Richard Frost <maloneme_at_gwi.net> wrote: MJAkayaker_at_aol.com wrote: > I was finally getting confident in my roll. ...snip... MY ROLL IS GONE! > ...snip... >>I used to teach a lot of tennis and am a big fan of Timothy Gallwey's "Inner Tennis" approach. He wrote a few books about it, but basically you try to give the mind something useful to observe about the body's actions (on a scale of one to ten, how loose was your wrist on that serve?) or the results of those actions (how high above the net did the ball go?) so the body can go to work on its own and improve on those results. If you pinpoint the right thing to focus on, the results can be magical and astounding. This as opposed to the traditional teaching method of telling the student exactly where each body part is supposed to be at each point in the movement sequence. Too much input from the mind only confuses the body. I'm guessing that is what happened to Mark from watching the video too closely. Since I don't know how to roll, and I want to learn this summer, and I want some of the aforementioned "astounding" results, and Mark wants his roll back, I am hoping some of the paddling gurus out there might take a stab at "Inner Rolling." That is, if they can do it without referring to eyeballs or stomachs. Thanks in advance for any help offered.<< Just what I was thinking Robert, thanks for saying it so well. I have observed the same phenomena in ski instruction, overanalyzing and teaching body positions just makes the body too mechanical. The teaching system in the 60's and 70's anyhow (when I paid at least a little attention to it) created what I thought of as "robot skiers fresh off the assembly line". Set a goal and turn your body loose on the project (and I'm including the mind as part of the body here too, prior restraint on what you allow yourself to think just cripples the mind. Censor what you say, not what you can think). Here is what I wrote in "Freestyle Skiing" in the 70's. "Another point I want to make is that you don't have to consciously know what you are doing in order to do it. Reading the technical description which follows probably won't be much help in your learning to be a mogul bomber except that it might release you from some "rules" that get in the way of learning. Consider this an argument to get you to abandon planning what to do and let your body take over and find its own technique. Don't tell your body what to do just push it to go faster. Forget the rules you know. They will only limit you." Later I wrote: "Your body is a good imitator and learns only from experience. Let it alone to do its job. In mogul bombing there isn't time to check yourself out with the "rules." Rules are rigid and your body is dynamic. Rules are unnecessary limitations. FREE YOURSELF OF NEEDLESS RESTRAINT." In a Zen story a caterpillar is asked how he walks with so many legs to keep track of. He stops to think about it and can't take another step. Mark can probably relate to that caterpillar. There is a method to help you learn to roll without having to understand it (or picture it while you are upside down) on our website in the "Rescues" manual. You put a float on your paddle so you can do things in slow motion without losing your position. Start from the finish of the roll and work backwards towards the start in small steps (while succeeding at each step along the way rather than practicing failure). Windup and unwind. You've always just been there a few seconds before during the windup so you don't get confused about what to do and where to go next and have to think about it. Matt Broze http://www.marinerkayaks.com *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Wed Jun 07 2000 - 00:56:13 PDT
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