First K2 Practice

Today was Amber's and my first K2 practise of the year. Until her main rowing regatta is over in six weeks, we won't be having very many practises. We trained out of Burnaby Lake today. We started by setting up the boat. A Simon River Sagitta K2, which is one of the best intermediate K2s on the market. I really like this boat. To the point we are thinking about buying our own, or a Fenn XT double surf ski. One problem is that I was very disappointed in the fit of the front seat in the XT. I assumed it would be like the single, but it was not. The front seat setup is not for someone with short legs. If we get one of those I will have to make a custom foot board.

Our goal for today's workout was going to be trying different set ups , and to work on timing. For the first round of paddling, I was going to be in the front. I know this boat very well so it was a quick couple of adjustments and I was ready to go. Once Amber was ready to go, we headed out into the lake, because we were going to be changing things often, I decided to stay in the area by the club house, to make it easier to make adjustments.

Right off the bat, I noticed that our collective balance was actually pretty good. We started with a medium stroke rate. I was using the Epic large blade again, and I didn't want to go too high of a rate. We settle in around 70 – 80 strokes per minute. The boat did rock the occasional time, but nothing too concerning. In other words no huge braces to keep us from swimming. Since Amber started working with a trainer her balance has improved quite a bit.

We don't have the “wobbles” like we had the last time we paddled K2 together. After about 10 – 15 minutes we headed in, and changed it up. Amber went in front seat and I went in the back seat. This made a big change in the balance of the boat. We became fairly twitchy, and our we weren't in sync with our stroke. It took a while, for us to get it together, but we did manage to get the boat moving ok.

On our next stop at the dock, we talked about stroke technique. It is good that Amber has not developed bad habits, and can be coached to do the proper stroke technique right from the start. We discussed rotation, the catch, and rotating the body, and not the arms. We sat on the edge of the dock, and worked on the position of the body at the catch or set up as it is being called in some circles. from there we worked on rotating the body and holding the arms locked in position. This is to get the feel of using the truck for your propulsion and not the arms. The arms are to hold the paddle in position.

Then it was back into the boat, and out to paddle some more. I was back in the front seat, and the boat was reacting better. We will still switch seats, so Amber can get more practise steering, and so I can see her technique. I could tell that Amber was trying what we talked about because the boat was starting to rock a little. This is good, but the main focus is on timing. We have to get our timing down as a main priority and then technique.

Our workout was only 50 minutes, but it was a very productive. I don't know when we will get a chance to paddle together in the next 6 weeks. Hopefully the time gap won't be too big.