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Paddlepower

Paddlepower in Yorkshire

Paddlepower is a progressive award scheme that has been designed to meet the needs of young people. It aims to get young people paddling, giving them a solid foundation and range of experiences that will help ensure they keep interested in the sport and carry on taking part. This page contains an overview of the scheme, more information aimed at coaches/clubs, and a case study highlighting a success story of the scheme.

1. Overview of the Paddlepower Scheme

2. Information for Clubs & Coaches

3. Case Study: Matthew Lister

1. Overview of the Paddlepower Scheme

Paddlepower is a progressive award scheme that has been designed to meet the needs of young people. It’s colourful approach aims to:

Encourage more young people to come into and stay in the sport
Provide progression and reward achievement in a wide range of topics
Show them all aspects of the sport – both competitive and adventurous
Provide signposts into Clubs where their skills and development can be nurtured
Provide a flexible structure for delivery according to venue/situation

The scheme has recently been revised and now comprises of 5 Awards to support a young paddler’s introduction and progress in Paddlesport. These are:

Paddlepower Start
An entry level award suitable for taster sessions or as part of a series of sessions.

Paddlepower Passport
Four progressive levels based on 24 topics which can be grouped into Safety Awareness, Paddling Skills, Varied Experiences, and Supporting Knowledge. The award is equivalent to 1 Star.

Paddlepower Discover
This follows on from Passport with a further 4 levels to take the young paddler to equivalent of 2 star standard.

Paddlepower Explore
Three different levels take the paddler on an extensive journey exploring the great variety Paddlesport, with topics focused on participation in events and journeys in the competitive and non-competitive disciplines.

Paddlepower Excel
Three levels to test the paddler on all elements of paddlesport including being responsible for self and others, participation in journeys, coaching sessions, training, events/competitions in a variety of disciplines, background knowledge of the sport, access, rules, environmental, nutrition and goal setting.

At Paddlepower Start there is a certificate that is awarded by the coach. This also has space for an organisation to add their contact details to signpost the paddler to future courses.

For each award after Start there is a colourful 6 page Progress Card for the young paddler to record their progress and to encourage them to move to the next stage. On completion of the Progress Card it is sent to Canoe England who award a certificate.

poster

start

passport

discover

2. Information for Clubs & Coaches

A Level 1 coach can deliver Paddlepower Start, after that a Level 2 coach is required. For Explore and Excel a Level 2 coach can deliver with support from a discipline specific coach(es).

Paddlepower has been designed around the needs of young people – fun, colourful and with easily identifiable progression mapped to the Long Term Paddler Development framework. Whilst awards are comparable to the star test, they can be undertaken at the paddler’s own pace and there is no formal assessment at the end of it. The BCU recommend Paddlepower as most suitable for young people aged 14 or under and the Star Awards for most paddlers aged over 16.

Coaches can download a copy of the Paddlepower Coaches Manual from Canoe England.

A starter pack containing, a Paddlepower Start Certificate, a Paddlepower Passport Progress card, a Paddlepower Discover Progress card, a sample of the ‘well done’ sticker and the coaches manual can be purchased from the BCU e-shop.

Paddlepower Start, Passport and Discover can be delivered in most clubs, as they require little specialist equipment. However, Paddlepower Explore and Excel encourage young people to stretch themselves further and try out a variety of different craft and different types of paddlesport including competitions. Some clubs may feel unable to run Paddlepower to this level, but there are ways of overcoming barriers.

Equipment

If you are a recreational club, you may not have access to specialist slalom or white water racing boats. Why not buddy up with another local club to borrow their equipment, or ask to use their facilities for the day? Clubs that do have a range of boats, why not run a Paddlepower day – open to other clubs – where youngsters can come and try out different types of kit.

Competitions

Entry level races are available in the region for slalom and marathon racing, and there is also an Under 16s canoe polo league. Race organisers are very welcoming and there is a friendly atmosphere at events. Some clubs are also organising Canoe 2012 events, where you can try the Olympic disciplines of slalom and sprint racing.

