The value of professional instruction

The primary benefit of professional instruction (ie instructor makes his/her living at it), is that to be successful the instructor has to be able to not only introduce the skills, but develop activities that address each individuals learning style. The more you teach skills the better you can become at identifying and correcting mistakes in technique before they become embedded. I have met paddlers with great personal paddling skills that had trouble sharing them because they did not have good teaching skills. Great instructors measure their success by their students success.

Forward Stroke

In regard to the the cadence and blade placement, consider the following. The blade has the most grip on the water when it is vertical and perpendicular to the boat. In a average stoke this distance is only about 18-24". The idea of spearing the fish, ie reaching forward on the catch places the blade less than vertical initially is far less than efficient but is neccessary when the boat is moving rapidly. This is more of a wind up than a catch. So if the most efficient stroke length is only 24" you can actually get more out of it with good torso rotation and straighter arms because as you rotate with straight arms the blade while still vertical and perpendicular moves diagonally turning the 24" of grip to say 30" or more before the slice. The key is a vertical paddle shaft. Cadence follows as the slice out sets up the following stroke on the other side. Try paddling slowly with nearly straight arms and see if this makes sense.

The Forward Stroke

I agree that "torso" rotation is a misnomer, but I think hip rotation might also be misleading. I consider the rotation to start from the feet. With the foot braces positioned correctly the paddler should have the ability to nearly straighten one leg at a time. The straightened leg then forces the hips to rotate and that in turn rotates the lower back. One little simple excercise that demonstrates this clearly is to place paddle behind back with arms over the shaft.Try to paddle. Now try the same thing without contact with the foot braces. Usually a fairly concrete demonstration that needs little explanation.