...and we're not talking about corporal punishment. No, my niece Rachel and my nephews Joel and Ben, who are visiting from North Carolina, were on pretty good behavior as we did some paddling in the harbor late yesterday afternoon. Joel, the oldest at 14, paddled a solo touring boat while Ben and Rachel took turns paddling in the tandem boat with me. Having Joel in another boat gave me a chance to look at his stroke. I gave him some tips to work on, and he did so like the scholar he is. Meanwhile, Ben, who just turned ten, is getting stronger: I could actually feel some power in his strokes in the seat behind me. Now I just need to get him to keep his body still and not rock the boat so much. Longer arms will help: our tandem boat is very wide at the stern seat, and I think Ben had to keep shifting right and left just to get his blades in the water.
So that's what's been going on here in Memphis, far from the Olympic spotlight. It was my second time in the boat this week; I also paddled for an hour on Sunday morning. The rest of this week, when I haven't been trying to make sense of the Olympics competition, I've been busy with the minutiae of life.
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