15 step
Posted by derrick on September 23, 2008
How come I end up where I started
How come I end up where I went wrong
Won’t take my eyes off the ball again
You reel me out and you cut the string.
- radiohead
Here’s how it used to go. You took a rolling class in the winter. Coaches jumped in their whitewater boats and showed off whenever they had a free moment (and some times when they didn’t). Then they send you off to do hip snaps. You did hip snaps off the palm of the coaches hand, off another student’s boat, off the side of the pool. You put a paddle float on the end of your paddle. The coach spoke to you about this position and that, then dunked you. . . again, and again, and again. You would be underwater while arms from heaven pulled and twisted at your body making you feel like a drowning marionette. 2 hours later you left the pool tired, sore and disappointed trying to convince yourself you had learned something. It’s really amazing so many of us survived this circus to learn how to roll at all.
Yeah, that method sort of the standard. But it was up to you to go home and spend hours, weeks and months trying to comprehend and retain it all. “Fifteen steps, Then a sheer drop”. Think about it. If you just spend big bucks on a rolling class and you go home feeling like you still have to buy more books and videos to learn that first roll. . . something must be wrong.
Is there a better way to teach it?
David J.
Yup, that’s the way I did it. I took a rolling clinic after which I was sore for about two weeks, then spent months of practice in a pool by myself before I could get a reliable roll. Then you hear about those coaches who say they can teach people to roll in 15 minutes. Wish I knew where I could find one of them because I have a bunch of friends who really want to learn how to roll and I can’t teach them.
That is exactly how my class went last winter. And alas I still cannot roll. My boreal designs fjord does not have thigh braces, so that doesn’t help. That is my excuse and I am sticking to it.
I don’t think I spent more than 10 minutes with a coach by my side dunking me in the lake. I did the two year solo routine teaching myelf. Read about … do it …read about it … do it. It’s not so bad if you stay in close and can do a brace off the bottom of the lake every time you don’t make it up.
For those interested there is currently a great thread on the subject at Qajaq USA (it is not Greenland specific)
http://www.qajaqusa.org/cgi-bin/GreenlandTechniqueForum_config.pl?noframes;read=71852#m_72777
Lots of experience and great ideas, as well as resources - truly worth reading through if you are interested in developing / improving your rolls.
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