fitness for paddlers
By Eric Jackson
TECHNIQUE
Focus is a word we learn
around grade three that gets
used all of our lives. Growing
up, “Come on EJ, you have to
focus,” was common feedback
from my teachers, as well as
my mom and dad. But what
does that mean, exactly? Anyone paddling whitewater kayaks on hard rivers
or creeks, a slalom course, or in freestyle events needs the right focus to do
well, but it is a different type of focus from what you need when you are lifting
weights or studying for an exam.When I was on the Olympic Team, we were sent to the USOC Center in Colorado
Springs for physical and mental evaluation and training. The sports psychologist
and hypnotist there tried to convince me that in order to have my best
performance on a slalom course, I needed to program my subconscious brain by
mentally running the course perfectly as many times as possible. During the race,
the objective was to clear my mind of everything and let my subconscious make
the moves for me, moves me had already mentally rehearsed a million times.
Sound familiar? This is the best way to perfectly execute a song on a piano, or nail
other performances that don’t take place in a changing environment. This is not
how you win the World Championships in Freestyle or Slalom kayaking, however.In kayaking, the water is constantly moving; there are always subtle, and often
dramatic, changes from moment to moment. From fluctuating eddylines,
waves that crash and build, to wind that blows the slalom gates, whitewater
is an environment impossible to rehearse perfectly for. You don’t want to be
paddling on autopilot when you don’t know what the water is going to do
in any given moment. I spent years of my career paddling on autopilot, and
there was always some point in my races where things went wrong. When I
made mistakes, I was always told I looked like I lost focus. The reality was I was
running the perfect line on imperfect water. It wasn’t that I lost focus, but that
I was using the wrong type of focus.There are four main types of focus: narrow-internal, narrow-external, broad-
internal, and broad-external. So, which is right for a kayaker? In my opinion, it is
broad-external focus. I won’t describe each one, but for clarity, narrow-internal
is when you focus on your heartbeat, your breath, how your arms feel, or other
specific focus points inside of you. Broad-external is the opposite, when your focus
is on everything around you: the trees, clouds, wind, water, people.Why is this the right focus? Broad-external is the only type of focus where you
employ your RAM (brain power) to make fast, intuitive decisions. With a broad-
external focus, your paddling is based on what the water and your boat/body
is actually doing, versus what you imagined it would be doing at that moment.Does this mean that mental rehearsing is bad? No. It allows you to know what you
will be doing at any stage on a rapid, what you’ll see, feel, and hear. However,
when you actually begin a rapid, race, or competition, you need to focus on your
environment and how you fit into it, what you and your boat are doing.How can you know if you were in a broad external focus in a race,
competition, or rapid? If you run a waterfall but afterwards you can’t
replay the drop in your mind, meaning you ‘blacked-out’ during the drop,
your focus was internal, a “deer in the headlights,” rather than external.
This is more common than you think.How can you enter a broad-external focus?I have a few tricks that I use to enter and test my broad-external focus
immediately before performance, whether it is a freestyle ride, slalom
race, extreme race, or a hard rapid. When I say immediately before, I
mean literally at the start, when the clock is almost running.- I look up at the sky - see the clouds, look for a bird, the trees, or look
around to identify a few people, then read the logos on my gear, then
smile and say something to the starter. This gets me out of my head and
eliminates my internal monolog, the first clue that your focus is internal.
Internal monologs eat up critical RAM, and slow down your reaction times. - At the moment of the start, I look at my first target (the first gate, the
wave or hole, the marker wave for a big drop, etc.) and begin heading
that way. Before getting there, I always look back up and around at
something specific that I’ve chosen beforehand. I spot it, and then look
back at the target. This stops the narrowing of the external focus, and
broadens it again. Anyone who has seen me at a big freestyle event has
seen me peel out of the eddy, smile at the judges, and then wave and
blow my wife a kiss. People may think I am being cocky or showing off,
but I am getting into a broad-external focus before I hit the hole or wave. - During your race/ride/rapid, your brain is not powerful enough to look
only at the water, which is doing a million things at once, and to “focus”
on it and truly understand what is happening. If the whitewater is your
primary focal point for your eyes during a ride or race, you will overload
your RAM and not have brainpower needed for your strokes, proper
body position, and the ability to drive your boat where you want it to go.
Instead, find as many solid objects to focus on as you can, such as the
rock that makes the hole, the gate, or something on shore. This reduces
the sensory input to your brain and allows you to paddle without getting
that “everything is going too fast” feeling. Anytime you feel like there is
too much going on around you on the river, it is because you are running
out of RAM due to trying to break down the fast moving water in your
head, rather than looking at a solid object.
Try some of these exercises the next time you paddle. Make a signal that
is “your sign,” and deliver it to a friend at the top of a rapid, before an
upstream gate, or right before a big move. You’ll be surprised at how
much easier your next few seconds can feel. As you eliminate mental
garbage and clear your head of any monolog, focus only on the natural
environment around you and making your kayak do what you want it to.In this column, EJ address focus, a misunderstood concept that is the difference
between paddling and paddling great.By Eric Jackson
FITNESS PADDLERS
FOR
PERFORMANCE TIPS:
YOUR MIND GAME