Sometimes you just have to sweep a little on one side to power the boat back in line or move the hands so one blade is further out. A j-stroke slows the boat a little

SuperGoatproductionsMaybe help this a litle bit.: www.kayakpaddling.net/ 2.2 section

Kulcsii is exactly correct. Torso rotation using the abdominal muscles, namely the internal and external oblique muscles, are your prime movers. Not your arms. Not your shoulders. Not your upper back muscles -- although it helps when all these muscle groups are strong and fit in order to better transfer the abdominals' torque to the paddle. In order to achieve even more torso rotation, a good paddler uses his legs to rotate the pelvis around in the seat on each stroke, pushing with the leg that is on the side that is pulling the paddle, thereby helping to increase the total rotation of the upper body that connects to the paddle. It's amazing to me that all these so-called paddling experts, including Greenlandic (Inuit) paddling experts, exhibit very poor forward stroke mechanics. The arms' and shoulders' purposes are only to connect the torso to the paddle, and to adjust the angle of attack and pitch of the paddle to the water and control the placement of the catch. One of the very best ways of practicing and getting the feel of the mechanics of the proper stroke is to keep the arms absolutely straight with barely a bend in the elbow at all times. While this is an exaggerated mechanism, it will show you how to primarily power the paddle with your abdominals and legs. Ideally, your chest should be rotated to at least a 50 deg angle from the bow on each side of each stroke. Try to exaggerate that further to 80 deg for practice and to gain flexibility. You're catch will be much further ahead and you will have a much longer stroke per side with far more power and endurance. It's funny (not really), if you watch very old clips (early 1940's) of Inuits paddling compared to today's Inuits, you will see a terribly distinct difference. Today's Inuits have forgotten much about their ancestor's stroke. They use all arms and very little, if at all, torso rotation

same premise as archery & guitar (& probably writing, walking, running etc etc etc). learn to do it technically right first. then when you have that nailed down, you can play around & find your own style that's most comfortable for you. start off with bad form, you'll end up with muscular strains & injuries as bad form gets worse. better any bad habits fall from a place of excellence rather than an already low drop-point