| Herewith version 2 of this guide. Long promised, eventually delivered. It encapsulates much of what I've learnt in seven-odd years of paddling, coaching and competing. In that time I've discovered many things, not least of which is that there is very little consensus in the Dragon Boating world about how best to move a boat. The sport is young in the West, and there is nothing approaching a standard style. There are certainly some odd ideas floating about out there, many of them seemingly based on misunderstandings of the physics involved or on misapplied crossover from other sports. Mindful of all this, I have set myself the following directives:
- Always keep an open and objective mind.
- Don't try to teach or adopt anything that can't be supported with rational argument.
To this end, always do things for a reason - be able to motivate the use of exercises, strategies and techniques.
- Fight mediocrity. Settle for excellence only. Don't dumb-down the style;
coach the best technique you can find or devise, and trust the paddlers to rise to it.
The best advice I can give on style is this:
Treat it as a state of mind. It's not something one needs to wrestle with and hack away at as some sort of impediment to progress; it's something one should just embrace. Take it, own it, champion it, become it. By all means debate it - style isn't forever immutable. It evolves as we re-evaluate it from first principles, and experiment with it empirically. It's a growing thing, you gotta feed it right…
So what is the "best style"? Even locally, in this Dragon Boating backwater, this is the subject of considerable and sometimes fractious argument. One should always be thinking: "best for whom?" Lots of factors come into play, for example:
- Paddler characteristics one can't change, e.g. gender, age, height and the spread of these within a crew.
- Paddler characteristics one can change to an extent over time, e.g. all the kinds of things that fall generally under "athleticism": strength, muscle endurance, flexibility, cardio-vascular fitness, body-fat ratios.
- Paddler experience (both in Dragon Boat Racing and in related sports).
- Event characteristics, e.g. distance, salt or fresh water, boat type, crew size.
Apropos of all this, what follows is my opinion of what our style should be. It's a style that emphasises flexibility, rigorous attention to technique, and the treatment of paddling as something that is done with the whole body. I want to distance the style completely from the outsiders' notion of Dragon Boat Racing as a "biceps" sport, or as just another type of canoeing, which it certainly isn't.
The Stroke
Conceptually, the paddling stroke can be broken into four main parts: the Catch, the Drive, the Finish & the Recovery. These should all blend seamlessly together to create a smooth, flowing rhythm.
The Catch
This phase terminates the recovery phase, and precedes the drive. The name (along with many other terms we use) has been shamelessly stolen from rowing, a sport with not insignificant cross-over to Dragon Boating.
The catch is the bit where you stick the spoon (flat bit) of your blade (paddle) in the water before connecting into the actual drive. Getting it right is fundamental to getting the most out of your available strength, and many novices (as well as a surprising number of experienced paddlers) waste a lot of their power on a poorly applied catch. I've watched a lot of time trials where strong paddlers have thrashed away at their catches with bowel-wrenching fervour, throwing water all over the place, only to look incredulous afterwards when they see their time.
Just before the catch, the blade is in the fully-forward position, with the spoon just above the water. Your body is pivoted forwards as far as it will go without curling your spine, and your outside shoulder is stretched fully forward, low over the gunwale. The inside shoulder is high (next to and slightly below your ear) and neither forward nor back. If you imagine a line running from your one shoulder-joint to the other, it should make an angle of roughly 35 degrees or so with your seat. The outside arm is stretched completely straight, and the inner arm is high and nearly straight, ready to support the drive. A straight bottom arm and strong top arm at the catch are essential for an effective drive with your back (more on this later). The top (inside) hand is almost directly above and behind the lower hand, such that the blade is nearly perpendicular to the water - i.e. tilting slightly inwards at most. As the lower hand is further forward than the top hand, the blade will point forwards a bit. A common mistake is to bend the top arm back, which results in a shallower forward angle, and correspondingly weaker catch position, as well as a less well-supported drive.
The head moves with the shoulders, such that at the catch you face forwards and slightly inwards, looking roughly towards the person diagonally several seats in front of you. Viewed from the side, the arms, blade and collarbone should together describe a trapezium. The back should be straight, with all the bend stemming from the hips, and the chest should be open and pushed forward and somewhat towards the inside of the boat. This whole thing is called the "catch position".
Remember: You should never pause or "hang" at this point; doing that acts like a brake and slows down the boat. It's one of the main sources of "check" on the boat. Some people encourage a slight pause here (perhaps advancing easier synchronising timing as a reason), but I find the idea very hard to support on any level.
