March 8, 2005...Winter Haven, Fl ...Advanced Barefooters Only?

One of the greatest thrills in teaching barefooting is watching someone work through the challenges to achieve their personal miracle!

I am fortunate enough to see this every day and I am so thankful. This week we have been inundated with the "Barrie Bad Boys" barefooters from Ontario, Canada. One of the big goals of Dan Carr was learning the front to back and back to front.

But to be honest, almost everyone who has ever barefooted both forwards and backwards has wanted this same incredible goal. How could I help a 40 plus guy make such a huge challenge.

Here is what we did. I simplified the process as follows;

I explained that it is not the front to back or back to front that is so hard. It is really knowing how to ski in the perfect position and not getting out of it while setting up that is the hard part.

My challenge to Dan was the same as mine is to you as you read this. You show me the perfect form both forwards and backwards while being able to go up and down in a smooth rhythm, and I will take you to the promise land of front to backs!!!!

...or any surface turn for that matter.

By making only a slight adjustment to Dan's position, he was able to improve his confidence and make his first two back to fronts. We have several more days to make his front to back.

The best part was that Dan also got a front seat to see Dave Gurnsey's transformation of his front to backs and back to fronts. The major turning point of success? Both Dan and Dave found out how powerful it was for each of them to tweak their PowerBands (adjusting their position so that the pull of the boat comes into the hips). A couple of inches of standing higher while driving the hips forward a couple of inches was the difference between a hail mary turn and one that felt like it was on Puppy Paws!

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