Part One : Just Pull Hard

“Can you teach me how to paddle quickly?” I asked my coach and “Yes,” he said, “just pull hard!”…

I started paddling in 1972 at age nine and just kept at the sport without a hurry to get anywhere. I enjoyed myself and soon developed into what I thought was a reasonable paddler, but apart from that there is not much to say about the early years…

Eventually, I went into coaching. My first experience - about 20 years ago! - I can only describe as having been “a shepherd of children in Apache Slalom boats”. (In the late 70s, most scout groups would have glass fibre kayaks, mostly designed for slalom…) The direction and competence of my “team” had more to do with the natural ability of the young paddler than my intense instructions of “pull on the left” or “push on the right”, “sit up!”, “turn!” or “stop!”. Not that I realised that at the time…

Then, in spring 1985, I had a bit of an “experience” of tough sea paddling around the Isle of Wight with “white horses” and “overfalls”, and all my paddling technique let me down as soon as force 4 and a large swell came into play. And if I thought I was bad – you should have seen the rest of the team! Later the same year I spent what seemed “ages” stuck in a holding stopper on the River Exe. The previous spring it had claimed the life of a paddler – I was told later. And in 1986, I was on for Westminster-Devizes in a K2 with the late Kevin Harris (brother of Colin Harris) who was a strong young man but I found still I could not paddle out of “shit”.

So after all these incidents I thought it was time to get to learn the finer art of kayaking… And there I was, age 24, now on a mission: After having come this far from my first paddle, I wanted to at long last learn how to “travel by paddle”.

It was in spring 1987 at joining Elmbridge CC that Roland Lawler’s “just pull hard” words happened. On reflection, I think this quick answer really got me started. Although wholly inadequate as a technical coaching tip, it did inspire me to try. When I found that I did not get the right results with this "method" alone, I began to look hard at how others paddled and listened to various coaches describe how they thought a kayak was propelled along. “Rotate your body!”, “It’s easy.”, It’s in the catch!” and so on – other helpful tips came my way.

It did not prove that simple, but I kept at it and mimicked the other paddlers’ styles. There was Tim Cornish, a little bloke with a big swinging action from bent arms; Ian Lawler paddling with straight arms by the side of his boat; and Graham Burns who almost seemed to be crawling along the water but was in fact very quick! They all moved far quicker than they appeared to paddle. The one and only I could keep up with was Peter ‘Sid’ Lawler (Roland’s brother), then 46 (!!!) and as far as I was concerned a very good paddler ‘for an old man’ (three-times Olympics athlete and ex-marathon champion).

And he took me on for some training! Pete’s advice and coaching was better – a lot better – with a lot of work on stretching (not leaning) forwards to ‘catch the water’ at the front of the stroke. Along with a good few others, I finally got a lot better and enjoyed a fair amount of racing, and then I found myself teaching again in summer 1989.

Part Two: “Power Circles and Relaxed & Rigid”

It was 1992 and our Junior Club Coach, Bob Grimes, had left. He had been an inspirational character to many young paddlers, a man who taught by having fun while teaching a competitive group of children or young athletes. To this day I still don’t know how he achieved what he did! I talked to him later, but his only insight seemed to be that ‘canoeing had to be fun for both the coach/teacher and the children’. Very simple and very true – while having fun the children learnt how to compete and meet various challenges set in front of them. Nothing ever works a 100% - probably a university degree or Master in child psychology could push the success of any teaching system up by a percent or two. But this simple format and my own successful add-ons have remained quite achievable and in fact I know a good lot of coaches who use rather similar approaches…

The most important development in recent years – from about 1995 onwards – has been the notion that technical teaching should start right at the beginning of any paddling training. However, giving children basic technical coaching must always to some degree be taught by giving children a few extra tools to work with – some very basic ‘handles’ to hold on to; common words to all in the group/Club. My extra tools are based on Hungarian kayak coach Imre’s “Power Circles”. This is a system whereby the body movement involved in paddling is broken down into its various parts. The paddler is taught these as ‘power circles’, each of which is learnt as a separate ‘element’. The elements can be combined in “paddling scales” (an analogy from the world of music) and taken in by the brain and body to form a “natural yet controlled way of paddling effortlessly”.

I have to say, how paddling a 500 metre course in 1’45’’ can ever be effortless, I do not yet know. And it doesn’t seem to look that way, even on the faces of the best paddlers! Followers of the “Zen” will probably say that ‘effortless’ is possible if desired or required or whatever… However, let’s be content with the idea that this is an achievable way to make the complex movement of paddling understandable to all ages and transfer it from the brain to the actual working parts…

So what is the magic in paddling well? I call it “Rigid & Relaxed” and here’s how…
Most importantly for forward paddling (racing style!) when you stretch and press your foot against the footrest on one side, have your trunk fully rotated, shoulder forward and arm straight.
Fix your paddle into the water with a straight arm – squeeze your foot against the foot rest, rotate your fairly rigid shoulders and whole upper body and travel past the point at which your still straight arm is holding the paddle down.
Of course you will have to bend your arm (if it hasn’t already collapsed in the strain) eventually, but not straight away.

Why is it so important to hold the paddle in the water with a straight arm? What actually happens is as you draw back the paddle fixed in the water, your top hand automatically swings forward as your upper body rotates. Your arm will straighten and the next stroke is set up as if by magic or sheer persistence. You will eventually (actually very soon) stop holding on to the previous stroke and remove the paddle as soon as you need to get back before it becomes a ‘push or punt’. Preferably put in the next stroke without pulling back.

Anyway, let me finish my describing on how to ‘how to paddle’. Just keep these little markers in your mind. No diagrams are needed to understand them. Just go out and look at other paddlers – they are your best three-dimensional pictures. You in your own boat will ‘feel’ when things are working well. Some good advice given to me was to build an accurate mental picture of you and boat floating, travelling or whatever you want to come to grips with. (Maybe buried in a stopper? - oops – this is getting close to scary visualisation!, but why not…) Try everything once at least – again and again if it works for you.

Last but not least a word on “the physical bit” – strength. This is not how many muscles you have or how big you are, I am talking about strength through control of our medium: Imagine it as what it is - a lump of plastic, enclosing you, sitting on H2O, propelled along using a rod with ‘hand extensions’ at each end! (Wow – is this what we are really doing?) So what about strength through control? My coach used to say: “You’ve got to use strong positions: Feet and knees braced against the footrest and hull, this is strong. A comfy seat with legs bent and enough space to move, this is a strong position.” And I would like to add: Good trunk and upper body reach and rotation make for a strong position, too.

So whether you are on a mission, too, to become a successful marathon racer or on your way into the coaching world, make sure you enjoy the journey! I hope my little experience report will help you getting there...

by Colin Grimshaw, July 1999