[Paddlewise] Teaching a rolling class: Dealing with fear

Sometimes I am so happy with myself that I just HAVE to share...

I have been teaching people to roll for a couple of years now, but always
individual, never in a group. My club gave me the opportunity to give a five
lesson rolling class to a group of 10 people. I decided to spend the
complete first lesson on dealing with fear, and leave even the use of a
brace or basic hipsnap for the second lesson. 

I must admit I was a bit nervous. After all: These people had paid money to
learn to ROLL, not to spend a full hour in a swimming pool without even
grabbing a paddle. I had planned to make them swim, dive, perform acrobatics
in the water, dive under boats, breath inside upside down kayaks... Would
they be willing to do what I asked, playing like little children?

It turned out they were more then happy. All my students had been paddling
for at least a year and were comfortable in a boat, even on choppy water.
All of them had flipped at least once, to show they were able to release
their sprayskirts and perform a wet exit. Most of them found that a horrible
experience and hoped they would never have to do it again. Two of them were
clearly terrified about the class and having to flip their boats again.

After an hour of fooling around, all fears were gone. All students were
comfortably trying to perform re-entries, trying to paddle swamped boats,
trying to swim while trapped in an upside down kayak,  flipping and rescuing
each other and trying to surf the waves (we have access to a swimming pool
with waves!).

I hope they are relaxed enough now to quickly learn their braces and
hipsnaps. Even learning the most difficult part -getting your head out of
the water LAST- might be easy for them. We'll see about that next lesson...

Main lesson for me: It IS possible to have fun during a kayak class. For
many trainers this might be an eye-opener.

Thanks for listening to my self-obsessed ranting,

Niels.


***************************************************************************
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/
***************************************************************************