The Feldenkrais Method® for Paddlers:
Mobility On the Water

Cathy Hearn, Feldenkrais® Practitioner

The use of The Feldenkrais Method® in conjunction with the coaching of paddling technique aids in developing each athlete’s awareness of boat, body, paddle and water. An increased ability to sense subtle distinctions allows us to better understand and control the technique currently available to us, while making it easier to invent and to utilize efficient new technique.

My fundamental premise in working with individual paddlers is that each of them has developed a great strategy for their own unique combination of boat, body and mind. Each knows the best way for his/her own situation. I communicate my respect for the solutions that they have developed and applied, and encourage them to honor their own expertise. I explain my philosophy of working with them to develop additional customized options which will help them to be more efficient and to deal more easily with a variety of paddling challenges.

The following Mobility Projects are a sample of what I have developed for paddlers out of my experience in practicing The Feldenkrais Method®.

General guidelines:

• Ideally done on calm, flat water.
• All projects should be done easily, comfortably and with as little effort as possible.
• Be an observer. Let go of judgment, rules of “proper technique” and expectations. Put attention to sensing and feeling what is happening with boat, body, paddle and water.
• Canoeists should do all projects on both sides. By paddling on your off-side as well as your on-side, you will achieve essential neuromuscular development.
• It is sufficient to do only a few repetitions of any given movement. The mobility and awareness gained through these projects occurs through engagement of (rather than confrontation with) the nervous system and an emphasis on putting one’s attention to the action.
• Rest as much and as often as desired.
• Better done at the beginning of a training session.
• Can be used for relaxation, as part of warmup and/or cooldown.
• If you don’t have a coach to read the instructions to you, you can print out the text of the mobility project and stick it on your deck.

For the coach:

• Give instructions as below. Less talk is better. Many of the sensations experienced by the athlete may be difficult to articulate. Your observations as coach in these activities are best kept to yourself during the actual project. Let the athlete keep his/her attention within his/her own body/mind/boat.
• Be an observer. Let go of judgment, rules of “proper technique” and expectations.
• Emphasize importance of athlete using less effort, doing movements more slowly.
• It is normal for athletes to be sometimes confused during these projects. It is not necessary for you to try to clarify the situation with words.
• Discussion of the athlete’s sensations and experience may be constructive after the workout, according to the desire of the athlete.

Body Scan in the Boat

The athlete begins by getting on the water and paddling around a bit, traveling forward easily, +/or doing turns and easy maneuvers as desired. Sit in the boat in basic paddling position, hands holding the paddle as it rests easily on the spraydeck/deck of boat.

• Take your attention to your left foot. Notice whether your big toe is in contact with anything inside the boat. Then take your attention to your 2nd toe. Your 3rd toe. etc.
• Take your attention from your toes up to your left foot. Sense its contact inside the boat. What part of the foot is contacting something? What is it contacting?
• Notice whether your heel is contacting something? If so, which part of the heel, and what is it contacting?
• What is the next piece of your left side which is touching something inside the boat? (the lower leg? if not, can you imagine how far the calf is from contacting the inside of the hull?)
• What about your knee? Is it in contact with the inside of the boat? Which part of the knee?
• Take your attention beyond the knee, traveling up your left leg. Does your thigh make contact inside the boat? Can you sense everything that the thigh is contacting? Imagine the size and shape of the contact area your thigh has as you sit in your boat.
• Can you sense the position of your left hip in the boat? Is it in contact with anything?
• Notice the pressure on your buttocks in the seat. Is there more contact/more weight on one side than on the other?
• Is your lower back in contact with anything?
• Do the right side in a similar fashion, traveling down the right side from hip to toes.
• Can you sense the position of your belly button? Imagine its distance from the back of the cockpit rim.
• Sense the position of your lower spine. Imagine its distance from the front of the cockpit rim.
• Go paddle in an easy and comfortable way, sensing the ways in which your lower body changes its contact as you paddle.
• Intentionally emphasize a change the contact of something in your lower body with each stroke.
• Do some turns or backwards paddling, putting your attention to the movement and contact changes of your lower body as you go.

Putting Blade in Water with Eyes

After easy warmup, do the body scan in the boat at rest. Observe sensation, contact and place in space of lower body, torso, upper body components.

• Paddle straight forward, notice your contact and place in space of body parts, especially knees, hips and butt as you paddle. Feel how your blade interacts with the water with each stroke. Put your attention to where your eyes are, where it is possible for you to look as you paddle straight forward. Notice your sense of stability. Sense the support of your boat by the water, imagining shape and size of hull contact with water.
• Rest.
• Paddle forward, as easily as possible. Choose one side to focus on. Kayaks continue to paddle on both sides. Canoes can do correction strokes +/or cross-strokes as needed. On your chosen “focus” side, look at your blade, and keep your eyes focused on the blade as it enters the water. Imagine that you are putting the blade into the water by looking it in. Do this for a few strokes. Feel what happens in the rest of your body.
• Paddle normally. Notice the quality of your strokes and boat movement.
• Using the same “focus” side, use your eyes to put the blade into the water. Continue looking at that blade throughout the stroke, the recovery and the entry of the next stroke on that side. Feel what occurs in your body as you do this. How does your boat move?
• Paddle normally. Notice the quality of your strokes and boat movement.
• Do the same projects with focus on the other side.
• Rest.
• Paddle forward again, noticing the movement of your body parts, the feeling of the blade as it interacts with the water on each stroke, and the movement of the boat through the water. What do you notice?
• Paddling forward comfortably, put your attention to where your eyes are. Where is it possible for you to look? Notice your sense of stability as you do so.

