RE: [Paddlewise] Eskimo roll

> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net
> [mailto:owner-paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net]On Behalf Of Matt Broze

>
> Dana, don't let these nattering nabobs of negativity get you down.

Negative???  Oh do you mean when I said it took me forever to learn to roll?
Well, that is meant to be as encouraging as discouraging but I guess it
needs some context.  I am a basically a self taught roller (some friends
gave me some pointers) and I learned in springtime in the freezing cold
lakes and ocean in Maine.  So a rolling session would amount to flailing,
bottom bracing, sometimes swimming, and always an ice-cream headache.  I
didn't have a hood, just a wool cap.  I could roll some days and others I
couldn't but nothing was very consistent, then one day as I was out flailing
around one of my kayaking buddies (who was sitting on shore drinking beer)
yelled "hey, keep your elbow down" and that was it, boom WOW!!!! that was so
easy!!! I spent the next hour or more rolling and rolling, and my roll has
never left me since that day.

Now why should that be encouraging?  If you want to roll, really want to
roll and stick with it you will get it.  It takes some of us longer than
others.  Just because your Aunt Mabel got her hand-roll in an hour doesn't
mean you will.  Get good instruction and keep trying.

Now here is something more encouraging.  In the Advanced program I teach 80%
of the students can perform some kind of roll after 3 pool sessions.  That's
pretty good in my mind.  Some of them will never work on it again and others
will bombproof it.

So what separates the 80% from the 20%?  If I had to pick one single thing I
would say composure.  Relax!  If you are freaked out underwater it is really
hard to learn to roll, even if you are not freaked out if your body is tense
it's hard to roll.  Oh yeah, and none of these folks are teenagers, so don't
let age be an excuse either.

Instructional techniques have improved vastly in the last 15 years.  When I
started boating, people told me rolling was hard.  I tell students rolling
is easy, and it is.  Some students learn how to roll in 10 minutes others
may take hours of instruction, we all learn at our own rate.  If you want to
roll you will.

A good instructor makes a huge difference.  If you must teach yourself
because of a lack of instructors go for it, but if there is instruction
available get some.  One of the things I don't like to hear from a new
student is "I've been trying to teach myself to roll all winter".  What that
usually means is that they have committed every conceivable bad habit to
muscle memory, and instead of beginning with a fresh canvas I have to strip
of a bunch of old paint.



> My brother (just a new roller himself) tried to show me how to
> roll during a
> 2 hour pool session. I was not making it but was getting my head
> out of the
> water before splashing back in. An expert roller came by and said "try to
> wipe your nose with your bicep during the roll".

Yes!  I like it!  That is a great phrase!


<SNIP>

> Several years later I was going to help a couple of friends learn to roll
> and with us all in our kayaks had demonstrated rolling a couple of times.
> Somebody else needed to talk to me so I was distracted for a few
> seconds and
> when I turned back around to start the lesson again Lowell said:
> "I did it".
> I said: "did what". He said: "Eskimo rolled". I said: "yeah,
> right" and the
> other guy said: "no he did it, I saw him". Lowell was wet. I was sorry I
> just missed seeing the only guy I have heard of to roll on their
> first try.

Disgusting isn't it?  I've had some students get a roll in the first 15
minutes and go on to having a hand roll within the hour.  Took me a long
time to get a hand-roll, makes me a little green.

Matt gives a lot of great advice below.  I'm going to snip it to pieces to
save space.



> You can practice this on the
> surface doing sculling high brace type strokes while letting your
> limp wrist
> flop back and forth (remember loose hand encircling the shaft but not
> gripping it) as you lead with the wrist.

This right side up practice is very important.  Why not learn as much of the
roll as possible with your head out of water?



Almost all learners do just the opposite and pull all their
> muscles (especially the biceps) inward towards their body in an attempt to
> force themselves up and lift themselves out of the water like doing a
> pull-up. It is hard to break them of this habit and they insist on
> practicing it over and over.

I like to physically correct them.  I put their body in position and start
them through the sweep and if they start to pull out of position I will
gently move them back in.  This works especially well for tucking that
wandering trailing arm back in.




Stretch outward as far as you can
> keeping your
> arms straight, do not pull inward towards your trunk! (Repeat this a dozen
> times aloud). Don't pull down until very late in the sweep (if at
> all--done
> right you don't need to pull down intentionally at all). Never pull the
> blade downward (or hip-snap) until the paddle is out at least to
> perpendicular to the boat. Actually I'd forget the term "hip-snap" (it is
> hard to imagine) just pull the kayak around with the thigh and knee that's
> on the same side of your body as the hand closest to the sweeping blade.
> When the paddle is at least to perpendicular think "knee pull" to
> rotate the
> kayak (although you have already rotated it a lot just by reaching as far
> out as can as you sweep the blade around on its glide path).


Although you don't want a violent snap at the beginning of the sweep it is
never too early to start rotating the boat.  (assuming we're doing some form
of screw roll)

<more snippage>


> Instructors vary in technique here, but I like using the tip-over on the
> same side as you will roll up on as a wind-up for the roll
> (discussed in an
> earlier post).

Yes, and I like starting them in the finished position and winding them up
into the set-up.  This helps commit the motion to muscle memory.


Tipping over on the opposite side can come later
> (to make it
> a complete "roll"--I don't know why, but this is important to some people,
> seems like semantics to me). Early on it just confuses you to tip over on
> one side and try to roll up on the other. Success is going from
> upside down
> to right-side up, it don't much matter which side you tipped over on.

Yup.

<SNIP>

> One final rule: Never ever try to teach your spouse to roll!

Yup, but that's how I met my partner!
> Matt Broze


Cheers,

--
Rob Cookson
"I like a little rebellion now and then. It is like a storm in the
Atmosphere." Thomas Jefferson in a letter to Abigail Adams, February 22,
1787.


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