RE: [Paddlewise] skillful bracing

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BUT !!!!

On the flipside of that argument is!   If you a better technique then you
don't have to roll.

It is when you fail and capsize that you need to roll.

That is why I always taught my students to roll their kayaks dead last!

This is so they can be better at bracing and strokes than learning that it
is easier to fail and try again.

But, this is just MHO, such as it is, and there are lots of other
instructors out there that do the same thing as me.

Kirby

-----Original Message-----

Subject:  Skillful bracing
Ken Rasmussen

    I found myself in a dispute recently with a woman who insists that the
best whitewater paddler she ever knew could not roll.  She said he could brace
so effectively that he never capsized.  I told her that I was very skeptical
because I think that rolling is much easier to learn than deep bracing, and
that people who can brace effectively from a knockdown, or near knockdown, can
roll well.  I said that I prefer to teach rolling very early in the teaching
process because I think it is more effective to teach bracing second.  One of
my reasons is that a student who misses a brace can roll back up and try
again.  A student who can't roll has to wet exit and recover, and loses a lot
of practice time in the process.  I see no harm to teaching bracing first, but
the braces I see are all either shallow braces, or result in capsize.  In
fact, when I'm teaching rescues, and I can't get a volunteer victim, I switch
gears, and have bracing practice.  Before I know it I've got volunteers
needing rescuing!  I suppose there might be occasional instances in which
someone has learned to brace from a knockdown without knowing rolling, but
these must be rare.  What are your observations?
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