25¢
For practice, try that horse ride out front of the grocery store for 25¢
they should
they should switch the horsee with a kayak - this way I’d look smarter. 
interesting
that is what I have been doing to this day until I started wondering what the heck loose hips is.
I mean just sitting on the water and rocking the boat is one thing but paddling with loose hips is another. I understand how to edge the boat, I can roll the boat onside or offside but I have always been locked in.
loose hips sink ships …
… no no no , that’s all wrong
coordination
Much in the same way one arm is usually more coordinated than the other, my experience in a kayak is that my corresponding leg is a bit of the same. Pay attention to your knees. I edge to my left, and my right leg seems to apply and release pressure on the thigh brace much more naturally than my left leg does when I edge to my right. I’ve never found a cure for the difference, just an awareness of what causes the difference for myself, and I’m aware that I need to practice edging to the right more consistently to compensate.
If something’s loose, screw it tighter
Oh, that’s not what you meant, is it?
Stick them out in front of you
the tell-tale sign
for me is whether or not my thigh muscles are tensed up. If they are tensed up at all, especially if they are putting pressure against the thigh braces, I know I need to relax them.
When I knew I had loose hips was when I realized my kayak was rotating back and forth underneath of me without my paying any attention to it, even realizing it really. I was concentrating on my forward stroke, and that concentration never broke and gave way to some instinct to brace or pull up on a thigh brace.
I knew I had taken another step when I found myself using the edges of the kayak for directional control in following seas. Instead of concentrating on staying upright, preparing to brace, and blaming the kayak for turning off in one direction or another, I began concentrating on maintaining my forward stroke and timing the waves and my use of the edges. It’s always a work in progress.
May sound crazy, but a big part of it for me is blade angle control that I don’t think about anymore. For quite some time after a started, after I had a solid roll, I would fall off balance and somehow end up slicing my blade through the water and ending up upsidedown. Once catching myself quit being hit or miss, the idea of falling off balance became less important, much as it did after learning to roll. The more I relaxed, the less I needed to catch myself.
After a while you get to the point where every time you brace, it’s a last second surprise, an interuption of a stroke vs. a consciously prepared act, because you never expect to need to. (larger breaking waves that will flip you being an exception of course)
How did I personally make blade angle control a thoughtless process? Mostly agressive practice in completely unintimidating flatwater. But I find different things work for different people.