Selecting Kayak and Canoe Paddlers based on Morphology and Boat Set-up

Abstract

Athletes and coaches in the sport of sprint kayaking and canoeing face contradicting philosophies about the optimum physical structure of the paddler and equipment setup characteristics. There exists however, little normative data in the scientifi literature for the current physical size and proportionality characteristics as well as equipment set-up of World-class or Asian sprint paddlers. These data and basic understanding of paddlers’ morphology and boat set-up would be useful for Malaysian coaches when initially selecting talented individuals for development programs as well as in determining their specialist events. Ackland et al. (2003) found that participants in Olympic sprint paddling events considered to be homogeneous in shape and physical size, male and female paddlers have SAMs of 1.1 and 1.0 respectively. Compared to other athlete groups the variance in stature and body mass of paddlers is generally low. Whilst sprint paddlers are not athletes with extreme proportionality profies, they do possess unique characteristics not commonly observed in the general population. Whereas in equipment set-up, Ong et al. (2005) found that there are consistent differences for both male and female athletes among sprint and slalom kayak paddlers who competed at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney. The sprint paddlers seated higher and using longer paddles with longer, though narrower blades (p>0.0001). But, among male sprint paddlers, only minor differences in equipment set-up were found between competitors ranked in the top 10 places to the rest of the fild. Signifiant (p<0.0001) regression equations were developed for the prediction of foot bar distance (r2=.482) and hand grip distance (r3=.400). The morphology of elite paddlers appears to have altered during the past 25 years toward a more compact and robust physique. This trend is especially noticeable for the female competitors.

Keywords morphology, sprint paddlers, boat set-up