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Paddle Techniques: The Catch (By Dave Kalama)
Most of my paddling life I’ve been using the Hawaiian stroke, which probably comes as no surprise given my Ohana. But my canoe partners and I converted to the Tahitian stroke over the last few years, and I’ve translated it into Stand Up Paddling–both for distance/downwind and for surfing. It is a more efficient stroke, but it’s hard to fully master. Picking up some of the basic elements will help your paddling, but you’ll probably need some qualified coaching along the way to avoid adding bad habits and to pick up the little subtle elements that make the stroke really work.
The best way to learn to paddle is to join a canoe club, do six man paddling, and have your partners bug you to do it right. Big time commitment though, and it will take at least a year to get good. Any good canoe paddle coach can help you with the basics, but the Tahitian stroke is not common, and they may not know the modifications that make it work for Stand Up Paddling.
Paddling is far more complex than it seems. It’s like playing an instrument. I can show you the chords, but you’re going to need a lot of practice to be ready to jam with Eddie Vetter. Even the “chords” for the Tahitian stroke are pretty complicated, so I’m going to break it down over a number of posts.
We’ll start this series with the Catch–the key to effective paddling. Catch is about three things: Reach, torso position, and timing. Reach is a bitch. Reach is what you hear paddle coaches yelling all day long.
Stand on your board in your usual stance and position, reach forward as far as you can and have someone mark that spot on your board with tape or a Sharpie. Copy the mark to the other side. Now mark several spots every couple of inches FURTHER towards the nose of your board, because as far as you can reach today is not enough.
Three body movements add reach. Stand with your shoulders square and reach your arm as far forward as you can. That’s one. Now rotate your shoulders and you can reach quite a bit further. That’s two. Now twist at the hips, turning your torso forwards. That’s three. If you do all three together with a little push–a gentle punch with your lower arm–you’ll have momentum, your joints will open, your muscles will stretch, and you’ll be able to reach even further. That’s four. A free bonus.
Jeremy Riggs tries the reach
To make the catch work best your paddle needs to be as vertical as possible. If you reach across your body to do that your upper arm will be at a very weak and clumsy position. So you need to stack your shoulders–bend at the waist a little to get your upper arm shoulder as high above your lower arm shoulder as you can. Extend your upper arm to get the paddle vertical.
You can see the shoulder stacking pretty clearly in this sequence, courtesy of Randy Strome at the Standupzone
The lower arm comes forward with the torso and shoulder twist, upper arm comes over the head to get the paddle as vertical as possible, lower forearm punches forward lightly, straightening out the lower arm and extending the muscles without hyper-extension, and then the paddle enters the water just as the muscles start to contract.
More reach!
Better–good torso and shoulder twist, stacking the shoulders and keeping the paddle perpendicular to the rail
From the other side
Now all these new movements need to come together at the same time so your can push the paddle into the water just as the momentum ends. The timing is just about impossible at first, it’s one of the hardest things to learn, and it needs to become automatic.
Next time we’ll get into the power stroke.
The best way to learn to paddle is to join a canoe club, do six man paddling, and have your partners bug you to do it right. Big time commitment though, and it will take at least a year to get good. Any good canoe paddle coach can help you with the basics, but the Tahitian stroke is not common, and they may not know the modifications that make it work for Stand Up Paddling.
Paddling is far more complex than it seems. It’s like playing an instrument. I can show you the chords, but you’re going to need a lot of practice to be ready to jam with Eddie Vetter. Even the “chords” for the Tahitian stroke are pretty complicated, so I’m going to break it down over a number of posts.
We’ll start this series with the Catch–the key to effective paddling. Catch is about three things: Reach, torso position, and timing. Reach is a bitch. Reach is what you hear paddle coaches yelling all day long.
Stand on your board in your usual stance and position, reach forward as far as you can and have someone mark that spot on your board with tape or a Sharpie. Copy the mark to the other side. Now mark several spots every couple of inches FURTHER towards the nose of your board, because as far as you can reach today is not enough.
