The secret to speed

[CMC]

In a 6 man outrigger canoe when all paddlers are synchronised with good technique and applying all 6 peoples catch, power and recovery at the same time with enough power the boat literally lifts up in the water and 'runs'.  At this point the boat takes about 1/2 the energy to maintain the speed and is simply tapped along.  Sounds easy huh,  try it and see, it can take a lot of practice to get a team of paddle in time.

I started paddling race SUP about 6 months ago and have recently discovered (not actually but for myself) what the guys winning the races will not tell you.  I don't have this mastered in all conditions at this point but am working towards understanding position on board, where to focus the centre of balance, cadence, length of stroke etc etc for these conditions also.  Just like an outrigger canoe when at it's peak and most efficient path through the water unlimited SUP boards will behave in the same way.

Remember that it is a different hull, slightly different stroke and the power application is slightly different due to the lower speeds but just as in the canoe when you get your board running it is quite a remarkable feeling.  Instead of feeling every stroke with a grunt when going hard you just keep the paddle moving and the board almost planes on top of the water with little effort and greater speed.

I have found that on a 17' board as forgiving as this may be with all of its size to be pretty sensitive to all factors as above.  Eg, On a good day if I have the mythical run happening I am about 30 seconds or slighty more quicker over a 750m test course on flat water.

I believe this is why particularly in flat water racing the guys that win look relaxed and like they've done no work for the win while each person crossing the line looks more and more tired as they come across.  Paddle technique and trim technique.....  We will spend a lifetime working on this stuff....

[pdxmike]

And I always figured the guy that wins looks most relaxed because he spent less time racing than everyone else. 

Actually, your last line caught my attention because it certainly applies to how swimmers look during races.  The fastest swimmers will almost always look the most relaxed.  Smoother movements, fewer strokes per length, less splashing--you have no idea how fast they're going unless you see them alongside other swimmers, or are timing them.  And at any given speed, the best swimmers are using less energy than lesser swimmers, just as you say is true with paddlers. 

One of the big reasons is that they know that you can't swim fast just by powering through the water.   You also have to reduce drag.  So things like maintaining a level body position, keeping your kick narrow, keeping your head down, etc. will all make you faster, and they take no extra physical effort to achieve (just tons of practice and concentration!).   With a streamlined body position, you will go further with each stroke, and will be able to beat much younger, stronger swimmers whose technique is worse.

And as you say about paddling, swimming technique is always evolving.  Just when there seems to be a consensus about something--body rotation, straight arms versus bent arms--someone faster comes along and changes everything. 

[CMC]

I like the swimming comparison, i think it applies to all sports really, technique, strength, endurance and the balance of the three being the difference.

It really is about efficiency at the pointy end, they look more relaxed as they use less energy to do the same distance and travel at greater speeds.  Ironic looking from the beginners perspective.  How can someone be faster and use less energy???

Pursuing this seems to be my lifes ambition right now, can't remember my last SUP surf......  Usually too sore to want to use a paddle for that as well.  I'm on a 6'2 now when there's waves.

[jb]

Great post! Another analogy would be the boring game of golf. Technique rules, once you pull your arms out of socket on the drive, watch the best guys hit a ball 150 yards...barely poke at it. It is incredible.
I feel I am 1 out of 30 on strokes that feel the way it should be...We will work a lifetime on this....
Great post again!

[PonoBill]

I think this is what a Tahitian stroke is all about.  Got to play with mine for thirty miles on Saturday. Some real breakthroughs.

[pdxmike]

There's a swim coach--Milt Nelms--who isn't generally well known, who is a sort of "Horse Whisperer" of swimming, and may be the best swimming technique thinker anywhere.  He's American, but has spent a lot of time in Australia, having recently married former Australian Olympian Shane Gould (best swimmer ever?).  He has also coached the more-recent Australian Olympian Ian Thorpe. 

http://www.swimnews.com/news/view/6674

Milt taught a couple of informal clinics to my swimming group.  The entire focus--100%-- was not on how to swim fast through training, effort, or even through how to pull or kick, but on HOW TO NOT SLOW DOWN.  Basically, a swimmer is fastest when diving in or pushing off from a turn.  It's all bad news from there.  The key to swimming fast is to do everything possible to preserve that momentum for as long as possible.  Much of this is achieved through keeping a streamlined body position, and making sure that you avoid interrupting that position through sloppy core, arm, leg or head movements.  When Milt discussed pulling or kicking, it was not in regard to achieving propulsion, but in regard to keeping the momentum going (i.e. a wide kick will reduce your streamline, and applying force with your armstroke at a point when your legs are not streamlined is inefficient).  Shane Gould swam with us at one of the clinics and told us how it was an entirely new approach to swimming for her--very effective, plus more enjoyable (going faster with less effort!).

