Open message to my crew this morning.

After a coaching session this morning, I sent the following message to my crew. Although specific to what we were working on at our session, I thought that there was eneough relevant content that might be useful to learning paddlers (and really that should be all of us) that it was worth sharing.

Hi folks, good session this morning. I was pretty pleased with the work done. Just some takeaways from the session. I dropped your stroke rate to an average of 43 strokes/min which is a huge difference from where you normally rate. This allowed time to work on good form – especially getting everyone paddling smoothly and together. Things I focused on and for you all to work on – smooth entry, anchoring the blade, then loading the paddle before putting the power down. The aim is to pull the canoe up to the blade in the most efficient and effective way. As I couldn’t see you from my seat and it was dark, I can only comment on the way the canoe “felt” in the water. As I said a couple of times this morning there were moments of magic where the canoe was just humming along. Conversely there were moments when it was not. Working on the stroke rate and technique will hopefully swing the needle in the “magic” direction. This magic should be more by design than by luck.

Visualisations to help with technique – place the blade in the water like placing a letter in a mail slot. Imagine that the paddle is a pole that you are planting in mud and pulling yourself up to it. Most important for today’s session – don’t paddle like beating an egg, you create lots of air and waste lots of energy. Think more along the lines of stirring a thick soup where every rotation moves a lot more liquid.

Things to work on out of the canoe. If you want to realise your full potential in the canoe, you really need to be working on some aspects of fitness away from and in addition to the canoe sessions. The canoe sessions are where we can coach you in better technique and better crew harmony. The rest is up to you.

Cardio – if you are gassed and out of breath during our sessions, then we are definitely doing something right. If you are not, then you need to work out why as it certainly should not be a walk in the park.  However, if you are challenged too much in the canoe, you should be working toward at least two cardio sessions away from the canoe.

Strength – if you are challenged with putting down the power to a level that matches the rest of your crew then you should consider a couple of strength training sessions away from the canoe. Most important is to include exercises that balance the opposing muscle groups to what we use in the canoe. I have fallen into this trap and am suffering at the moment so am actively working on restoring a balance. I am currently paddling and / or swimming every day. That’s a lot of pulling with my arms and shoulders and no pushing. I now can’t do a push up without discomfort. Don’t want you to fall into the same trap. Be sure to include pushing, pulling bending and twisting exercises and try to balance upper and lower body equally.

Flexibility and mobility – if you struggle to get into the shapes that we ask you to get into, can’t twist on one side, can’t reach out front on the other side, can’t  bend at the hips, then work on increasing range of motion away from the canoe. You all know where you personally struggle so know what you need to work on. This will not only make your paddling more efficient, but it will also help with injury prevention. This should be a daily habit. And using the time before our sessions to work on this is also essential. We get so little time in the canoe to work on the important stuff above that you should be warmed up and stretched before we hit the water.

Our sessions are – and should be – a safe space where growth mindset and positive attitude are as essential as your paddle. Make sure you bring all three. Everything else can be left in the car to collect when we are finished.

Any questions or any assistance – please ask. I am happy to give you as much time and guidance as it takes. And every session I have coaching you – I get a little better too. Thanks for reading and thanks for allowing me to coach you. I’m pretty confident that the other coaches and your fellow paddlers feel the same too. Catch you on the water.