The forward stroke is the most important and most used strokes in kayaking. It’s for that reason it’s important to get it right. When doing a forward stroke it’s important to utilize as many muscle groups as possible. This way you’re not just using you arms, which will quickly lead to fatigue, but using your whole body. When you plant the blade your arms, legs and back all take motion by using rotation in your stroke.
The start of your forward stroke has to do with the catch when you plant your paddle. Check your grip; make sure your holding your paddle about shoulder width apart, then you want to rotate your body keeping your forward arm straight with your elbow locked. Your following arm should be bent. When you put the paddle into the water pull it back with your straight arm, and at the same time punch forward with the opposite hand bending your pulling elbow and ending up lined up rotated on the opposite side. Your stroke should be about 30% pull and 70% push, which is the opposite of what most people tend to do. When taking your stroke the punch, your hand should go to the center line of the kayak and extends, height-wise between your chin and solar plex in order to give you a strong forward push so your hand is not dropping down to the deck, which causes your blade to lift water, but instead pushing straight ahead. All effort needs to be made to propel your kayak forward.
Remember; make sure you’re relaxed, you’re grip is comfortable, you spring off your foot pedals and you rotate your body when you take those strokes.
