Sweep Circles- believe it or not, two of the first strokes you learned to use- the front and reverse sweep- are the strokes you'll be using, but with little modifications.  The difference is that when cartwheeling, you'll be doing these strokes to rotate yourself in an elevated plane, rather than to rotate yourself in the same plane as the surface of the water.  However, this is a good practice drill to use to train yourself to do the following:

• Wind your torso, place your stroke, and unwind your torso
• Lead your rotation with your head- that is, look in the direction in which you'll be rotating, in order to spot the next stroke placement.

To do sweep circles, begin by winding your torso to one side or the other (it's good to practice in both directions) and begin by placing your paddle into the water for a front sweep stroke, somewhere near your feet.  Once the stroke is placed, use the power of your torso to sweep the stroke wide and back, towards your stern.  While you're sweeping towards the stern, look in the direction you're turning- you'll find that by looking ahead, you keep yourself from finishing the stroke all the way back at your stern.  This is what you want- a common problem for people when cartwheeling is that they get behind on their rotation, when the object is to stay ahead.

Once you've run out of forward sweep, immediately reach around in the direction you are looking and place your paddle near your stern and continue the rotation of the boat with a reverse sweep.  Again, keep looking in the direction in which you're turning.  When you're done with the reverse sweep, switch immediately to a front sweep, continuing in the same direction.

Begin slow, then as you get used to the movements, pick up the speed.  Practice this drill going both directions until it all becomes automatic.  As you do this, you may discover that it's easier if you drive one end or the other down into the water- experiment with slicing angles while doing this drill and you may discover that you've got it already.

Rock-a-Babies- With rock-a-babies, we introduce the ideas of elevation angle, balance, rotational centers, inertial borrowing, and timing.

The idea behind rock-a-babies is to get you in touch with the idea that much of the energy that you'll use to get to the next end is a gift from the last end- that is, the forces of gravity and buoyancy can be harnessed to make each end easier.  As the name suggests, you'll be rocking the boat from bow to stern, as well as rocking your own center of mass from bow to stern, in order to amplify this.

We begin in the same way as we did with a sweep circle, with one exception- instead of sweeping in a flat circle, we edge the boat over towards the side on which you begin your front sweep, to initiate the stern on that side.  As we do this, we also lean back, adding our weight to the stern, driving it downwards, while lifting the bow up and out of the water.

The bow sweep stroke, traveling from bow towards the stern (it won't make it to the stern) will begin to prepare you for the next stroke, which goes back in the other direction, by winding up your torso for the reverse sweep stroke.  Soon, the rising bow/diving stern maneuver will stall- and before it does, you have two things to do:

• use the last of your sweep stroke and your abdominal muscles and the buoyancy of the stern to rock your weight forwards, in anticipation of adding your weight to the next end, and
• feather your forward sweep stroke to the surface, (note that your body is already wound up in the right way) and place a stern sweep- we'll call this the 'smash' stroke- on the same side as your bow sweep was on.

As your stern rises toward the surface and your bow falls toward the surface, apply the stern sweep while throwing your weight forwards, towards the bow.  This will drive the bow downwards until it, too, stalls.  Use the last part of your smash stroke, your back muscles, and the buoyancy of the bow to spring yourself towards the stern, and feather the paddle to the surface in order to do another bow sweep to drive the stern under. Note that your smash stroke has already wound your torso up for the bow sweep stroke... and that you're back where you started.  You can continue this drill for as long as you like, and as you become more comfortable with it, you'll discover that as you're able to get vertical, all that remains is to put  the two sides together.

Important points:

• You should not be leaning on your paddle, except inasmuch as you are applying the rotational force of your torso against it.  If you lean on your paddle, you won't be able to get to the next stroke, and more importantly, you won't be able to put your weight on the boat, in order to drive the ends.
• You should be keeping the boat edged to a relatively consistent angle of elevation, but with your weight largely over the boat, not over the paddle.
• Each stroke should be an expression of a wound-up torso unwinding- unless you're Hercules, you're probably not strong enough to do it with your arms alone.
• There are two distinct strokes here, not one.  If you hold your paddle vertically in the middle, you deny yourself the ability to wind and unwind your torso to give yourself power, you limit your ability to rock your weight fore and aft, and you also have nothing to brace against if you get off-balance.  The first stroke is a sweep from the bow using the power face of the paddle, the other is a smash from the stern using the back face of the paddle.
• The boat does not rotate around the center, it rotates around the center of buoyancy, which changes- when you're on your bow it's somewhere behind your heels, when you're on the stern it's somewhere behind your seat.  The object of this drill is to train you to apply your weight and inertia against these rotational centers, as opposed to trying to turn the boat on a fixed axis in the middle.