Freestyle Coaching at Jackfield with Matt Stephenson

Thursday 7th August saw Telford Canoe Club holding another open freestyle day at Jackfield, with C1 World Champion Matt Stephenson.

Continuing Telford Canoe Club’s mission of promoting freestyle kayaking, we held another of our periodic open freestyle sessions. Throughout the winter we hold these events at the swimming pool, but summer brings with it the opportunity to have coaching on our local wave at Jackfield rapids. The sessions are open to members of any club in the area, and we strive to bring in some of the best expertise in the country to help develop skills, whether participants are new to the sport or highly experienced.

This week we brought in C1 World Freestyle Champion Matt Stephenson. After the success of the freestyle sessions at our recent Paddlefest, we had a number of requests to hold another day with him. How could we not oblige?!

With the lack of rain, we had been a bit concerned that the river levels would be a bit on the low side. The wave at Jackfield does work quite well at low levels, but a little bit of a top-up would do wonders to make entry to it a little less rocky! Luckily one of the tributaries of the Severn, the Clywedog, was having a dam release, which meant that we had a few cm added to the levels.

The day began with some flat water skills on the section above the rapids. Dave got some pointers to develop a flat water loop, as well as improving cartwheel technique, while Steph worked on her double pump to get the boat vertical.

After the flat water session, it was time to move on down to the wave. Progress was being made all round, with Ingela standing out once again advancing her wave surfing skills. Dave, who is never happy unless his boat is vertical, gained some important pointers to improve his cartwheels, spins, and roundhouses.

Although the day was supposed to be warm and sunny, we were treated to an extended deluge of rain! In fact it rained so hard that the usually slow to respond River Severn actually rose slightly in the time we were there, improving the feature further by the time late afternoon came around.

All in all, this was another successful freestyle session. Look out for more to follow!