Welcome to the 2021 Paddling Season
by Coach Anita
It’s finally here - our first water practice of the 2021 season is Wednesday, July 7. I wanted to give you an idea of what to expect.
First of all, everyone is welcome. Not only at this practice but at every practice. It doesn’t matter what level of participation you signed up for the season, if you are able and want to attend practice, please do so. You are ALWAYS welcome.
The first two practices of the season (Wed, 7/7 & Sat, 7/10) are open practices. That means there are no crews being seated. Starting Monday, July 12 we will begin crew practices for the Paddle for Life race on Sat, August 7. The PFL race has 10 person crews, so each crew will sit in the front of a boat. The remainder of the seats in those two boats and in the third boat will seat everyone else.
On Sat, July 10th we will have a basic instruction boat for our new paddlers. Each new paddler will be paired up with an Orienteer. This boat is appropriate for new paddlers from 2020 and 2021. We will need some veteran paddlers to sit in the first two benches and to fill in empty seats.
LAND WARM UP
We will always warm up for about 10 minutes at the flagpole. The purpose of land warm ups are to elevate your heart rate, mobilize your joints, and warm up the muscles we are going to use in practice. By using a regular warm up routine you get mentally and physically prepared for practice.
After warm ups conclude, please be quick about getting your gear and lining up in three boat formations. During the first two practices, there will be one caller as well as Coach Pat and I calling a boat. For these practices, I would like the first two benches of each boat to be filled with veteran paddlers. New paddlers will be benched with an Orienteer.
PRACTICE OVERVIEW
After the boats are lined up, Coach Pat and I will review the practice plan, explain the drills, what level of intensity you should work at, and the overall objective of the practice.
The objectives of the first few practices are technique work and aerobic base development. After drill work, we’ll do long(er) pieces at low intensity. The prescribed intensity levels for practices are intentional and should be followed in order to meet the objectives of practice.
WATER WARM UP
We will be using a standardized warm up on the water, so you’ll know what to expect each time you get on the boat for practice. It will start with the entire boat paddling, then only the odd number benches paddling, then only the even number benches paddling, then paddlers sitting in the front half of the left side of the boat and paddlers sitting on the right side of the back of the boat (aka Front lefts & back rights) paddling, then switching to front rights and back lefts paddling, and then the whole boat paddling. This warm up requires you to focus on different people to follow as well as stay engaged so that you are starting and stopping at the correct time.
I want everyone to attend practices as it makes sense for them, their lives, needs, commitments, etc. I want you to have fun, enjoy the work and development that happens at practice, and enjoy the camaraderie of paddling.
If you have any questions, please put them in the comments or send them to me directly (pdxanita@gmail.com).
Working Out Off the Water
by Pat
Many of us do some additional strength training or bootcamp type of workouts during the paddling season. And when we need to miss practice these off the water workouts are important and can be different in focus. To help everyone have some easy resources I have created two playlists from my YouTube channel.
The workouts Oden created for us during the summer and winter of 2020 are great supplemental workouts to paddling. These work on overall strength and endurance. This is a link to just these workouts.
The workouts we did for Dryland training were specific to building strength for paddling. If you need to miss practice for whatever reason, add these in to your weekly routine. Dryland Playlist
