Ivan, great instruction and well described. Thanks for taking the time to go through this so thoroughly.

Thanks for putting this together at this difficult time - really good to put things out there in a way we can do something positive at this time when most folk only have limited resources 👍

This is a great series of videos. Thanks Ivan.

This is the best series of sports coaching episodes of all walks I've ever watched! They're systematic, scientific and practical! 👍👍

Absolutely love your videos! Thank you thank you! So difficult to get material of this level of detail of instruction! And from someone who, given your success in the sport, actually knows what he's talking about... Especially for us old people who want to do things correctly, but do not have the benefit of some youngsters' development camp or similar. Awesome!

Thanks Ivan. Looking forward to the rest of the videos

Adding the heel bar should be the ticket. I am finding my legs locking out on the end of stroke often. My boat (Epic Legacy) has the half footboard and I realized watching this that I am shoving the heel forward. Game changer

Thanks Ivan. Love the white tape idea & really good land based drill.

Great Video. The white piece of tape is great am surprised that I have never heard that before but it really demonstrates what needs to be done. Great stuff

Hi Ivan, this is me signaling you on the internet thing to say thanks for a great video and excercise. Please keep these coming!

Very clear explanation, thanks Ivan! I agree with others here, that the white spot tape is a very useful teaching aid. And let's not forget the blue blocks behind your feet on the ergo, which provide a datum and help to highlight the position of the feet, these blocks really helped visualise the dynamic. I've now started on the leg drive exercises and I'm subscribed to your channel. Can't wait to see the rest of the series.

Great video - looking forward to more of these!

Hello Ivan. My name is Pablo and I write you from Spain. I wold like to thank you because I have learnt exercises and technics in a way I haven't seen before. THANK YOU very much for your effort and generousity. Regards from Madrid.

Hi Ivan, thank you for sharing your knowledge to us.

Thanks a lot Ivan 🙏 !! your videos are always very interesting 👍👍

Such incredible detail! Thank you for sharing.

Thank you for doing this Ivan! It is much more helpful than most of the technique instruction that can be found on the web.

I’m doing the Coast to Coast in NZ, my only canoeing experience is from slalom. This is really helping me to transition from a couple of minutes of explosive paddling to a 5 to 6 hour slog.

Great material, Ivan. Thank you!

Really nice en clear explanation. I will follow. As a seakayker I would like to improve my technique. This will help for sure.Thanks

Great stuff Ivan ! Love the white dot!

Thanks, Ivan. Very informative!

Great instructor by a great guy. I finished a surf ski 14 mile race once and when I got out of the boat I could hardly walk. My thigh muscle was quivering. I guess I had good leg drive that day. Or I need to get stronger legs.

Ivan - while we we deeply disappointed not to get your face to face expertise at the Berkeley California paddling and rowing club, this is a great substitute. Thanks so much.

Utilissimi video per tutti che vivono vicino al mare e non hanno un insegnante a disposizione per imparare ad andare in kayak/canoa. Grazie

Just when I was about to work on some technique clips based on your presentation, yours popped up! It has been a long wait to see some practical analysis and drills for club level paddlers and yours is perfectly fit! Thanks and will give it my biggest support. Look forward to seeing some more of this series soon. Cheers!

"If I see someone wearing socks in a boat, we've got a problem; we will never be friends." What about socks INSIDE shoes, Ivan? Because I wear socks inside my various paddling shoes...it lessens the effect of grains of sand getting in there and, inexplicably, it totally removes the tendency for wet shoes to smell. Great video, btw. I'm sharing. I find it interesting that I've never seen a kayak with heel rests, even boats made in the UK.

Love your paddling videos!!

*Thank you for doing this Ivan!*

Hi Ivan, I just found these and I love them. These vids are not just for coaches though!!

Muchísimas gracias. Gran explicación.

Thank you for this explanation, and this video continue the good work you are amazing.

Thank you Ivan. We definitely dont spend enough time on boat set up.

Very useful vid. Thank you. ... you’re a better coach than Physiotherapist but I’m looking to watching more. Brilliant!

Thank you Ivan! I will view these time and time again. As a paddler for the last 30 years I still practice technique every session and much like the perfect golf swing, still tryin' to get it right! Stay safe!

Thanks so much very interesting video !!!

Thanks. I’m not a kayaker, trad open boat only, but I got a lot out of your Richmond session. Looking forward to the rest of this series . If you were to have a little section of how it might apply to kneeling in a trad boat, or a short vid at the end of the series, that would be awesome. Assistant got much better towards the end :0)

Hi there. Thank you for being down to earth and step by step oriented. That was simply the most inspirational youtube-lesson, and I will explore how I can fit a footboard into my sea kayak. Just made a switch from euroblade to greenland paddle, and I want to stop using a rudder and start rely on edging for steering, thus making room for footboard. Greetings from Norway.

Thanks for this great instruction, I will have to revisit my footwork :-)

Thanks for this video. I’m a starting kayaker and love to learn the technic. But why is wearing socks such a problem

Great Clinic videos. As a slalom paddler I see the same concepts applied in a different environment. Do the phisical limits with ww K!1 hull (reduced torso rotation and legs bending) explain why high arm extension is still taught? Regards.

