Positive posture and anticipation vs bracing

Try as we might to try and kill the brace, particularly the high-brace; it still gets taught as a primary technique. Usually, any discussion of such things opens a hornet’s nest of opinion. But something to consider is that those of us who dislike the high brace and think it needs to go the way of the fibreglass kayak never say it’s an invalid technique. On the contrary, it’s just not a particularly good one for modern white water kayaking. Here’s why.

It’s reactive rather than proactive.

One trait that seems to be common amongst kayakers who have learnt high-braces as a primary technique is that they’re always ready to brace. Their mindset is primed to go towards the stern in anticipation of being tipped over instead of keeping a positive posture, ready to drive over waves and features.

Watch any modern slalom paddler. Do they brace, ever? The answer is no. Have you ever seen a top modern coach bracing their way down the river? The answer is no. There’s a reason for that. It’s not because they are so good that they never become unstable and need to use a brace. It’s because they use far better methods so that they never, or very rarely, need to call upon them.

On that note, I still see low braces being taught as a way to break into the flow. The excuse is often that it is easier for a beginner to understand. But it is passive and puts you at the mercy of the flow unless you have a perfect angle. By teaching it as the primary method from the beginning, all that happens is that it makes it much harder for them to undo the habit later on. It might once have been the bee’s knees, but it isn’t anymore. There are far better methods now, such as using a solid driving stroke into a stern squeeze, to name one variation amongst a few.

Braces don’t address the reason why you tipped.

Being reliant on a brace is a band-aid for a more significant problem. In other words, the reason why you tipped over will have its root cause much further back on the rapid than just the individual rock or feature that you think tipped you up.

It makes poor posture your default, even when you are in features.

I see this a lot. For example, someone will go into a hole or onto a wave, but because they expect to tip and bracing is their default, they spent the entire time in a brace position trying to ‘scull’ their way around. Not only does it look chaotic, but it doesn’t work very well. A positive posture and drive beats a passive and unstable body position every single time!

It doesn’t look great

Yep, high bracing, in particular, looks crap. No, really, it does look awful. It looks out of control, and that’s because it is. It’s a reaction to a chaotic event. So unless you are wearing a purple and fluorescent yellow cag with a Wildwater helmet and nylon spraydeck while paddling a Perception Whip-it, it’s in your best interests to stop it.

It puts your shoulders at risk

Yes, I know people are going to chime up and say, “A properly done high brace is totally fine for the shoulders”. But there’s a big elephant in the room with this. First, most high-braces I see most certainly aren’t done correctly, and secondly, most high braces I see taught aren’t taught properly. Thirdly most high-braces I see done on the river are done in a panic, and therefore not performed properly. The result, as I have seen on numerous occasions, is a popped shoulder. I’ve been there when it’s happened.

I don’t care how good you think your high-brace is. If it is one of your primary go-to reactive stability recoveries, you are lucky, that is all. The clock is ticking, but you can change your methods if you really want to.

What are you supposed to do instead?

For a start, you need to make a positive, upright paddle posture your natural position. Unfortunately, so many paddlers are lazy and slouch in their seats. That’s bad for your back, it’s not great for spinal rotation, and it’s utterly ineffectual for transferring paddle power to the hull.

Second, you need to learn a good forward stroke. Learn how to use your core to power the stroke, not your arms. When you try to paddle fast, do you create lots of noise with great big swathes of water being scooped up everywhere? If you do, you need some forward paddling tuning. Do you feel stress on your arms and shoulders after lots of paddling? That’s a sure sign you are not using the correct muscle groups.

Third, you need to read the water better, learn better positioning, but importantly you need to learn about anticipating the move you are about to make to have a better river running strategy. Modern kayaks like to be driven. Learn the art of looking and going, and learn about better paddle placement and timing.

Spend time learning paddle dexterity. I see paddlers who have been boating for years who still can’t slice their paddle cleanly through the water to transition to another stroke.

Keeping your paddle in the water and transitioning is not suitable for every type of water or feature, particularly when things get really big and pushy. Still, learning excellent paddle dexterity and water feel is a highly practical thing to know. My first kayak teacher, Dan Povey at River Strokes, had me doing hours and hours of this type of practice. I can honestly say it was one of the most valuable things I’ve ever been taught or made to do in a kayak.

Learn to balance on edge. Again, Dan had me doing hours of this back when I first started. There’s a reason for it. Having fine control over your edges is essential. It gives you much more ability to balance and trains the right muscles to do it. I know it isn’t glamourous to go out on flat water and just practice holding the boat on edge, but it pays dividends.

What the hell has all that got to do with bracing?

Nothing. But that’s the point. Bracing is the result of instability. Instability is due mainly to poor technique, river running strategy, stroke timing, weak edge control etc.

A case in point is the skill of paddling while holding an edge. Many paddlers will drop the edge on the side that the blade is in the water when doing this. If you are paddling at an angle to or sideways to the water, particularly if it’s pushy, and you drop the wrong edge, I needn’t tell you what will happen.

Another one is going off a drop. It’s another place where I see people doing a high-brace a lot. The reason why they need to do this is pretty simple. Instead of driving off the drop with a positive body position, driving the paddle with their core, and then absorbing the drop with a forward crunch, they lean back.

Leaning back creates instability even on flat water, let alone going off a drop. But a lot of paddlers find this a terrible habit to break. Others lean back because they think that the old school boof technique of hauling back the body works.

This goes back to the point I made above. Stop leaning away from the feature. If you paddle towards a wave, whether it’s forwards or going into it sideways, and you react to it by leaning away, guess what? You’ll become very unstable. And yet I see people who have been paddling for years professing this point, yet they still lean back, and yes, reacting with a high brace!

You’ve heard the saying “failing to plan means planning to fail”? I don’t think anyone actively thinks to themselves, “I’m going to go towards that feature, and then lean back!” when scouting a rapid.

So you need to make the more positive paddling methods your default, so you don’t have to think about them. This might mean going back to much easier water if you have difficulty. The hardest thing is that when we are under pressure, unless we work really hard, humans always fall back to what the brain finds easiest and most reactive. And that will generally be the technique you have been doing since forever, which might well be the leaning back followed by a high-brace. This is why it’s doubly important not to teach beginners from the beginning to do it as a primary technique. Instead, teach positive paddling methods that minimise the need for it in the first place.

As soon as bracing is taught as a primary technique, it is handing them a reactive habit that is difficult for coaches to break.

The subject of bracing does become an emotive subject for some. But it needn’t be so. I’ve been on coached courses where clients have even become annoyed and angry at the coach for trying to break them out of the habit. You can see why when someone might have been kayaking for 30 odd years, and then a twenty-something coach tries to coax them out of the practice. Sometimes this has been on steep, low volume slides and creeks where it is easy to catch paddles and wrench shoulders. If you’ve gone to a coach, you have clearly decided that they know more than you do. So listen to them! I’m afraid there’s no room for dogma when it comes to making progress, just evidence.