With paddling--boards or canoes--the streamlinedness of the vessel (oops, now I hate to use that term) is already set, but the idea of focusing on HOW TO NOT SLOW DOWN seems like a good description of what I understand the Tahitian stroke to be all about. 

[CMC]

Bill, I imagine you may have spoken with Dave K about this.  I also read some of your posts about maximum hull speeds and wondered if what I am feeling is pushing past the maximum and searching for ways to more easily sustain this by refining trim and stroke.  In bumps it's less fussy, just stay on the bump and get to the next one quickly as your board will plane.

Once again I love the comparison to swimming, great story and I had heard of Milt Nelms previously, we have no choice but to know of our Aussie olympians, coaches etc when it's on.

My paddling coach told me once that any movement not involved in making you go forwards was a waste of energy when you were paddling.

As we know the Tahitian styled stroke (Thanks to Pono Bill, Dave K, Shell Va'a and OPT) gives  less time between strokes to allow the board to slow down.  It gets power into the water more often.  It works amazing up wind or current and to get on to bumps when needed.  It's a tool you need in the armory along with other approaches.  What I believe though is that stroke technique in our instance is 90% of the equation, unlike in the canoe we have feet position, weight distribution to the board via the feet via the legs and hips etc to alter the flow of water past the hull.

From what I understand so far to gain full trim or run you must use correct paddle technique as coming back too far or not paddling with a vertical shaft upsets the trim of the board.  Excessive lunging or leaning forward onto the toes also seems to compress the rocker downwards or into a bobbing motion as does sinking either rail when off balance.  It is about twisting on a horizontal plane, focussing your center of balance in the correct place and concentrating on holding this position for as long as you can to gain the maximum effectiveness all the while maintaining the power and speed required to keep it there.  It's hard.

As I say it's a lot to think about and it will take a lifetime to master.  I can only imagine that every board has different sweet spots per water condition also so this could get real complicated...........  It's making ocean paddling feel really easy though.  That's how Aussie paddleboarders train, perfect technique in the flat, apply it to the ocean.

I feel it, lose it, feel it, lose it.  It has me excited and depressed at the same time!   I do know though that at training this morning for the first time ever by moving in and out of it I was ahead of my group.

[lazymodo]

very cool.

[Pureadrenalin]

The secret to speed is spend less time figuring and more time applying the techniques. The more time you spend figuring the more confused and the more you will be making adjustments to your paddle stroke. You will never know what works for you as an individual b/c what works for others won't necessarily work for you. You need to to find your own groove and rhythm to create one smooth continuos flow is what creates speed.

[PonoBill]

I'm not so sure about that Ninja. I see a lot of people who are pretty fast who have poor technique. If you show them something different they will actually lose pace for a while while they struggle with the new stuff. It might take weeks or months to get back to the same level, but once they do they can go past it to a higher level. If they just keep working on a personal groove they'll never overcome bad habits. Just like car racing--sometimes you've got to slow down to go fast.

I'm STILL struggling with the Tahitian stroke, and when the going gets tough (like someone is passing me) I tend to drop back to my bad habits. I literally have to slow down, clean up the stroke, whack myself on the head a few times  before I can get back into the groove. And then I go faster. Doesn't necessarily mean I get back past them, but if I keep flailing they'll just be the first in a line of people who get by. Happened at the second or third to last Big Winds race. I was in second and one guy went by me. By the time I stopped struggling and cleaned up my act I'd slipped to fifth.

