3 Paddle Mistakes Killing Your Speed (Fix Them Fast)

If you want to paddle faster, go longer, and waste less energy, this video is for you. Because here's the truth, most paddlers aren't limited by strength, they're limited by efficiency. You can be putting in a ton of effort every single stroke, but if your technique is off even a little bit, you're leaking energy and slowing yourself down without even realizing it. The best part is though, you don't need to be stronger or train harder to fix it. All it takes is a few simple adjustments to your technique, and you'll see a massive difference in your speed, your endurance, and how smooth you feel on the water. In this video, I'm breaking down three simple tips to paddle more efficiently, things that a lot of beginners miss, and honestly, even experienced paddlers tend to overlook. We're going to cover how to stay ready for every stroke by keeping your blade close to the water's surface, how to feather your blade to move cleaner and reduce resistance, and how to fully bear the blade on your catch so you're actually generating power where it counts. Dial these few simple tips in, and you're going to notice an immediate difference. So, with that being said, let's get started. This first tip is something that a lot of paddlers overlook, and that is simply keeping your paddle blade close to the water's surface during the recovery phase of your paddle stroke. Most paddlers don't realize that when they're bringing their paddle blade forward once again, they're raising it too high above the water's surface, causing unnecessary movement in their body and wasting time as they go to set up for the paddle stroke once again. When you bring your blade too high above the water's surface, when you go to set up your paddle stroke, you're having to lower your blade once again down to the water's surface before you even begin the first phase of your paddle stroke, which is the entry in the catch phase. By doing this, you're causing a lot of unnecessary movement between your paddle blade and the water's surface before you even begin that paddle stroke. So, in order to help fix this problem and become more efficient during the recovery phase and setup phase of your paddle stroke, you should focus on keeping your paddle blade as close as possible to the water's surface. That way, if you get to the beginning of your paddle stroke once again, and you're ready for that setup, your blade is already at the water's surface, ready to enter and begin that catch phase of your paddle stroke. Now, with that being said, you will need to adjust this slightly every so often depending on the type of water conditions you're paddling on. For example, if you're paddling on a choppier day on the water where there's more chop on the water's surface, you're probably going to have to raise your blade a little bit higher in order to clear that chop as you bring it forward once again. But, if you're paddling on a glassy smooth day, you can keep that paddle blade lower, skimming across the water's surface, ready for a perfect setup for the beginning of your paddle stroke. One of the easiest things that you can do to help reduce resistance against your paddle blade as you push it forward to start the beginning phase of your paddle stroke is simply feathering your blade. Now, what I mean by feathering your blade is simply turning it 90 degrees allowing to cut through that wind like a knife as you bring it forward and you flatten the blade out once again to start the beginning phase of your paddle stroke. To do this technique, all you have to do is imagine your top hand opening a jam jar. So, for example, if I'm paddling on my right hand side, I'm going to imagine my right hand is now twisting in towards my paddle board. My bottom arm is following that motion with my paddle shaft, allowing my blade to feather as I bring it forward. Then, as I get to the forward or front of my paddle board, ready to flatten the blade back out again to start my paddle stroke or the first phase of it, all I have to do is simply rotate my wrist back out again, flattening that blade right into the water once again. Vice versa, I'm on the right hand side of my paddle board. My left hand simply rotates in towards my paddle board, flattening that blade or feathering it. Now, I get the front of my paddle board ready to begin the entry phase of my paddle stroke. I simply re-rotate my wrist out again, flattening that blade and entering the water for the entry phase of my paddle stroke. This is a very simple technique, but a very effective one that can save you massive amounts of energy, especially when it comes to paddling in upwind conditions. By feathering that blade, you're able to slice through the wind versus keeping it flat and pushing against it, wasting more energy as you push your blade forward and you start the beginning phase of your paddle stroke. So, work on that feathering technique and save you massive amounts of energy. This last tip is focused on making sure we fully bury our paddle blade in the water during the entry and catch phase of our paddle stroke. If we're not doing this and not fully burying our paddle blade in the water as we begin the catch phase and pull ourselves to that paddle blade, we're wasting a lot of blade surface that we could be utilizing in order to transfer power as we pull ourselves to that paddle blade in the water. One of the tell signs if you're doing this incorrectly, if you're creating or hearing a lot of splash in the water as you're beginning your paddle stroke every single time in the water. If you're doing it correctly and you're fully burying your blade in the water utilizing all surface area of that paddle blade and all possible energy for you to pull yourself to that paddle blade, you're going to notice way less splash or little to no splash and a nice quiet paddle as you begin the entry slash catch phase of your paddle stroke pulling yourself to that paddle blade during the power phase. This is once again a very small change that you can make to your paddle stroke that's going to make a big difference in the amount of power that you can transfer into your paddle blade as you pull yourself to it in the water making you a much faster paddler on the water. Also, I'm super excited to announce that I've relaunched my paddleboarding app and it's full of all kinds of paddleboarding workouts, strength workouts, sub tips, and even a 30-day challenge to help you get back in the routine again of getting on the water, getting in the gym, and making yourself a much stronger, more efficient paddleboarder on the water. So if that sounds interesting to you, I highly encourage you to go check out my app linked down below in the description box and start your free week trial getting access to all those resources. With that being said though, I'll catch you guys in the next video.