From the catch position, the spoon of the blade is slotted quickly, cleanly and smoothly into the water, and submerged up to the start of the loom (which is where your hand should be) before you start to apply any force. It must not be "slapped" or jabbed backwards, as this just wastes length and power, and will probably splash water into the face of the person behind you. If your catch is wetting you or anyone else at all, you're doing it wrong. It is quite possible to perform a super-fast catch and powerful drive without splashing at all. If anything, aim for a very slight forward splash as your catch "interrupts" your recovery forward. Once the spoon is submerged, you should instantly lock-on with your back (not your arm), taking up the pressure as you prepare for the drive phase.
Confusing? It's easier to watch and copy than to construct from a description.
The Drive
The lock-on that ends the catch and starts the drive begins with a sharp heave and twist of the back, with the outside arm acting like a taught cable connecting shoulder and paddle. Remember that at this point you are picking up the boat, which is travelling at its slowest speed in the stroke cycle. If you bend your outside arm straight away and start pulling with it, you will find it very difficult to support a proper drive with your back without tiring out your pulling arm very quickly. For all this to work, the inside arm must remain almost straight, anchoring the top of the blade in the same way that the water anchors the spoon. Some people feel that more power can be gained by bending the inside arm at the catch, and then pushing it forward during the drive, such that the spoon "pivots" backward adding some forward thrust. In my opinion, this adds a negligible amount of force, messes up the angle of the spoon in the water, and only serves to quickly tire out the inside arm, and make the paddler less effective towards the end of the race. It also makes it hard to support the drive properly. Keeping a straight upper arm also helps to keep the paddle more vertical at the catch, allowing more force to be transmitted down the length of the boat, rather than up or down.
As you drive with your lower back, you must untwist your shoulders, using the rotation to gain extra force. If you've stretched your outside arm properly at the catch, this will add considerable length and force to your drive, and will allow maximal use of the upper back muscles.
After taking up the "untwist"and back drive, start to pull with the outside arm. Think of accelerating the boat through to the finish. The outside arm pull, lower back drive and shoulder rotation should all end simultaneously at the finish. Resist the urge to keep pulling with your arm after your upper and lower back have finished - this just wastes time and slows the rating for very little added power. The drive finishes with your shoulders square (parallel to the seat), your outside arm bent to about 90 degrees, and your elbow next to your hip. Your back position depends somewhat on the rating you're trying to maintain. At low rate you should be swinging up to almost the vertical position. At high rating there is a tendency not to sit up at the finish, as it is harder to turn around a quick recovery the more vertical the finish. However, with sufficient training and conditioning, fast recoveries are very possible from an upright finish.
Bear in mind that all the forward force you're generating is being transmitted to the boat via your legs. Keeping your feet as far forward as possible will open the angle of your legs and relieve some of the pressure on your quadriceps (big thigh muscles). Think about pushing off with your thighs as you make the connection; this will give you a more powerful drive. Moving your outside foot back and dropping the outside knee, often makes it easier to stretch forward and twist - particularly if you have quite long legs. If you are tall enough (6'+) you should be able to wedge your outside knee against the seat in front of you (use a lifejacket or pad of some sort lest you kill your knee). This allows you to transmit all your force comfortably along your thighbone, saving your quadriceps, which is a boon. You may have to sit right forwards on the very edge of your seat (not comfortable at all, unless you use a cushion). If you are short enough, on the other hand, you should be able to straighten your inside leg under the seat in front of you, which helps a lot. All those of intermediate height will have to put up with sore quadriceps.
The drive is the best time to breathe out, with the force of exertion actually helping to expel air from your lungs - or at least making it difficult to breathe in.
Important: As you drive, imagine that you are locking the spoon in the water, and are driving the boat past your blade. Don't think of it as pulling water past the boat or your blade through the water. It's the boat you are trying to move, not the water or the blade. Throughout the drive, treat the spoon of your blade as a fixed point relative to the water. You want to apply maximum force with minimum blade slippage, and the best way to do this is to maximise the spoon's drag by keeping the whole of it underwater, and by maintaining as vertical a paddle profile as you can without trading-off too much on power. Stretching out your top arm at the catch, and swinging up properly with your back at the finish will help to achieve this.
The Finish
The finish occurs when the back is still short of upright (how much short depends a lot on rating - lower rating = more upright), the shoulders perpendicular to the line of the boat, and the arm bent to about ninety degrees. This should correspond roughly to the point when the outside hand is about 10cm past your knee, which should be about the time your elbow reaches your hip. Don't pull through further than this - the main muscles involved (posterior deltoids, rhomboids, lats and biceps) become pretty ineffective as they reach maximum flexion; it just wastes time. Think of turning off the power instantaneously (like flicking a switch) at the finish and turning it on instantaneously after the catch.
