This month something a little different, I met Michael Booth…
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Yes, this month my Booth Training Blog moves from the online world of video calls, messenger and training apps to the real world.
When Michael announced his clinic in Copenhagen I had to try to go and, for once, schedules lined up perfectly giving me a 36-hour window to travel to Denmark, do some paddling and find out just how great I am at SUP! And some of those things actually happened.
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| Danish Michael testing the EO SUP Nebula |
Paddle Copenhagen
Leaving home at 6am on Saturday gave me an easy drive south, hopping on a ferry and after a quick stop in a forest car park in Denmark to work on SUP My Race - I can be a digital nomad when I need to be - I met up with Danish Michael in Copenhagen around 10.30.
We then spent a fantastic afternoon paddling around the canals, stopping for coffee and beers on the way before heading into Cristiania for another beer before heading back for the best post-paddle pizza ever, with some Danish beer or two ending a very good day.
Paddle with Boothy
Up early on Sunday to avoid the Copenhagen Marathon and off to Amager Strandpark, to meet Australian Michael. Amager is a place made famous for the Red Bull 24-hour event from a few years ago and it is a great base for paddle training. And they have great coffee, essential for many including me!
I wasn’t sure how many paddlers were signed up or who they were so it was great to see some familiar faces from the group there, some I met on my last trip to Denmark and some who I only knew from their posts.
And then, Mr Booth arrived.
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| SUP My Race and Michael Booth (left 😏) |
You probably know I am a bit of a fan, I think he’s a fantastic paddler, arguably one of the best our sport has ever seen, he also comes across as a very nice bloke on social media and all the feedback I’ve seen from his clinics around the world has been positive. And I happen to think he does a very good job coaching through Booth Training.
And that is exactly what he’s like in the real world. Friendly, easy-going, confident. And he seemed to cope very well with meeting a SUP My Race superstar, that’s me in case you were wondering.
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| Making suggestions and adjustments on dry land before hitting the water. |
A Booth Technique Clinic
Obviously I’m not going to go through the clinic in detail, you’ll need to sign up to one for that! But I will go through it at a high level with my experience of the day in Denmark.
Michael’s clinics are usually in two parts over one day with a maximum of 12 paddlers per session. On this day the morning session was the Technique Clinic which was followed by the Technical Clinic in the afternoon.
Footwork demonstration from the afternoon session
Technique Session
This is the clinic I was signed up for, keen to learn what small improvements I could make to my stroke to help me with my SUP My Race time trial goal of under 30 minutes. The clinic description covers the following, from Michael’s website
- Video analysis
- Demonstration of stroke on water and on land
- On land stroke manipulation
- On water drills
- Tips and feedback for all paddlers
We started off with a brief intro, a little bit about each paddler, their paddling background and ambitions. The group was mixed from very experienced paddlers to those relatively new to the sport. Michal then took us through some his paddle technique and why he teaches it, the phases of the stroke and things paddlers do that, maybe they shouldn’t. One thing he emphasised was that we are all different and that there is no one-size fits all method for SUP paddling, your stroke should be the right stroke for you, not someone else. And that makes a lot of sense.
Staying on land we set up with our paddling stance, which feels strange on a wooden deck, and Michael showed us where we could make changes to improve. It’s easier to do this on land. Also very interesting to see him set up other paddlers and think about where I could change, luckily, on land my set-up was pretty good, I need to make a small change but nothing major.
Amager’s location means that they have shelter on the western side of the island and more open water to the north in the lagoon and on the eastern side, we stayed inside to keep the group together and give Michael a place to stand and shout instructions when he wasn’t paddling.
On water, he checked out our stroke giving feedback to everyone before setting us a series of drills that highlighted the importance of the different parts of the stroke or isolated parts of our movement through the stroke, and some of these were an eye-opener!
One ‘classic’ drill that I haven’t really done before was paddling with the paddle the wrong way up, holding the blade and using the handle in the water. His instructions were NOT to see how fast you could go but he used the drill to highlight something else, you’ll need to go to a session to find out.
Then he filmed each of us in turn and we will get that, with feedback by email.
The two hours passed quickly and I am sure I will forget some of the things he showed us but the two main improvements I can, will make are to recover the blade closer to the board which will help with tracking, and to recover the blade sooner, my stroke is a little too long, this will also improve tracking.
