My mentor's callout on my rod angle saved my back in Rockford

I've been sweeping for about 11 years now, and I always thought I had my technique down. Then last spring, old Dave watched me work a fireplace in Rockford and said, "You're fighting the flue, not guiding it." He showed me how I was holding my rods at 20 degrees too steep, which made me muscle every twist and put all that strain on my lower back. I switched to a flatter angle and started rotating from my shoulder instead of my wrist, and honestly, my joints feel better after a full day than they did after a single morning job. I also cut my average sweep time from 45 minutes to 30 on standard chimneys. Has anyone else had a senior sweeper correct their stance or grip and notice a huge difference in fatigue?

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burns.jenny26d ago

Did Dave mention anything about how you position your feet before you start? That was the thing that clicked for me when a veteran watched me in Dayton. I was planting my front foot too close to the hearth, which forced my whole upper body to lean in and made me torque from the lower back. He had me step back a foot and shift my weight to my back leg, and suddenly the rod angle fixed itself without me thinking about it. My shoulder started doing the work like he said, and yeah, the fatigue difference was night and day. I also noticed my brush didn't bind up on the liner as much, so I wasn't fighting the cable every pull. It took me a few weeks to break the old habit, but now I catch myself on any job over an hour and reset my stance. Good on you for listening, most of us get too stubborn to change after a decade.