Insert Blade with Eyes + Look to Far Horizon

• Paddle straight forward. Feel how your blade interacts with the water with each stroke. Put your attention to where your eyes are, where it is possible for you to look as you paddle straight forward. Notice your sense of stability.
• Paddle forward, as easily as possible. Choose one side to focus on. Kayaks continue to paddle on both sides. Canoes can do correction strokes +/or cross-strokes as needed. On your chosen “focus” side, look at your blade, and keep your eyes focused on the blade as it enters the water. Imagine that you are putting the blade into the water by looking it in. Do this for a few strokes. Feel what happens in the rest of your body.
• Do the same thing with focus on the other side.
• Paddle normally. Notice the quality of your strokes and boat movement.
• Paddle forward again, choosing one side to focus on, as in the beginning of this lesson. With your eyes, put the blade into the water on that side. As you travel past the blade, lift your eyes, and let your visual focus travel back along the opposite horizon. Do this for a number of strokes, trying to see every piece of horizon as your eyes travel back. Return your eyes to the neutral position so they are ready to again insert the blade on your focus side when it is time.
• Paddle forward, easily and normally. What do you notice?
• Do the project of looking the blade into the water and then along the opposite horizon on the side you haven’t done yet.
• Paddle forward again, normally and as comfortably as possible. What do you feel? Where can you look? Any changes from the beginning of the session?

Sequential Spinning with Initiation at Different Levels of the Body

After easy warmup, do the body scan in the boat at rest. Observe sensation, contact, place in space of lower body, torso, upper body components. Paddle again straight, forward and backward, noticing boat tilt/lean, sensation, contact and place in space of body parts, especially knees, hips and butt as you paddle. Spin and do the same. Notice what body parts are participating in the spinning. Notice moments when it is easy to keep boat spinning and when it wants to stop. How do you make it continue? Try leading with knees (push outside knee forward, pull other one back). Lead with hips. Lead with belly button. Lead with shoulders. Rest. Do some more pivots with the greatest ease, comfort and power you can muster at this moment. Rest.

Now try initiating rotation at knees, following with hips for next rotational phase, then belly button, then lower ribs, then shoulders, then head. Assuming that you are good at rotating, you should get 1/2 to one full spin at least off each of these leaders, meaning that you may be dizzy because you will have done at least 3 full spins and possibly more like 8. Notice which initiator is most powerful for you.

If you are doing this on a pivot, notice when the boat is likely to fall off the pivot. Have a rest, and then do it again, noticing when you are successfully keeping the boat flat (side-to-side) and when there is a lean which may or may not be helping you to maintain the pivot rotation. Rest.

Now try doing rotation/pivot in place with a slight tilt on the boat towards the inside of your rotation/spin. Is that easier? Rest.

Try doing rotation/pivot in place with a slight tilt on the boat towards the outside of the rotation/spin. Is that easier? Rest.

Try it again with the different tilts and feel how the different components of your body can participate in the rotation. You may feel that it is easier/harder to wind up your spine when you have one lean vs. the other.

Finally, do the rotation with a FLAT boat. You can lean back to get the pivot and stay slightly back to keep the stern under, but try to be flat side-to-side.
Try standing a water bottle on your deck just in front of the cockpit and doing your pivot and keeping it going as the bottle stays on the deck. Which body parts’ participation contribute most effectively to maintaining the pivot and keeping the bottle on the deck?

Ditch the water bottle and do some pivot turns as easily as you can. Feel how able you are now to come off the pivot when and where and with the direction of movement you desire.

Next Step?

The lesson "Dynamic Levitating Serpent Path" will help you clarify how you can get on and off of rotation more easily, dynamically and predictably. MOBILITY ON THE WATER lessons “Head Looking the Other Way” and “Pivoting with Mind in Top Hand” are also related.
About the Feldenkrais Method®

The Feldenkrais Method® is a form of Somatic Education that uses gentle movement and directed attention to improve mobility and enhance human functioning. It is based on principles of physics, biomechanics and an understanding of learning and human development. Success of this work is due to the innate capacity of the human brain to learn.
It is named after its originator, Moshe Feldenkrais (1904-1984), an engineer and physicist as well as a Judo teacher.
Taught in classes, it is known as Awareness Through Movement. Students are guided verbally through a series of movements by the teacher. Movements are gentle, often small, and usually done slowly in order to refine attention. Each class is different, exploring a movement pattern or an area of the body. Students learn at their own rate, following personal sensations of comfort and ease to develop functional awareness.

Individual hands-on lessons in the Feldenkrais Method® are known as Functional Integration. The practitioner uses a combination of observation, conversation and gentle, non-invasive touch in working with the student to explore patterns of movement with directed attention. The student develops enhanced neuromuscular organization, resulting in expanded movement options.

Both Awareness Through Movement classes and Functional Integration lessons are appropriate for a wide range of people, for all ages and for all abilities.

For more information about the Feldenkrais Method, go to
North American Feldenkrais Guild: www.feldenkrais.com
International Feldenkrais Federation: www.feldenkrais-method.org
Australian Feldenkrais Guild: www.feldenkrais.org.au

Cathy Hearn
3301 East 4th Avenue
Durango, CO 81301 USA

Phone/fax (970) 259 4248

cathyhearn@durango.net
can0ewah1ne@yahoo.com