Three body movements add reach. Stand with your shoulders square and reach your arm as far forward as you can. That’s one. Now rotate your shoulders and you can reach quite a bit further. That’s two. Now twist at the hips, turning your torso forwards. That’s three. If you do all three together with a little push–a gentle punch with your lower arm–you’ll have momentum, your joints will open, your muscles will stretch, and you’ll be able to reach even further. That’s four. A free bonus.
Jeremy Riggs tries the reach
To make the catch work best your paddle needs to be as vertical as possible. If you reach across your body to do that your upper arm will be at a very weak and clumsy position. So you need to stack your shoulders–bend at the waist a little to get your upper arm shoulder as high above your lower arm shoulder as you can. Extend your upper arm to get the paddle vertical.
You can see the shoulder stacking pretty clearly in this sequence, courtesy of Randy Strome at the Standupzone
The lower arm comes forward with the torso and shoulder twist, upper arm comes over the head to get the paddle as vertical as possible, lower forearm punches forward lightly, straightening out the lower arm and extending the muscles without hyper-extension, and then the paddle enters the water just as the muscles start to contract.
More reach!
Better–good torso and shoulder twist, stacking the shoulders and keeping the paddle perpendicular to the rail
From the other side
Now all these new movements need to come together at the same time so your can push the paddle into the water just as the momentum ends. The timing is just about impossible at first, it’s one of the hardest things to learn, and it needs to become automatic.
Next time we’ll get into the power stroke.
Paddle Techniques: Recover (by Dave Kalama)
We’re going to talk about how you finish the Tahitian stroke and then put the whole thing together. The first two articles: The Catch, and Adding Power, are both useful even if you don’t adopt a Tahitian stroke. This article isn’t, it’s only useful if you adopt a true Tahitian stroke. The unique part of the Tahitian stroke is in the recovery–pulling the blade out of the water and getting it back out to reach, catch, and start again.
When people first start paddling they tend to pull the paddle back as far as they can, and then recover by lifting the paddle behind them and swinging it back to the front. It’s too bad this is such a natural movement, because it’s a really bad way to paddle. You can’t add any real power once the paddle reaches your feet, any pull on the paddle as it travels back pulls the rail and tail of the board down and pulls you out of balance, and that long swing takes a lot of energy.
After people gain experience they often progress to a rough copy of a Hawaiian stroke. They pull the paddle to just before their feet, drop the upper hand out and down which pops the blade out of the water, then they swing the paddle forward to recover and bring the upper hand back into position for the next stroke. This is a more powerful, but it takes a lot of energy to swing the paddle through the stroke and there’s no time to rest.
The Tahitian Recovery
As soon as you put the power to it, start recovering by lifting the paddle out of the water like drawing a sword from a scabbard. You turn the handle with your top hand like a knob to feather the blade and help it pop out of the water. You do this feathering movement even when the wind is behind you because it helps the paddle exit the water cleanly. Break your lower wrist inwards as your upper hand turns the knob, then push upwards with the lower hand while the upper arm relaxes and follows the movement. You extend your lower arm, move your upper shoulder and arm into the stacked position, rotate your torso and shoulder forwards and punch out for the catch.
The upper arm moves through a small circle that is flattened like an almond. It adds power in the stroke by pushing down as the shoulders twist.
The lower arm adds power at the same time, pulling back with the torso and shoulder, then relaxing as it pushes the paddle up out of the water. Then it pushes forward in a gentle punch to reach for the catch of the next stroke.
It’s not a conga line, it’s Jeremy Riggs showing the Tahitian recovery. The sequence starts from the back “jeremy”. Photo courtesy of Randy Strome
The total amount of movement in the recover is a fraction of the effort required in swinging the blade back into position with conventional strokes. The downside is that your upper arm can get tired quickly from staying in a high position constantly. The trick is to relax the arm all the time you are not pulling, and let it hang from the handle rather than trying to use the upper arm to pull the paddle from the water. Your upper hand feathers the paddle, but it does it like turning a knob, a very easy movement.
