Training with Kyle

Chopping in the sunshine, what a wonderful day

While I was in Rotorua I had the extreme good fortune to get to train some with Kyle Lemon, of the STIHL Timbersports New Zealand national team (on stock saw in https://youtu.be/36rmtxWOQCI?t=18m41s ). I first got to know Kyle when we were preparing and shuttling rounds for the Rotorua Axemen’s Carnival, and had some good conversation about woodchopping and Timbersports as I rode with him on trips in his truck. At the Carnival, I then borrowed a pair of chainmail socks from him, and he came over to watch my chop in my second H-chop event. He must have felt pity on (or seen potential in) me, because he later offered to give me tips if I would come over to his house the following week. I gladly accepted, and for my last two months in Rotorua, every afternoon that we were both available I biked the twenty kilometres up along the lakeside to his place. The first half was on a wonderful bike path running parallel to the old railroad tracks, and I got to know every stretch and shortcut of the route. Once I broke my chain halfway there, but, Kiwis being the nice people they are, I was soon able to hitch a ride the rest of the way. As a serious axeman, Kyle had a dedicated area in his backyard. H-chop stands, a V-chop stand, and even a short springboard setup were all set in a concrete pad, next to stacks of leftover rounds to practice on and a pile of chopped halves of round blocks to split for firewood. His son competes in the U-16 chops (he is nine), and sometimes chopped in the stand next to me, displaying his superior technique, though he usually was riding his bike around and over the nearby dirt piles. Occasionally Kyle would also do a few practice chops while I was there, showing why he is on the national team as he blazed through logs at incredible speeds, massive chips sent flying (He makes up for not being as big as Jason and the others by being very quick and precise). Kyle works full-time as a police officer, yet still carves out the time to keep up with his training and remain competitive. He also puts his axeman skills to practical use; one afternoon after an especially blustery day I came over to find him industriously clearing out a tree that had fallen nearby to block half the road. Kyle also always gave me a ride back into town, and we would chat in a way I couldn’t while winded from chopping.

Kyle chopping at the Rotorua Axemen's Carnival

For the most part, Kyle let me borrow one of his older and heavier competition axes to train with (although once he let me do a few chops with a brand new axe that he was ‘seasoning’ before using it in competition). This axe held sentimental value, as he had gotten it from David Bolstad, whose name was etched on the head. David and Kyle grew up chopping together, and the former went on to win five STIHL Timbersports Individual World Championships before he suddenly and tragically passed away as he walked off the field after winning yet another woodchopping competition in 2011. Himself the son of champion axeman Sonny Bolstad (both of whom have championship events named after them at the Rotorua Axemen’s Carnival), his own son (now 13) carries on the woodchopping tradition.

David Bolstad's axe that I got to use

But as for the training! Kyle bemoaned on a few occasions that we had not chanced to meet up earlier. He said he could make me as good as Nathan “Bucket” Waterfield and competitive on the US STIHL circuit if we had a year to train together, and it was a shame I hadn’t found him immediately to maximize my 5 months in Rotorua. We decided that the limited time we had would be best spent in honing basic skills and building up my technique before I tried to go for speed (Please feel free to skip to the last four paragraphs of this post if you don’t want to read about the technical details of going through an H-chop). For simplicity's sake, I’ll walk you, dear reader, through an H-chop (which we concentrated on) as though I were Kyle instructing Nathanael. Any errors I make as such are my own, and due to my mis-remembering rather than a lapse in Kyle’s teaching. Please discuss any techniques you see here with a qualified captain or coach; in woodchopping I am an amateur in the true sense of the word, “for the love of it”, whatever the ‘19s may think.

First, select a round from the stack. It is good to practice on all the different diameters you expect to chop to know how to pace yourself and structure your pattern of hits for each. For training now, mostly use 14” rounds to practice on a medium size, although you can chop 15” and 16” rounds when you are feeling ambitious, or a 12” or 13” round when you are feeling tired and only want a smaller chop to finish off the evening [remember that a 12” round is significantly less wood than a 12” square]. 

