OC 1 Paddler's Profiles Hawaii - Pat and Ryan Dolan

Pat and Ryan Dolan plan to participate in the Olympic Summer Games in London 2012.

To be successful, they need to compete against international kayakers at the highest level - Hungarians, Germans, Italiens, Canadians, Australiens - the elite of Olympic kayaking is often European.

My opinion is, that Ryan will win an Olympic medal. My reasoning for this prediction is, that for a time, he bettered every record in almost every competition that he participated in.

To be successful, they have to be the best and most effectively trained athletes in the circuit. All this costs a lot of money.

If you like to support them to be able to focus on the tasks ahead, click here and your browser will reach their website at http://dolanbros.com

OC 1 Paddler's Profiles Hawaii - Walter Hamasaki

Final miles of the Molokai Solo 2009 - after six hours into the wind. Walter on the white Hurricane, passing Portlock, into Hawaii Kai.

OC 1 Performance - What Matters In Race Performance

What matters in OC 1 race performance ? All things matter.
The typical "it's the engine and not the boat" may sound good to some, but it is not convincing.

Paddler
Motivation, incentives, access to good training waters, finances, family status. Smaller and lighter paddlers do well in long distance and agitated conditions, heavier and taller paddlers can dominate in shorter sprint events.
Weight
Weight, boat and paddler combined, is the single most important factor. It determines how deep the boat sits in the water and thus the drag.
Experience
The more, the better. This is also true for race tactics, conditioning etc.. Good nutrition can be mentioned here, too.
Technique
There are many different styles of paddling, long/short, flat/open ocean, etc. all demand different abilities. Your technique will adapt to the conditions that you paddle in most frequently.
Conditioning
Let's assume that everyone, who wants to race, is well conditioned.
Local water knowledge
Very important. If you know the currents and wave/tide behavior, you will be able to judge your performance during the race and can adapt accordingly - a huge advantage.

Equipment
Canoe
Different canoes for different conditions.
Waterline length, beam. draft, rocker, design volume, entry, shape - they all matter and determine the behavior of a boat.
They are definitely not 'all the same'.
Paddle
Paddle length and paddle width definitely matter. A wide blade may be good for up to an hour, a narrower blade may be more efficient overall in a long distance race.
Whitewater paddlers like scooped blades, North American paddlers like bent shafts, Olympic paddlers usually have straight shafts etc., again a huge variety.

Race course
A good surfer may not do as well in the flats, a good flat water paddler may not feel as comfortable in the open ocean etc..

Conditions
Wind, waves, currents - we all like some conditions better than others.

OC 1 Performance - Equipment - The Paddle II

My first version worked well with some limitations. I made the changes that I felt may lead to improvements.
My main shortcoming of version I was the lack of response at the catch; I changed the shaft blade angle to a more conventional degree.

OC 1 Performance - Equipment - The Paddle

'The paddle' in its current form - it has a name already, but will first need to live up to it.
52 x 18 x 9 1/2




Ok - did my first careful run without much acceleration.

The paddle can be paddled as is.

Entry - slightly canted with the outside edge leading, no problem. Occasionally not a clean entry, but certainly no plunging.

Catch - didn't get good feed back how effective the catch is - I didn't feel much load on the blade, not sure what that means

Pull - normal, no problem there. You have to stop the pull where we teach to stop it, can't pull through all the way.

Exit - very doable, needed some getting used to. Just handled it the way you would pull your hand out of the water in free style, no problem. Had to be careful not to load the shovel towards the exit. A quick exit somewhat to the side worked. I didn't put any transversal scoop on the blade because I wanted to exit this way, and because I don't want the paddle to get 'locked in' without lateral slide.


Flutter - just a bit on the left and only occasionally. Maybe as much as the old Axel. When I grip the shat low - I grip with fingers only - no flutter.

Shaft - not used to a bent shaft; not sure that it is needed.

Handle - that was a quick fix because I wanted to get on the water. I like palm grip, have a t top. Not as good - Black Bart has a very good handle.

Overall certainly ok. Better than predicted and expected. Of course I would need some proof that this paddle is more effective than my usual Black Bart paddle. I will try it for some miles next week and take times on my test courses.

I didn't get to test full acceleration.

Exit and efficiency would be the key points to look at. If it were more efficient, the slightly different exit could easily be justified.

OC 1 Performance - Training

In this post I will develop a structured trainings schedule for my personal use.

My training schedule consists of three different parts: paddling, biking and high rep weight training.

Paddling up to x6/week total time varies, depends on how long we have day light
Cycling up to x3/week 90 min total
High-rep weight x3/week 90 min total


Paddling - general: this year more open ocean, wave experience so far. This has led to reduced endurance, so I will stress the conditioning a little more.

For my own purpose I set average 50 miles paddling/week as ideal. 20 miles/week does not lead anywhere, 30 is ok, 40 better and 50 is enough as I am not training to win any major race.


Cycling: this one is easy: Three times a week one half hour. 4:30 relaxed, 30" all out, 4:30 relaxed, 30" all out, .. for a total of six times.
If you take the 'all out' serious, you will see an excellent increase in your cardio-vascular conditioning over 6 weeks.

Weight training - high rep: I use an Everlast medicine ball, 28 lbs. Up to 1000 reps per session, reps as fast as possible. Mostly throw and catch. Mostly for hand muscles, forearm, shoulders, some abdomen. Rotation exercises.
Examples: lie on your back toss the ball up with your fingers, catch. Toss the ball up try to hit the ceiling, above the head throws, above the head throws to reach the ceiling ... high rep and fast is the idea.
This is not a weight training in the classic sense. The purpose is to generally develop all muscles that are not trained by paddling.


Technique: I have a series of drills that I use. Now that I have a new boat I will employ those a little more. Paddling with closed eyes, paddling backwards, paddling ama up early in every stroke, paddling with different stroke rates from very slow to extra fast at the same speed, fixed distance with the least amount of strokes downwind paddling without rudder etc..
I spend about 5 % of my paddling time doing this.


Paddling - conditioning: ( to follow )

OC 1 Technique - Performance - Engineerd Athletes

Engineerd athletes has detailed information on endurance performance.

This is the former http://eascoaching.blogspot.com/