I have been spending a lot of time lately working on my ear-in-water braces, sculling braces and offside roll. On-side brace and roll were working reliablly with non-extended Greenland paddle (extended is almost effortless). Extended paddle on-side sculling brace is a little weak (paddle tends to dive after a few sculls) but is getting better. Off-side braces were very weak even with extended paddle and off-side roll was non-existant. Then I discovered a really stupid thing I was doing on the off-side. I was trying so hard to make things work that I was tensing both legs and actually lifting up on both sides of the kayak with my knees. Of course if you lift on both sides, the kayak does not roll back up. I tried some practice where I would edge the kayak just short of capsize, hold it, and then rock it back quickly as if I was doing a brace. I focused very hard on pushing the lifted (high side) knee all the way down to the floor of the kayak as I lifted the other knee. I realized that even on what I thought were pretty good on-side braces, I had been just taking the pressure off the high side knee rather than pushing it down. . On my first on-side roll after this "push the knee down" practice I almost went over the opposite side. It made a real difference for me. I actually made a few off-side ear-in-the-water braces without extending the paddle. My ear-to-shoulder position seemed to improve even though I was not really concentrating on it. When I got out in some larger waves I noticed that I was doing something similar with my "edging to turn" manuvers. I would edge okay, but sometimes if I went a little to far or sipped over onto the back side of the wave I would almost capsize. It did not matter on which side I was edging. I realized that I was so anxious in the larger waves that I just locked that high knee in the liffting mode even as I was trying to brace back up. I knew that keeping on liffting the high knee was not the correct thing to do, but I had never really felt myself doing it before. What should have been a simple recovery with a hip/knee movement was suddenly requiring a paddle brace. I was so focused on the waves and the other knee (the one I should have been liffing with) that I did not feel that I was still liffting up on what was now the wrong side if I wanted to get the kayak level again. I know from some training in other sports how anxiety or trying too hard can cause you to contract opposing muscles and therefore destroy your form. I think my error in form in "un-edging" is something similar. Anyway I am going to continue the "edge then rock back" drill and focus on pushing the high knee down as I lift with the lower knee. Maybe if I make it automatic when I am right side up in calm water, I will start doing it even when the head is under the water or the waves are above my head. 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. Mark J. Arnold *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
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