I've been taught by several different instructors that the high brace is done with one's upper arms at one's sides or very near one's sides, elbows down, bracing with the power face of the paddle. The arms and forearms form something like a letter "W" if you can imagine your body as the upper peak of that "W". Then the low brace is done with elbows **up** and at right angles to upper arms, wrists in line with forearms in "gorilla position", bracing with the non-power face of the paddle. People tell me that straight elbows and shoulders overhead, or way out to the sides, are invitations to sudden orthopedic disaster by way of a dislocated shoulder. Having seen that happen a couple of times, I believe it. Bill Hansen Ithaca NY *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced/forwarded outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
On Fri, Jul 21, 2000 at 08:21:20AM -0400, Bill Hansen wrote: > People tell me that straight elbows and shoulders overhead, or way out to the > sides, are invitations to sudden orthopedic disaster by way of a dislocated > shoulder. Having seen that happen a couple of times, I believe it. Amen brother! A few years ago, I was sitting at the starting gate of a slalom race, and watched the paddler who'd started before me do that to himself about 4 gates into the race. Ouch. A conceptual way to teach yourself *not* to do this (as it was taught to me): Imagine that you have a box attached to your chest, roughly 2.5 feet along each side. -->Keep your hands in the box.<-- If you have a need to put one of your hands "over there", for example, behind your right hip, then rotate your torso so that the box rotates, so that you can put your hand over there and *still* keep it in the box. (Make sure that your other hand stays in the box, too.) It's really hard to hurt yourself (well, okay, hard to hurt yourself by tearing out a shoulder) if you do this. It forces you to paddle in such a way that there tends to be a lot of slack in elbows and shoulders, and well, slack is good. ;-) ---Rsk Rich Kulawiec rsk_at_gsp.org *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced/forwarded outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
Linda -----Original Message----- From: owner-paddlewise_at_paddlewise.net [mailto:owner-paddlewise_at_paddlewise.net]On Behalf Of Rich Kulawiec Sent: Friday, July 21, 2000 11:23 AM To: Paddlewise Subject: Re: [Paddlewise] high and low braces On Fri, Jul 21, 2000 at 08:21:20AM -0400, Bill Hansen wrote: > People tell me that straight elbows and shoulders overhead, or way out to the > sides, are invitations to sudden orthopedic disaster by way of a dislocated > shoulder. Having seen that happen a couple of times, I believe it. I took some lessons with Linda Legg and was told I should be able to pick my nose during a high brace. *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced/forwarded outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
> I took some lessons with Linda Legg and was told I should be able to pick my > nose during a high brace. ...Now, THAT'S finesse (of a sort). Bob V *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced/forwarded outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
--- Bob Denton <BDenton_at_aquagulf.com> wrote: > I took some lessons with Linda Legg and was told I should be able to > pick my nose during a high brace. > And does this work for you? ;-) Melissa *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced/forwarded outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
Instead of dislocating your shoulder, you get your nose torn off! - *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced/forwarded outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
Bill wrote: > Then the low brace is done with elbows **up** and at right angles to upper > arms, wrists in line with forearms in "gorilla position", bracing with the >non-power face of the paddle. > ...The latest instruction I had regarding the low brace had it that the elbows need to be higher than the paddle shaft, but not necessarily up at right angles. It helps to get the shaft low, almost on the deck (indeed it often doesn't hurt to have the offside end of the shaft touching the deck) to achieve a horizontal attitude of the paddle blade. > People tell me that straight elbows and shoulders overhead, or way out to the > sides, are invitations to sudden orthopedic disaster by way of a dislocated > shoulder. Having seen that happen a couple of times, I believe it. ...Couldn't agree more. Shall I tell you about the physical therapy I needed last year after bracing while overextended? Bob V *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced/forwarded outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
Haven't been following this thread closely but, we say: Low brace: (for modeling anyway): Elbows higher than wrists (push - up position), stay in the "box" (90 degree elbows), back-face towards water. High brace: Wrists above elbows, (pull-up position), elbows in and low (like against rib cage), power-face towards water. Then to practice - J-lean (boat tilt) Tap Snap Tap is more of a reference as to where the water is as mostof the motion is in the snap. Snap = drive knee and head together (head dink, knee bone to chin bone, or-however-it-makes-sense-to-you.) The high brace makes more sense with a big wave next to you. A good drill is to get your boat on edge, then do: Low brace High brace Snap Great for dexterity and balance. Writing from LA with a nice pool but no kayak. Andree Kayak Instruction Excellence New: Online Sales - GPS, Video - http://www.onwatersports.com *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced/forwarded outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
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