Paddle Like World Champion John John Florence
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- Опубліковано 12 жов 2024
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Paddle Like World Champion John John Florence
XSWIM and the Surfing Paddling Academy presents surfing paddling technique tips by analyzing World Champion John John Florence's paddle battle against Keanu Asing during the Quiksilver Pro France competition.
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Let's find some habits and techniques that could help you when you are sprinting or catching waves.
First thing to understand is that shortboard paddling technique changes slightly when you are sprinting or catching a wave versus just normally paddling back out.
The first indication of this type of sprinting stroke is the entry angle. When sprinting as opposed to regular paddling, the Lift phase (or the first phase) of the underwater armstroke is shortened because in this scenario, we’re really focused on getting our hand and forearm to the front propulsive phase of the stroke which is the second phase of the underwater armstroke.
The entry angle of our hand is steeper. Since we’re still submerged in the water on shortboards, we don’t want to completely remove the Lift phase, but rather shorten it significantly.
When looking at John John and Keanu’s entry, who do you think has the higher angle? ….
John John clearly enters with a higher angle by keeping his elbow high. This higher angle allows him to dive his hand into the front propulsive phase of the stroke faster. Now, typically, when you enter with the elbow high, then it remains high in the front propulsive phase of the stroke. We can’t determine 100% that John’s elbow stays high without an underwater view, but he’s already setting himself up with an advantage. Keanu’s stroke enters a little flatter, which then would take him slightly longer to get his hand and forearm down into the front propulsive phase of the stroke. It also has a higher likelihood of the elbow dropping in the front propulsive phase of the stroke. Again, it’s not a guarantee- we could determine that more if we were to see the underwater footage of his stroke, but from what we can see above the water, it will be more difficult to keep the elbow high when entering flatter, especially in a sprinting scenario.
The high elbow in the front propulsive phase provides the greatest amount of surface area during the first half of the power portion of the stroke. In contrast, if the elbow is low and leading the hand in this phase, the surfer then loses a significant amount of power in each stroke.
The other technique seen in this paddle battle that both surfers are doing well, is maintaining their horizontal balance and reducing resistive drag as much as possible. Look first at how the noses of their boards are cutting through the frontal resistive drag. They aren’t plowing through the water like a barge. Rather, they are cutting through like a sailboat. Some people might think that now the water hitting their chest is slowing them down, but as they take strokes, that water is released along the rails as they rotate from rail to rail.
Not only is the nose of the board helping break up this frontal resistance, but also they are both using their fingertips and arms to cut through and create a hole so that the rest of their body and board can proceed through that hole. When most of our body is submerged in the water when paddling, this is something we need to do so that each stroke can help us travel the furthest before taking the next stroke.
We can also see this in how they position their heads - nice and low to the surface of the water. You don’t see them using a lot of energy trying to arch their backs. Instead, they reserve that energy by relaxing those back muscles, relaxing their neck muscles, and redirecting that energy towards engaging their latissimus dorsi and pectoralis major muscles which are our big power muscles for paddling. Their heads are relaxed and low to the water, with their faces almost touching the water.
So there you go. Hope you learned something new. In summary, when sprinting, enter with a higher angle, shortening that first phase (the Lift phase) of the underwater armstroke so that you can get to the front propulsive phase of the stroke…keep that elbow high during that second phase of the stroke, head down and relaxed, nose of the board and fingertips and arms cutting the frontal resistive drag as you take strokes. And you do those four things and you’ll be on your way to winning more paddle battles and catching more waves.
Great video. Thank you for showing the dropped elbow no-no. This really helps us visual learners.
You got it! I'm glad you enjoyed it and are getting value from it.
i swam competitively, still learned something about the lift and power.. i'll play wid it next sesh! tx
Definitely! From my studies linking swimming to paddling, there are slight differences here and there, and stark differences if paddling on a longboard or proneboard. Thanks for the comment!
Just came from Nathan Florence's paddling video where he says to arch your back and keep your head high, so as not to burn your shoulders out from over rotating them. So now I'm confused as hell on that point. Interesting re the high elbow. Will try that next session
Yeah, so back arch is a common debatable topic. But I have hard evidence showing an average of 21-23% increase in efficiency when a surfer paddles with a neutral back arch. It really depends on a surfer's mobility limits in their spine. But the point I try and make is that you can adjust different techniques based on your own personal mobility/endurance limitations to optimize paddling. This particular technique has to do with horizontal balance control, and back arch (head height) is only 1 of 4 techniques that can control that factor.
Another awesome video mate! This stuff has already helped me with my paddling so much! Big thanks! :)
Thank you for the kind feedback. Super glad they're helping you. Let me know if you have any questions. Cheers!
Very interesting analysis and good techniques for me to work on.
Thanks.
Thank you for the feedback and comment. Cheers!
I'm actually binge watching your whole youtube channel, so helpful, I keep beeing insanely tired quite fast and will apply some tips from here. Whan you analyzed Kelly Slater paddle technique, we can clearly see that his back is was more arched than JJF and head more straight, so his technique is les good ? Because he is less horizontal ?
LOL! That's awesome. So glad the videos have been helping. A higher back arch isn't better or worse. It simply gives him more options. Kelly has an enormous amount of mobility and so having it that high doesn't use a ton of energy for him. However, for us mortals, that would be using a lot of energy and not necessary for efficiency and speed.
Hi I have a question. I'm told by many people (and this has been mentioned in many vids) that I should arch my back like the shape of a banana while paddling, whereas in this vid, it's clear that the surfer's pretty much relaxed while paddling. So when should we try to arch our back up? Is the best timing doing this when at the beginning of catching a wave (so that it helps to paddle deeper)? Thank you.
Great question. Arching the back has advantages and disadvantages. From a scientific review point of view, if we are trying to conserve energy, then keeping a neutral back arch is optimal. To provide higher entry angle to the armstroke, a higher back arch will suffice, but there are other ways to get the same entry angle with less effort. A comparison of the paddling efficiency of two surfers with high back arches to a more neutral back arch yielded between a 23-25% gain in efficiency when the back was more neutral. A much deeper discussion would have to take place at why this is the case, and how to gain higher power and speed out of a neutral back arch. I run Mastery Weekends and Workshops that go into this in greater detail so take a look at surfingpaddling.com/calendar. Thanks for the question!
Great tips man and in your Kelly vids too, but props to Keanu for even sort of keeping up! He's up against a paddling machine in John John considering the difference in their builds. I'm kind of stocky and my lanky, flat-torso friends smoke me every time we have a little battle.
Thanks for the comment. Yeah, longer arms provides more propulsion, but even stocky dudes like us can beat long and lanky if they aren't efficient with their stroke. Cheers.
The best way to paddle like JJF is be as fit as him if you are your off to a good start
Fitness is key but think about this. If you were as strong and as fit as John, but you were dragging five parachutes behind you when you paddled, wouldn’t it be smarter to cut the parachutes? Think of the parachutes as poor technique. When you improve technique then you remove the parachutes and then you really start moving! In short, technique first, fitness on top of that, then the world is your oyster.
Cool thanks
on point as usual!!
tks
Cheers!