Health - April 2007 Sea Kayaker Magazine

Transition to the Kayak When my brother took up kayaking, he taught himself to roll. He asked me about the mechanics of rolling, then he’d go to the banks of the river and work on his roll mechanics on shore, rolling the boat over on land to go over the set-up, sweep and hip-snap phases of the roll. As he became more comfortable with these phases, he proceeded into the water, inching farther and farther from shore until he was rolling up on his own in deep water. The Swiss ball exercises will target the appropriate muscle groups involved in the roll, but since their spatial orientation doesn’t directly relate to rolling a kayak, this land-based exercise will make it easier to feel where you’ll be when rolling in the water. Although it’s counterintuitive to leave your head down as you roll up, keeping the head down is essential to the proper execution of the hip snap, and this land-rolling drill helps to develop the muscle memory required for that. Roll the boat over on top of yourself. You may need assistance from another person to roll the boat over but, with practice, most people can learn to do this without help. Once over, get to the set-up position, as shown in photo 7. The natural tendency is to allow the front hand to reach for the toes, but reaching for the sky will place the paddle and your spine in a more advantageous position. Sweep the forward paddle blade in an arc away from the kayak. (See photo 8.) Once the paddle is at 90 degrees to the kayak, pull your lower knee toward your head and drive the upper hip away. Your shoulder and hip on the ground side of the body will move toward each other, and this hip snap—known in the field of kinesiology as a lateral flexion—will rotate the boat back under your hips, as shown in photo 9. You can then bring your torso back over the boat, working from the lower back upward so that the head straightens up last. The shore roll requires the boater to actively move the torso and engages the abdominal and pelvic girdle muscle required for efficient rolling.

Strength and Flexibility Most professional trainers believe that strength and conditioning exercises will help athletes to improve their performance and, more importantly, avoid injury. Usually the kayak roll is thought of as a maneuver that relies more on finesse than on strength. These Swiss ball exercises will work your muscles more intensely than actual rolling, but don’t be turned off by the “strength” approach to developing your rolling technique. Using these exercises to strengthen the muscles involved in the kayak roll—as well as to increase your flexibility—will improve your performance when you get on the water. These exercises should be implemented into an existing fitness routine that will give you the strength and flexibility you’ll need when working with the ball. The best time to do these exercises is after you’ve warmed up and have prepared your body for exercise. A good warm-up may consist of 5-10 minutes of walking, jogging, biking or anything else that increases body temperature. Use slow and smooth movements instead of fast, jerky or ballistic movements. Slow movements are safer. For the stretches, the American College of Sports Medicine recommends holding each position for 10-30 seconds and repeating each stretch three to four times. In addition to the stretching involved in this exercise, you should regularly work on the flexibility of all major muscle groups for optimal results. The hamstrings on the back of the thighs are notorious for tightening up and causing problems as we age. If you’ve already mastered the roll, the Swiss ball can keep you in good shape during the off-season. If you’re still working on rolling, I am confident that the Swiss ball exercises will help you attain your goal of a reliable roll. John Amtmann teaches for the Applied Health Science program at Montana Tech of the University of Montana. He’s hoping to work out a rolling exercise that makes it possible to keep both legs together and more closely imitate what’s actually happening in a kayak. If you happen upon a way to do that, he’d be happy to hear from you: JAmtmann@mtech.edu