Forward strokes, not braces

I paddled the K1 this afternoon for 60 minutes.  It was hot but not stiflingly so, and the harbor was calm.

I did some more of that paddle-over-the-head drill, along with some one-sided paddling, which some might call a "canoeing drill" or "canoe paddling drill."

Interestingly, French flat water C1 racer Mathieu Goubel, in the video that I posted last Thursday, does what he calls a "kayaking drill," where he takes a stroke with his blade on one side, then pretends to take a stroke on the other side with the grip end of his paddle, and so on.

Basically, the objective is the same for Goubel's kayaking drill and my canoeing drill: to lengthen the interval during which the paddle is out of the water.  At these moments, the paddler must balance the boat without any help from the paddle.  I think my balance is improving, but I still seem to be leaning on my strokes for stability too much; one telltale sign is soreness in my wrists and forearms.  Ideally, you should be doing nothing but pulling yourself forward with your paddle.