Second, prepare your chosen round. Slice and peel off the industrial grade cling-wrap that has been keeping the round moist. Set the round in the H-chop stand, using a maul (or a rigger when you are actually at a meet) to firmly set it onto the spikes on one side and lock it in with the swivelling spikes. When placing the round on the stand, take a look at the end-grain and decide whether you want the harder wood, where the growth rings are closer together if the round is not radially symmetrical, on the top or the bottom - whether you want the marginally more difficult section of the round block to be cleared out earlier or last. Next, find and mark the point on the round block in the centre of the stand (I cheated and marked this spot with a log crayon on the stand for later reference). For the most part you will want a V about the diameter of the log; on harder wood, like gum [Eucalyptus], you may want a narrower V to remove less wood, but pine is soft enough for the full width. On a 14” block, holding the tape measure at 14”, centre the 7” on the earlier marked centre of the log. Then shift the measure between ½” and 2” toward your dominant side, where you will start your drives (I usually marked a 14” at 8” drive-side and 6” chip-side). This offset will make sure your drives overlap and your chips connect; the variance in offset is based in part on how well you will be able to keep your line when chopping, 1” offset of the V on each side of the block is usually sufficient.

Third, having drawn a line along the top of the block and marked the centre, draw your Vs. Start with a light, straight line between the chip sides of each measurement (my left looking down over the block). Next draw in the drive lines, at the same angle as the chip line so the points are offset horizontally about 2” and share about 3” of chip line. This gives a bit of leeway when you get to the centre of the block if you have veered inside of your lines, to ensure that all the fibres are still severed and the halves will break apart. What you really do not want is for the points of your Vs to switch sides and force you to sever the halves on a chip. Sometimes, on older rounds that wave gotten a thin film of slime the log crayon doesn’t really take and you have to scrape them with a rigger and follow the marks you can make as best you can, but on dry blocks you can draw more precise lines. With the most precise lines, you want to actually make them slightly convex curves, as I will explain later (see the below image).

Figure 1) Diagrammed block, looking down
Note the angle of the footholds, and how the edges of the V curve in

Fourth, chop your footholds (it is entirely too difficult to balance atop a smooth round). You want to make them large enough to securely stand and rotate on, but not overly long, as chopping into your footholds is an automatic disqualification in competition (removing part of your chopped wood before time starts). You generally chop down 2” or 3” deep to get a wide enough platform to position your feet for chopping (because the Vs are offset, the footholds can be a bit longer on the chip side, but I generally had a tight squeeze against the drive side when I rotated to the chip. I ended up often having to consciously hang my heels out over the edge rather than my toes. Although I always wore chainmaile socks, they don’t have the blunt force resistance of Dartmouth’s robot boots). This chopping is done with a rigger, an old competition axe that is no longer even good for practice, but still serves a purpose. When you have the knack of it, generally choking up on the handle, you can chop out your footholds and shave them down smooth in only a few strokes.

Footholds all chopped out. Add motivational markings on the faces of the Vs, despite the a-/be-mused looks you'll get
Note how the axe handle is screwed back together after Jason Wynyard started to split it with some powerful chopping

Fifth, you can finally mount the block and position yourself to chop. You always want your feet to be pointing at the same angle as the line you are cutting, with your shoulders perpendicular to it and your head straight so your body is square and directly behind the path of the falling axe. Keeping your feet, shoulders, and head aligned helps your sight along the axe’s path and chop precisely on your lines. It is helpful to have someone watching you to remind you to keep square, or even to video yourself for later reference (especially if you tend to get sloppy about it, as I did).

