You can poison my cat / Baby I don’t care
But if you talk in the movies / I’ll kill you right there
It’s just the little things
Yeah it’s the little things
That drive me wild
– alice cooper

Rolling a kayak is easy.  Learning it is hard.  Teaching it, even harder.  As instructors we know how easy rolling is, which can make us blind to all the little things you need to do right to get your roll consistent.  My major focus as an instructor has always been body control.  I hate the C to C roll for sea kayakers because I find it disappointing for the students and way to much fun for the instructors because they get to spend so much time talking and demonstrating.  The C to C is also all about testosterone in the beginning which runs totally against many students natures..  I could go on and on, and I will (I’m sure) but for the moment I want to tell you where I was cocking things up…  

With all my focus on body control I was not always watching outside arm & hand positions as well as I should have done.  Not long ago I learned that my friend Silbs was using this $100.00 bill method that basically told students to hold an imaginary $100 bill under their arm pit and between their bicep and forearm.  When they rolled they absolutely could not let go of the money.  He has a whole method around that, however it’s the $100 that meant the most to me.  It forces students to keep their outer arm in against their body which helps to prevent the blade from diving. I realized that I was not watching that outer arm as closely as I should.  I’ve fixed that.

The guy in the picture I did a trip with at Door County last year.  This year, I helped him work on his roll.  He does a sweep, but almost never came up.  Well,  I gave him his imaginary $100.00.. That’s it.  He was up.  He was doing everything else right, he just needed to keep that arm down.  Silbs money trick was exactly what he needed.  I could see the shock and amazement when my student rolled suddenly and with power.  I could feel that sense of “wasted time” that was washing over him before somebody finally pointed out something so obvious… “Keep the arm down”.   I’d been there myself once.  I was just as shocked when someone reached over and simply turned my wrist down, and boom!, I rolled.

I’ve learned two things recently;  Listen closely to other coaches methods, even if they sound silly at first, and pay closer attention to the fundamentals.  I still think in the end rolling is ballet and not a b*%ch slap, but I’m also a bit more aware that without some fundamentals you’ll never learn to dance either.

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3. Arrive A Half Hour Early
4. RESPECT
5. Madness & Method