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? 

Exercise

As coaches,we’re all learning.  Coaches are not “experts” and they are not “Gurus”.  Coaches are simply folks who help you travel along the same path they’ve traveled themselves.  When it comes to learning, coaches have  one  advantage in that we regularly get to watch others perform great skill work, and we also get to watch people screw up in the most atrocious ways!  Both are great opportunities for learning.  In this exercise I want you to be the coach. Your rolling student is doing everything wrong, but you’ll have a hard time telling him that because he is rolling successfully and with confidence..

1. Watch the video.  Stop, pause, go frame by frame.. Whatever.  Find my mistakes.  Make your analysis. Feel free to post them!

2.  “Coach, if I made all these mistakes you’re saying I did, what did I do right in order to roll up in the first place?”  “It seems to me that if I was blowing I this stuff I wouldn’t roll at all. Right?”

3. Wrap Up.  Tell the student (me in this case) What I most need to work on, and leave me with a positive.

OK.  Now that you’ve made me feel bad… I’m going to sell my kayak and take up turf boarding!!!

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Next in the “low impact rolling” series we’ll talk about fixing that recovery,  Putting our head somewhere nice, and finally we will actually talk about what to do with that silly paddle!!!!  Stay Tuned!

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2. 15 step
3. Fun in the Bedroom
4. Rules of the roll (role?)
5. Bad, Bad, Naughty Cam