Sixth, either on a “Competitors, on your marks, three. . .two. . .one. . .GO!” or a “Handicap, one. . .two. . .three. . .” you can finally begin chopping for real! Try to stick to your pattern while chopping to maintain efficiency of cuts. Each blow should be aimed at severing new wood fibres, or chipping out already severed sections to expose more wood. Though sometimes unavoidable, repeating a chop in the same place can cost a second in a sport where results can come down to a tenth of that. Similarly, set your pattern to cover the most new wood with each hit, using the full width of the blade rather than overlapping hits by as much as half with the previous hit. This comes down to depth perception and muscle memory; when you are starting out practicing it can be helpful to dismount the block after a hit, before pulling your axe free, and note how closely your perception of how low you hit matches with the actual axe placement (I tended to not reach far enough down). With a 7 ½” wide axe blade it should only take a pattern of two drives/four hits to sever the width of an 11” block, allowing about an inch of steel to hang out on the top and bottom, and to overlap in the centre. For larger blocks you’ll want to use a three drive pattern/six hit pattern, evenly spacing the heights of your hits. Even on a six hit pattern, you’ll need to start with a four hit pattern until the top wood is cleared out and you have established a line of sight for your hits on the bottom wood, ideally in about two or three sets. Whatever the number, proceed in a circle as you chop; drive top, [drive middle,] drive bottom, chip bottom, [chip middle,] chip top, repeat circle (as opposed to the drive top, drive bottom, chip top, chip bottom pattern I have noticed some axemen in the States follow). Repeat a misplaced hit if you have to, but try to keep the rhythm going. Each chip (hit) should take a chip (piece) off the face of the block and expose deeper wood to take out on the next circle. Within a few sets, drawing an inch of steel out the top of the block, you should notice you have pretty much severed the top wood in your V, and can move on to a low pattern of the middle and bottom wood. Once the middle wood is also removed you can move to a few alternating strokes on the bottom wood, and finish a V with a line of hard drives to ensure you have severed the fibres on that side. Repeat this whole process on the other side of the block. If done correctly, the finishing lines of drives on each side will connect (or at least be close enough that more than enough fibres are severed and the connecting piece can pull apart lengthwise), and your block will fall neatly in twain. You’ll be able to feel how close you are by how much the block shifts with each hit, and customize your final few hits to this.

Body positioning is very important for maximizing power as well as accuracy. You should start a chop in position, waiting on the block for your “go” or handicap, lined up with your drive line and with the blade of your axe lightly resting on the top wood. Your hit is allowed to land as soon as time starts, so about a second beforehand you can lift your axe and have it falling with the signalling syllable. You will be starting with a drive, on your dominant side, with your dominant hand (my right) further up on the axe handle and guiding it. Like with batting baseballs, usually your dominant hand in woodchopping is also your writing hand, but this is not guaranteed and you should try a few swings with your hands switched to see what is most comfortable. As you raise your axe, your dominant hand should slide up the handle to right below the head (and indeed I barked my knuckles a good many times on the base of the head). At the top of your swing your axe should be above, but still slightly in front of you; The power in your stroke comes from the momentum of the head from gravity and pulling down on the axe, there is no advantage to a huge wind-up with the axe far behind your head. As you begin your downward stroke, your dominant hand should slide down the handle, reaching your non-dominant hand right before the head strikes. As it drops, your dominant hand should push the axe head slightly out away from you, lengthening its arc and speeding it up, as the non-dominant hand pulls slightly back to whip it around. Keep that top hand loose and let the axe follow its path; clenching both hands together at the bottom of the handle may pull the axe slightly off course and cause you to miss your line, just like how gripping a pencil too tightly will draw a crooked line. At the same time, you should add power by bending your knees and dropping your hips down and back (the affectionately named “butt pop” among Dartmouth Woodsmen).

At the top of your swing the axe is still marginally in front of you

Slide your dominant hand down the handle, and butt pop!

It is always valuable to keep the shapes of your chop in mind; the shape of the block, and the shape of the cut you are making in the wood. The blade of your axe is curved, so a line of chops where the horns of the axe overlap only by an inch or two leaves at those overlaps small triangles of uncut wood. Also, you want to try to hit the curved face of the round block close to perpendicular, which requires a slight modification of your swing to sever the full bottom and full top wood. For getting that bottom wood you will want to keep your hands further out in front of you so at the bottom of your swing, rotating your hands further forward, you can reach around and wrap the axe to get at the bottom, your axe handle ending up almost vertical. To contrast, to chop the top wood you’ll pull your hands closer to you as you finish the swing, ending with your hands right down between your legs, your elbows near your knees and your axe handle only a bit above horizontal.

