Re: [Paddlewise] Big Rolls

On Sun, Mar 23, 2003 at 08:39:24AM -0600, Keith Wrage wrote:
> In terms of trying to get a roll, I'd recommend getting or watching The 
> Kayak Roll video done by Kent Ford.  

Kent's video is excellent.

However, I always teach people the C-to-C roll, because I'm teaching river
paddlers, and the C-to-C roll position does a better job of protecting
important body parts -- like their face.  It also (if successful) leaves
the paddler set up ready to take their next stroke instead of lying back
on the stern deck.  And it diminishes the strain on the lower back.

In fact, one of the drills I practice is to get moving forward at about
3/4 speed, then fall over, set up and roll (going all the way around) and
come up taking the next stroke.  If done correctly, it should take less
than 2 seconds and leave me going in exactly the same direction as I started,
with most of the speed I was carrying.   This isn't hard to do in a pool,
but doing it in whitewater is quite difficult, since the boat begins to
twist around as soon as it's upside-down.

> I'm wondering if it's really feasable to think I'm ever really going to be
> able to muscle my way upright.

I can answer that: you can't, and you won't.  Oh, perhaps under ideal
conditions you *might* muscle your way upright once or twice, but this
will be a happy accident and no more.  Your chances of doing this under
real-world conditions when it counts are nil.

That's because the roll is not about muscling your way upright: it's
about technique and timing.  The ideal roll is almost effortless and
relies nearly entirely on hipsnap: the paddle's just there because,
well, you'll need it once you're upright.  And while this might seem
counter-intuitive, please believe me: I've watched plenty of people with
far more than my strength try to use it to roll, and they've all failed.
(Which is why, when teaching such people, I now confiscate their paddle
and only return it when they can roll without it. ;-) )

Here's a drill for you: go to the pool and leave your paddle high and dry.
Get someone to stand next to you with their hands cupped together. Bring
both of yours together on top of theirs.  Fall over (toward them).  Try
to hipsnap your way back up while exerting minimal downward pressure on
their hands,   Once you can get back up, tell them to decrease the amount
of force they will allow you to exert by sagging, i.e. if you push too hard,
they'll just let you push their hands down instead of resisting.  By going
gradually from relying on them to barely relying on them at all, you'll
develop the simultaneous hipsnap/head drop movement that you need to roll.

Here's another one, to help you develop flexibility.  Lie down on the floor,
flat on your back.  Do a sit-up.  Now twist your torso around -- while trying
to leave your heels on the floor -- so that you can face the other way and
do sort-of-a-pushup.  (I'm not explaining this well...)  The idea is to
get as close to you can to a position that twists your torso 180 degrees.
Now sit up and reverse.  Do this s-l-o-w-l-y and STOP if you feel something
bad happening in your shoulders or anywhere else.  (The purpose is this is
to stretch, not to dislocate. ;-) )

---Rsk

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