Forward stroke aka goon stroke

Forward plus stern pry

This stroke is the combination of a forward stroke and a correction stroke. This is probably the stroke that has the most room for improvement. This stroke combination is build from a very clean, powerful forward stroke, followed by a snappy stern pry. I prefer this stroke over a J-stroke to start with, since this combination is also very useful on the river. A J-stroke is leaving more room for a nice rhythm, but is less efficient for aggressive corrections needed on the river. That's why I prefer a goon stroke as a basic forward stroke combination.

Forward with torso rotation and hips

Paddling forward with torso rotation is the most powerful variation of a forward stroke. This version involves unwinding the strong torso muscles, transfer power from the hips.

Torso rotation

To get a feeling for the torso rotation, put the paddle in you neck, blade at your paddle side. Now go for maximum rotation, without thinking about paddling.

To plant your blade, remove the from the neck, and imagine (or actually have) a watch on your grip-hand arm. Put that watch against your forehead, planting the blade firmly in the water. Focus on a very clean vertical planting of the blade. Unwnding these strongly prewinded torso muscles is generating a very powerful movement.

As you can learn fro this unwinding, it makes no sense to add power after the blade has passed the hips, since that power is coming from the arms, not from unwinding the torso.

To improve your torso rotation, you can pretend to smell you deo under your grip-hand arm.

You can further optimize paddling with torso rotation by tilting your hips. When the blade is planted you should feel your hips being pulled away from the blade. By paddling and unwinding, you also have to straighten your hips, adding yet another portion of power to your forward stroke.

Power phase

Now that you have reached a very nice torso rotation and planted the blade vertically, it's time to move yourself and your canoe towards the paddle. It's very important not to add power to the forward stroke before the blade is fully submersed. When you reached that point, it's time to loosen that prewinded torso muscles and work your hips.

As I mentioned before, the power phase goes to the point where the blade reaches the zone between your knees and hips. More power backward comes from the arms and is not as efficient.

Gear shifting

After you added power to the stroke, we need a correction, a stern pry. The transfer to a stern pry is simply done by letting yourself and your canoe float next to the blade without pulling the paddle out of the water. It's like shifting gears in a car, where you have to decouple before being able to move to the next gear.

Stern Pry

The stern pry is a stroke we have already been working on doing basic correction strokes. You rotate your upper body towards your paddle side and turn your grip hand thumb up. You plant the blade as close as possible to the hull of the canoe. The shaft is connected with the canoe at the gunwale.

When the paddle is at this position, it's time for a short pause as well. You have to let the water calm down for a split second, so there is firm water available to pry against to.

The pry itself is short snappy stroke by pulling the grip hand into the canoe for 10-15 cm. The shaft hand and thus also the shaft remains at the fixed point against the gunwale.

The recovery is easily done by lifting the blade vertically out of the water. By flipping the grip hand thumb forward (in such a way that the blade is parallel to the water surface) you can feather the paddle back to the bow of the canoe, ready to start a new powerful forward stroke.

The ultimate goal is to get a really nice and clean forward stroke, even on whitewater...