Arkansas Canoe Club

Director's Message
to
Instructors of Whitewater Paddling School

 

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  Timeline Plan for 2008 Whitewater School

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Reminder

Staffing is complete for 2008 WW School as of Feb 27. The full list of staff will be posted at 2008 Staff

Administration

All instructors, assistants, and staff, Please Check In with Gayle Friday Afternoon and Check Out with me Sunday Afternoon

It is very important that we know who is on the water with each class and where each class is at all times. Please keep us --me, Marc, or Patti-- aware of who is with you, where you are going, and when your class is off the river each day.

At check in on Friday, there will be an envelope for each class containing:

• Class roster of those who signed waiver and are OK to go with the class
• Name tags for Instructors and Assistants
• Form to report participant attendance and evaluation
• Form also includes space to record who heard your "waiver/challenge by choice talk"
• Certificate of Particiption for everyone enrolled in class.
• ACC Bumper Stickers

Please Don't Take Anyone on the river with your group unless approved by the Director and on his master list

About medical issues: The school application questions medical issues for a yes or no response. A yes response indicates that the person does have allergies, asthma, epilepsy, diabaties, infections, medications, illness, recent injury, recent surgery, or significant physical limitations and needs to discuss with his/her instructor. Please followup on these cases with either a telephone or face to face conversation.

If you have teenagers under age 18 in your class, be aware that we have a new form, "Permission for Medical Treatment of a Minor". This form isn't required, but we do recommend it's use and that copies be filed with both the School Director and the instructor. If you have young folks in your group, ask the parents about the "Permission" form.

Instruction

My primary request to you as an instructor is to use your good judgment to take care of yourself and all of those in your class. Get out there, have fun, and do what you have been trained to do.

Goals of Whitewater School, by priority.
Please refer to newest (blue and white cover) ACA Instructor's Manual for more detail:

Provide opporunity for participants to:

1. Feel Safer and Have More Fun on Whitewater.
2. Recognize typical river hazards and options for dealing with them.
3. Improve fundamental paddling skills:
   1. Balance
   2. Boat Lean
   3. Basic Body Mechanics
   4. Paddling Strokes for power and turning
   5. Coordination and Fluidity
   6. Timing
4. Refine strokes and develop efficient maneuvers on flatwater.
5. Use ferries and eddy turns when moving downstream to improve river reading, judgment, and timing.

Max Wellhouse used to guarantee an improvement for everyone who took a class from him. My challenge to the Instructors of the Whitewater School is to help each participant improve a fundamental skill each day. I'll have a beer after school for instructors and assistant as they report on Sunday afternoon

We have completely dropped the concept of assigning "levels" to classes and have advertised that our instructors "custom fit" to the participants. Classes are grouped based on river time, age, previous instruction and maybe a few other self reported factors. Please take everything from the school application with a grain of salt. People may or may not intend to mislead, but more often than not, they just don't know what we are talking about.

That's why it is so important for you, the instructor, to talk with your participants as soon as you get the names. Usually talking is going help both instructor and student, but my experience has been that you need to see them actually on the water, preferably on still, protected water, before you are going to know much about who/what you are dealing with.

Don't lose sight of our goal to teach more than simple mechanics of paddling, but also the decision-making needed to move the boat effectively and safely.

Custom fitting means:

• Evaluate each participant at each step,
• Help them discover what they can do, and how they can improve.
• Use the ACA outlines as a general guide,
• with Emphasis on the fundamentals and learning by doing.
• Teach just the strokes and maneuvers that they need for the next drill.
• Build on what they have, fill in the gaps, and
• Give lots of Feedback, especially postive, accurate feedback.
• Please Take Time to Review Unit 3-"Learning" and Unit 4-"Conducting a Class" in the ACA Instructor's Manual

I've worked with some really good trainers in the last couple of years. Recurring keys points seem to be:

• Teach only what they need, there is not time to give them all you know.
• Talk less, do more. Don't get in the way of learning.
• When they can't surf, the problem nearly always is simple fundamentals
• River paddling is about knowing what can get you and some options for dealing with those things that might get you.

My personal thank you to all of you who are supporting this Whitewater School and ACC events!

Report on 2007 WW School to Board of Directors

Report on 1999 WW School by Bob Allen