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2004-05-17 Nina at Rookie Night
My son Tony’s significant other, Nina Axelson, came back to Rookie Night after having come once 2 years ago. She had just graduated from college and was going to sign up for a triathlon so she needed to get in shape. Even though she wanted the 2 hour upper body workout we offer, she said that she wanted to learn how to paddle well too. Knowing she was very competitive and disappointed by being in the trailing canoe 2 years ago, I kept her away from all the other canoes on purpose.
Nina was very serious about learning how to paddle efficiently. She listened to everything I said and concentrated on doing the motion correctly. I let her paddle on each side as long as she wanted so she could think about her movements. All of the other experienced racers started calling “hut”s for their rookies to switch sides right away. They also made their rookies paddle with a high stroke frequency. Doing that doesn’t let the rookies have time to concentrate on their stroke motion. I believe you have to give them time to think on 5 miles downstream. You can push the rookies harder on the 5 miles back upstream and give them a taste of racing and wake riding once they get their arm muscles programmed to paddle more efficiently.
When other canoes came near us, I had Nina look at the experienced racers to see how they paddled. The other 17 canoes had sprinted to the first bridge on the way downstream and were waiting for us. Some of the teams circled back upstream to keep us company, but most of the teams just sat and talked while they waited for us. Nina kept worrying about being in the trailing canoe and I kept telling her that it takes years to learn how to do this and she needed to work on her basic stroke before she tried to race against other canoes. She kept getting better and better at the basic stroke. She was using her whole torso to work the paddle blade.
All the other canoes had turned at the last big green buoy just above the Ford Bridge and were on their way back upstream. Normally I would have turned upstream earlier to stay closer with the pack on the way back, but Nina wanted to do the whole 10 miles. We were all alone when we made the turn. The pack hadn’t waited up. I was a bit unhappy with some of my good friends who were paired experienced racers that hadn’t circled back for us. They weren’t thinking about others, probably because they hadn’t been the last canoe very often. It wasn’t until much later when they took a long break that we finally caught up with them.
Once we were in the pack, I had Nina pick up the pace and increase the frequency of her paddle strokes and we were able to stay on the wakes of the other canoes. It was a long trip back, but she worked hard even though she was tired. She had done a great job. | 