The lower arm needs to relax during this movement also. You’re going to use the lower arm to push the paddle upwards, but it’s a light weight. You should feel the muscles go soft as you pull the paddle from the water. Start breaking the wrist immediately, and keep it bent softly until you start the punch for the reach. The biggest advantage of this stroke is how efficient it is. If you’re keeping your arm muscles tight when you’re doing the recover you’re not gaining full benefit.
You should exaggerate all the movements at first. Keep your initial pull VERY short, as soon as you put the power in, you stop pulling and start recovering. Your upper arm needs to hang on the paddle during recover and the lower arm should feel soft and loose. Exaggerate the relaxation. Your reach should be extreme. Go past your comfort zone and get your shoulder way out. Stack your shoulders and get the paddle as vertical as possible. You might find your paddle is too short for this long reach. Consider getting a longer one or extending the one you have. There’s an article in Ke Nalu about paddle length and how to extend a paddle that’s already cut.
Even in this exaggerated approach you should start seeing the benefits of the Tahitian stroke. You won’t be fast at first, and your shoulders will probably hurt. Your balance will feel off and the board will be more tippy because you are not winging out a big balance pole every stroke. Keep at it and all of this will improve quickly. You’ll find your arms are not tired after a long paddle. You’ll find you can immediately bump the cadence way up when you want to, because the recovery movement is so short, and the short, sharp power strole takes a fraction of the time. You’ll find you can get into bumps with fast strokes that feel like you are just tapping the water.
This is NOT the prettiest stroke I’ve ever done. Let’s look at the flaws starting with the second me from the back. My lower wrist isn’t broken and soft enough so when I push up, my lower arm pivots from the shoulder and pushes the paddle too high (third me). With my arms too high I have to swing the paddle more instead of just punching it forward (fourth me) but now I’ve got it in the right place, I stack my shoulders and get a good catch. Photo courtesy of Randy Strome.
Remember, 70 percent of the power available in a stroke happens during the catch. A long stroke is something like “onnnne huuundreeed” while a Tahitian stroke is “70,70,70″. It works out that way. You have a lot more control over the amount of energy you use and your pace. You can increase the cadence, or you can pull a fraction longer or a fraction harder.
Don’t be surprised if that takes a while to learn. It has to get into muscle memory, and you have to master all the little bits. To really get it takes about a year with a lot of paddling. Here’s a quick recap starting from recovery:
Mistakes people make
When people first start paddling they tend to pull the paddle back as far as they can, and then recover by lifting the paddle behind them and swinging it back to the front. It’s too bad this is such a natural movement, because it’s a really bad way to paddle. You can’t add any real power once the paddle reaches your feet, any pull on the paddle as it travels back pulls the rail and tail of the board down and pulls you out of balance, and that long swing takes a lot of energy.
After people gain experience they often progress to a rough copy of a Hawaiian stroke. They pull the paddle to just before their feet, drop the upper hand out and down which pops the blade out of the water, then they swing the paddle forward to recover and bring the upper hand back into position for the next stroke. This is a more powerful, but it takes a lot of energy to swing the paddle through the stroke and there’s no time to rest.
The Tahitian Recovery
As soon as you put the power to it, start recovering by lifting the paddle out of the water like drawing a sword from a scabbard. You turn the handle with your top hand like a knob to feather the blade and help it pop out of the water. You do this feathering movement even when the wind is behind you because it helps the paddle exit the water cleanly. Break your lower wrist inwards as your upper hand turns the knob, then push upwards with the lower hand while the upper arm relaxes and follows the movement. You extend your lower arm, move your upper shoulder and arm into the stacked position, rotate your torso and shoulder forwards and punch out for the catch.
