready for paddling, hands get blisters, knees get sore. I cannot help much with those things, and if you haven’t got a decent ergometer (incidentally I have never used one that was very close to actually paddling - anyone have any comments) or a paddle tank I don’t see any way around that fist week or so of pain. I can, however, offer some advice on how to get ready mentally so that you are at least paddling as well as you were in October.

My advice is simple really, but is hardly ever followed. Just take out a pen and paper after each workout and write down how your technique feels. Does your hip feel like its pressing far forward? Write it down. Are you focusing on the exit and finding that the boat is really gliding? Write it down. Did your coach come up with some crazy saying that clicked with you and suddenly made you paddle better? WRITE IT DOWN!!!!!

It is simple and effective. You look at your diary every week or so, you remember how you felt. You move on. It helps to build consistency, it helps you learn to feel your technique (if you have to write down how your body felt then you have to pay attention to your body) and it will help you immensely if you ever have to take an extended time off.

In the user section there is a place to post time controls - including your comments. I would like to see people (especially the senior athletes) use this area more. Talk about your technique, how you felt, why where they can access their own thoughts anytime. I am almost ready to introduce a daily training log where you can keep track of all of your day-to-day training activities in the same manner. I will let you know as I roll that out.

For now, write your thoughts down anywhere you can. This is a critical time of year when you are making all sorts of technical adjustments for next season - don’t waste all that improvement by starting from scratch next spring.

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.

Having Tony Hall as my coach from a young age gave me a unique perspective on his coaching style.  I have said many times that I think he is the best technique coach around.  He has proven it time and again with me, the women’s kayak team, countless national team members and most recently with the Dragon Beasts.  But what I often saw on the faces of my team mates after a workout was a look of confusion.   Especially when Tony started talking about the jacknife.

 Tony had developed the analogy of the jacknife with me over several years.  So I was tehre when he made it up and I knew exactly what he meant when he said that I needed to do more jacknifing.  But most canoe paddlers had no idea - as

 I am sure most of you have no idea.  What it means is this:

Look:

 (Sorry mark but I just happen to have a few nice images of you paddling.)

Imagine that Mark’s body is a jacknife with the blade as the torso and the handle as the kneeling leg.  Right now he is about half open.  In order for the jacknife to be useful, it must be fully open and locked into place.  So if you imagine the pivot point of the jacknife as Mark’s hip, in order to lock out the jacknife Mark needs to drive his hip forward.  Ideally we would see the hip come forward and the body maintain the forward angle.  Instead we are actually going to see:

So, Mark is being lazy on his exit - but this is not his 100% stroke and this is not what he always looks like.

Anyway, the idea is not to pick on poor Mark, but to explain the jacknife.  The whole purpose of the analogy is to get you to stop thinking about sitting up straight and start thinking about driving that hip forward on the exit to create the same effect.

 Clear as mud?