Last weekend I asked my 13 year old daughter if she'd like to go with me to a local pool session. She's been paddling for a few years now and does quite well at bracing and sculling. Over the past several months she has hinted at wanting to try rolling. Since there was nothing planned for the evening, I thought it would be a good opportunity to spend a bit of time with her.
Here's a video clip that I put together from the evening:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJcZiW3gWqw
After getting into the pool, I had her flip upside down without a paddle and just relax and hang there and get oriented to being upside down. When she wanted to come up, she would lift her hand up and I'd lift her up. We did this several times until she was completely comfortable being submerged and inverted. I had read somewhere (sorry, can't remember where) that the Inuit would teach children at an early age to hang upside down from a kayak as part of their paddling training. The child would lean forward and wrap their hands and arms around the kayak, and roll upside down. After relaxing the arms and looking around for a bit, the child would then lean forward, and again hug the boat, indicating that they wanted to be brought back up. Seemed to make good sense to me -- in fact, when I learned to roll, it's exactly what I did -- just got used to hanging upside down in the kayak *before* attempting to roll. I'm pretty certain that doing this first makes rolling way easier.
We then practiced some hip flicks on the edge of the pool for a few minutes as well as some sculling before attempting to roll.
For the first few attempts, I had to guide her paddle with my hand but hardly putting any pressure on it -- she was so close to getting up on her own. After a half dozen attempts, it was taking nearly no help at all on my part so I asked her if she wanted to give it a try without my assistance. She nailed it and was rolling all on her own!
After a couple of successful rolls, I got her to switch sides. She was a bit reluctant but soon found that she wasn't having a problem on either side.
All in all, it was a very rewarding experience -- both for my daughter, and for me.
Dan
http://www.westcoastpaddler.com
-----
Great Video
and a special young lady. That is so cool.
Yup
It always amazes me how quickly some kids pick this stuff up. Video is neat too - nice job.
Very Nice.
very very cool
Great job, Dad. I LOVE helping my niece and nephew learn to ski (have yet to get either one to try to roll).
I hate 13 year olders -
56 year olders rock
Wish all my students got it that fast!
My last student was about 13 or 14, and he picked it up faster than many of my former students.
-rs
Kids and boating
I remember my sons first “real roll” at lesser wesser to say I was a proud papa would be a huge understatement. Any one who gets to paddle with their kids is very lucky. The only negative and it is not really one is that my skills if I am lucky stay about the same and his get better every almost every time we paddle.
She probably
didn’t have years of “mystique” and “awe” filling her head, or this or that boat for rolling BS.
Clear head and good instruction. Great, refreshing post.
LOL!
All the seamingly endless discussions about what amounts to really minor differences (in terms of the "rollability" of more-similar-than-different types of boats) are usually very successful in making my eyes roll over, and over, and over again. :)
You said what I thought.
sing
roll those wrists back! - Great Job!!
David Wilcox
Nice choice of music Dan, great video!
Congrats to you and Maddie.
rolling
I have stood in a pool next to an adult more times than i can count trying to teach them to relax . I could tell by watching the video that she had it down from the start. Way to go Maddie! Vaughn Fulton
So what do you do next week?
Hand rolls?
I’ve been mislead!!! (1st attempt?)
OP Posted:
"For the first few attempts, I had to guide her paddle with my hand but hardly putting any pressure on it – she was so close to getting up on her own. After a half dozen attempts, it was taking nearly no help at all on my part so I asked her if she wanted to give it a try without my assistance. She nailed it and was rolling all on her own! "
So… it wasn’t really her first attempt, was it? 
Very cool
I bet your grin was as big as hers!
As I’ve posted here, I’ve been working with my niece when I get a chance. She is doing well but I may have to take her back to SSTIKS or to see Salty to really get it wired.
congrats
similar experience when my daughter was 11. Mind boggling what growing up does to a person. No wonder why a kid could say “I don’t want to grow up”,grownups take FOREVER to do things.
A hugemongous roll, like, wicked cool.
Offside too?
that’s great!
I like the missed attempt early
About 30 seconds or so in she misses an attempt.
You can see that she is thinking about resetting to make a second try, but then gets a bit confused.
“Ok, now what? I guess I’ll wet exit.” Calm as can be.