The upper arm moves through a small circle that is flattened like an almond. It adds power in the stroke by pushing down as the shoulders twist.
The lower arm adds power at the same time, pulling back with the torso and shoulder, then relaxing as it pushes the paddle up out of the water. Then it pushes forward in a gentle punch to reach for the catch of the next stroke.
It’s not a conga line, it’s Jeremy Riggs showing the Tahitian recovery. The sequence starts from the back “jeremy”. Photo courtesy of Randy Strome
The total amount of movement in the recover is a fraction of the effort required in swinging the blade back into position with conventional strokes. The downside is that your upper arm can get tired quickly from staying in a high position constantly. The trick is to relax the arm all the time you are not pulling, and let it hang from the handle rather than trying to use the upper arm to pull the paddle from the water. Your upper hand feathers the paddle, but it does it like turning a knob, a very easy movement.
The lower arm needs to relax during this movement also. You’re going to use the lower arm to push the paddle upwards, but it’s a light weight. You should feel the muscles go soft as you pull the paddle from the water. Start breaking the wrist immediately, and keep it bent softly until you start the punch for the reach. The biggest advantage of this stroke is how efficient it is. If you’re keeping your arm muscles tight when you’re doing the recover you’re not gaining full benefit.
You should exaggerate all the movements at first. Keep your initial pull VERY short, as soon as you put the power in, you stop pulling and start recovering. Your upper arm needs to hang on the paddle during recover and the lower arm should feel soft and loose. Exaggerate the relaxation. Your reach should be extreme. Go past your comfort zone and get your shoulder way out. Stack your shoulders and get the paddle as vertical as possible. You might find your paddle is too short for this long reach. Consider getting a longer one or extending the one you have. There’s an article in Ke Nalu about paddle length and how to extend a paddle that’s already cut.
Even in this exaggerated approach you should start seeing the benefits of the Tahitian stroke. You won’t be fast at first, and your shoulders will probably hurt. Your balance will feel off and the board will be more tippy because you are not winging out a big balance pole every stroke. Keep at it and all of this will improve quickly. You’ll find your arms are not tired after a long paddle. You’ll find you can immediately bump the cadence way up when you want to, because the recovery movement is so short, and the short, sharp power strole takes a fraction of the time. You’ll find you can get into bumps with fast strokes that feel like you are just tapping the water.
This is NOT the prettiest stroke I’ve ever done. Let’s look at the flaws starting with the second me from the back. My lower wrist isn’t broken and soft enough so when I push up, my lower arm pivots from the shoulder and pushes the paddle too high (third me). With my arms too high I have to swing the paddle more instead of just punching it forward (fourth me) but now I’ve got it in the right place, I stack my shoulders and get a good catch. Photo courtesy of Randy Strome.
Remember, 70 percent of the power available in a stroke happens during the catch. A long stroke is something like “onnnne huuundreeed” while a Tahitian stroke is “70,70,70″. It works out that way. You have a lot more control over the amount of energy you use and your pace. You can increase the cadence, or you can pull a fraction longer or a fraction harder.
Don’t be surprised if that takes a while to learn. It has to get into muscle memory, and you have to master all the little bits. To really get it takes about a year with a lot of paddling. Here’s a quick recap starting from recovery:
- At the end of the power stroke don’t wing your upper arm–pull the blade up and out of the water like drawing a sword.
- Breaks the wrist of your lower hand inward and relax most of the lower arm, using only minimal effort to push the paddle upwards.
- Upper hand holds the handle like a knob, with the thumb pointed to the side.
- Twist the blade to a feathered position without putting a strain on the wrist.
- As the blade leaves the water the shoulder, arm and upper torso do a gentle punch, reaching for the catch.
- Upper arm extended, stack the shoulders.
- Push the blade smoothly in, torso and shoulder rotation applies power.
- Upper hand pushes forward and slightly down to aid in the power keep the shaft vertical.
