Ben Lawry is an awesome instructor

Ben Lawry was out here yesterday on a trip to certify some instructors. He gave a (free) 3 hour dry land clinic on just the forward stroke. He used a lot of props - like shafts without paddles, and really took the forward stroke apart and worked intensely on each phase.



I would not have thought that a dry land clinic could have been so beneficial, but was out on the water today, and what a difference! A few more years and I should be doing well.



But if anybody has an opportunity to take any kind of instruction from Ben, you will be glad you did. He’s also a nice and entertaining guy with a dry sense of humor.



Supposedly, he has an instructional DVD in the works that should be ready this spring. My order is already in. I’ve had a lot of instruction and own a lot of DVDs, but Ben had so much information which I have just not seen. Just an example. He stressed how important it is to fire your muscles in the correct order, leaving your leg muscles until last. The smaller muscles take out all the slack from the mechanism so that the legs have something completely solid to push against. I was pushing all my muscles at the same time rather than unwinding them in sequence.

Ben
Ben is awesome!

Big Ben Lawry
Big Ben is coming down to instruct us in two weeks. This will be our clubs third clinic with BB. This clinic will be over three days: day one is open water; day two is what I like to call a “Bubba Paddle”, which is an all around course good for every level; day three is leadership/trip leading.

The courses will be held at Hugonuet Park (north of Jacksonville, Fl., on the St. Johns River, Atlantic Ocean and Ft. George Islet). A perfect and prestine enviroment with a campground dead in the middle.

We had to plan this almost eight months in advance in order to get him here.

We still have several courses open if any of you would like to come and don’t live too far away.

Franklin

Ps BB has a great dry rolling DVD on the shelves right now. Our club has two copies of them and they are very informative and helpful.

Hey Franklin
Can I come? 4" of snow last night, cold and windy here. Kidding, but wish I could. We’ll be out on the skis in this tomorrow.



Ben’s quite an instructor and paddler combined. Had the good fortune to do a couple of clinics with him also. He’s a tough taskmaster and you come away with quite a bit.

Hi Trilobite02
I was going to go paddle my ski last Tuesday and Thursday. I didn’t go because, Tuesday had a high of 55, Thursday 64. When you talk about your conditions, it makes me feel a little “wimpish”. Thank God I live in the south! I did paddle today with a couples of buddies, it was around 70 as a high.

Ben is awesome, everytime he teaches us, I learn so much!

Franklin

Ben is a great forward stroke coach
We did 1.5 days of forward stroke with Ben last year. He has the rep for being one of the best forward stroke coaches around and it seems well deserved.



We also did a half day rolling class with him and he was very good. ‘Ben’s roll’ is now my first and preferred. It is compact and efficient.