Blog

This weekend kicked off the 2013 international freestyle kayaking circuit with the Plattling, European Cup event in Germany. The European Cup is a 3 part series that runs the same year as every World Championships. Unlike the European and World Championships it is not a national team only entry event so as well as the usual big team paddlers it also attracts a wide variety of new names. This years event coincided with the German Read more

Two years ago whilst coaching the GB team in Plattling, Germany for the 2011 World Championships I was introduced to Polly Green who was filming a documentary about her journey and aspiration of becoming a freestyle World Champion. Polly had lots of questions about what it takes to be a world class athlete, and my views on the future direction of ladies freestyle. My interviews during the event feature in the film as well as Read more

The Younguns Freestyle Tour is open to any padders who are aged 18 and under on January 1st 2013. The tour consists of five dates throughout the Spring and Summer of 2013 spread across the UK to encourage new paddlers to try their hand at freestyle kayaking. The only thing you need is a reasonable white water roll and a lot of energy and enthusiasm! Due to the unique way in which this tour is Read more

The Sweetwater Skills interactive website is now fully integrated into the Sweetwater Coaching website. The aim of the Skills page’s is to provide up to date advice on many aspects of paddlesport from developing those tricky freestyle moves to planning an epic whitewater expedition. The site now has five main subject categories; Freestyle, River, Surf, Fitness and Coaching. This weeks features include freestyle ‘how to loop’, river running ‘Planning an Expedition’, surf ‘reading the waves’, Read more

2 years ago whilst training in Plattling, Germany for the 2011 World Championships I meet Polly Green who was filming her journey to become the next freestyle World Champion. It was amazing spending time with Polly and finding out about herjourney to the competition that I was also competing at. Its always interesting in freestyle meeting new paddlers and making new friends especially on the competition circuit when these same paddlers and friends are also the competition. Read more

I was running a one-to-one freestyle session on Sunday.  We kick started the day with a chat over a hot drink at the Peak Coffee Shop – initially focusing on a quick profile to see where we were regarding skills progression and established our goals for the day. Before heading down to the course for a skills session, we decided to go through the current thinking on stretching and introduced some tools to keep in tip top Read more

Once again as the New Year rolls in its time to head to warmer climates to train. This years January training destination is the White Nile in Uganda (Africa) one of the most popular freestyle kayaking  warm water winter training destinations in the world. Uganda is situated in the middle of Africa just above Lake Victoria. This beautiful yet very poor country is home to the source of the White Nile and some of the Read more

If you are a club coach and would like to explore the possibilities of coaching freestyle paddlesport and stars of the future, then here’s your opportunity. Sweetwater will be offering a series of visits to clubs in 2013.  The visits are aimed at helping Clubs by; Improving their capacity and capability to deliver a diverse range of freestyle paddlesport activities to their members, Providing advice and top tips from a national coach, Offering advice and Read more

I was recently invited to Lincoln University to provide advice for Sports and Exercise Science undergraduates on preparing for the job market after graduation. UK graduates are currently facing a difficult job market, but there are ways to increase your chances of landing that first step towards your dream job. Here’s some advice based on my own experiences; Firstly don’t underestimate your own potential. As we know the competition for jobs is tough, but to Read more

Stage one of this year’s Whitewater Grand Prix kicks off today (3rd Dec) in Chile. The event brings 30 of the world’s best whitewater kayakers together for a 14-day, 5-stage event on spectacular and challenging whitewater. Kayakers will start the event with a downriver stage on the Rio Gol Gol in the first whitewater endure. They will then compete in a big water boater-cross, whitewater sprint, giant slalom and finish with another extended whitewater enduro on the Read more