The concept of requiring to be in the \u2018correct gear\u2019 to achieve maximum power (hence speed)\u00a0when racing, is covered in the document on ‘Optimum Paddling Cadence’.\u00a0\u00a0If you’ve gone to trouble of\u00a0determining your best paddling cadence by the method suggested here, or any other you prefer, it’s daft not to operate at close to this optimum stroke rate in important competitions.<\/p>\n
It is not unheard of for UK sprint paddlers to find themselves racing into strong (occasionally very strong!) headwinds at Nottingham.\u00a0 With no adjustment to ‘lower the gearing’ (by shortening the shaft), paddlers typically either:-<\/p>\n
Pull very hard for the first half of the race\u00a0maintaining their normal technique and stroke rate, and then blow!<\/em><\/p>\n ‘Short stroke’ to maintain their preferred stroke rate,\u00a0\u00a0to the detriment of good paddling technique.<\/em><\/p>\n Maintain the stroke length, pace themselves properly, but operate\u00a0below their most effective ‘cadence window’.<\/em><\/p>\n Think about it, and if you get the opportunity, try it.\u00a0 When your ploughing in to a strong wind in a training session (with other paddlers you know well).\u00a0 Shorten your paddle by 2 cm.\u00a0 The others will probably try and burn you off initially, to prove you’re wasting your time.\u00a0 Just keep faith in your normal technique, and wait for them to blow!<\/p>\n The ‘Optimum Cadence Document’ is aimed very much at determining a stroke rate ‘window’ for specific sprint distances.\u00a0 But the ability to make gearing adjustment because you<\/em> feel you need to, is equally relevant to non-sprint situations, whether because you’re getting fitter during the season, race conditions dictate (shallow course, headwind) or\u00a0whatever.\u00a0 For the non-sprinters it’s just a bit less science, a bit more understanding your own abilities.<\/p>\n (I’ve done a there and back surf ski race where ‘there’ was downwind, so obviously ‘back’ wasn’t!\u00a0 After a few minutes of struggling in to a strong headwind on the way back, I stopped for 10 seconds or so and shortened my paddle.\u00a0 I then had 45 minutes of more comfortable paddling, catching and passing a number of my fellow ‘slower paddlers’ before the finish).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The concept of requiring to be in the \u2018correct gear\u2019 to achieve maximum power (hence speed)\u00a0when racing, is covered in the document on ‘Optimum Paddling Cadence’.\u00a0\u00a0If you’ve gone to trouble of\u00a0determining your best paddling cadence by the method suggested here, or any other you prefer, it’s daft not to operate at close to this optimum…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"full-width-page.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-29","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paddlingscience.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/29","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paddlingscience.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paddlingscience.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paddlingscience.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paddlingscience.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/www.paddlingscience.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/29\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":447,"href":"http:\/\/www.paddlingscience.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/29\/revisions\/447"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paddlingscience.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}