Many of us start paddling without much idea of correct stroke technique. If we're lucky, more experienced paddling buddies throw us a few pointers, but for most it's a case of try it and see.
Surfski.info has several surf ski schools listed in our links, but they're few and far between! So how do you get expert advice on your stroke if you live far away from the experts?
Video Stroke Correction
It's not a new idea - but the advent of YouTube makes it easy to send display and share clips... so here's what you do:
Get a friend to take a short video clip of you paddling. The clip shouldn't be longer than two minutes and it should have segments showing front, side and back views of you paddling.
Upload it to YouTube - or send a wmv file to us (no bigger than 10MBytes please) and we'll upload it for you.
We'll display the clip and we'll get comments from anyone who has anything to offer.
And then we'll get comments from the best paddlers in the world to help you improve your technique.
What we're going to do
We're offering this service free of charge to the first eight paddlers to send us their video clips. After that we'll be charging for the experts' comments - after all they're professionals and they need to eat and we also intend to make surfski.info into a paying proposition.
Sample Clips
Here are two sample clips:
Paddler 1
Paddler 2
We're looking for comments - from YOU...
Both of these paddlers know that there are faults with their strokes, and they're both keen to improve.
What do YOU think they can do to improve their stroke? The idea is that this should be a community effort - everyone has some knowledge, let's hear what you think.
The experts
Who are these experts that we're going to get to give their opinions? Well so far, Dawid Mocke (number two in the world last season's World Rankings) and Zsolt Szadovszki (number one in the US & eight in the world) have volunteered their services. You can't get much more expert opinion that that... We hope to get comments from a few more of the top paddlers as well.
Ok, I'll kick it off: Contrast the two paddlers - paddler 2's arms are much straighter in the stroke than paddler 1's. Is this a good thing? Neither of them seems to have a catch that is particularly far forward - should they focus on trying to increase their reach? For example, should paddler 2's rear arm in the catch be more bent so that he can catch further forward? What about their rotation?
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Legs written by Ed Menzies,
August 09, 2007
Paddler 2 is using his legs well!
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Legs... written by Rob Mousley,
August 09, 2007
Yep - in the second part of the clip when he's coming towards the camera, you can see his knees pumping up & down!
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Technique written by David Hunter,
August 10, 2007
Paddler 1 is the easier of the two to fix his problem. No rotation and it look like his hands are too close together. What he does do well is that his top hand during the exit and recovery phase is about shoulder height so the blade should exit before his hips but because of the bent arms means it now exits behind the hips which of course now "drags" water cause imbalance. To correct this widen hand grip to around elbow width, straighten top arm and extend top hand more towards the nose of the ski. By doing this leg drive naturally occurs. Looks like he has great long arms so would make great kayaker when he does engage his core. Paddler 2 hands cross badly across the center line of the ski and finish very low during the exit and recover. This in rough conditions along with poor catch would produce great instability. Again same as paddler 1 needs to push top hand through more towards the nose and maintain the height of the top hand around shoulder height. From there improve catch but as you concentrate on pushing/extending that top hand more towards the nose then the catch and leg drive improves naturally. Try it for yourself and as you push that top hand away (towards the nose even pause for a second at the end) your core has to rotate naturally and your legs also have to bend to allow for the rotation.
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Tec Stuff written by Joseph Pettigrew,
August 11, 2007
G'Day,
#1 Driver should sit up that drop shoulder and lean will make for hard breathing and hard to use the core, # 2 as we ski paddlers go in this part of the world not bad just a bit more vert, eather way they look to be haveing fun on a ski.
Cheers Joseph
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Awareness written by Zsolt Szadovszki,
August 13, 2007
Awareness
My experience in terms of correcting a bad habit is being aware of it and that is why video analysis will help?. realizing what we are doing or what we are not ?and getting some opinions from others is great also.. but the big job is to make the change happen. That is going to help with your confidence and you are the only one who can change things for your own benefit- we others are just holding a mirror for you!
Another thing I learned?
Try to fix just one thing at a time?.. and that particular area could be described in lot of different ways!
Paddler 1
Shoulders ? please try out all these suggestions separately just one at the time and which ever will be the most manageable for you stick with it and just be passionate.. It will take time sometimes a week but it could be 2 months also! :
-Pull your chest out while relaxing your shoulders -Sit up strait (while relaxing your shoulders) -Lift your chin up -Drop your shoulders down -Watch the video and try to find your neck (it should be visible) ?
If you doing it right you will feel sore around your lower back and stomach (in your six pack) muscles!
Be aware, Cheers Zsolt
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Contrast the two paddlers - paddler 2's arms are much straighter in the stroke than paddler 1's. Is this a good thing? Neither of them seems to have a catch that is particularly far forward - should they focus on trying to increase their reach? For example, should paddler 2's rear arm in the catch be more bent so that he can catch further forward?
What about their rotation?