I think I should stop my rolling attempts for a while. I learned last week that I really don't use my knees enough. Not for tilt/carve, and certainly not for a roll.
The fact is I take difficult boats to roll: hard chined boats, which you really have to get over that chine (viper 11 or salsa).
I did do some decent rolls with decent knee action, but it's no automatism yet. So I'm first planning to work on a decent tilt, and then come back to a roll. When I master decent knee-action, I'm quite sure my roll will do a whole lot better as well. Hopefully I get the catch of it during summer. But working on a roll if I don't have decent knee action is doomed to fail.
But that's something I really had to feel, no instructor could have told me. Even thought I'm still not rolling on a decent level, I feel I made quite some progress last week!
When I master the tilt, I go back to the roll, which should go pretty fast then, work on a decent setup with eyes closed, which should also be 2 or 3 pool sessions to master that, and then take it to the river. Hopefully by next season, I can start working on a serious combat roll
The change from high brace to low brace position in the C1 roll is what makes it different from rolling a kayak and more complex.
My river roll became much better when I stopped flipping the paddle before the hip snap and rotated my shaft hand instead. You don't get the righting component from the starting sweep doing the later which helps with OC1, but not C1.
yarnellboat wrote:Thanks for the feedback, I'll keep it in mind if there's an opportunity to revise the article.
The instructions were written more for those have already tried rolling, and already have the basic set-up down, but are just having trouble completing their rolls with confidence.
Although Thrill of the Paddle does a pretty good job, I think it's too hard in print to explain the mechanics of rolling to people who don't even know where to begin. Like many things, I think getting started is the hardest step. To get the basics requires more than a newsletter article or web discussion... like a boat with good outfitting, some water and a friend/instructor.
For a knee and hip exercise my rolling instructor had me park my boat parallel to the edge of the pool. Then he had me lay my arm on the pool edge ( as if on a car window on a warm day). Then I had to put my head to rest on my upper arm. From this position I had to tip the canoe side to side, even over so far as to take on water and sink it, using only my legs, hips and torso. This is the lower body motion (hip snap) for rolling. The exercise helped with strength and flexibility
How about out of water specific exercises, beyond sit ups for rolling mechanics, flexibility and strength? I have a few I do, but would be interested in others recommendations.
That sounds great AJ! Please feel free to post them here or send them by pm/e-mail.
I'm doing regularily some stretching exercises. I've also added some balance-ball tricks, but I could probably add some more. So if your exercises are simple without needing a fitness-centre, I'm certainly interested!
I think have beers in a pub to train the ellbow-lean is not a decent exercise
Forget the stretching, that never worked for me. Core strength, i.e. abs, obliques, lower back, e.t.c. is key for paddling and rolling, as far as I can tell. I used to do mainly chest, arm and back workouts, but only since I shifted the emphasis of my workouts to the core muscles (with a healthy dose of shoulder workouts to keep those rotator cuffs in good shape), has it really impacted mypaddling in a positive way.
I do core strength exercises 3-4 times a week on average:
5 sets of 50 leg lifts
5 sets of 50 crunches
5 sets of 50 torso twists with weight on each side
5 sets of 50 lower back lifts
My paddling as well as rolling has improved significantly since I started doing this.
I can work on flatwater routines in the squirt, which are all abs, for a long time now before tiring.
TGG!
Everyone must believe in something. I believe I'll go canoeing - Henry David Thoreau
