JimW wrote:
I think that's the problem Jan - even I couldn't follow your previous post, a lot of terminology that I'm just not familiar with.
I have no doubt that face to face you could demonstrate that stuff and make it perfectly understandable, but those of us who aren't sports scientists are not likely to get it just by reading
You're absolutely right Jim, a rightfully bit of critique. Maybe I should get going with a video camera and some animated images
. Or fly over to explain, but that would be slightly out of scope I'd say
.
I know you can make everything difficult, even smiling, if you go deep down enough into biomechanics. Now as long as you have one or a limited number of flaws in your movement patterns, and you can compensate in other area's, you're fine. But if you have multiple flaws, which prevent you from compensating, it's a lot harder to fix.
Those who say rolling is easy, probably have no or only minor flaws in their movement pattern. Those who have a hard time, often have multiple issues, for various reasons. Now I think one should make things as easy as possible, and as complex as needed. If you can roll with setup, hip-flick, sweep, perfect, brilliant! If you want to squeeze out a few extra percentages, or have a tough time nailing your roll, we need to detail more.
Ok, all these details are probably not for everybody, not to say only a handful of people. And given the right instruction, you don't need to know about all these details, your instructor will take care of it, with the selected exercises and progression, eventually by giving you homework. But if you have multiple flaws and don't want to take instruction, or can't find any suited instruction, you have no other option but to figure things out on your own. That's the moment where you start getting into the dirty biomechanics details
.
So the best thing Riverken could do is get into contact with a paddling instructor (could be just as well a kayak instructor, biomechanically it's very similar) who has at least a basic understanding of the biomechanics of a roll. Not just the "keep your head down", "read the markings on your boat", "don't look up" kind of statements, but someone who can guide you in the process (and I personally don't know too many here in Europe who can do this!).
Or, get in touch with a physiotherapist with a strong foundation of functional movement and so on. Maybe get him/her to a pool session so they can try and understand the biomechanics of the roll, and they should be able to sort you out. There again, finding the right physiotherapist could be a challenge, but you'll have more chances of finding someone skilled and willing to help you out.
Have a look at this video
https://vimeo.com/75507670 at 8:33, there I'm introducing someone into rolling a canoe. The exercise is that he does his setup and then allows me to roll his boat externally. This is one of these guys with a crazy disconnection between upper and lower body, so he actually has to actively sweep in. Most other people get pulled into their boat by their lower body once the boat has reached a critical point in rotation. The fragment just before is letting a student driving that boat rotation from the lower body, and the pressure on his hands is direct feedback of how much is done by upper and lower body. It is just a way of breaking things down, and no golden formula.
Now these sequences work often, for those with minor flaws in their movement patterns. If you have bigger flaws, it's harder to identify them and fix them before the above workflow could work. I'm not educated to do these assessments, but the usual suspects are most of the time involved. Plenty of readings, popular and scientific, to be found on the net. It's a lot harder to figure out how to deal with them, cause there are tons of crap out there on the internet, making things actually worse.
The bit that s*cks is that the roll is probably one of the hardest movements to learn if you have functional movement issues. The sweet thing on the other hand is, if you invest on fixing these, it'll have a very positive influence on all other aspects of your paddling too!
<bit nerdy biomechanics again>You need to stabilize your spine quite a bit for example, to setup for your roll and maximize the ability of your lower body to roll your boat, and that with extended arms. But if you can do that for a roll, you'll be able to do the same in a forward stroke or a boof stroke, allowing for a way better power transfer from your blade, through your stable spine, through your hips and into the boat. You don't need it in order to be able to paddle forward or get a somewhat acceptable boof, but once you can use it, benefits will be noticably be there.
<end of nerdy biomechanics>
Just a few extra exercises to try and see if my reasoning makes sense.
Go stand sidways on a staircase or trep or so, one leg on a higher level than the other ,(like this
http://i.ytimg.com/vi/hzvIk-vBjLc/maxresdefault.jpg. Now try to lift your lower leg up, by just lifting it, keeping your hips facing the same direction (90° to the staircase shelf).
Now try to do the same motion by standing same position on the staircase, but instead of lifting your leg, rotate your hip from the lower standing leg, towards the higher standing leg. You'll notice the rotational movement goes initially a lot easier than the lifting movement.
The last variation, but now rotate towards your lower leg, keep your spine stable and low, and rotate from the hips, leading with the hips, lifting your lower leg. There you are, dry land rolling exercise!
Give the side clam exercise of my previous post a try, but my variation, not the variation from the article. If you're exhausted after 2/3 series of 10 reps, that's a working area for you. Btw, this is the working area:
http://www.hiparthroscopydoctor.com/con ... medius.php
That doesn't mean it's the only working area, but in most cases I've observed, this is one of the major ones, and very common in the seating dominated world like ours. Another usual suspect is the mobility of the middle back (thoracic spine if you want to google it), and hip rotation, internal and external.
Enough writing, conclusion is: go find help from a skilled person, or dive into the nitty gritty details of biomechanics for yourself
. Beware, it's a very interesting (or at least so do I think) but also very complex road down the biomechanics. It is about details and timings and little things. Once you know what to tackle and how to tackle it, the first rewards usually become visible quite fast (not saying you'll have a bomb proof roll in 2 weeks though!!) And for some things, you simmply have to consult a skilled physiotherapist or alike, cause you can't figure everything out by yourself.