stand up paddling??

[Cataboo]

Would you be okay with a greenland paddle for kayaking?

Your paddling motion should be more of a torso rotation than moving your shoulder... but maybe I'm not visualizing what movement gives you trouble right.

[roadie gal]

I just looked at some videos using a Greenland paddle. I'm not sure if that would be a problem or not. It is a different motion than with the type of paddle I've used before. The motion that I think is the problem is when the arm swings back, with the elbow out, away from the body. It doesn't matter if it's a pushing or pulling motion, it's more of the position.

[Cataboo]

Try greenland paddling and try stand up paddle boarding and see what it feels like for you.

The beauty of greenland paddling is that it's gentle, and really you do it however it works for you - if something hurts or the motion is bad for you, you just don't do it. And that's pretty much how it's taught - do what works for you. It's a smaller blade, so you just do it at a higher cadence, like small gears on the bicycle.

By arm swinging back, are you saying that your arm shouldn't swing back behind your shoulder or that your arm can't be extended out at all?

If you mean the latter, just ignore what I say next.

Because if it's the arm shouldn't swing back behind the shoulder with the elbow out though, that's not something you should be doing - it's a torso rotation - your arm shouldn't go behind your shoulder. Your torso should physically rotate like you're looking to the left or right when paddling.

A good way to stop rotating with the shoulders is to take a paddle and stick it through the shoulders of your pfd in your back, which will stop you from rotating at the shoulders and force you to rotate using your torso... Another good drill is to take a paddle and paddle with it without bending your elbows at all - the only way you can complete a stroke is if you rotate.

These images might help - they're basically sideways to the boat at the end of the stroke...

[alpinerabbit]

and I thought someone had invented a new misspelling for pedaling.

Have fun!

[roadie gal]

See the position of his left arm and her right? That's the movement that I want to avoid, at least as a repetitive motion. It doesn't matter whether I'm pushing or pulling. It's the position of having the arm extended outward from the body.

[Cataboo]

Can you maybe do ocean or race canoeing?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmVmJsYPm7k&feature=fvsr

You might want to mute the soundtrack, it's annoying.

Try standup paddling

[GLC1968]

We were out on rented kayaks this weekend and there were a LOT of people out there doing the standup paddling. I was watching them for awhile and you could really see how it would be a good core workout. I wanted to try it but we had limited time. I will say that when the wind picked up pretty heavily in the afternoon, all those stand up people were sitting on their boards and paddling back to the rental place to get out of the wind!

The place we got our kayaks from were renting boards/paddles and PFD's for like $30 for two hours. Sounds like a good way to get an idea if you'll like it before investing in the gear.