I’ve updated the post above to indicate these changes.

I unfortunately agree with your disagreement with gluten free beer. I have been diagnosed with Celiac disease and can no longer drink it. No real beer, pizza, doughnuts, bagels etc.. How is a man to live?

I’m recognizing more and more incidents where a failure to shed resistance and not following that smooth arc in the sweep roll is impeding success there. Particularly with someone who has “lost” their sweep roll, this is one of the first things I’ll look for. I’m starting to get those folks to really work on an “uncommitted” sculling high brace to reacquaint themselves with the feel of lack of resistance of the blade through the water.

I generally agree with your idea of progression through foundational skills prior to learning the roll. Oftentimes, folks are introduced to these skills in an intro kayaking course and then take to the water to practice them. They may reinforce good or bad habits when left to practice this on their own. Those that successfully incorporate these techniques into their skill set often progress rapidly throughout the course a summer and fall and inevitably, someone with a functional roll will attempt to teach them how to roll long before the winter arrives with its bounty of instructional roll classes. What do instructors generally receive? – See bullet points 4 – 6 above.

One solution to remedy this and incorporate the proposed progression toward rolling would be for instructors to offer a running series of short courses beginning with intro to kayak up through rolling (or beyond). Offer the “Course” as a single unit encompassing one day each weekend for a month, perhaps with a mid-week evening practice session to reinforce proper technique. Each weekend would add a new building block to the progression. The last session or two would encompass rolling instruction.

The “course” could be accomplished in a pool during cold months (if one had that much pool access), or in the warmer summer months on open water (when we typically get newcomers to the sport). The biggest paradigm shift is one from a randomly offered set of skills courses / clinics throughout the year with gaps between offerings to a defined, concise, progression spanning several weeks.

Last weekend, I had a student with no experience or preconceived notions about kayaking or rolling take part in one of my roll classes. I followed my standard progression with him: 1) underwater confidence / wet exit, 2) bracing and head positioning, 3) bow rescue for body positioning relative to the boat / isolation of the upper/lower body / head position reinforcement, and 4) then we began hands on sweep roll progression. While there is some technical tune up still required, he was rolling at the end of his first session. I attribute some of this to his inexperience – particularly the fact that he hasn’t ingrained the “feel” of resistance on the paddle. Most students who have spent some time paddling seek this resistance since most primary strokes are Newtonian and a firm plant is desirable. Of the students, his sweep sliced most effortlessly through the water, shedding resistance and allowing smooth torso rotation. This is in stark contrast to the other students with whom I’ve spent much time trying to get them to shed the resistance on the blade so that it doesn’t restrain their torso rotation.

I’m not sure if the story above counts as a contradiction or a statistical outlier. The student received the abbreviated version of your progression from rank beginner to rolling in one session. However, a student with NO experience is somewhat rare. I actually think that for most students, a logical progression like that which you present above will be more universally effective. Certainly food for thought. As always, thanks for the timely, thought provoking, post!