Awesome thank you. My heel is definitely moving!

Thanks for your video, I know what ive been doing wrong now and can work on fixing it.

Awesome!

These vids rock. You rock. Thank you Ivan so much for producing these and sharing your expertise. Such good technique lessons - how to and importantly why. Plus entertaining to watch. I have a question regarding leg drive. Boat is Epic sport surf ski. How do you push on foot plate without inching back slightly on the seat towards stern of boat. Is that not enough hip rotation or not enough weight on the blade in water. Need borders to open so I can come over for lessons (NZ) after my holiday.

good theory and training suggestions i wld also like to require suggestions with regard to improving stability in rougher water/waves and not only the statics that we often see on the internet and i am talking about k1 i actually add weight in the center to prevent from tipping to much and do the 4 times paddling left than right and 1 full stroke and lifting the paddling for 3 secs in the air

I love this video series; this sort of instruction is simply not available for the general public. I would have benefited from a brief introduction and overview of the entire paddling stroke: showing it from multiple angles and overhead as well before you address the various elements. It would also be incredibly beneficial if you could make a short video with observations of how these racing techniques might apply to sea kayaks, but I understand if you have no interest in doing that.

Excellent thanks

Thank you Ivan, your video has a tremendous value to me. Hq information on foot and leg drive are hard to obtain, e.g. the official training book of the German Canoe Association starts with the entry/reach and I always felt that is not where I start. I'm curious, what's your stance on pullbars and on high back seats?

Great info as always Ivan. I found the information about the foot plate and heel plate particularly useful. Are you doing an offer on heel plates at all? 😲 I've been thinking it might help for some time but for some reason there is no written information out there (well I can't find any, not in English) about this level of detail but now you have answered my questions. - So I'm very pleased to see you are planning a series of videos. Thank you

Hi Ivan, thanks for taking the time and effort to pass on the techniques, a question I have is regarding the hand grip. When say the blade is in the water on the right hand side should the left hand grip the shaft tightly to help prevent rotation or just lightly.

Getting numb heels; can you suggest a cause?

Really usefull :)

Perhaps a misplaced fear is putting too much pressure on foot pedal cables in a surfski. Pretty much have the keep plate and pedals at same angle and then do heel based drive because if the pedals are angled forward the heel has to be lifted to turn (and sometimes a hard turn surfing on a downwind) there goes the leg drive, albeit briefly.

Great video. Just want to point out that you can actually adjust the bottom of the modern nelo footrests to get the same angle with a heel rest.

Hey Ivan. Where do you buy the heel rest? Googled but can’t find anything even similar. Thanks for the great information !

I do like when my seat is slippery. Use to stick a teflon tape on it. It helps hip drive and prevent sacro illiaque problems.

I assume the heel rest attached to the seat rails. Can you get a heel rest that works with the older style pin seats?

lecturing the assistaant is so funny that passive aggressive attitude

Until I watched this video I couldn't explain why the full footplate angle doesn't feel right to me. Thank you, Ivan. Can you point us to any source on where to get and how to install the heel support? There's no rail in my brand new Viper 48 :/

Ivan, you mention the danger of letting your foot go floppy and simply absorbing all the leg drive that's meant to be going into your hips. But what about the opposite? Using your foot to accentuate the leg drive? Flexing your foot off the ball of your toe on the foot rest, to move your heels back in the boat on each stroke? I think (I haven't actually seen it happen down there in the boat) that this is what I do. It comes quite naturally to me as I also run a bit and have trained myself to be a forefoot strike runner, so my feet are used to generating quite significant forces equal to 2-3 times my whole body weight. Isn't this a good way of generating additional drive to your rotation?

Hi Ivan. Great vids. What’s worrying is that most of the kayaking world see this a rocket science. How can we sort out the coach education?

Brilliant observation about the loss of power with the 'negative' bend of the ankle on the power leg. Do you think we could utilize the 'negative' ankle bend on the passive leg? I am thinking of it as a wind-up much like the torso is winded up at the catch and unwound during the power phase. The ankle is quite strong--there's serious power in that joint. We bend the knee to store some potential energy for release during the power phase. Why not store some by driving the heel under the plate in the same manner and then release it by stretching the ankle during the drive? Curious to hear your opinion.

Great video, really interesting and well explained. You said that you had seen videos of people with makeshift ergos. I tried to get proper one at the start of the lockdown, but it was too big an investment, Do you have any ideas or know any links to videos that do a build for an ergo that are any good?

How do you think this works with foot pumps? I guess what I'm asking is would a pump compromise foot drive?

Alguna forma de traducirlo a español?

can you eksplain why straps slows you down if you pull much on them

How do you do the knee drive with knees tucked behind side brace !

Compulsory viewing for every kayaker.

Audio level is very low.

I know this is all about the leg drive, but a perhaps useful observation, this also shows the range of movement of the hand without bending the arm, just by efficient leg drive.

Too much bashing of the helper… could not finish the tutorial. Sad