Enforced Canoeing

Little car

At the moment we are trying very hard to do everything needed to complete our UKCC Level 2 coaching.  There are two things we really need to work on, improving our canoe skills to 3* standard and logging 10 hours of canoe coaching.  Today we decided we should get some hours on the stick.  However we aren’t really canoe fans….Bonnie Kirkwall Bay

We don’t like canoeing for the following reasons:

1) It’s always windy!

2) It’s always windy!

3) It’s always windy!

So we tend to struggle finding somewhere to go with the one (broken) canoe to which we have access.  Today we headed for the marina, to which we had kindly been granted access. The Kirkwall Marina

Today we headed into the marina for a couple of hours of practice.Mackayak does some solo practiceNorthern Kayaker comes back from Cromwell RoadPootling round in the Halloween sunshine

We paddled in tandem for a while before taking turns doing some solo practice.  I tried hard to work on paddling on my left side and getting a nice rhythm with my j strokes.  To finish off, we went tandem again and took a tour of the whole marina, even peeking our nose out of the shelter of the harbour.Mackayak looks north towards the open seaPassing some of the local fishing fleet

Today we had a bit of an opportunity to try and get comfortable again in an open boat, however, all too soon it was time to go home, the clocks changed today and sunset was at 1623.  Winter is certainly on the way.

Autumnal Evenings

Well, autumn is definitely here and pool sessions start next week.  I’ve been thinking of my goals for this year:
1)     Learn to back deck roll
2)    Learn to roll polo boat properly
3)    Learn to hand roll reliably
4)    Hand roll polo boat
I had lots of ambitions last year and many of them remain unfulfilled so perhaps I have to lower my expectations. 
Over the winter, we are going to try and do all the necessary shenanigans to complete UKCC Level 2 but I’m not sure we’ll manage – I’ve already had an extension to complete. Canoe practice
Once that’s done, I can concentrate on personal skills and prepare for the 4* assessment I’m never going to be good enough to take….
 4* training
Being Autumn also means it’s time for yoga.  I think that doing yoga, especially the seated twists is excellent for kayakers and I keep telling my coachees to sit up in the boat like they’re doing yoga.  This probably makes me sound even more daft than usual!

 The gathered cars and kayaks at PO’09

We are about to start organising Paddle Orkney 11 which is the follow on event from Paddle Orkney 09.  I hope that as well as the coached sessions and trips, we can also have morning yoga in preparation.  We will all have to learn to do ‘boat pose’!
Boat pose
To keep up to date with all that is happening with Paddle Orkney ‘11, visit our website, keep an eye on this blog or join our facebook group.
 
Paddle Orkney Logo

Canoe Polo

You know it’s the end of summer when pool sessions and canoe polo training start.  We’ve been training for a few weeks now, with the A team preparing for their first series of division 1 matches at the weekend.

We started the evening with a warm up followed by some passing and possession drills.  After a bit of rest, we played an extended game.  The teams were pretty mixed so everyone had fun!  I brought my mother along as official photographer and I think she enjoyed the experience, although I wasn’t impressed when she indicated she wanted me to demonstrate a roll… (oh the pressure!)

Later we reorganised the teams with the A team players who were in attendance on one team and the rest of us on another.  Needless to say, this match was little more one sided….

This year we are also going to have the Orkney B canoe polo team which I have volunteered to look after.  I put out an appeal for players but so far only have 2!-  Come on guys (AND GALS!), you know you want to!

Christina and I would really like to see a ladies team but as yet we don’t have enough woman players.  We were really excited last night when a new woman joined in – maybe we’ll get 5 women yet!

In the meantime, good luck to the A team!

Level 2 Mentoring

Today was a chance for Kristian, Peter and myself to be observed offering a coaching session.  We had a happy band of volunteers and choose to coach moving sideways, changing direction and changing momentum.

We also had plenty of time to have a play in the open canoes, 2 of which Mark had brought with him from the SCA.Open boat rescue  Kristian coaches Experimenting in the open boats Coaching Kate finds a prize!

It was an enjoyable day and really good to get some feedback on our coaching and also to get more experience in open boats.  At the end of the afternoon Kate even found a participant for our forth coming duck race!

Thanks to Mark McKerral for coming up and delivering the LTPD and club development workshops and for helping us further along the road to Level 2 coaching.

Back on the water

Well… It’s been a few months since I last blogged.  I’m afraid I suffered a bit of a burn out earlier in the year and haven’t really been in a boat all summer.  Now polo season has started, I was persuaded back into the (warm) water and today I sat in my sea kayak as part of a LTPD and club development workshop.

Peter and Dennis take advantage of the SCA canoes  Peter, Kye and Kate discuss what evil tasks they can set the kayakers Ansgar with Mark McKerral who delivered the course

In the morning we discussed LTPD and how it related to what we do as clubs.  Then it was out onto the water to look at Cross-Stream Challenge and Paddle Power.  We set each team different tasks using the published cards and it was a fun learning experience for adults!

In the afternoon we discussed Club Development and the ways in which we would like to take our clubs forward.

Then it was time for cake!

Antje cake!

                      It was only fitting that Antje herself cut the cake!

An enjoyable and useful day and maybe the shove I need to get out there again…..