Paddle Shaft
| 21/08/2003 | John | It would surely depend on hand dimensions? I myself have small hand area, would be interesting to test this theory. |
| 21/08/2003 | Alan | We've had smaller
dia shafts in the UK for a very long time - certainly since the early
to mid 80s. Now mostly used as spigots, joining tubes and junior paddle-shafts.
Unfortunately, the coaches we had at the time (and physio advice) advocated thickening existing shafts to alleviate wrist and forearm problems... Whilst I might prefer a thinner paddle-shaft, myself, I do not know of any evidence to support the SA advertising blurb - in fact, I would have thought that curling the fingers in a tighter radius would put more tension on forearm muscles and tendons. Anyone asked them for scientific data in support of their claims? |
| 20/08/2003 | John | A number of paddlers
have been using a new style of paddle shaft which is much thinner
than a standard wing shaft, the theory is that because the shaft is
thinner you do not grip the shaft as tightly there for freeing up
your fore arms, thus making a difference on paddling ability an extract
from a South african website: "Because the shaft is thinner, you use less energy on the grip, and it loosens the forearms significantly, which allows better use of the back muscles in the rotation, and really improves the overall stroke efficiency" says Van Coller. Apparently these shafts are just as stiff and rigid as the other shafts around. it would be interesting to see some of these in the UK |
