Video: How to do a J Leaning Stroke in Canoeing

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Learn the J leaning stroke and why it's so valuable for flatwater canoeing in this free outdoor extreme sports video from our kayak and canoe expert.

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Video Transcript

In any kind of a boat in white water, but especially in a solo white water canoe, you want to be able to lean your boat independently of your upper body. That means keeping your upper body in good balance while you're leaning your boat in whatever direction with whatever amount of lean you want. The way to do that is call a J lean. It's a called a J lean because that's the shape that your body takes when you're doing it. So a J lean looks like this. If you notice my upper body is staying centered over the boat while my lower body is leaning the boat smoothly to the left hand side. The trick here is I'm pushing down on one knee. In this case, my left knee pulling up on my right knee. By that opposing force, I can lean my boat as much or as little as I want. The other trick is learning the amount you can lean your boat and that depends on the boat a lot. This particular boat seems to have a nice point stability right about here, so it's nice and easy to J lean into this point and I can sit up here in balance with no paddle to support my lean. I've got a nice smooth lean and I can do whatever I want with my upper body. I can lean forward or back, I could do whatever sort of movements I want with my upper body. Indpendently of my lower body. So practice J leaning to your left and to your right. It's especially important to get comfortable J leaning away from your paddle because this is a vulnerable side for open canoeist and for solo open canoeist especially. Leaning away from your paddle can be just concerning because you have no easy brace over there. A good way to practice this is to do a drill where you paddle around in circles leaning left or right and changing your direction without changing your lean. So you get comfortable with leaning toward the turn, inside the turn, as well as leaning outside the turn. That looks like this. I'm going to start out leaning toward my paddle so I can turn away from my paddle and maintain the same lean. Then I can switch the lean and I can turn toward my paddle. Again, maintaining that lean or I can turn away from my paddle. Developing a good J lean is one of the really main features of a great canoeist, is someone who can J lean comfortably in more difficult and confidently no matter what the situation.

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How to do a J Leaning Stroke in Canoeing

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