There are a few athletes that I would classify as over-thinkers. This sport is one of analysis, sort of a thinking person's sport. So, some people are attracted to this sport because of the level of analysis and thinking that it requires.
Racing at high levels of this sport is a complex task. It is a long series of physics problems that would be complicated for a PhD in physics to completely evaluate. Somehow, through years of practice, the athlete has internalized much of this knowledge, so that this calculation can be done more quickly.
Somehow, your brain and muscles have learned the amount of force that will be needed on a certain stroke to counter-act the force of the current, for example. And the proper boat angle. And much of this needs to be figured out from shore and then refined when in the boat.
I like to get athletes to start thinking and analyzing courses. Sometimes I walk the course with an athlete and ask them questions about the entire course to get them thinking and analyzing how they will do the course. Some athletes are used to just "winging it", and are under-thinkers. They need the extra thinking because otherwise, they wouldn't adequately prepare for their runs.
But the over-thinker sometimes over-analyzes things to the point where the mind takes over and the body's instincts from years of paddling are no longer in play. This can result in paralysis through analysis. At a recent race, I went to, I noticed that on the offsets, people were spending a lot of time analyzing the drops and waves and holes. But those features had little real effect on the boat's speed or trajectory.
The offsets were really not much different than if they were on fast-moving flatwater. You didn't need to really analyze it so much, just do basic offset technique, which the boaters were all capable of doing. But if you overthought the holes and drops and waves, you forgot your basic offset techniques and were late on the offsets and got penalties or lost time.
One world champion I knew never wanted to talk about the course because he felt that in talking about it, it over-simplified the level of analysis that already went on in his mind, and thus was less accurate than the version in his mind. But with beginning and intermediate boaters, it is good to have them analyze the course aloud so they then learn to do it on their own later. Young people sometimes benefit from being paired up with older boaters who can show them the level of analysis that they bring to a race course.
Over-thinkers sometimes need to be reminded of the essence of the sport. You have to just paddle fast and keep the boat on line. That is it. Otherwise, they can get lost in the details and fine points and miss the big picture. Have fun paddling.
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