- As soon as power is applied you relax, and start the recover.
- The upper arm motion is a fluid rotation like an almond.
- Pay attention to relaxing muscles when you can.
Mistakes people make
- Forcing the stroke. Relax. If you do it right your hands, torso and shoulders return to position automatically
- Pushing too soon. Keep your cadence easy and your pull light. Get the motions down before you try to go fast.
- Pulling up the paddle with the upper hand. The upper hand follows the paddle. You push up with the lower hand
- Holding the handle too tight. Hold it like a knob.
- Tightening the lower arm. Relax it while you’re pushing up. Sounds funny, but you’ll get it.
- Too short reach. You have to get out there and stretch your muscles out. If you’re reaching short your body is all cramped up. Open your shoulders and your torso.
Paddle Techniques: Applying Power (by Dave Kalama)
Hopefully you’ve been practicing that long catch. It’s a critical component of any stroke. Now we’re going to talk about adding power to the Tahitian stroke.
The toughest part to learn is how short the power stroke is. We’re all used to stroking hard at least to our feet. Some people try to pull even further than that. To learn the stroke I want you to overcompensate, and apply the power in just a super brief pull. As soon as you apply power you should stop pulling. At this stage people can’t seem to do it briefly enough. Focus on it. I know it will feel like you’re just patting the water. Concentrate on giving a hard pull and then ending your pull and starting to get the paddle out of the water.
You’ll be surprised how well this quick pull will move your board, even though it feels like you are not doing any work. The catch and first bit of pull is 70 percent of the power in any stroke. Applying energy after the catch adds power, but only a little bit, and it takes a lot of energy since your body isn’t in an efficient position. You also get both your hands and your torso out of position for the next stroke, and you have to get them back where they belong before you can start again. All that movement takes energy. The Hawaiian technique is fast but you need a lot of endurance to compensate for inefficiency.
The Tahitian stroke is constantly lifting the nose of the canoe or, in this case, a stand up board, and it’s designed to build momentum. Your hands, torso and shoulders return to position automatically, on a circular, continuous path, and only travel a short distance. To build speed you increase the cadence, and it’s a lot easier to do that because the stroke recovery is shorter and starts earlier.
You need to get a lot of power in that first bit of pull, and to do that you need your shoulders and torso engaged. If you are doing the catch right, then your shoulders and torso are already in the right position for a stroke. So as soon as the paddle is in the water you twist your torso and shoulders back straight. Again, to get the feel for this I want you to overcompensate and do this as a sudden jerk. You can mellow out later and get things smooth, but we want all that energy firing on the first foot of pull, and then it ends.
Photos Courtesy of Randy Strome, Standupzone
We’ll break down the recovery and put the entire stroke together next time, but for now let’s add the basics of the Tahitian recovery stroke so you can get the paddle back out in a good catch and get the power down.
In the Tahitian stroke we don’t wing out the upper arm at all because you’d have to work to get the upper arm back up above the paddle and re-stack your shoulders. Instead you pull the blade up and out of the water like drawing a sword. Your lower arm does the work of pulling the sword. You break the wrist of your lower hand inward and push the paddle upwards. The upper hand holds the handle like a knob and twists the blade to a feathered position without putting a strain on the wrist.
Pulling the paddle out–well before the feet. Note the lower wrist is broken and I’m pushing the paddle up with my lower arm. My muscles are relaxed, getting a chance to regain power. My upper arm is a little too far winged down–hey, I don’t do every stroke perfect.
As the blade leaves the water we start our catch part of the stroke. Move your upper shoulder, arm and upper torso forward in a gentle punch. Stretch the muscles forward and reach, reach, reach for the catch. The upper arm which has been extended up over your head by the sword pull, now moves a few inches inward towards the head and the torso rotates to stack the shoulders. At the catch the muscles start to spring back almost by themselves, and a firm torso and shoulder rotation applies power. The upper hand pushes forward and slightly down to aid in the power and position the shaft vertically. Almost as soon as power is applied you relax, and start pulling the sword again. Instead of winging up and down or swinging the paddle around your upper arm moves in a small circle with your hand moving in an almond shaped circle.
