Many paddlers get used to paddling on flatwater and don't learn proper stroke timing to take advantage of waves and drops in whitewater. Stroke timing is important. You can hesitate to plant the paddle at just the proper spot- you shouldn't necessarily maintain a steady cadence. You can also double up (or triple up) on strokes on one side, rather than always alternating right-left-right-left.
You can also increase the stroke rate or decrease it, depending on the situation. For example, you might want to increase the stroke rate when starting from a standstill on flatwater, but might want to do more guiding and steering strokes once the boat is up to full speed on fast-moving current.
You usually want to place your stokes on each wave, catching the full wave with your blade, rather than placing your paddle in the trough between waves. Also, when your boat is on top of a wave is a good time to turn, since the ends of the boat are in the air, and there is less resistance to the turn.
On artificial courses, where there are strong upstream currents in the eddies, you often want to be paddling on the upstream side when entering the eddy. That way, your boat won't get spun out on the eddy line before you get to the upstream gate. Try to maintain the boat speed through the eddy and the upstream gate and back into the current.
When running steep drops, you often want to get in a good stroke right before the drop to lift the bow up and to keep it from dropping down at the bottom of the drop. Another critical moment is when paddling through a hole, you usually want to reach to the far side of the hole to pull yourself through, rather than catching the water that is flowing upstream in the hole itself.
It's important to try to place your strokes, to wait a second sometimes or to do a very short stroke so that the stroke timing is appropriate. Stroke timing is crucial and needs to be studied for each course. Any additional comments on stroke timing, readers?
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