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| Where's Boothy? Afternoon technical session |
Technical Session
Then a break for lunch before the second session that focused on technical paddling, this is also a 2 hour clinic but one that I watched from land. The Technical session covers the following, again from Michael’s website
- Front side and backside turns
- Paddling in wind
- Board manipulation
- Walking on your board
- Footwork
- Starts
- Drafting
This session also started with an on-land intro and theory session, which was indoors because the conditions outside had changed, wind and rain lashing the site. Then off the keen paddlers went out into the windy and wet Danish afternoon.
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| Michael nearest camera, his stunt double watching |
At this point, I was very glad to be a spectator even though this is part of my skillset that needs the most work. I am not an elegant paddler at the best of times and I am sure that when I am paddling my feet generate their own gravitational fields holding them in place on the board. And an annoying injury to my left foot the week before the clinic made me even more heavy-footed, as you will see in the video when I share it, I was not moving my feet at all.
However, watching part of the theory session and then grabbing my coat and heading along the shoreline to watch the others was very useful. YouTube videos are all well and good but the real world is better and seeing how others were helped by Boothy certainly made me think about how I could do somethings differently, better.
Booth Clinic Summary
My Booth Training experience was a hugely positive one, Michael obviously loves coaching and helping others improve their SUP skillset, as well as being one of the top paddlers in the world he is also an excellent communicator, if you go to a clinic you will benefit.
The changes I need to think about are the length of my stroke - I am leaving the blade in the water too long, and recovery of the blade - I am swinging the blade out to the side I also have a minor set-up change, sitting down a little more but I think that happens on-water most of the time, as I relax I am sure my stroke improves.
I have now had two sessions at my home lake and, after each I have paddled a few more KM doing drills, kinda. These things need good conditions and a strong wind does not help with technique sessions.
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| Taking a break at the lake |
My thoughts are that what seem to be two ‘easy’ changes to make are actually quite complicated. I’ll explain…
Blade recovery - I honestly thought I did not swing the blade that far but I was wrong. Trying to keep recovery closer to the board has highlighted that I, unconsciously, use that swinging action to balance the board, like a virtual outrigger, and when I try to keep the paddle more vertically (how better to describe that…?) I wobble, quite a lot. That is partly because the action, the new recovery is strange to me but I also think that it shows a weakness in my core strength, that is something I can work on.
Long Stroke - this should be easier to fix but again it appears to be more complicated and is combined with the swinging blade. I use that longer stroke to balance the board. And again a partial solution to that is a stronger core. More time in sweating in the garage!
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| Calm conditions at sunset |
The April round up
April was a windy month and, at times just getting the board loaded onto the van was a challenge!
It’s also quite demoralising plugging away into a 40+ km/h headwind at 8km/h when it feels like you are paddling at full speed, unable to stop in a ‘rest’ because the wind will quickly push you backwards! Then only averaging 9.5 - 9.8 on the way back because the lake never gives back what it takes.
For those unfamiliar with smaller lakes, or at least ‘my’ lake, you rarely get waves over knee height and, at my lake, those only happen in one or two places, the rest of the time you get lots and lots of small waves, half that height but from all directions as they bounce off the lake shore, islands and rocks. Locally wind speed has to be over 75km/h for some time to get conditions that are fun, on the right board. In manageable wind it is a challenge for me to stay upright on a narrow, flat water board with the wind behind, but … it is a great simulator for paddling in the chop of a race, or at least that is what I am told!
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| Finding new secret spots with the Airboard Discovery |
Distance in April was OK and I had some stunning days in-between the windy ones both on the lake and in the Kattegat but I was hampered a little at the end of the month when I had a very clumsy moment and broke one of my toes on my left foot. I only mention it because it taught me one thing, not to be more careful, at my age I should know that already!
The day after I strapped my toes up with tape and paddled, finding out that I use my feet a lot more than I thought I did when I am paddling. Almost constant unconscious, micro-movements adjusting balance and to water conditions. That was a real surprise, I’ve always thought my feet were static unless actually moving around the board.
Then, of course the Booth Training Clinic in Copenhagen. This was a fantastic day with an excellent coach and enthusiastic paddlers all wanting to improve their paddling. Investing in themselves.
Investing in yourself is the BEST upgrade you can make, with no exceptions. And that is what this series of blog posts are all about, investing in this paddler with the help of World Champion Michael Booth.
You can find out more about Michael's training on his website Booth Training, from his Booth Training Instagram account and on his YouTube channel BoothTV.
You can find me running the Facebook group SUP My Race and now, occasionally, on Instagram.
You can read the previous training logs here Training Logs and you can get to individual blog posts using the labels in the sidebar.
See you on the water!