Newly re-discovered winter paddling exercise!

Cleveland, Ohio, February 2007

During the winter storm that hit the lower Great Lakes last week, I inadvertently discovered a long-lost technique for practicing good paddling technique and exercising long-dormant paddling muscles. With the University closed for the day and driveways equally closed under 2 foot drifts I took to the sturdy plastic shovel to live the dictum 'Hanta Yo' (clear the way).

And clear the way I did, until a nagging pain began to assail my back. It was then that I made my historic discovery. By switching my lower hand, the one NOT gripping the top of the shovel handle, but gripping the lower part of the shovel from a forward to backward grip I may have freed mankind from an ancient scourge, lower back pain.

If you're used to gripping the lower part of the shovel forehanded with thumb facing the blade, try switching that grip to a backhanded one with the thumb pointing back towards the shovel handle. Now lay into that snow. In one smooth motion you both grab a shovel full, heft it up and scatter it to the winds. Actually it's better to scatter it away from the winds or you get it right back in the face. No lower back pain, an easy stroke, but, better than all this, a replication (if you move your upper body along with the shovel) of the classic Canadian canoe stroke. A little twist and flip at the end and you've got a classic J-stroke. A little lean on the snow and you've got a brace. Reach out over the snow bank and you've got a draw. Need I elaborate further?

Taken with such a discovery I proceeded from neighbor to neighbor, clearing driveway after driveway, no longer grumbling about my accursed fate, but dreaming of sallying forth into the north woods, the loons calling and the forest drifting past.

A bit of research brought up the little known fact that this shoveling technique was employed by the voyageurs centuries ago to limber up for the coming spring's challenges. Deep in the heart of the wilderness in 1641, Father Pierre LePoivre, of Our Lady of Perpetual Motion in the tiny hamlet of Mishuggena, Quebec, recording his parishioners, all couriers de bois, chanting the songs of Superior in unison while clearing their driveways with the backhanded stroke.

So, in one fell swoop you can ease your back, practice for the upcoming season and relive history all in one motion, the backhanded snow shovel stroke. Your life will never be the same again.

Marty
backyard photo by Edie