SUP Tips for beginners: Stroke technique drills
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- čas přidán 19. 09. 2014
- More advanced stroke technique tips for beginners: Learn good stroke technique before you "train" bad habits and make them harder to unlearn. This video shows you some drills you can use to get good catch with the blade, feather on the recovery and using your torso to power the stroke.
Please also watch the other videos in our Tips for SUP Beginners Playlist: bit.ly/1v2CNMv
For information on our SUP lessons, please visit:
blueplanetsurf.com/pages/lessons
Video Transcript
When I do a lesson, a lot of times if people learn quickly, I'll get into some more advanced stuff right away. And usually I get in the water with them and this is a good way to practice some basic stroking. And because I'm off the board and I'm in knee deep water, it's hard for me to hold my paddle way up here. So I'm just going to hold it shorter to demonstrate some of the things I want to show you.
One thing that a lot of beginners do is they don't use their whole blade. They only use the top third of the blade. They kind of skim the water with their paddle and they're not really getting any grip. So, instead of just skimming the surface with the paddle, what you want to do is stick the whole blade in, and then pull on it. So you get a really nice catch. You can just kind of spear it into the water like a spear gun, or slide it in from the side or a little bit of both, and then pull on it. So get a real nice catch, and plant the whole blade in the water. The water should be all the way up here, where the whole blade is under water.
The other thing is, people in the beginning usually put the blade in too far back, and then they pull it behind themselves and then they throw water behind them. Anything really behind your feet is very inefficient in terms of propelling yourself forward. So, instead of doing this, try to get as much reach as you can forward, get the blade in there, pull it, and then end it at your feet. When you come to your feet, you come back out again.
Standing in the water is a really good way to practice the feathering too. So at the end of this stroke, if you twist your paddle out to the side and then bring it back forward in the water like this, it teaches you how to properly twist the blade, while you're moving it forward. So you twist it at the end of the stroke, with the paddle facing out away from you, and then take your next stroke.
This is a nice drill to practice the feathering on the end of the stroke. Feathering the blade, twisting it, and then planting it again. This takes a while to get used to it, but the sooner you learn it, the better. Because, if you're practicing, and you're practicing the wrong thing, it's going to be harder to learn it later. So the longer you paddle doing it the wrong way, the harder it's going to make it to learn it the correct way later. So you might as well try to learn the feathering and the correct paddle stroke right away from the beginning - nice forward catch, planting the blade, feathering at the end of the stroke.
So the other thing that I try to show people is using your big muscle groups in your back, your shoulder, your core muscles, you know, all those big muscles instead of just your arms. Usually the beginners, their upper body is just completely still and all they're doing is using their arms. Pushing and pulling with their arms like this.
What I try to get people to do is try to keep your arm, especially your bottom arm should just stay straight, reach forward, and I'm going to twist from my hips and my shoulder, to get the paddle in forward and then unwind. So it's like you're winding up a spring. Your body's like a spring that you're winding up in the beginning and unwinding it during the stroke.
So use those big muscle groups to power your stroke, not your arm. Watch my bottom arm, it's always going to stay straight. I'm not using my arms to pull on the paddle, I'm just using my core, and my torso, twisting motion. So those are just some basic things that are good to learn in the beginning before you get used to bad habits. But it's all more advanced things.
Another thing that I always tell people is: don't try to do everything at once. Focus on one thing at a time. Maybe focus on the feathering in the beginning. Then once you get the feathering, then on the twisting.
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Thank you the twisting drill at the end is exactly what I needed to get me to the next level
Sort, but very good video about the st up padling.
Many thanks friend for your contributions are excellent. Greetings from Argentina
Awesome video. You explain the feathering/twist in a very good way.
Glad it worked for you 🤙🏼
Ty; I'm getting so much info from watching your videos.
Thank you Victoria, great to hear, sounds like you are going down the CZcams SUP rabbit hole haha 😎💯🤙🏼
Reminds me of practicing the paddler's box for kayaking. Thanks for all the vids!
Agreed, I did masters swim class for a while and we did lots of drills every time, I found these exaggerated drills are very helpful to improve technique.
great videos. so many helpful hints, so simply and clearly done. Easy to follow and practice. . thanks for your work. Summer in Chicago -SUP Lake Michigan.
Thank you for your feedback Patricia, it's always good to hear that the videos are helpful. Enjoy the summer in Chicago! Aloha, Robert
I prefer to have a longer paddle so that the paddle is about 1-2 ft below the surface. These tips are great to instruct new people who rent our paddleboards.
Just be careful with your shoulders when you use a long paddle 🤙🏼
I've personally been trying to shorten mine - I had a couple lessons with a coach who was saying she shortened hers slowly as she got better at hinging with her hips!
thank you for your videos. very informative and clearly presented
readeray Thank you for the comment, I'm glad you enjoy the videos.
Excellent tips thanks 🙏🏻
🙏🤙🏼
Hi guys! I follow your tips to improve my technic here in the hearth of the Mediterranean sea.. Spain . Thanks !! Good job. Best tips and videos in the net... Saludos!
Always great to hear that the videos help people all over the 🌏! 🙏😎🤙🏼
Great thx
👍👍😎🤙🏼
Great tips. Great vid.
Glad you liked it🤙🏼
As a new paddler, I have spent numerous hours watching CZcams instruction, your channel among my time learning. And whereas I've learned to balance better and even begin my stroke on a slice inward to control the direction of the board without having to switch sides, this is the first time I've heard of feathering...though I believe I've been doing it as a result of my early canoe paddling technique using the J Stroke. I do find it to be a more powerful stroke, and great exercise!
I'm glad you find our videos helpful. Most beginners don't know about feathering. We find that the sooner you learn it, the easier it is to implement as you don't have to "unlearn" what you got used to doing. Feathering makes the exit much smoother and results in a more efficient stroke.
Thank you for the videos. They are very informative. I have never heard of feathering. How is it beneficial?
Hi Neera, feathering the blade as you exit the water will let you start moving the blade forward as you are lifting it, resulting in a cleaner, more efficient release. It also allows the blade to recover forward with less resistance, which is important especially when paddling upwind. When you do it correctly, feathering the blade at the right moment will make it feel like the paddle pops out of the water and forward effortlessly, so you can relax your muscles during the recovery phase. Here is another video we made about feathering the blade: czcams.com/video/hcF8eUbBQe0/video.html
yes
👍😎🤙🏼
Thank you Robert. What's your opinion on moving the right way ánd saving your lower back at the same time? Have you seen Dave Kalama's recommendations re/ how not to trash your lower back? Keep those interesting video's coming please! :-))
good point, you should always protect your lower back.
It was funny, after watching this video I applied your advice about the way to use the paddle yesterday and everybody was yelling at me “you have the paddle in the wrong way “ to which I answered laud too - “no, A PROFESSIONAL told me this way”- they said “noooo, look at all your partners” and I replied back “ Nooo, they all are WRONG “ hahahahaha
Haha, we see it all the time!
The twisting drill is a bit like dragon boat paddling.
Yes, in most paddle sports it’s good technique to engage the torso/ core muscles.