Philip wrote: --snip-- I would then teach bracing and rolling in parallel, for two reasons. A reliable roll gives paddlers the confidence to truly commit to a brace, as opposed just sitting up right and making token slaps at the water with their paddle. Bracing and rolling are also overlapping skills in that a sweep for a roll is essentially a dynamic brace, just done from underneath. I would emphasise that bracing is preferable to rolling, and that not being unintentionally in a situation where you need to brace is even more preferable. (In a true crisis, one thing is better than presence of mind—absence of body!) --snip-- Wise words. The annoying thing that I regularly come across when teaching kayaking is that my students usually want to learn to roll immediately, rather than put in the time required to learn to brace properly. Between sessions those who work on their rolls often end up with shoddy rolls and shoddy braces. Those who work on their braces often end up with good braces and good rolls. I would like to see instructors de-emphasize rolling and stressing bracing for novice/intermediate students -- not that I disagree with rolls (I believe that they are essential), but that I find more important skills such as bracing being subsumed by the focus on rolling. Richard Culpeper *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.gasp-seakayak.net/paddlewise/ ***************************************************************************Received on Wed Dec 09 1998 - 14:18:44 PST
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