I am away at Plas y Brenin this week, on their last Level 5 BCU Coach Development course and will blog day by day here with my notes and reflections on the course.

My specialism is White Water Kayak

Day One
 
After a half hour briefing we headed off to the Tryweryn on this, the last day of the season before the 6 week shut down, this is what we worked on on the river,

Understanding performance

Beginners straight lines

Pulling forward of the centre of resistance, Duracell bunny to body rotating power stroke

Edge and the v hull effect, directional stability and the squeeze effect, sailing analogy. Water hits the side of the boat, the boat is held by the v, so goes forwards rather than sideways.

Trim in kayaks, crossing the eddy line like riding a step up. Can remove the need for the squeeze.

Emphasis on boat positioning and playing with making every stroke a power stroke on alternate sides.

Playing with this on the graveyard particularly changing trim.

Observation of one of the coaches with a view to looking at position and use of waves, rocks and stoppers etc. All played with this.

Running the middle of the graveyard, then re running it with set pieces and getting feed back on our own paddling.

Highlights

• ·         Understanding momentum and resistance, push pull with beginners
• ·         Edge and the squeeze/sailing effect
• ·         Trim on eddylines, waves etc.

Back in the classroom a review of the day and a top thought from Pete Catterall,

Performance goes back to foundation level under high stress, make the foundation sound and as close to top performance as possible.

Home work was to produce a chart of golden threads, that take us from a beginner to a skilled paddler.