[Paddlewise] Brace/Roll key

Mark writes: <<By the way, I remember having been told in the past to push 
that high knee
down by some instructor. Is this really the correct thing to do or will it
create another problem I am not aware of? In the first couple of days it
sure seems to have helped my braces and rolls.>>

Yep. It's important for me to remember that it's the knee on the "off side" 
- the side opposite from the side I'm rolling up on, which gets 
straightened out - and the knee on my "rolling side" which should be 
"driven up into the deck". So when rolling up toward my right side, I need 
to drive my right knee up into the deck during hip snap, and **lay off 
pressure against the deck with my left knee**.

This was one of the  things I had to consciously think about (in addition 
to my very bad habit of not tucking my head down) when I had to teach 
myself to roll, all over again, two years ago. In my case it was a matter 
of thinking "straighten the offside knee - don't even let that knee touch 
the underside of the deck as you do the hip snap".

Those were very humbling days, but the lessons learned have helped me. Just 
recently in talking with a relative newcomer to paddling, that concept of 
laying off pressure on the off-water knee during hip snap turned out to be 
very helpful.

Bill Hansen
Ithaca NY


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