One Small Step...

And I’m spent! 2 weeks, 18 white water sessions and a relapse to my days as ‘sick boy,’ has taken its toll physically and mentally, but it was worth it!

The camp provided an opportunity to train alongside some of the world’s best C2 crews. It allowed us to compare our paddling and expose areas to improve. I discovered I needed to improve my body synchronisation, stroke selection, and efficiency of my steering strokes in order to provide a balanced boat for Kynan and to retain boat speed.

I did a few sessions with Yann, our coach and 2 x French Olympic C2 paddler, when Kynan was in C1. It highlighted how much I relied on Kynan to steer the boat rather than drive it forward, which was slowing us down. I focussed on staying forward and using pries (steering strokes) to keep the boat balanced, tracking and fast.

It took a couple of sessions to get used to the changes. Some of the sessions were really frustrating. I am so happy we kept exploring the changes, because once it clicked, it felt awesome! There is still allot of work to do, but we now know what is required to perform in London and have more goals to address.

The camp was just a small step towards success at the Olympics, but it was a huge step forward for our team.