It Is the Water You Evoke

I was working with a Feldenkrais mentor as I designed lessons specifically for paddle sports. (Raz Ori, who is fantastic!) We got stuck on the question of whether a paddle stroke is a closed chain or an open kinetic chain—leaning your hand against a wall would be closed, raising your hand into the air is open and of course the dynamics are quite different. I thought and thought about that one and that is how I got to 'It is the Water you Invoke.' Your job as a paddler—usually—is to invoke the wall. Or at least to know when you have invoked the wall. So I guess your first job is simply to learn to perceive the texture of the water you are in.