Good morning all! I just had to use that title since it sounds like one of those “classic” video titles we’ve all seen before. Of course I sort of like the mystique. But this should be good fun.

Last night I went to the pool with Jeff who’s been really wanting to learn to hand roll. He does have a good sweep roll now. So we went about applying the method I talked about a couple days ago. First Jeff hopped in the water and rolled around for a bit in that silly Alligator attack method I talked about. Then he hopped back in his kayak and filled the cockpit with water. Yeah, this is a Romany and not a white water boat, but it still works. He did not put on his skirt. Hey, the boats full of water anyway. After rolling a few times with his paddle to get the feel for that slow, methodical roll you get with a drowned kayak, he was ready to try the hand roll. “Now, slide forward in the cockpit until you’re almost off the seat, then just like you did in the water just flip over and swim the boat around. Then when you’re at the surface, right the boat with a twist of your body.”, I said. Guess what? He came around and right back up. Jeff hand rolled his kayak! Spurious?

Now, we know to do that he had every “helper” in place. But he could do it. That’s the big thing. Once you know you CAN hand roll the boat, the rest is just about “anytime, anywhere”. It’s much easier to learn from this point because the hand roll is truly “demystified”. So much of the rest of the evening was put into refining body motions, removing some water and making some advancements. Now while he knows he’s coming up each time, we can work keeping his head low on the back deck, focus on using the body and not the hands to roll and all that other fiddly stuff. It will take time before he’s just hand rolling away at will. This is not a “miracle method”. Just a different way to learn. One that let’s the student feel the motion and get some success to build on. Certainly it will take time for Jeff to perfect his hand roll, but the thing about this method is, he knows he can do it. He did. Good Job Jeff!!

There is a video clip of Jeff’s roll on my “clips page” or you can just click here. (use your back button to return)

Yikes, I’m getting behind again. You wouldn’t think that when I post daily would you? Well, coming up we’ve got news from the “Crossing the Ditch” team, Justine’s big UK premier, a new video clip demo of a static brace, and a few little extras as well. . So as they say, “Stay Tuned!!”