Paddling

Speed Skills
While waiting for the water to warm up, paddlers often turn to the pool to hone their skills and prevent cabin fever.
By Mac Hickox

Here our resident coaching expert prescribes a few drills to get ready for 2006.

Drill 1: A-frame above the head
Hand on top of paddle, elbow straight, arm extended up. Bottom arm also extended straight up, fingers around base of paddle .5-1″ from blade. Paddle should be parallel to shoulders and water. Arms and paddle should form an inverted A. Rotate (twist from seat), keeping head still, looking up, bring paddle down to the water and paddle parallel to poolside. Repeat.

Drill 2: Square in the Air
Start at A-frame and rotate. Then drop to
• Paddle 1″ above the water,
• Blade “square” (aligned to surface), top hand outside gunwale (paddle at 90¡ to water),
• Bottom wrist straight, fingers hooked,
• Top wrist flat, top arm straight,
• Rotation (near hip), inside shoulder above the gunwale, armpit away from head,
• Near knee bent,
• Near foot ready to push.
Coaching Point (CP): Rotation is the key element. Hold this position to work on strength and flexibility. This exercise is paddle joint specific.

Drill 3: Drive/Drop and Stop (D1)
• Drive down with top shoulder.
• Bottom shoulder presses down towards water and reaches forward
• Blade stops in water with one third of paddle in the water (Position D1).
CP: Maintain angle achieved in “Square in the Air.” No premature movement with either top arm going forward or bottom shoulder coming back. Think of fingers moving forward with bottom hand as you drive down.
CP: Maintain the A-frame position; 60¡ is the ideal angle of top arm to paddle

Drill 4: Drive/Drop and Stop (D2)
Continue to drive blade into the water until it is two thirds buried and hold (Position D2).
CP: Check the angle to make sure there is no premature movement backwards of bottom hand or shoulder.

Drill 5: Rewind
Paddler slowly returns to D1, then to Square in the Air/Rotate and to A-frame.
Rest and repeat. Also, hold and rewind smaller units: D2 to D1 then to D2, or Square in the Air to D1 to D2 then rewind back to Square in the Air.

Drill 6: Drive /Drop and Stop (D2) to Lock Position
Paddler continues to drive paddle through from D2 position to a position perpendicular to water and right beside the ankle. Drive with top shoulder without any change in shoulder positions. Blade must be buried by this point. This is the lock position.
CP: This is the key area (the catch). The paddler must understand the sequence of events that occur between these two points in the stroke.

Drill 7: Lock to exit
Start in lock position. Near hip should be partially counter-rotated. Push with near foot to activate counter-rotation. Top shoulder should hang back while the bottom shoulder should still be forward. Then press and sit up. The head should shift positions with the top hand as the blade goes deep. At the exit, the bottom hand should be at hip while the top hand stays in Ôthe channel,Õ (the water directly beside and parallel to the boat or poolside). Top arm should remain straight. Rewind and repeat.
CP: Relate motion to a bungee cord: the distance between the bottom hand and near hip lengthening as the hip moves back. Near leg does not lock out and the bottom hand comes right to the hip. On the rewind, watch for up and down near knee movement. This indicates good hip movement.

Drill 8: Exit point
With the blade in the water, the bottom hand even with the hip (or slightly behind depending on the coachÕs preference) and the top hand straight in the channel, the paddler should sit tall as the top hand moves
• Out of channel and across body,
• Then up toward 2 oÕclock for left-handers or 10 oÕclock for right-handersÑthink “big clock,”
• Then back to help with rotation of upper torso (shoulders),
• Then back to square in the air.
CP: Prefer a slight lean forward in anticipation of paddle going forward on exit rather than leaning back. Do this step by step and in sequence. Try slow motion. The top arm always leads, starting the exit, and the bottom arm follows. Wrists stay neutral.

Drill 9: “Kick it”
Paddle starts in water around knee area. Begin a stroke to work on “exit mechanics.” Explode through the exit and kill stroke half way back in the air. Repeat.
• In order to accelerate paddle speed in last portion of the stroke, bottom arm rips blade through water from knee area back towards the hip.
• Hip and bottom thumb are in concert. As the thumb begins to move forward, the near hip goes with it.
• Keep weight on outside cheek instead of shifting weight into the boat.
• Be aggressive at the exit. Think of it as the beginning of the next stroke and not the end of the previous one.
CP: Watch that no water is being lifted and thrown backwards. Turbulence should be mainly under the surface. Watch that the blade cuts thru the air with outside edge leading.
CP: Check angle of blade on exit. Top wrist should control the motion and stay near neutral with slight press down. Avoid “J” motion or opposite “Goon” motion used in steering in other forms of paddling.

Drill 10: Lock and Load
Start in the “lock” position (paddle perpendicular to the water) and go right through the exit point to square in the air. Repeat.

Drill 11: The whole thing
Start in “square in the air”; go through the entire stroke to back to “square in the air”, pause/check bullets/key elements. Repeat (begin on GO command).

Drill 12: Five-stroke Combo
Take five strokes, and then hold “square in the air”. Repeat.

Drill 13: Catch
Go to “square in the air”, drive through the catch (the beginning part of the stroke) and then ease off. Repeat.
CP: Look for strong drive and good angles, sequence of events.

Taken from Dragonboat World.