It was very interesting to see the variety of rowing events.
It seems that the tandem canoeing develops the upper body in an asymmetrical manner, unless they switch sides. Can anyone inform me about this sport?
I had excatly the same thought.
Fred.
Sweep rowing also tends to do that.
Go Adam!!
I’m surprised a rower or paddler hasn’t stepped in to correct you - kayaking and canoeing are considering paddling sports, not rowing. Not sure what the distinction is, other than rowers get in a snit when you call them paddlers and vice versa.
Oars (as in rowing) are fixed onto the boat, paddles are not.
I am guessing you are a female??
The Olympic, Canadian or highkneel canoe is one of the hardest and worse for your body sports ever designed. First of all you are a righty or lefty. You only paddle 100% of your time on one side.
That means if there is one spot open in the singles events for the Olympics. The fastest 500 and 1000 paddler takes all the singles spots on the team. (that is fair enough) and it is often the same guy. Then the next fastest paddler of the opposite side gets the spot on the C2 boat. (usually the fastest guys training partner). So in theory you could be the fastest lefty and 5th or 6th fastest singles paddler and still make the team. Too bad for the 4 other righty paddelers, they stay at home.
You only paddle on one side. That makes your one side upperbody bigger (by a lot ) on the paddle side. Your bottom knee and top hip take a terrible beating. My down knee was two inches bigger (from swelling), my bicep arm measurement was 1 1/2 inches bigger, and the spinal alignment was interesting during my 7 year paddle career. The pictures of canoeists (Olympic style )are great. in a what is wrong with this picture sort of way. You can tell just by looking which side they paddle on.
The boats steer by using a J stroke which means steering slows the boats progress. If you are lucky and are a righty during a race you get a gentle breeze over the left side of the hull and you don’t have to steer at all. Big advantage over the leftys who have to steer a lot more in the same conditions. Then you train for 8 years and hope to do well at a big event and as a righty get a gusting wind over your right hull and all the leftys kick your ass and you don’t make the team. Too bad for you the weather just didn’t want you on the team.
I had a great time and got to travel a bunch as a highkneeler, but that is one hard sport. Other than perhaps a fixed gear bike on the flat or with a tailwind, a perfect day in the high kneel boat is something to experience. I used to paddle after dark some nights and just had to stop in splendor some evenings at what a wonderful life it was as a paddler. Then the next day in 90 degrees and the wind over the hull I would wonder WTF, the Ironman was way easy compared to this. I don’t keep up much with the sport any more, but enjoy and appreciate the paddelers going down the course. Remember rowers go backwards. Rember one blade is a fun blade and kayaks are for kids.
Thanks for your insight into the sport. I had no idea there were lefties and righties. Why wouldn’t they let you paddle on whatever side you wanted to? Do they have to have so many of each side in every race? Seems like a strange rule to me.
Thanks for your insight into the sport. I had no idea there were lefties and righties. Why wouldn’t they let you paddle on whatever side you wanted to? Do they have to have so many of each side in every race? Seems like a strange rule to me.
The C2 is a two-person boat, so you need one person to paddle on each side. Thus if there are 10 paddlers, 7 of whom like right handed and 3 left handed, the fastest person of all gets the C1 (single canoe). The 2nd fastest gets into the C2 with the fastest of the other sided paddlers. Given that there are more RH dominant people than LH, the LH person in the C2 could possibly be slower than a few of the other righties.
In theory one could learn to paddle on their non-dominant side to try to stack the odds of being picked, but I don’t know that it happens much.
I prefer K1 to C1, but that’s a personal preference thing (having done neither). Canoeing is cool though, as are OC’s (outrigger canoes).
Why wouldn’t the 2 person boats train together as a team like they do in rowing? It seems like the 2 person boats come into the race as a team rather than letting their fastest times determine what the make-up of the teams is going to be. Or, am I just confused?
I don’t really know - I’ve never been a flatwater canoeist. I think that the squad in generally trains together whenever possible, but a lot of the time you get people from all over the country (like other sports) and so the selection process is part of the team assignment as well. Not taking away from the benefit of having practiced together and being teamed up in competitions prior, paddlers at this level can generally adapt pretty easily to working with many different people.
“one blade is a fun blade and kayaks are for kids”
or, as we say in the whitewater paddling world, “half the paddle, twice the paddler” 
check out the WW slalom videos at nbcolympics.com. In the WW kayak, a Togoian gets bronze, and smashes his paddle in half in his exultation.
the majority of women in WW canoeing are lefties. Why is this ? because they start paddling with some guy in a tandem canoe, who typically gets the back of the boat (steering and CONTROL) and picks to paddle right, so the woman gets left…
though it’s not such a one-sided issue in WW, since you cross over a lot.
the majority of women in WW canoeing are lefties. Why is this ? because they start paddling with some guy in a tandem canoe, who typically gets the back of the boat (steering and CONTROL) and picks to paddle right, so the woman gets left…
though it’s not such a one-sided issue in WW, since you cross over a lot.
Imagine the crashes otherwise.
Brilliant, Tim!
olympic rowing is an amazing sport (well rowing in general).
I cant comment on the paddling sports because i dont really know a lot about them, but sweep rowing is not too bad. most rowers lift and/or erg, a lot swtich sides, and some scull as well (two oars vs one) so there is a lot less imbalances in the sport. also a good deal of them scull more when not training for the worlds or olympic boats, or do some of their training that way (at least the ones i know).
Lots of questions. Generally you start out with a paddle and pick a side to paddle on. Do you go faster on the left or the right side. Sort of like surfing or skateboards. You have a dominate side. Then in he team boat (C2) you find a person of the opposite side. You paddle C1 against each other and the team boat as one in training. Actually Canoeing is the fastest way to the Olympics of any sport. If you can make it down the course you are in the top 25 in the US.
If you can make it down the course pretty good welcome to the top ten. You can paddle the rest of your life and make the top 6 in the US and three go to the OLympics. Close but no cigar. Try that in swimming or track and field. How many of you have missed the Olympics by three to five places? Not many, not many. If you high kneel for 2 years I promise you to be in the top 10 in he US. So all you olympic want to bees go buy a C1 ( I have a couple) and sart training. Aloha G