Coaching Dispatches
This months coaching dispatches will look at activity posture. Good posture is undoubtedly the key to whitewater kayaking. Without it, it’s so difficult to keep your balance or take good effective paddle strokes, both fundamental!
Here I am sat right into the back of the seat, sat upright and then leaning slightly forwards from my hips, careful not to hutch over, moving my centre of gravity just past my seat towards the bow of the kayak.
Although it’s easy to have the correct posture on flat water it can be harder to maintain this posture if your core strength is a little weak. Any core exercise such as the plank help but the strength will build with time in a boat, therefore you might notice good posture at the beginning of the day but it becomes worse over time.
It’s a lot harder to maintain this posture when the river becomes 3D and you are running drops and slides or when the boat is accelerating.
This sketch shows what happens when you don’t anticipate this change in environment. You’ll notice that the paddler doesn’t actually lean back but the boat moves relative to the slide without the paddler, when the kayak straights up at the bottom the paddler is leaning back.
We must anticipate the white water and actively move our posture forwards so its stay forwards relative to the boat. The main difference to spot, although there are others, is that as the sketch paddler reaches the bottom, they have good posture for the unstable water, such as a stopper, so therefore you have your balance and can take effective strokes away.
Here you can see a student on a steep creekin’ course in Wales working on her activity posture. She is moving her whole body forwards to anticipate the stopper at the bottom and below we can see Palm Team paddler Tom Parker showing great posture on holiday in Switzerland.
This weekend I’ll be running a free clinic at Gene17 Rivers Source Event themed around posture, it’s that much of a big deal!
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Thanks for info…great help…awesome