Ok, so here’s something I picked up from Shawna and Leon of Body, Boat, Blade that’s just too good not to share. Balls. I’m using tennis balls but I think anything that floats would be ok. Well, they don’t even have to float but if not, you may end up replacing them a lot.

So there we were sitting in our kayaks just a few hundred yards from the launch at Living Adventures in Red Cliff, when Leon takes a bag of balls (not un-like the bag of balls in the picture above) and begins tossing a ball to each student. While he did this Shawna requested that we each toss our balls in our cockpit. One ball per boat mind you. After the toys were portioned out, we were all left sitting in our kayaks contemplating our balls. What would we do with these?

Now if you see a lot of inference and use of various words related to humorous adult slang, it’s certainly not my fault! Please don’t write letters to me because of YOUR nasty mind. . )

Next Shawna asked that we all be sure our balls were between our knees. Which surprisingly most were. But we were happy for the guidence. Then we played a little catch. With ourselves. . . Rolling the ball from knee to knee. How do you do this? Well, by edging the kayak of course. Lift the right knee and the ball rolls across the hull and under the left knee. Lift the left and the ball rolls right.

Ok then, if you paddle your kayak just a few strokes and then put your ball under your left knee which way will your kayak glide? Left or Right? Usually to the right, correct? Of course this little experiment also displays the difference between edging and leaning. I don’t tend to use this edging experiment with students because they tend to lean their whole body and not stay centered thus producing the wrong results. But you can usually get away with it when working with other coaches. Usually. But to continue on let’s try just paddling along while using edging to keep the ball under the right knee. How does the kayak react? Are you starting to go in a big wide circle? Which direction?

How about sweep strokes!? As I sweep the boat to the right, where’s my ball going to be?

How about practicing hip snaps? With a quick hip-flick can I kick that ball over to the other knee?

You’ll probably find a bunch of other applications once you ponder the concept a bit and start playing with your own balls as well . . . I’ve just started using tennis balls in my own classes. You can see above that I got them wet and had to hang them out to dry.

As I’ve mentioned many times I find kayaking to be a sensual sport. (I’m not sure how well the term “sensual” fits into this post, but so be it!) I don’t learn well from just words or watching someone else. I need to feel it. I think a good portion of early students do as well. Using this method just fits right in there for me. Giving the students sensual feedback seems to set the correct concepts of edging (or J-Leans for you more officious types) in their minds quickly. Personally I’ve taken to using them for about 50% of a day long class. We move on to other things but we always keep our balls in mind as we go throughout our morning. Then by afternoon you take out the training wheels (or training-balls if you like) and can always, as Shawna said, “ask them about their virtual balls” if they get stuck on which way to edge or if they forget to edge completely. The mind can quickly conjure up that sensual/physical memory and get back on track.

I certainly can’t take any credit for this one, but I really want to share it around. What a fun and useful tool! If you’re an instructor you should try it. All you need are the balls!