Notice how by lifting my head, my body curves and begins to push the kayak back down!  This is why you can’t lift your head!

Let’s work one that roll a bit more, shall we? Today you get to be the coach. I’ve talked about a bunch of skills to this point. But I want to also show you what happens, “when good skills go bad.”  I’ve provided a video where I make enough mistakes to make my own teeth hurt.  I’ve captioned the worst offenses.  As you can see, the motions are still smooth, the scull still quiet and the roll still successful.  This is where I coined the term “Sloppy Competence” which is my response to “The 4 Stages of Competence” that we as coaches always hear about.  It’s the point beyond “Unconscious Competence” where we practically do everything wrong and still succeed in the end.  :)   But why?  Continue reading →

I can hear chants and incantations and some guy is mentioning me in his prayers.
Well, I don’t know what it is but there’s definitely something going on upstairs – Nick Cave (Dig, Lazarus, Dig)

We’re back to “low impact rolling” again.  Today I want to spend time on about 1/10 of a second worth of your roll, the bit where you bring your body to the surface of the water from the upside down or inverted position.  How you approach this short moment in your kayak roll can make all the difference when it comes to ease and efficiency.  This is not the only way to do things, but learning it will make whatever roll you do more successful. Really. I promise!  So let’s get to it.    Continue reading →