M.C.D. Roos wrote:

For swimming, one method I know of consists of a line with floats
attached to it in a pool. The swimmer then pushes his hands against the
floats with each stroke and the power for each stroke is then measured
in the floats IIRC. There ought to be a better description of this on
the web. Another method might be to just drag a kayak with a line
accross the water at paddling speed and measure the force needed to do
this, but I suspect you want some more detailed measurements. Maybe you
can combine this with a videocamera.

greetings,
Michiel

Thanks for the reply...

Yes, we've used the towing technique for determining work done by
swimmers, and have applied it to kayaks, we're also familiar with the
pushing bouys (and submerged paddles) for swimmers... but I want a more
direct measurement of the forces at the blade and the hands. Hoping to
possibly also apply this to an inverse dynamics solution of joint
reaction forces at the shoulder.

-Kieran