How to start 500m sprints?

Einar

Hi everybody,

how do you start your sprint-races?
I do the following: 3 very hard(but controlled), long strokes to get the boat in motion, then 20 strokes in a high rate (approximately 170 stroke per minute) to get the boat into gliding, after the 20 high rate strokes I do my distance-strokes in a lower rate (approximately 70 strokes per minute) and keep speed and gliding over the distance.
Do you have also some kind of procedure, or do you "just start" and go like hell? :twisted:
Looking forward to your contributions! :)

Submitted by Einar on Tue, 08/17/2004 - 4:19am

luke

i dont know much about sprinting... but this season we put a little more thought than usual into our starts.. we would do two changes of six, the first six staying in kind of a permanent lunge with the power coming from the twist... doing that enabled us to keep up a really high rate for the first six.. after the first change we'd stretch out a little more while keeping the stroke pretty fast, after the second change stretch out a lot and just pound, then after every turn we'd do the same thing...

#1 Tue, 08/17/2004 - 12:35pm

kimo_boy

Whoa, 170 strokes per minute?

I'd like to see the 5 guys that can follow you doing almost 3 strokes per second.

#2 Tue, 08/17/2004 - 1:17pm

Einar

@kimo_boy:
Oh, damn...I guess I mixed kajak-stroke-rates with outrigger-stroke-rates :shock: ....the real stroke-rate is of course somewhere between 120 and 130 per minute....really sorry about that! Please excuse me. Yesterday wasn´t my day anyway!!!! Gosh!!!
Well, the 20 fast strokes are not pulled as long as the distance-strokes, they are only pulled just before the hips and the power comes just from the twist. That enabels you such a high rate.
And if you use a carbon paddle (like me) it´s quite easy! :wink:
I start this way in a OC1, because unfortunately our club has no OC6 and I have no experience with OC6. :(
When we start in our dragonboat we do it quite exactly the same way.
But I guess it is really a difference to start in a light OC 1 or a boat with 20 paddlers and to start in a quite heavy OC6 with only 6 paddlers..... :?
So you might be right to doubt that the high stroke rate is adaptable for an OC6-start....

#3 Tue, 08/17/2004 - 9:26pm

hybridpaddle

i was gonna say that the start sounded like a DB 5/20 start. in a lighter boat like an 0c-1, you really don't need to start with 5 power strokes, 3 is probably all you need, then ramp it for about 20-30, if you do a 10/10 on your 20 sprints for DB you can apply it here also, that should get you pretty much up to max speed then power lengthen from there. Give it a whirl and see what you boat speed is like.

#4 Wed, 08/18/2004 - 5:05am

keizo

gosh its too bad you never asked this a few days earlier, there was plenty of people to watch and ask in Hilo.

for sixman I think I've heard some people don't call changes for 18 strokes the first change so the boat will get up to speed as quickly as possible, but then I've also heard to do shorter changes until the boat goes like luke mentioned.

One thing I noticed about the tahitians is that they hold their paddles right on the neck of the paddle, so in doing that they can probably get more torque for sprints. dunno, whatever works the best for you I would think. I would just go all out if I had to do sprints. :)

#5 Thu, 08/19/2004 - 9:38pm