We are going to be starting orientating the student with the life jacket. So here I have my friend Apryl, and I'm going to explain to her how to put on the life jacket and what the purpose of it is. So Apryl, it is like a rectangle with a hole in the middle, and we're going to put enough over your head. Perfect. And then there's a strap. There you go. Goes around the body. We clip it right in. Got it? Perfect. And we just want to make sure it's nice and tight, which it is, and we can even tuck it in over to the side just so it's out of the way. Regardless of the student and ability, you always want to have safety. So that is why we have a life preserver and case on the rare chance anybody does fall in. They'll be able to float and a coach will be able to come to the rescue and set. All right, Max, we got our safety. We got our life preserver now we are going to go over the orientation of the kayak. So as you can see, this is the front of the kayak. Now, obviously, the rear is on the other side, back here. We have a two person kayak. They come in singles, doubles, triples and maybe even more. I've never seen anything other than a triple, but I think only up to triples. We have our paddles and as we know with kayaking, they have the paddles on both sides compared to doing where you just have the handle on one side and the paddle on the other side. We have our two seats and that is about in this pair or this kayak has a little place to put your phone in case you need that. So now we are going to walk Apryl through the orientation of the boat. So Apryll it's Kyle speaking. You can follow me, have your hand right here. So we're going to feel this is the front of the boat, OK? And we're going to walk over here. You're going to be sitting in the front seat. So this is going to be your seat right here, and this is going to be coach Kyle's seat right here, I'm gonna be behind you. And then over here is the back of the kayak. So it's very important to describe the piece of equipment you guys are going to be using because if the student has, A never used it before or B, never seen it before, it's important they know what it is, so they know what they're actually going to be doing. Just think to yourself, if you went into an environment and you had no clue what you were doing, it'd be nice if somebody showed you around. We just went over the kayak itself. The next piece of equipment we want to go over is our paddle right here. So Apryl we have two pieces of tape on top. Yeah, you can feel where they are. And this is just allows the athlete to know where the where they should be gripping the paddle and orientated it . So Apryl we're going to practice going left to right ready. Good. Now, Apryl, if we wanted to turn to a side, if we wanted to turn to our left, what would we do? Yeah, we would only paddle with the one side. Now, vice versa, if we wanted to paddle the other way, exactly would paddle only with that side. Now, if we wanted to do a complete turnaround, what's one technique that you've learned in kayaking before? Sometimes I just do this to go backwards instead. Yeah, sometimes you can do that to go backwards. Another great idea is when you're already moving, you can stick your one side of the paddle in the water. And while the other person is pushing on the other side, it'll turn you right around. It kind of acts as like a little anchor to spin you around. Even so, it is important to orientate the student on the paddle. Just for some basic tips, first thing, we have the tape in the exact position. We have it right here on the top so that this way when the panels go into the water, they're perpendicular and they are moving in the correct position. If they were like something like this, obviously you want to get too much motion. And we went over the different strokes going left and right and turning reverse and all that great stuff. Next up, we are going to be going over some tactile modeling. I'm going to be hopping in the kayak and my friend Apryl here is going to be feeling the different movements that I do so that when she gets in, she's ready to go here, Apryl, you have my hand and I'm going to hop in the kayak. If you want, you can feel my leg down here and my arm up here? So I'm just going to kind of spin around. Can you feel how I'm spinning around and I hop in, get my body in and then you can feel my legs down here? So now I'm going to bring my legs into the kayak just like that. And that is just like you're sitting in the back seat of a car. So next, we're going to go over the orientation of how to move the paddle while we're in the kayak. So you can see Apryl's got her hands on my hands. I have my hands in the proper spot on the piece of tape, and I'm just going to go over the paddling motion. And we know that if we go left, right, left right, we go straight and we know if we paddle just on the one side, this time the right side will go left. And if we go only on the left side, we'll go right. And we know that sometimes if we want to turn around, we can just stick our paddle right in the water and it'll turn. Additionally, you can also show them how to go backwards so you can see I'm pushing it back this way and pushing the kayak backwards in Apryl and still following along, feeling all the different motions . So after allowing her to feel out the movements, it's time for Apryl herself to get in. So I'm going to help her out. So Apryl we're going to take one step over this and then we're going to just hop right in, perfect. And I'm going to hand you your paddle pieces of tape out right there. Now that we're placed in the kayak, we're going to go over the different techniques. So Apryl, can you show me how to go forward? Exactly. We're going left right, left, right, left, right, and we're keeping our hands properly placed on that tape so that our paddle is perpendicular to the water. Now, Apryl if we want to go left which side, would we paddle on? Yes. So now we're paddling on our right side. This way, we will be able to turn to the left. Now Apryl, if we want to turn right, how should we do it? Exactly. So we'll be paddling on our left side so that this way we will go right. Now Apryl, If we want to go backwards, how would we do it? There we go. So we're just doing the same thing, how we were doing it forwards, exactly. Just the reverse. So still left, right, left right. Just in the opposite direction. So going over the first steps of paddling and such, it's much easier to go over on land. So this way you can give back feedback. Now, Apryl, here it was a superstar, but in case somebody was making some mistakes, you can always give them better feedback on land. So this way you can see more of what they're actually doing. Apryl, I think we are all ready to get in the water. Are you ready? Yes. Awesome. I'm ready too. I'm going to grab my life preserver here real quick and we'll get in the water. So now, hold on Apryl, you're going to help you. You're right here in your seats, right there. Perfect. Now let me go, get your paddle. OK, a feel for the pieces of tape. Now let me have it as well. All right. So now we are in the water, we're ready to go. We're making sure our paddles are in the proper position with the curve facing us and then we're ready to push off. So Apryl with your left hand, give us a push. And we're just going to go left right, left, right, left, right, left, right. Awesome. So one modification, if you don't have the regular kayaking paddles, is you can always allow the student to use a regular canoe paddle. So Apryl, here you go. It's right in front of you. So Apryl that only has the paddle on the one side. So when we do that, we'll have to alternate going left and then switching it over time right and then switching it over to our left and going back and forth. So we're going to head out and Apryl's going to show us how to use a canoe paddle and we're going left. Then we're going go on the right side and we're going to go back on the left and back to the right. Good. So another modification that you might want to start out with before getting into the paddles is just paddling with your hands, so Apryl's going to put her hands in the water and she's just going to practice going with her left hand and then her right hand, left hand and right hand just paddle it. This way, she has the motion down before we get the actual paddle. Another modification, especially if you have a student in a single kayak on their own, is to follow some auditory cues. So we have Cody up in front of us. We're going to both push off at the same time, and Cody is going to walk Apryl through which way we're going left, right and all that great stuff so we can go ahead and push off. And then Apryl, you're going to be listening to Cody. All right. We're going to go straight paddle. Good job. Ok, keep going straight. One thing that is great that helps kids achieve and become a lot more successful in outdoor activities is goal setting. So today we're going to set a goal and it's going to be up to Apryl. So Apryl, would you like to go for time or distance distance? How far do you want to go? That bridge, all the way to that bridge and back? OK, let's do it. Ready. Here we go.