Once you are practiced enough to hit exactly where you intend, due to the shape of the axe blade you will need to start rolling in the face of your cut. (Think of your block in three-dimensional space; the long axis of your block on the X, the horizontal short axis on the Y, and vertically on the Z.) Your axe is one of the simplest machines, a wedge, and as a wedge you cannot perfectly chop a plane (for this you’d want a woodworking broad-axe). If you try to repeat a chop in an identical plane, the bevel of your blade will hit before the edge of the blade, causing your blow to skip. The trick then is to place every deeper hit on a slightly greater angle to the x-axis, starting off on a shallower angle and finishing almost chopping square into the centre, so that the final face is faceted and curves in [see Figure 1]. This brings you back to your footwork; as the chop comes in at the angle your feet are at, you can fine-tune the former by adjusting the latter. An ideal face of a cut will be a smooth transition of facets; it is sloppy and less efficient if there are large ‘steps’ in the face where you kept missing your line to the inside. Failing to keep to your line on the inside will also cause you to bottom out on your V before you reach the middle, and force you to either go back and try to cut in at a steeper angle (and likely skip your axe a lot trying to restart cuts at such a slightly different angle) or to baseball your way through, driving straight perpendicular without any chips. When the professionals practice chopping they are dissatisfied with any hits more than about an eighth of an inch inside the line of the previous hit.

Congratulations! You have now chopped through a horizontal log! Work on getting your hits precise and rhythmic, then build up speed, and before you know it you’ll be sailing right through in no time at all!

When I showed up for one of my last practice sessions, Kyle explained to me that he had noticed a bit of a dent in the axe I usually used, and in attempting to hammer it straight a sizable chip had just broken off in the centre of the blade. Every cloud has a bit of a silver lining, however, and that chip in the blade left an obvious reference mark on the cuts it made, so going back to the cut faces of the block when I had finished I could easily tell where exactly the axe was for each cut and how much overlap my middle hits had with my top or bottom hits. This can be seen on a less prominent scale with any small imperfections there are on the edge of an axe, though, there is no need to seek out chips.

There is no better practice for chopping competitively than chopping practice blocks. It can be expensive and/or labour intensive to acquire as many fresh blocks a week as are needed for a rigorous practice routine, however. With saws, at least you are only using up a few inches of wood with each cut. One way to go about practicing chopping if you are limited on wood is to make single cuts, to stand behind a log and shave off an inch at a time at a 45⁰ angle as if it were a single side of a V. This allows you to practice accuracy and get a feel for the axe in wood, even if it doesn’t practice you in switching sides and other chopping aspects. For training the movements and weight, you can stand on a large tyre and hit it with a sledgehammer of the same heft as your axe, but there really is no substitution for actually putting axe to wood.

Kyle has gone to the STIHL Timbersports World Championship almost half a dozen times now with the New Zealand national team. The last few, in Europe, have been literally on the opposite side of the world, and he is debating whether it is worth it to go very many more times. He says there’s not as much exploring and socializing as he would like, flying all the way out there, as the team trains hard in the days leading up to the event, both off- and on-location, and then they are usually whisked back home as soon as the closing ceremonies wrap. Kyle talked about how he would like to extend the next such trip by another week or so for sightseeing around the spectacular locations they like to host these Championships in. The team relay tends to be on Saturday, however, and especially for those who are not competing in Sunday’s individual championship Saturday night is the time to cut loose, eat, drink, and be merry, hang out with the collected best woodsmen in the world. Kiwis being among the best in the world (3 out of 6 World team titles, 18 Individual titles since 1997) this is usually a joyous time, but Kyle will speak bitterly of the 2014 Relay. The Kiwis started off strong against the Hungarians, and ended up beating them by 14.5 seconds in an event that usually runs on the shy side of a minute total. However, instant replay showed that the guy on stock saw, relatively new to the discipline (Kyle was on H-chop that year), had only had seven of his requisite eight fingers over the line centred on the top of the log when the starter’s gun went off, one pointer finger hanging a few hairs too low. This mistake cost the Kiwis a 15 second penalty, abruptly kicking them out of the bracket of 16 in the first round by half a second in a year when there had been high expectations that they could capture first place for the third time running. This only goes to show how close everything is when you are competing at such a high level, small things like a split-second timing mistake or a hard knot can shift the balance against the best laid plans of mice and men.

Thank you, dear reader, for bearing with me through this exceptionally long blog post. I hope you learned something, or at least found it interesting; please feel free to leave me comments with your thoughts and any questions! Thanks again!

This old rigger is no longer the sharp, shiny comp axe it once was, but it still serves a useful function.