You’re almost there, or at least you almost know all the chords. Next time we’ll break down the recovery stroke some more, and we’ll pay attention to which muscles can be relaxed at different parts of the stroke, and then we’ll put it all together and tell you what parts to pay attention to when you’re practicing.
The toughest part to learn is how short the power stroke is. We’re all used to stroking hard at least to our feet. Some people try to pull even further than that. To learn the stroke I want you to overcompensate, and apply the power in just a super brief pull. As soon as you apply power you should stop pulling. At this stage people can’t seem to do it briefly enough. Focus on it. I know it will feel like you’re just patting the water. Concentrate on giving a hard pull and then ending your pull and starting to get the paddle out of the water.
You’ll be surprised how well this quick pull will move your board, even though it feels like you are not doing any work. The catch and first bit of pull is 70 percent of the power in any stroke. Applying energy after the catch adds power, but only a little bit, and it takes a lot of energy since your body isn’t in an efficient position. You also get both your hands and your torso out of position for the next stroke, and you have to get them back where they belong before you can start again. All that movement takes energy. The Hawaiian technique is fast but you need a lot of endurance to compensate for inefficiency.
The Tahitian stroke is constantly lifting the nose of the canoe or, in this case, a stand up board, and it’s designed to build momentum. Your hands, torso and shoulders return to position automatically, on a circular, continuous path, and only travel a short distance. To build speed you increase the cadence, and it’s a lot easier to do that because the stroke recovery is shorter and starts earlier.
You need to get a lot of power in that first bit of pull, and to do that you need your shoulders and torso engaged. If you are doing the catch right, then your shoulders and torso are already in the right position for a stroke. So as soon as the paddle is in the water you twist your torso and shoulders back straight. Again, to get the feel for this I want you to overcompensate and do this as a sudden jerk. You can mellow out later and get things smooth, but we want all that energy firing on the first foot of pull, and then it ends.
Photos Courtesy of Randy Strome, Standupzone
We’ll break down the recovery and put the entire stroke together next time, but for now let’s add the basics of the Tahitian recovery stroke so you can get the paddle back out in a good catch and get the power down.
In the Tahitian stroke we don’t wing out the upper arm at all because you’d have to work to get the upper arm back up above the paddle and re-stack your shoulders. Instead you pull the blade up and out of the water like drawing a sword. Your lower arm does the work of pulling the sword. You break the wrist of your lower hand inward and push the paddle upwards. The upper hand holds the handle like a knob and twists the blade to a feathered position without putting a strain on the wrist.
Pulling the paddle out–well before the feet. Note the lower wrist is broken and I’m pushing the paddle up with my lower arm. My muscles are relaxed, getting a chance to regain power. My upper arm is a little too far winged down–hey, I don’t do every stroke perfect.
As the blade leaves the water we start our catch part of the stroke. Move your upper shoulder, arm and upper torso forward in a gentle punch. Stretch the muscles forward and reach, reach, reach for the catch. The upper arm which has been extended up over your head by the sword pull, now moves a few inches inward towards the head and the torso rotates to stack the shoulders. At the catch the muscles start to spring back almost by themselves, and a firm torso and shoulder rotation applies power. The upper hand pushes forward and slightly down to aid in the power and position the shaft vertically. Almost as soon as power is applied you relax, and start pulling the sword again. Instead of winging up and down or swinging the paddle around your upper arm moves in a small circle with your hand moving in an almond shaped circle.
You’re almost there, or at least you almost know all the chords. Next time we’ll break down the recovery stroke some more, and we’ll pay attention to which muscles can be relaxed at different parts of the stroke, and then we’ll put it all together and tell you what parts to pay attention to when you’re practicing.
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