Leave the usual behind and come try the ultimate team sport. Dragon Boating is a fun, unconventional, and traditional sport that requires body, mind, and soul. Dragon Boat paddling is a very accessible and sociable sport; offering something for every age, ability and pace of life. Paddling tends to be “easy” on the body, free from the impact associated with other endurance sports. It appeals to everyone who enjoys open spaces, salt air and the feeling of being at one with nature. Whether the interest is leisure and relaxation (recreational) or personal challenge and adventure (competitive), paddling has a place for anyone, at any age and ability.
The benefits of paddling can be divided into three main categories, fitness, team building and psychological health benefits. Although these are separate they all intertwine to make the activity of paddling a valuable and exciting experience.
The IDBF Nations World Championships are held every two years with the next event planned for 2021 in Hong Kong. There are a wide range of competition classes making the event very inclusive.
There is the Open Class, Women’s class and Mixed class. There are also standard size boats (20 paddlers) and small boats (10 paddlers). Then there are the different age categories:
Premier Open age
Senior A 40th or later birthday falls in the year of the competition
Senior B 50th or later birthday falls in the year of the competition
Senior C 60th or later birthday falls in the year of the competition
Junior 18 and under
Junior 16 and under
Junior 14 and under
There is a reason why there is the saying, “Practice makes perfect.” Paddling, like most things in life, doesn’t improve without practice. Training is what takes each of us to a higher level. You may have never picked up a paddle or you started 10 years ago, but unless you are practicing consistently, your paddling will not improve.
Training hard is all about choices. And sometimes means making some sacrifices. It requires commitment. A commitment to yourself and your team to improve your paddling.
It is crucial for you to demand perfection in your training. Demand it of yourself. Do not accept anything less. If you allow yourself to slack during practice, rotating a bit less, reaching less, giving up on leg drive, not engaging your lats, for example, you are sacrificing the precision necessary for a powerful stroke. Eventually, that passiveness becomes muscle memory and you have locked in bad habits.
Time on the water will help you to improve. But given the current situation, there is a lot of work that can be done individually and off the water in preparation for the time when everyone can get into a boat.
I have put together a programme that will introduce the theory of paddling and start to provide the necessary strength and conditioning in preparation for when water training can start.
The training programme will be based upon S T I P
Strength to generate controlled force
Technique to apply that force in the most efficient way
Integrated to link and coordinate the strength and technique to optimise the
Performance the ultimate goal
It is an integrated conditioning programme that is efficient and effective, and will optimise training results to ensure that the work taking place, at home, in the gym and on the water impacts directly on performance.
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