Do not underestimate, contactflying, the power of the law of primacy. But guys, do you really wait until the tail starts aground to move your feet or do you continuously move your feet? Most nose gear pilots do not move their feet until the nose comes off centerline. Most tailwheel pilots move their feet continuously during taxi, takeoff, on short final, touchdown, and roll out. Most tailwheel pilots don't think they are continuously moving their feet. It doesn't have to be a lot. It can be Jim's fine hover button.

Most instructors do not teach continuous feet movement during taxi, takeoff, on short final, touchdown, and roll out. Yet, they are doing it. That, guys, is just not fair. Not only should we teach dynamic proactive rudder movement, we should teach gross dynamic proactive rudder movement to to those beginning tailwheel. Sloppy, but they can damn well see what's what and not suffer primacy of belief in the greater dignity of reactive rudder movement. There is a good lesson in ground loop, let them do it slowly without damage. There is no dignity in fast ground loop causing damage to the airplane. Unless we teach them to not only move their feet continuously, we set them up for acceptance of lateness. Just enough late is much more difficult to learn and much more difficult to manage.

Like Trent said, make the airplane go where you want it to go. Don't let it decide where it wants to go and then have to fix it. Push the nose around. Don't let the nose (tail actually) push you around.

Again, MTV, Cary, JP256, and many others here are better instructors than I am. Learning to react in just the right amount requires a great deal more skill. It also requires the instructor to ride the controls a bit, especially when the airplane is very pretty and expensive. It takes the student many more iterations to grasp this more difficult technique.

Tendency to unbalance is common out there. Talk to unicycle riders, dozer and scraper and backhoe artists, tightrope walkers, homo erectus, and CP30. Dynamic proactive works. How often do the servos work on the robot. It doesn't wait until it is falling to move. Put a pool cue upright in the palm of your hand. Don't move until it starts to fall. Too late, maybe move dynamically and proactively to keep it from falling.

It is OK if we don't agree. We just need to think about what is happening, how we manage it, and how we teach others to comfortably and effectively manage it. Having gone the long way around doesn't mean they should have to go the long way around. We need to carefully examine our orientation.

It is a fine point to notice if the feet are nervous. An easy way to determine happy feet, however, is to watch the yoke. Is it nervous? Is it constantly moving like a steering wheel in an automobile? Yes, that indicates sad feet.

For instructors, the stuffiness of the "Right Stuff" attitude is not ethical. When we say just keep at it until you get it, we are doing a disservice. If we purposefully make them learn by making the same mistakes we made, that is not ethical. The law of primacy sets our orientation and learning curve, but it need not be concrete shoes for our students.

We need to be flexible and open to new ideas in the suggestion box. Some low time pilot's experience may have turned up a better way. If we old farts see something that works or a better way to describe a good technique, we need to plagiarize (not the Johnson & Johnson) it. There is nothing wrong with students who are better than us. That should make out heart proud. There is nothing wrong with being plagiarized. That should make our heart proud.