Good
Paddling Skills Take Time by
Jay Babina
Whenever I teach someone to roll, scull or other skill related techniques,
I always notice a sense of impatience. I was the same way when I first learned.
The unfortunate truth about learning more advanced paddling techniques is
that it takes time - simply because the techniques involve more than learning
specific moves. They involve learning to adapt the moves to your total body
- it’s size, weight, flexibility as well as the way you fit in your
boat. The general characteristics of your boat also greatly affect how you
will adapt the techniques to your own style.
This may be an unpopular view, but I think it’s a waste
of time spending hours and hours of instruction trying to develop the perfect
paddling stroke. It’s even worse if you’re paying someone to do
this to you! Why? Because the perfect paddling stroke doesn’t exist
and your efficiency and ease of paddling will automatically come after you
paddle for a while ...maybe on your second or third season. Besides, the person
teaching you, did no better than you when they first started and went through
the same learning curve. Corrective and analytical advice will help the process,
however, only you can train your body to paddle smoothly.
Just like a baby learning to walk, you can’t speed up the process. Fortunately,
babys have no command of language at that point in their development, because
it’s often said if they had to take instructions, they would never walk.
While on a recent paddle, I had a discussion with a woman
who was having trouble keeping her boat going straight. I remember when I
had my first plastic kayak, I used to turn it upside down and sight down
it
with one eye. I was totally convinced the hull was distorted since it was
always pulling to the right. It couldn’t be me! I only paddled at one
speed - full tilt - totally out of control and had to correct the kayak back
in line about every 6 strokes. I had a Werner paddle that was about a foot
too long with those huge San Juan blades. People watching used to tell me
“that kayak seems pretty fast”. I was only good for about 2 hours,
then I would crawl back to my car on all fours. About a month later I calmed
down and magically I could go where I wanted with no problem. I started to
develop a normal paddling stroke.
Maybe some lessons might have helped, but I doubt it. What I really needed
was a tranquilizer. Kayaking to me was how fast can I get from here to there
or how fast could I learn the next technique. The following year I was just
like everyone else who paddled for a year - a little smoother and a little
more confident.
If your paddling diet consist of going out 5 times a year, your
progress is obviously going to proceed at that pace. There are really no goals
in kayaking other than your personal sense of satisfaction - we learn skills
for a feeling of security and safety. Just realize that paddlers who paddle
regularly and practice a few sweep strokes and turns while they’re out
paddling are going to develop these skills much sooner. The aggressive paddlers
who really go all out learning rolls etc. get their basic knowledge very much
up front, yet I always notice that the smoothness of style and ease of making
the boat do what you want it to still comes after a few years no matter how
much learning you try to cram in. What’s really happening is a blending
of techniques and a blending of the coordination and balance that your body
has developed.
Remember when someone showed you the high and low brace? In my
9 years of paddling I don’t think I ever saw a paddler robatically bring
the paddle up to their chest, slap the water and put it down and continue
paddling. You have to learn the bracing moves that way but bracing and paddle
strokes actually become one. There’s a melting of all the paddle strokes,
sweeps, sculling strokes and braces into one continuous smooth movement. Just
like the baby learning to walk, you develop confidence with every step. You
build on this confidence going on to a new skill or incorporating two moves
in to one - as minute as it may be. Nobody can really teach that to someone
else. After you paddle for a while it will just start to happen.
A while back, a friend wrote an excellent article in the a newsletter “The
Precursor to Rolling” where he describes how your basic
aptitude has a major bearing on learning to roll. The ex-Navy Seal v.s.
the life-long
couch potato. The points he made are significant. We all fit in there somewhere
and our experiences and personality will have a huge bearing on how we go
about learning things in kayaking. One thing for sure, the ex-Navy Seal and
couch potato will never be paddling smoothly until they paddle for a while.
They will both have to be patient and allow their bodies to develop a style
and rhythm that is part of themselves.
It’s common to hear “What am I doing wrong”
from people learning to scull as they struggle to keep afloat. “You’re
not doing anything wrong”. Learning to roll and scull take a long time.
You can roll on your first lesson, but it’s a long transition to the
point where you’re totally smooth and comfortable and can roll up from
any position you find yourself in. You’re always refining your body
movement ...and just when you’re kind of satisfied, you start changing
it again. Any paddler who has some experience will tell you that it’s
a journey refining these techniques and everybody goes through the struggles
and awkwardness that you experience at first.
The most important thing is to be patient and enjoy the process!
The winner is the one who gets total personal satisfaction from being in their
kayak no matter what they’re doing or where they are. There’s
no substitute for time - which is really based on an accumulation of our experiences.
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