If you want to introduce Paddlepower in your club, you can contact our Paddlesport Development Officer who will be able to run a session for your club coaches and volunteers to give you more details.

3. Case Study: Matthew Lister

Paddlepower aims to give young people a solid foundation on which to build their skills, and one example of where this has been hugely successful is with 18 year old Matthew Lister from White Rose Canoe Club. From an early age splashing around in the swimming pool, Matthew quickly turned into a very confident young paddler willing to have a go at anything. He is now successfully competing at international level.

The story begins back in 2003 when the club embraced the Paddlepower scheme and encouraged a group of young paddlers to get involved. This relied on the support and goodwill of a small team of volunteers and parents who shuttled the youngsters to various events.

Matthew started paddling when he was 8 years old and his family joined the club. He became involved in Paddlepower aged 11. He quickly progressed through the scheme, and after just two years was award the highest award – then called Paddlepower Black. Over this time, his skills developed tremendously and he gained experience in a variety of different activities.

In 2003, Matthew received the club’s award for Most Improved Junior Paddler, and passed the Canoe Safety Test.

He started out on trips to local rivers such as the Wharfe at Collingham, and travelled further afield with the club and his family - having a go at surfing at the coast and paddling white water on the River Ure at Sleningford.

He overcame his initial trepidation in paddling white water, and became confident playing at sites such as Tees Barrage and Holme Pierrepont. He took part in the Wavehopper series and was joint winner of U14 National Wavehopper Challenge series.

Although not his favorite discipline, Matthew undertook the requisite number of marathon races to gain his Paddlepower 2 Red award (now known as Explore). He also attended several training sessions on the local canal. His forward paddling style improved greatly as a result of this and he gained promotion to Division 8.

Matthew was instrumental in forming an Under 16s canoe polo team at White Rose Canoe Club in 2004. Despite a lack of equipment, which had to be borrowed, Matthew encouraged others to get involved and trained when possible with the adult teams.

The Youth team won the Under 16s Novice league in 2004-05, and was invited to play some tournaments in the Under 16s Premier league. These games were much tougher, and allowed an improvement in skill level to the extent that he was invited to play with the adult Open team for some matches.

Slalom was always one of Matthew’s favorite disciplines and is one at which he excels. He had been competing for less than a year when he was promoted to Division 2 K1 Men, having out-performed many of his peers and indeed older paddlers.

Early in his slalom career he worked during the school holidays and saved his pocket money to buy a good quality slalom kayak. He showed great sportsmanship by competing in C1 at a local event to make the race quorate, despite having never paddled C1 before on moving water!

Matthew went on to compete in C1, C2 and Team events. He soon out-grew what White Rose Canoe Club could offer him, and was passed to another club who were able to offer him more support and specialist slalom coaching.

After being spotted by a national coach, Matthew’s slalom career really took off. A lot of hard work was put in, including regular training sessions at Holme Pierrepont – a 2 hour journey each way from his home.

Matthew was promoted to Premier division (K1 and C2) in 2006 and C1 in 2008. He paddles C2 with Rhys Davies and the pair take part in competitions both at home and abroad.

A recent highlight must have been winning Gold medal at the Youth Olympics in Sydney, Australia, in January 2009.

Matthew has continued to paddle in other disciplines. In April 2009 aged 17 he was the first junior athlete ever to be selected GB for two canoe disciplines - C1 & C2. Success continued in 2009 when the pair were awarded Bronze medal for C2 in the Junior European Championships.

The hard work continues and in 2010 Matthew was selected to represent GB in Under 23 C2, and he is also reserve for Senior C2 and reserve Junior C1.

Whilst fitting training and competitions around his A-level studies, Matthew has ambitions for the 2016 Olympics. From slightly nervous beginnings on his first river trip, Matthew is now tackling some of the world’s most technical white water, and making it look easy.