Break it down
You said, “I cannot keep all this in mind at the same time.”
Then focus on a couple of components at a time, then put them together after you are consistently doing the separate parts well.
I rebuilt my roll (never lost it but it wasn’t a combat roll) years after first learning. Shawna Franklin of Body Boat Blade taught me balance brace and built up from there. The advantage of that approach is that the paddle is not even part of the picture at first. You focus ONLY on correctly body orientation and movement. I still do what I call “full flopovers” as part of my roll practice EVERY session: I get into balance brace position, capsize the kayak from that position, and then upright it while the paddle lies on the surface, passively. I found that if the sweep roll is less than perfect, I can quickly tune it up by doing this exercise plus butterfly rolls. All of it happens with a standard Euro paddle (unfeathered), in the non-extended position.
so to summarize:
Add all of the various tips here to your list of tips to remember. Then you just have to rememorize them!
it’s amazing how easily one’s hips can
stiffen up a little…without practice.
How
"I do have too much climbing angle, mainly after the sweep starts. Not sure how to 'shed' it. I have tried rolling the wrists back toward the end, but then I forget something else."
Instead of focusing on the mechanics of the sweep, try to FEEL it!
Try to FEEL the lifting force as you sweep the paddle. Don't even try to roll up, just sweep back and forth while upside down and feel how much lift you're getting.
BTW, I don't think of paddle "sweep". I think paddle SCULL! "Sweep" turns the boat, scull provides support.
All that talk about rolling your wrist forwards at the start and back during the sweep, it was all to achieve the SAME climbing angle as you sweep. From the sound of it, you roll your wrist too far at the beginning and waited too late to roll back. But really, I think it would work better to "think less" and "feel more". When I'm doing roll practice, I start with a couple of sculls with my eyes close, then I capsize and start the 'sweep', I mean scull...
body orientation
this is a great exercise as is moving from the initial part of the sweep into sculling for support and eventually into sliding on to the back deck. I've used the ball trick successfully at times but for many people it's just one more thing to remember. The *key* is to relax, bring yourself into the setup with shoulders/paddle square to the surface in board hand close to the shoulder and then as you come into position to initiate boat rotation. With relaxing, you can see and feel the body in space and with that knowing it will be immediately obvious what needs to happen to roll the kayak up. As a longtime meditator, relaxing happens for me without any thinking going on, but most people unfortunately are focused on their thoughts not on the roll. No wonder the roll fails. if you relax--after all nothing bad is going to happen--and just let your awareness hold the roll, you'll have no difficulty letting the body do what it needs to do without a lot of interference from the bus driver.
Paddle tends to dive
Just guessing that you’re sitting up while upside down instead of sweeping your torso with the paddle as a reference and NOT a lever.
Two suggestions worked well
Did a pretty good practice session yesterday after returning to Mission Bay from an ocean paddle. The two suggestions that worked best were 1) Sweep out and back without rolling to get the feel of keeping the paddle on the surface, and 2) keep the inside hand and arm close to the chest. I managed a dozen or so nice rolls on both sides with both my 220 Kalliste and my GP.
Thanks for all the comments.
cool
the second point seems all too common a problem. Folks focus so much on the arm doing the sweeping that the other arm is easily forgotten.
Yeah Man!