We are getting A LOT of inquiries lately about personal coaching. It is no surprise that paddlers are looking for ways to paddle faster. As a general rule, to paddle faster you need to increase your power:drag ratio. If you think about it, there are only a few things you can really do to make yourself paddle faster. You can do things that decrease your drag or increase your power output. For example:

1. Decrease your frontal area: A larger frontal area creates wind resistance. The smaller  your frontal area the less resistance you will encounter. In theory you can try to shrink yourself. It would be great if you were built like Kai Lenny but you cannot change your genetics. If you are tall, broad shouldered, etc. you have what you have. You can modify your paddle stroke (check out videos of Anabelle Anderson any anyone else who uses the underhand grip ) so you keep your waist bent. Finally you can wear tight fitting clothes. These changes are small but can have a significant effect on your paddling especially in a headwind.
2. Decrease your drag in the water: your paddleboard has a big effect on your speed. There really is a difference between boards. If you have ever paddled a 24 inch wide board designed by Brian Szymanski you will feel the difference. Buying speed is expensive but if money is no object you certainly can buy some speed. The only trade off for this type of speed is board stability.
3. Decrease your weight: As a general rule you need to lose a lot of body weight to improve your power:drag ratio. If you are overweight, that is one thing. If, however, you are like most paddlers, losing that extra 1 or 2 or 5 pounds is not going to do it. Our recommendation to most paddlers is to focus on good nutrition to fuel your workout
4. Increase your power output while you race: To increase your power you need to do one of three things:

• Increase the amount of torque(1)  you place on your paddle
• Increase your stroke rate
• Do one or both for an extended period of time.

The best approach is to do all of the above. Eat well so you are not carrying around extra weight, get the lightest and fastest equipment you can afford, and focus your training on increasing your power output. The remainder of this article will focus on ways you can increase your power output during a race. Hint: you may have to buy some training paddles.

General principles and new workouts to increase your power output.

Training to increase your stroke rate: Most paddlers have a stroke rate that they are comfortable with. Some  paddlers are wired to paddler faster and some are wired to paddle slower.Your intrinsic stroke rate is not entirely related to the paddle blade size you choose. Rather, there are neuromuscular factors that control your stroke rate.

In our experience, if a paddler who normally has a 60 strokes per minute (spm) cadence uses a small blade they will start out paddling faster than 60 spm but after about 15 -20 minutes they will fatigue and fall back into their normal stroke pattern of about 60 spm.You can train your cadence by training your neuromuscular system.

To do this you need to practice paddling with a HIGHER cadence for extended periods of time. To perform high cadence drills try using a small blade face (for example an 83 sq in blade face) during your workouts for several weeks at a significantly higher than normal stroke rate.What you will find is that when you go back to your normal paddle you will be able to paddle longer and harder at your normal cadence. Although there are a lot of reasons for this, one of the reasons is that you have trained your neuromuscular system to paddler longer without fatigue and improved your cardiovascular fitness with our high cadence training.

Train to increase torque : In most endurance sports, athletes find a way to increase the amount of force (torque) etc. they can generate during races.  Cyclists train in a big gear, sprinters train by running with parachutes behind them, swimmers use paddles etc.To focus on your torque output while training you will need a paddle with a larger blade face than you are used to using(2,3).

While torque training you want to train with a SLOWER than normal cadence and focus on the amount of torque you place on your paddle. With focused training on torque you will find that when you go back to your normal paddle, you are able to paddle LONGER and HARDER with your normal blade face because of your improved muscular endurance. Some athletes ask us if this is something that they can simulate in the gym. Unfortunately, it is not. In the gym you are training strength. If strength were all it took to increase paddling power, power lifters would be great paddlers. Torque training is focusing on muscular endurance. This requires you to paddle using your normal technique for extended periods of time.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Torque training is ONLY for advanced paddlers with several years of paddle experience and ONLY if they have excellent technique and ONLY if you have a few months of base training under your belt this season and ONLY if you gradually introduce torque training into your workouts.  Torque training is a great way to wind up with a shoulder or back injury if you do not know what you are doing.  Additionally, you do not want to just grab a 125 blade face and head out on a 4 hour paddle. Torque intervals of 5-15 minutes (maybe more for advanced athletes) are all you need. Again, a strong paddle foundation, strong core, and good sense is essential to successful torque training. Torque training is important but not at the expense of an injury. Now go back and read this paragraph again (and again if necessary). A paddle can be a weapon of mass destruction to your shoulders if you do not know what you are doing.

IMPORTANT NOTE #2:  You want to do your torque training early in the year (after you have a few weeks of base training under your belt). For example, you can do a 6 week block of training with torque based intervals late in your base phase of training before the pre-competitive phase starts.   You do not want to do  torque training during the competitive phase of your periodized training year. The reason is that may find that torque training will make you paddle slower. That is ok. This is a normal, temporary, adaptation that will abate soon after your torque training ends.

Conclusion

The bottom line on this is that in addition to improving your paddle technique,  the biggest change you can make to your paddling is improving your power output and this requires paddling at a faster rate and/or putting more torque on the paddle.  If you are either able to paddle a bigger paddle blade at the same cadence you currently paddle OR if you are able to paddle your current blade face at a faster cadence than you currently paddle you are going to paddle faster.  To do so will require you to directly train your neuromuscular system to increase your cadence and/or improve your muscular endurance with specific torque training.

Footnotes:

1. This type of training is properly termed TORQUE training and not POWER training. These term torque must be differentiated from the term power.  Power output is defined by force or torque x stroke rate.  A paddler with a very high cadence who does not put a lot of torque on the paddle could have the same power output as a paddler with a slow cadence who places a lot of torque on the paddle.

2. In theory you can also do this with a slower paddleboard. However, using a SUP surfboard or something similar is not going to cut it. The problem with small boards is that your paddle technique will be different as you try to balance on your board.

3. Paddle boarders can use a bungee on their board. A bungee doesn’t just slow you down it changes the board dynamics to allow some degree of torque training.