[Pureadrenalin]

IMO I am suggesting technique reign overall. Speed is not everything in paddling because poor technique is overall devastating to the body and it will lead to prolong injury and longevity wise with these stiff carbon fiber shafts and wrong length paddles you will not last in this sport. Ponobill since your comparison is race car driving mine is weightlifters try doing a six hundred pound bench press or squat with poor technique see how long it can be done. It cant. Even the best will tell you when you combine both and only than you be creating true speed. I am just saying not all of us makes speed our priority in paddling but than again if you can master the surroundings of every aspect of technique and when to apply it is what makes speed. In everything I was involved I could not start by doing it wrong so if you are fast with bad habits to me that is a personal problem and nothing to be proud of. SOS

[pdxmike]

Going back to swimming (because I've been doing it longer) I know people who've made major changes to their strokes several times over decades.  There are masters swimmers today who are swimming as fast or faster than they were decades ago, including some who decades ago were collegiate All-Americans. It's exactly true that when you make a change, it feels wrong, and you can't go as fast because you're thinking too much, and you're either using different muscles or using the same ones differerently.  And if you're tired (as in the end of a race) your body always tries to go back to old habits, because they're ingrained into your muscle memory and your concentration is shot due to fatigue.  But with time (assuming you're moving towards better technique) then you really do go faster, and the new stroke becomes automatic. 

But SUP Ninja is also correct that what works for one person may not work for another.  (Back on swimming) there is a tremendous variation of technique among swimmers, even in Olympic finals races.  The key is to get advice from someone who knows what they're doing and who has your trust.  If you don't trust that your stroke really will improve, it makes it almost impossible to break past the awkward, feels-so-wrong stage because your body and mind will both be resisting the changes.

And responding to SUP Ninja's last comment, I know lots of swimmers who were forced to change freestyle technique due to shoulder problems.  Fortunately, the technique changes that take strain off your shoulders (mainly waiting in your stroke to apply force, versus yanking back as soon as your hand hits the water) also make you faster.  I'm not sure if that's true or not with paddling--that the technique that makes you fast is also the technique that is easier on your body--but my guess is that it is. 

[Pureadrenalin]

I recently went out with my OC-1 and paddle next to an older guy who claimed he had the fastest made SUP he ever ridden and it was the only one in existence. Well long story short he tried to keep up with me on my OC-1 and I said to myself not with that stroke he is. He was sweeping all the way back to his tail with his paddle and his top hand was dropping below his chest. Atleast he had the heart to keep up with his crappy stroke. All I can say I had my laugh for that morning.

[SEA]

I totally agree with SUP Ninja.  You have to have a good grasp of the proper mechanics and why it works,  then you can work on technique. without a proper knowledge of basic fundamentals  you will never know what you are doing wrong.You have to spend time out on the water with a grasp on good basics and why it works. It's like a golf swing you can take  some of the top 20 golfers in the world and they will all have different swings but they have solid fundamentals and a good grasp of the mechanics of a good swing. Their swings look similar but they all have their own style or technique. In paddling it's the same, if you look at the top paddlers like Danny Ching, Dave Kalama , Ekolu Kalama and Scott Gamble their paddle strokes all look very similar. Their fundamentals are SOLID but their technique varies slightly. The one thing all good paddlers are good at is engaging the large muscles of their core to do most of the pulling, they engage different techniques for different situations ( tahitian or Hawaiian)  for paddling up wind or downwind. The reason for this is to be efficient and conserve energy so they can paddle longer and faster. without proper technique you will not be in the game for very long, you will damage yourself eventually.

There was an article here on Oahu a few months ago that was about how there has been a huge increase in shoulder injuries from men and women here who have begun stand up paddling. They have lousy knowledge of fundamentals and what is a good stroke and they are just muscling it and therefore destroying their shoulders. Sup Ninja and I see guys all day long who paddle sort of quickly but I will guarantee that you won't see them paddling in a few years. That is one of our favorite sayings when we someone with lousy technique.... "he won't be around long".

[Rockbottom]

Kind of a side note on the mental aspect of athletics.   On paper, it is physically impossible for a human to run 1 mile in under 4 minutes.  It was such a paradigm that it went untested until 1954 when Roger Banister did it.   Now that it has been proven possible, the same way that on paper, bumblebees shouldn't be able to fly, a runner can't really be competitive at an elite level if he can't run a sub 4 minute mile.
    Just think where this sport will be in 20 years.  Hmmm...

Gordon.