Time to call in the professionals

Ad and I decided to get back into K1 boats again this week, following our last dodgy paddle in the Mystere, so on Wednesday Ad was in the Laance while I found a very battered looking club Hobby which had its rear body held on by an enormous grp bandage. It seemed unlikely that it was watertight as I put it into the water but it handled beautifully and we were soon warming up with a paddle downstream to Sunbury. The focus again was purely on technique again and trying to rotate and engaging the core muscles in our stroke. I paddled alongside Ad trying to give him some pointers to help him and I could see clearly when he was rotating his shoulders. I was having a ball; the hobby felt really stable and I was using the time to do some interval efforts while unbeknown to him I also did a bit of wash hanging off the back of Ad's boat. Ad was really enjoying himself and his steering was improving all the time and then he capsized. Doh. It's hard not to think in terms of a successful paddle as being one where you don't capsize but if we're playing it safe and not finding the limits of what we can do then we are not going to improve. The water was not too cold and we were soon finishing the session. All in all, a good one to chalk up.

That brings us to today. When I started paddling again with Jame eighteen months ago, we received some initial coaching which got us going, from the boys in the MPCC. But since then, Jamie and I very much paddled on our own, reading up on how we should be training and using youtube to give us an idea of what an effective paddle stroke should look like. Like swimming, it's extremely technical and not something that you can just copy and get right and with me being a kinesthetic learner ('Show me don't tell me' ;-) and with Ad needing help it seemed time that we got some proper help. So today we went along to our first session at The Royal Canoe Club; if it's good enough for Tim Brabants, it's good enough for us. ;-) So Ad and I sat on kayak ergos while Ed, a club coach looked at what we were doing. It turns out that neither Ad or I are natural paddlers with an innate ability and we were soon working up quite a sweat as we overlooked the Thames. At first I was all arms. Without a moving boat underneath me I was merely pulling on the bar rather than doing anything that I had taught myself, but gradually I started to swivel and get my hips moving. My main problem is at the start of the stroke with my recovery arm starting too low and close to my body which is lowering my whole stroke and not giving me enough rotation. To prove his point, Ed got me onto another ergo which only operates on one side of the stroke so you can actually see how far your rotation propels you; my lats creaked and strained and I barely stretched the single bungee cord for than  half a metre (Ed told us that Brabants does the same drill attached to a 50kg mass!!) Gradually it started to click as I kept my hand high and started to move a  bit further up the slope. It's precisely what we need in order to make some big improvements by getting some coaching, boats (Kirton Mirages; Ed reckons they're so stable you can dance in them (a wobble factor of 5 says otherwise) a gym and a bar. ;-)  Bring it on.