Judges could give coaching tips ? - One way to encourage attendance
Many paddlers like myself don't have a coach, or a nearby slalom course to train on. Events can represent the only chance to improve/learn. It can be perplexing at times 'why I took so long'. Often gate judges are experienced paddlers who could write down some comments for paddlers as to how they could/should have negotiated different parts of a course. I'm always really grateful when someone gives me feedback on a run. Does anyone else think this is possible, or would also like this sort of help.
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Nick Penfold
- Posts: 338
- Joined: Thu May 27, 2004 8:21 pm
Well, here's a starter for quite a few who were at Bala Mill on Sunday:
The sequence gates 5-6-7 was the most interesting on the course. But you had to get through 6 heading slightly right for 7, and the way to do that was to cut through the left side of the little haystack wave beween 5 and 6, and get a bit of a turn to the right there.
If you went the right side of the haystack you either missed gate 6 and were shot through through 7 with no chance of recovery, or you got 6 but got spat out to river left before 7.
In second runs a lot of paddlers were still drift-turning into 5 when they needed to push the turn. Clearly they hadn't worked out what was needed. But if you spent a bit of time on the bank above the section it was obvious.
Conclusion: study the water. Think about it. Watch what other paddlers do, and what happens as a result. Then try copying the approach that works.
The sequence gates 5-6-7 was the most interesting on the course. But you had to get through 6 heading slightly right for 7, and the way to do that was to cut through the left side of the little haystack wave beween 5 and 6, and get a bit of a turn to the right there.
If you went the right side of the haystack you either missed gate 6 and were shot through through 7 with no chance of recovery, or you got 6 but got spat out to river left before 7.
In second runs a lot of paddlers were still drift-turning into 5 when they needed to push the turn. Clearly they hadn't worked out what was needed. But if you spent a bit of time on the bank above the section it was obvious.
Conclusion: study the water. Think about it. Watch what other paddlers do, and what happens as a result. Then try copying the approach that works.
