Into The Movement Tunnel

Summer northeasterlies interrupted by southerly changes driven by cold fronts is pretty much the story of an average south coast NSW summer. Yesterday, the northerly winds were gusty but not continuous in our little bay, occasionally blowing enough to move the kayaks rapidly across the water, but mostly not too strong. The southerly change came in early, before 10 am. I trolleyed the kayak down to the water before breakfast to practice some of the skills I have been learning via Online Sea Kayaking. As usual, I was dreading the first dunking even though I was actually feeling a bit hot in my sea kayaking kit. The coaches on OSK frequently exhort the students/viewers get wet to take away any lingering apprehension so I did a few rolls before beginning any skill practice. The water felt cold and I ended up putting a long john wetsuit on even though I always feel kind of stiff and clunky in a wetsuit.

Doug came down later and was kind enough to film my attempts at low and high recoveries and also a few rolls. I can actually roll quite well and only muff up when I think about what I am doing. But, I make the same mistake every year: I think about all the little tweaks I could make to change my successful roll into a dance of pure perfection and end up clunky and stiff and even blowing my first attempts so I have to set up all over again to roll up. While this is good for practising hanging about upside down without panicking it never seems to change my successful roll into a roll of such elegance that other beach goers swoon. I should learn that getting up is really all that matter.

It’s really instructive to video your performance as so often you feel like you’ve got something really nailed and then you look at the video and see that – like me in these photos – your arms and elbows are all in the wrong places and you haven’t even set up appropriately! Kelly Starrett used to talk about the “movement tunnel” and the importance of setting up correctly before starting the movement. It’s a good analogy, as a train that is not on the train tracks is going nowhere and certainly cannot run smoothly through a tunnel.