Re: [Paddlewise] Dinkless In Victoria

Oh my Go_, I can't believe you mentioned me by name. I've been out of
town...and saw this thread and was going to try to avoid it as it is so
hard to explain, but, sigh, I'll try.

So....when I learned to teach bracing and rolling in the eighties, we
started people with the head down. There is indeed a kinesthetic "thing"
having to do with the long and short muscles along the sides of our bodies
- they work together in a mysterious way (to me) when doing a C to C
motion. 

Now, I used to teach a lean out, reach-arm-out sort of brace with the
whole body tilting along with the boat. 

When I took my first ACA course in 1989 (for whitewater, in Jackson) I
first heard the trerm head dink and actually thought it came from the
southeast. Down around Nantahala and in DC you have a lot of people
training for slalom...and I think they evolved this thing.

Technique changed from what the ACA now calls the bell-buoy lean to the
J-Lean or even just "boat tilt". Some instructors don't like to say lean
at all. 

The idea is that, say, you are doing hip snap practice with your hands
on your head and just lifting first the left knee, then the right, having
fun, making waves - and stop with one knee up, and hold. 

Boat tilt - one knee up, one relaxed, and -  head counter-balancing.
The head is upright or even over-compensating.

Then, the full hip snap - drive opposite knee up, drop head down (or the
other way around) - the head dropping actually seems to cause the knee to
come up - bringing the boat flat on it's hull, or under the body, giving
you something to sit on. The head can get thrown to that side, or just
dropped gracefully, but without the head, as in the roll (really an
upside-down extension of bracing/sweeping) it just doesn't work as well,
or sometimes, at all.

There are all kinds of visualizations for this -
ear-bone-to-the-knee-bone, a vise, hold the hundred dollar bill on your
shoulder, etc. 

Secondly, "elbows in, elbows low" for a high brace....no reaching. Once
your arm starts to sneak out sideways you have potential for a shoulder
dislocation. 

That's the theory - a start anyway. Maybe I'll put some images up.

I've bought into it all the way!

 Andree Hurley
 http://www.viewit.com/KIX/


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