A Method to Characterize Elite and Sub-elite Kayak Paddlers Using a Parametric Space

A method to characterize the performance of any potential kayak paddler is developed in this work. It is based on a one-dimensional displacement model which reduces the coupled paddler-kayak dynamics into a six-dimensional parametric space. This dimension might be further reduced by considering a composed dimensionless magnitude which characterizes the propulsion and choosing appropriately the magnitude representing the displacement of the kayak. These considerations reduce the dimension first to three and finally to a two-dimension space. Previously published elite paddler data are used as a reference one to define a front and to characterize sub-elite paddler data obtained by us. The results show that in terms of stroke efficiency sub-elite paddlers reach values similar or even better than reported for elite ones. However in terms of kayak performance their results are worse, below the elite men paddlers and close to the elite women ones, as expected.