A number of the artificial courses have conveyor belts that take the boater from the finish back to the start. This means the athlete doesn't have to get out of the boat and carry back up to the start. It's a great convenience.
I have also noticed a tendency for paddlers to take more runs on conveyor belt courses than they would if they had to carry back up. It's like a ski lift. You just keep taking runs and taking the chairlift back up. If you had to carry your skis back up the mountain, you wouldn't take so many runs. But with the chairlift, you keep taking runs all day.
This works well for boaters who are new to the course and making the move up to the bigger races. They get in lots of runs on the course and start feeling comfortable on it. If they did fewer runs, they wouldn't feel as comfortable running it. This is a great method for paddlers who are making the transition from the smaller races to the bigger races on the artificial courses. Just go to an artificial course and take a hundred runs on it.
One of my concerns about the conveyor belts is that the paddlers don't walk back up along the course, so they might not get in as much course study as they would if they had to walk back up along the course. Sometimes, when you carry back up, you watch someone else doing a move and learn something by watching someone else. If you don't do this, you might miss these opportunities.
There is also a danger of the runs being less focused if you take a lot of conveyor belt runs instead of taking fewer, but more focused runs. The amount of focus you bring to each run helps up your paddling level. If you are just mindlessly doing runs and going back up the conveyor belt, you won't have the same focus as if you place more emphasis on each run, studying the course and trying to do your very best on each run.
Another potential issue is that you could keep repeating the same mistake every time down. Even if you don't walk back up the course, it's good to get some feedback by talking to a coach, or watching a video between runs. That way, you analyze the course more and learn more.
What are your thoughts on the conveyor belts?
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