Foundational Kayaking Principles
In this introductory article, we’ll go over why learning proper technique is important, as well as some basic things to keep in mind throughout your paddling progression. We’ll introduce the two basic ideas that underlie nearly every stroke or technique we cover. These principles apply to both standup paddleboarding and kayaking, and in fact all paddle sports, so you’ll find this same article in both sections.
So why learn technique? The obvious reason is for safety and to ensure that you’re paddling in a way that keeps you free from injury. But good technique also helps maximize your enjoyment of the sport. It’s easy to get caught up in details, so we’ll start with broad foundational principles and look at more detailed aspects of the sport as we go. So, with that said, here are a few things to keep in mind.
Everyone’s technique will look different because everyone’s body is different.
When I took a paddle clinic with world champion paddler Danny Ching (name drop!), he didn’t tell me the “one right way” to paddle, much to my chagrin. I was excited to paddle “just like Danny” after taking the clinic. Until I realized…I’m not Danny. (If I was onstage at a TED Talk, this would be immediately obvious to you.) Rather than telling me the way to paddle, he told me to try a few different things, and asked me which felt better. Then he told me to kick up the intensity and try more things. Which felt better? His goal wasn’t to teach me to paddle just like him, but was to learn how to paddle according to my own limitations and strengths.
Most of us will never paddle like Danny, but we can get pretty far if we follow a few simple guidelines, applying these foundational principles in a way that works for our own bodies. Beyond that it’s details, tweaking, and practice.
And speaking of practice:
Practice. Even though the following concepts are simple, they’re not always intuitive, particularly if this is your first paddle sport. Practice doesn’t have to mean getting on with regimented drills, though it can. It can simply mean bringing awareness to one or two parts of your stroke or body positioning at a time for short periods while out for a paddle.
Go Slow:
Go sloooooooooow. If you rush it, the only feedback your body is going to give is pain. And while it’s important to listen to that, it can be hard to determine where the pain is coming from. If you go slow, you can try things, see if it works, and if it hurts, or even if it doesn’t, try something else. See how it feels.
Two Main Principles
There are two main principles that will underlie nearly every stroke work we do.
Use as much of your body as possible. Spread the work around the larger muscle groups.
We’re used to doing a lot of things with our arms, but we can unlock so much more power and endurance if we use the large muscle groups like our lats, core, legs, and glutes. We’ll also be more likely to paddle without injury if we do it correctly.
Move the board through the water, not the paddle past the board.
This one took me a while to learn, despite how simple it sounds. For years, I taught that the way to make your craft go forward is to push water behind you with the paddle. That will work, and it’s not entirely incorrect. But to really unlock efficiency, you need to think about pulling the board past the paddle, as opposed to pushing the paddle past the board. We’ll go more in depth about how exactly to do that when we look at the catch, but to keep it easy, just make sure to get your whole blade into the water before you apply force.
That’s it, really. In the following articles, we’ll break down the stroke into more detail, but we’ll always come back to these two basic principles: Use your whole body, and pull the board through the water.
