Kayak Sprint Technique
Fermina Enge
Below are some resources for learning more about sprint canoe and kayak technique. While these resources do not replace the value of a coach and his or her input and direction, they can provide new paddlers with a good reference for visualizing what to do, and fundamentals of technique and form.
At the catch, a canoe paddler should have the top arm held high with the elbow slightly bent, focusing on getting the top shoulder back. This will permit the creation of a third class lever and longer stroke. This style is one used by most German and Canadian canoe paddlers. (Hungarians are extremely successful using a different style, having their top arm straight and held high at the catch, keeping the shaft of the paddle perpendicular to the water during the pull phase.)
Just as with kayaks, canoeing is a full body sport. While a canoe paddler should not simply lunge forward on the front foot, causing the nose to dive into the water and increase drag, a canoeist should rotate his or her hips and use their legs during the pull phase, swinging the inside hip forward during the recovery phase.
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Sprint kayaking stroke phase descriptions for biomechanical analysis of technique vary among kayaking literature, with inconsistencies not conducive for the advancement of biomechanics applied service or research. We aimed to provide a consistent basis for the categorisation and analysis of sprint kayak technique by proposing a clear observational model. Electronic databases were searched using key words kayak, sprint, technique, and biomechanics, with 20 sources reviewed. Nine phase-defining positions were identified within the kayak literature and were divided into three distinct types based on how positions were defined: water-contact-defined positions, paddle-shaft-defined positions, and body-defined positions. Videos of elite paddlers from multiple camera views were reviewed to determine the visibility of positions used to define phases. The water-contact-defined positions of catch, immersion, extraction, and release were visible from multiple camera views, therefore were suitable for practical use by coaches and researchers. Using these positions, phases and sub-phases were created for a new observational model. We recommend that kayaking data should be reported using single strokes and described using two phases: water and aerial. For more detailed analysis without disrupting the basic two-phase model, a four-sub-phase model consisting of entry, pull, exit, and aerial sub-phases should be used.
Ninety-nine percent of the time you spend in your sea kayak is devoted to paddling forward. With a cadence of 50 full stroke cycles each minute, a paddler makes 3,000 strokes every hour. This means that small improvements in your kayak forward stroke technique add up to large improvements in overall progress.
The high angle forward stroke described here is one of the most recognised forms of forward paddling technique used on the sea. I do, however, encourage every paddler to develop a variety of forward paddling styles; this enables adaptations to be made for environmental conditions.
High angle is the most efficient forward paddling style. It gives you maximum speed in your sea kayak and, when done well, maximizes the use of your larger body muscle groups. However, it requires good posture, balance, body rotation and appropriately conditioned muscle groups for comfortable paddling day in, day out.
Many kayakers hold their paddles too close to their bodies when performing forward strokes, preventing full rotation and control. Pretend you have a beach ball between you and your paddle to avoid your paddle coming too close.
Juniors - This program is designed for athletes 18-years-old and younger and runs year round. During the racing season, junior athletes participate in four after school and one weekend training session. In the off season, juniors participate in two after school and one weekend training session which consists primarily of land-based training. The aim of this program is teach water safety, balance in sprint boats, proper canoe/kayak technique and how to paddle in team boats with the ultimate goal of competing in both local and national races.
This means that wing paddles should only be used in conditions and with craft that allow you to make full use of the benefits of a wing paddle, and where other paddling strokes are not really required. Forget about using wing paddles with a whitewater kayak or with a wide, stable recreational kayak or sit-on-top. If your kayak is made for speed in a straight line, like a racing kayak, surfski or touring kayak, and if it is used primarily on flat water or on the open ocean, a wing paddle might be the right choice.
Paddle shafts basically come in two configurations: straight or bent. With a wing paddle, you want to use a straight shaft. Without going into too much detail here, a straight shaft works better with the way you need to pull the paddle with your hands (not tight).
The feather angle is the angle between the two blades. I will write a separate article about feather angles sometime, but for wing paddles, most paddlers should be perfectly happy with a feather angle of 60. If your paddling stroke is near vertical, consider a higher feather angle, maybe 70.
If you have quite long arms in relation to your body length, you might want to go a bit longer. If your kayak is substantially wider than your hips, you might also need a longer paddle to get proper reach. If you have short arms, go a bit shorter with the paddle.
With every paddling stroke you make, you lift the paddle out of the water. Paddle for a few kilometres and you will lift the paddle a few thousand times in a session. So it goes without saying that a lighter paddle will be nicer to use. But be careful about trying to go too light.
There are two ways for a paddle manufacturer to make a paddle lighter. Either use material that can give enough strength while reducing weight (like carbon fibre), or by simply putting less material in overall. This goes for the shaft as well as the blades.
As explained earlier, a lot of carbon makes the paddle very stiff, which can cause some chronic injuries. On the other hand, a paddle that simply does not have enough material in it will be weak and fail you at some point.
For river use (running rapids like those on the Fish, Dusi and Umkomaas marathons) I recommend an oval grip for the right hand. This is very usefull for making sure you hold the paddle correctly when making a stroke in the middle of a rapid. Some companies offer ovalized shafts (meaning the shaft itself is oval in the grip area). Most wing paddle manufacturers will be happy to glue a plastic insert onto the shaft with some air/heat shrink tubing covering it.
For children, a split makes a lot of sense, as the length can be adjusted as the child grows. For adults who do a lot of travelling with their paddles, splits makes a lot of sense too. If you generally just paddle at your own club and always use the same length and feather angle, it is a bit pointless to get a split paddle.
Blade size is determined by your strength as well as the type of paddling you do. Stronger paddlers will require bigger blades. Also, for sprints you would want a bigger blade than what you would use for long distance paddling.
In a nutshell, this is what you want to accomplish with your stroke: the blade needs to enter the water close to the boat, almost vertical, and then, as it gets pulled towards the back of the boat, it should also be moving away from the boat. The blade should move in a straight line from entry to exit. If the movement is done with an arc instead, you are doing a sweep stroke, which main purpose is to turn the boat, not propel it forward. The straight vector line movement combines the pure pull action of a normal forward stroke with the sideways wing action of the foil shape to gain extra lift/forward motion.
Long Term Preparation
Long-term preparation can start as early as eight months before a race and is used to develop your general fitness and technique. Most athletes plan their long-term preparation in cycles. One cycle usually is about a month long. In each cycle, you pick three to four different aspects to train. Those aspects could be skills like max strength, basic endurance, sprinting, lactic tolerance, etc.
Each cycle should be a bit different to give your body some variation. But within one cycle, you want to have a routine where you repeat the same sessions to let your body adapt. Plan your long-term cycles by deciding what skills are the most important for you. Keep in mind that the better you get at a skill, the slower the progress. For example, say you train max strength for three months. The first month, your weekly progress in pull-ups is 5 kg. The third month, you only get stronger by 1 kg per week. This means that even if max strength is one of your most important skills, at some point, you will benefit more from working on a less important skill, if only because the rate of progress is so much higher.
Additionally, consider topics like nutrition, scheduling your training sessions, etc. You probably know what foods make you feel good. Try to eat easily digestible food the last few days before the race, while adding more carbs into your diet than usual. This enables your body to fill your carbohydrate stores and gives you more glycogen to feed your muscles.
How you schedule your training sessions is up to you, but a safe approach is to do one or two short sessions a day with long breaks in between. To sum it up, go figure out your race line, break it down, repeat it until you know it and feel comfortable with the moves, eat like a king, recover until your energy shoots out of you, and then send that race!
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