Newbie Coaching

Coached a newbie into trying to float in a sculling position last night. I
gently pulled him over onto his back while he kept his death grip on his
paddle. Man all evening long he just would not loosen up that grip.

So I lower him into the water, slowly twist his trunk, so his back is on the surface, cradle his head, reach up with my left hand and pry his fingers off the shaft. He immediately grabs for the aft hatch. While he's messing around and distracted I pry the paddle out of his other hand, then pull his left arm and hand off the boat and leave it to float.

I whisper soothing words into his ear, tell him to relax, breathe slow and steady in through the nose out through the mouth, straighten out the forward arm, tell him to let his head float and I quietly let my supporting hands sink away until he is totally suspended on his own in the water.

I stand up and silently think, X"*&%#@# I've been trying to do that for eight years. I looked down at him and shoved his head under the water. Just kidding. We ended the lesson after I aided him to snap roll back up.

He babbled on and on about how he now understood that he didn't have to hold himself up with the paddle. I told him to get professional help and not to waste his time messing around with the likes of me.