Most of us spend so much time learning groovy looking lay-back rolls that by the time we start to learn forward finishing rolls our bodies have been trained to automatically go face up and slide onto the back deck.
Training our bodies, and minds, that lying face down in the water and rotating forward, not back, takes time and patience. Once achieved, a whole new world of recovery techniques become available, many with very practical applications.
Forward finishing rolls tend to get grouped into two types, those that are closely aligned to a storm roll, and those that are based upon the reverse sweep roll. Both types have a common recovery. It is this recovery method that the chest scull is a useful tool to train us to use.
When practicing alone the chest scull is easily adapted to use a paddle float on the extended end of the paddle. Also when failing the forward recovery it is easy to rotate your core, then float face up, and then recover using a standard or other lay-back roll.
I do not recommend proceeding to learn any forward finishing rolls until you are able to chest scull and recover consistently. If you can recover forward from the chest scull then completing nearly all the forward finishing rolls becomes a simple matter of rolling into this chest scull (floating) position and then recovering.
This month I will be running a forward finishing roll clinic, and much of our time will be spent on ensuring a successful chest scull and recovery.
Click on the image below to see the full instructions, diagrams and video of the Chest Scull and forward finishing recovery.
