The other day I saw some video footage of my finish at Ocean Springs two weeks ago. I noticed I wasn't getting my paddle blades fully submerged on my strokes. Granted, I was worn out from racing for an hour and a half and probably couldn't be expected to take flawless strokes at that point, but it bothered me anyway. So today, as I paddled for 130 minutes on the Mississippi and Wolf Rivers, I worked on this one aspect of my stroke, making sure I inserted the blade completely into the water every time.
Concentrating on one little thing like that is exhausting. As I try to get the blade down in the water, I have to make sure I don't bob the boat by lunging forward and downward too hard, or slump my body too much in an effort to get a little closer to the water. And for me at least, there's a feeling in the back of my mind that while I may be doing that one thing perfectly, the rest of my stroke and my boat control are falling apart. The result is that I feel like I've altogether forgotten how to paddle, and I feel all frustrated by the time I get back to the dock.
One thing I probably need to do is get someone to take some video of me paddling on a regular basis to see if I really need the sort of work I put myself through today.
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