Many beginning racers make mistakes regarding boat placement and their lines on the course. When you get to a race, boat placement is everything. Almost all of my other posts are worthless at this point, because most of my prior posts have to do with training, not with your lines on the course at a race.
It is hard to over-emphasize how important it is to have your boat precisely on the right track throughout the course. Most people don't understand this. Your speed, power and endurace will come from your training, so there isn't much you can do about them at this point. Thinking about stroke technique at a race is probably not the best point to emphasize on race day. That should already be ingrained as a habit from your training.
On race day, it is time to place the emphasis on where the boat is at all times. Many boaters mistakenly believe that simply memorizing the 20 gates is sufficient. It isn't. You need to know not only precisely how the boat should be angled through each gate, but where the boat goes between gates.
On offset gates, the boat generally needs to be already turned before the gate and travelling cross-stream towards a point above the next offset gate (not merely aimed at the next gate). If you turn in the gate, rather than before it, you will be late for the next gate. If you aim directly at the next gate, you will end up turning in the gate, not before it, so it is vital that your boat be angled across and already be moving in that direction before you go through the gate.
Upstreams. You need to be moving across towards the upstream generally, not going straight downstream and then try to do a 180 degree turn to come back up through the gate. Try to think of the ideal approach to the up, if there were no other gates on the course. Then, try to get on this course as soon as you can from the gate before the upstream gate.
As a general principle, try to anticipate forces on the boat, rather than react to them. For example, if you are crossing into an eddy but want to continue downstream, have your paddle in place to counteract the turning effect that the boat will experience when part of the boat is in the eddy and the other part of the boat is in the current. There is a split-second when part of the boat is being pushed downstream and the other part is being pushed upstream. You need to plan for this by having your paddle in place in advance. Don't wait until the boat is turned to straighten it out- anticipate the river forces.
Try to keep the boat's momentum going, rather than slowing it down and then having to reaccelerate the boat. If you have to do a back stroke, rather than a turning stroke (duffek or sweep), it is more likely to slow the boat down. Not only will you lose time by having to reaccelerate the boat, but you will lose energy because it takes a lot more force to reaccelerate the boat than to keep it gliding at speed.
Another basic principle is not to try to go fast or slow. Try to go precise. Aim for precise placement of the boat throughout the course. Deciding whether you need to go fast and sloppy or slow and clean is a false choice. You need to go at your speed and you need to keep the boat on course.
Rather than thinking of running a 20 gate course, you need to think more of your lines between gates- effectively running a 60 gate course if you count the imaginary gates you need to run in- between gates to keep the boat on the proper line throughout the course.
Some people walk the course from finish to start, so that they see first where they need to go after each gate. Gate exits are crucial. Every time you go through a gate, you go through it lined up with the next gate in mind.
Walk the course several times before you take a run. Visualize yourself running the course several times before the race. Watch other boaters so you learn all you can about the course. The course is a puzzle for you to figure out. Applying some of these basic principles of slalom racing will help you find the solution to the puzzle.
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