Come Fly With Me
Today I was out paddling with my coach, we paddled for just under an hour and then followed up with some technique work on the ergo machine.
One of the things that my coach has been talking about recently is to not put on the brakes by paddling too hard. He says that paddling should be similar to spinning a bike wheel. (while the bike is upside down) To start, you grab it and give it a good hard spin. When it has momentum though, all you need to do is help it along with lighter surface taps. If you keep grabbing it to spin it, each time you grab it, you stop the momentum so you have to use additional energy to start it again.
My coach pointed out that this is how I paddle. I am paddling so hard that each stroke grabs the water, slowing my surf ski down, then starts to push through again.
Following my hour paddle in the ocean this morning, we went into the gym to work on this a bit. We have a surf ski ergo machine there. When my coach started paddling, he was paddling at a rate of about 105 strokes per minute and was producing about 135 watts. When it was my turn, I struggled to get my rating above 80 strokes per minute, yet I was producing about 170 watts.
I could only increase my rating to 100 strokes per minute, by really focusing on reducing the watts I was producing. And guess what I had to do to achieve that… If you guessed stop using my arms – you would have been spot on. My current stroke is still too much arms. I really dig in and try and bully my way through the water. In doing so, every catch puts the brakes on a little, meaning every stroke is a little less efficient. By concentrating instead on core trunk rotation, a more efficient stroke ensued. I could much more easily maintain the higher stroke rating without tiring and there was much less “brake” at the catch part of the stroke.
So bringing this experience back out into the water, one thing you can do to judge whether you are using too much arm power and not enough core power, is look at your rating. Can you increase it and maintain a rating over 100 strokes per minute? If not – try lightening your stroke power and increasing your trunk rotation.
Tags: ocean paddling, surf ski paddling, surf ski paddling form, Surf Ski Technique
