Originally posted by FLUID
#3 the blade angle is a seperate problem from the roll itself and should be addressed seperately. im not saying its not important, but if you have a good hip snap and understanding of the hip and head relationship its rarely the problem. if your having problems with the roll and your blade and paddle go back to the hip snap or revisit the roll with the paddle. in my humble opinion theres teaching the roll , then theres teaching the roll with the paddle which are two different classes. most of the time the blade angle doesnt stunt the person with a bomber hip snap and hand roll but someone with perfect blade angle and sweep have a hard time with a shotty hip snap trying to roll..again the eskimos... the roll is not done with the paddle the paddle is just a guide to sweep your boddy throught the water so you can ...... gain leverage and snap your hips. you should feel little to no resistance on your blade or tweaking in your wrist from blade feather because your most likely using a right hand control paddle and its all the same anyway no matter what the feather, 0, 15,30,45. unless your rolling on the left with a right control paddle and your right handed.
Yeah, I thought I was differentiating enough talking about the inactive blade/wrist combo, but to clarify:
Chris is of course right about how the blade should slice, not pressure, the water as one rolls (at least in sweep type rolls for sure, back deck included. C-C systematically provokes a little more pressure).
What I thought I was presenting thoughts on was my opposite arm, the inactive blade (if I'm rolling/bracing with my left blade, my right hand has to twist to compensate for appropriate feather angle in the paddle shaft). I'm sure this varies with physiology, but for me, the 45* paddle I used had my wrists, which are obviously connected to elbows and shoulders, at odds in my inactive arm (the one controlling the blade out of the water), and I found this stressful when not only managing the full paddle under water, but also when switching quickly during rapid cartwheels. As said, everyone has different bodies, and I like the physical symmetry I've gained with a zero degree feather. Am I a better paddler? Never was a good one anyway, but my body feels more similar in executing rolls, braces, cartwheels, etc. on either side. I can feel a difference in stresses when I use my old paddle. This effect is small, but may be worse for others, and of less cosequence to others as well. All part of another bell curve.
I've used left hand control paddles and adjusted quite well. But paddling isn't, or shouldn't be about on-side and off-side rolling/bracing because like skiing, we are in bodily symmetry to our motion of travel, generally. Unlike surfing, snowboarding, and skateboarding where there are marked differentiations to bodily motions toe-side vs heel-side.
To me, there should be no such thing as an on-side and off-side roll. When I taught myself to roll, I learned both sides because I wanted to fully teach myself the body mechanics, and breaking down what my right handed roll was doing was tantamount to understanding what my left handed roll was doing, and vice-versa.
Anyway, I noticed reduced stress in my upper body while using a low (in my case zero) feather while executing many more complex manouvers, not to mention body mechanic semmetry and more ready speed when switching sides for similar functions using a lower feather angle. YMMV, but I just thought I'd throw it out there. I always make the effort to let my core and lower body do the roll, with my active blade just the guide for body mechanics (slicing vs sculling when rolling).
Hey, I'm ever the student, so I'm apt to gain information that I can benifit from.
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