When paddling a canoe, it's important to face your working area. Not only visually, but with your complete upper body.

This way of facing your working area with your upper body not only has an indirect influence of where you are going, it's also a way to make sure you are using those big torso muscles and it helps you to stay in the paddlers box. It might feel a bit awkward in the beginning, but you'll notice you are much stronger and much more dynamic while paddling.

This way of paddling is not only useful for playboating, it also is really valuable for paddling touring canoes. A playboat needs the power and the speed to match stronger currents. A touring paddler has to work with a longer, slower turning boat.

Some visual examples of facing your work:

In the above picture you can see the place where I enter an eddy, and I'm not looking to shore, but towards the stone creating the eddy upstream (right side of the picture). My arms are safely in front of my body and I have plenty of room to move my paddle around.

Another example you can see in the above picture where I'm using sculling. Here it is really rewarding to face with my upper body towards the working area.This greatly improves the range of motion so I can do nice sculling over the maximum length of my canoe.

Facing your work also has a very positive influence on the range of motion of your shoulder joints and the pressure you put on them. 

Looking where you want to go has the positive effect that you automatically start to do what you have to do to get there. But you can turn it around. If you are looking at river features where you don't want to go, that's where you'll most probably end.

Looking at the big fat rock instead of the eddy

And not hitting the eddy but the big fat rock instead, with wrong tilt!

Give it a try, and you'll be impressed!