"stayinalive" wrote in news:1103835108.037263.289320
@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com:

For bracing, look for the
February issue of Seakayaker for an article called "Bracing Drills".
How do
I know about the article if it hasn't come out yet? I wrote it.

Yes I've read your recent article on the high brace save and have a
couple of questions? One, why hasn't this manuever been suggested
before? Is it because most instructors are reluctant to recommend
something which missused by a novice might lead to shoulder injury?

I've seen someone dislocate a shoulder when grabbing the side of a pool to
practice hip snaps. The exercises themselves do not make paddlers
inherently prone to shoulder injury. I've taken a number of classes that
covered a high brace and every time the instructor has warned of the
potential dangers if it is done incorrectly. The article does stress the
importance of keeping your hands close to the body and below the head.
Chris was pretty firm about getting that verbage into the article. I had
taken a bunch of photos which demonstrated the exercises, one of which
should a friend of mine in a marginally vulnerable position. Chris didn't
want the photos in the mag. A coupld of years ago Nigel Foster did an
article on a reentry roll which had a photo with a paddler in a similarly
unsafe position. There were quite a few editorial comments on that. I
actually heard about the queen annes salute through some friends that did
some BCU training and assessment. The assessor was having the student
perform the exercise to demonstrate that the bigh brace component of the 3
star assessment is suppose to be a recovery stroke and not just for
stability.

Two, would you recommend starting off with a paddle float to at least
learn the correct arm position? You could lay over very gently with the
float in the water and let the outboard arm rise up until the paddle
was in the best postion for bracing before hip snapping up.

That's not a bad way to learn the position. Doug Alderson's rolling article
in the previos issue demonstrates using a paddle float in this manner. You
may have also noticed that I wrote an editorial comment in the current issue
on that article, specifically cautioning the use of a paddle float as
demonstrated and the pressure that it can put on your shoulder. Sliding over
slowly with a paddle float with a paddle float is okay but I wouldn't
recommend getting into a queen annes salute position with a paddle float and
falling over. Instead, set the paddle parallel to the boat on the opposite
side that you're going to capsize. After you've hit the water bring the
paddlefloat to a perpendicular position and brace up.

Bracing is rarely taught in novice classes. One of the reasons is that when
novices first start trying to brace they end up capsizing a lot more. In
one class of six students we had four of them in the water at the same time
when they first started trying a low brace. In the novice classes I teach
we don't get into any of the strokes that involve tilting the boat although
if a student seems to be doing very well we'll introduce edging the boat a
bit to help turn. In the intermediate class we start with hip snapping off
a partners boat and then have them tip over, let go of the partners boat,
re-grab then hip snap back up. Once they're able to capsize and perform an
eskimo rescue off the bow of a partners boat we'll start working on bracing.
Because they often capsize while learning to brace it's nice if they're able
to do an eskimo rescue rather than we exit and have to reenter. The
exercises that I suggested in the article are not really for a novice that
doesn't know how to brace at all.

Another method for learning the arm position requires a helper. Have a
friend paddle up parallel to your boat and grasp your cockpit rim. They can
hold your boat while you get into position to keep you from going all the
way over. They can even assist in getting your boat back upright by pulling
on the cockpit rim as you do a brace. This method also works really well
for learning how to perform a deep sculling brace.