At this point the blade is extracted vertically from the water. Both hands lift the blade more or less straight upwards, with only a suggestion of sideways motion. Don't twist it out by swinging the inside arm down and into the boat, this wastes time, tires the inside shoulder, and interferes with the person next to you. Be sure not to "scoop" water backwards as you extract, dumping it on the person behind you. This often happens if one is still pulling backwards as one starts to extract, or if one is pulling too long (i.e. past ninety degrees). I find it helps to nudge the blade forwards as you extract it; that way it slides cleanly out of the water, helping to prevent you leaving a large mound of water travelling backwards for the person behind you to deal with.
At the end of the extraction, the spoon should be slightly backwards of vertical, with the upper hand at its highest point of the stroke. The spoon should be high enough above the water, to prevent it hitting waves/swell/other people's puddles/etc. during the recovery phase.
The Recovery
When racing, there should be no complete pause in the stroke. At low rating during training, however, a slight pause or slow-down may be introduced at the finish. At high rating though, this pause becomes conceptual, rather than actual. Here, the boat is running at its fastest, but starting to decelerate due to drag in the water. As soon as the bodies and blades start to move forward again, the rate of deceleration - at this point only due to drag - increases as the boat is forced backward to keep its centre of mass decelerating as before, as per the conservation of linear momentum (trust me on this). Once you start to move forward, you need to do it quickly so as to minimise the amount of time the boat spends travelling at this speed.
It's on this point that I have received the most ardent criticism. People advance all manner of theories on what happens to boat speed and acceleration during the stroke, and we sometimes struggle to be civilised, let alone to agree. If you want the innards of my reasoning, diagrams and all, all ya gotta do is whistle - but if you want to argue about it, make sure your case is based on something more than impassioned hand-waving and arguments of the "but they don't do it like that in other countries" sort.
From the finish the outside arm straightens first, with the outside hand leading the back forward. The outside shoulder follows the hand forward resulting in maximum twist by the time the catch position is reached. Don't drop your head into your chest as you come forward, as you will probably lose your timing, and will contribute to unnecessary bobbing of the boat. Rather watch the strokeman's upper hand if you can see it, or the person diagonally in front of you if you can't. The recovery is the best time to breathe in.
Racing
The biggest differences between racing and normal paddling are that in a race the stroke rate is much higher, and the power is at a maximum. This is the time when it is most important to preserve technique and timing. This is (one reason) why we do all that long, low rate stuff in training - to grind timing and technique into everyone's heads until it becomes second nature. Thereafter, in a race, one need only think of pulling hard and concentrating on the race strategy. About the worst thing you can do is to let your concentration and technique slacken during training, and think: "I'll make sure that I paddle properly during the race, when it counts," - because you won't be able to, and you'll screw up badly and miss a push, or get out of time or something. There is no excuse for ever paddling below your ability. In the immortal words of Yoda: "Once you start down the Dark Path, forever will it dominate your destiny". I bet Anakin Skywalker used to drop his inside arm in the boat when he got tired.
Rating
Different rates are optimal for different stages of a race, and for different race distances. Boat speed is a function of rate, stroke length and power. The best rate to use depends a lot on the fitness, strength, experience, weight, etc. of the crew. There are no clear rules, and you have to rely on the stroke's experience to detect the right rate. It is the job of the rest of the crew to support the rate religiously, holding it down if it starts to creep up, and defending it if it starts to drop off. It is imperative that the back half of the boat doesn't get excited and start to over-rate, rushing the strokeman, or lose concentration and lag the rate, which makes the front feel like they're paddling through cement.
The coach has to judge what ratings the crew are capable of, and should draw up a training program appropriately. It's mainly insufficiently fit shoulders and stomach muscles that thwart high rating, hence all the push-ups and stomach exercises.
Some general tips:
- Rating comes from the body, not the arms. To get better boat speed out of a higher rate strategy, you have to still be using your back to drive the stroke. If the crew's style degenerates into an arms-only type stroke, then the boat "wheelspins" and the rating is probably too high for the crews fitness and experience levels.
- Your snap (the motion of the bottom hand forward during the recovery) and catch are always quick; rating is primarily determined by how much you slow your body down immediately after the finish, i.e. how long your body "pauses" for before travelling forwards again.
- When the rating goes up, build it off a strong finish. You can use a hard, clean finish to "recover off" and propel yourself forward again.
- Learn the "snap". It's a quick, sharp punch forwards with the hand from the finish, that leads the outside shoulder and then the body forward after it in one brisk motion.
- At low rating, resist the temptation to pull too long at the finish, and to drop the inside arm on the recovery.
- If you're struggling to keep up, don't shorten your catch or bury your spoon less. Rather shorten your finish until your fitness catches up.
The Start
Exactly what the best strategy for the start is, has always been controversial, and has been the subject of much experimentation over the years, none of it remotely conclusive. It seems fairly clear that at least the first two or three strokes need to be long and extremely hard. I currently believe that the fastest way to leave the blocks is to follow this with a rating build of ten or so strokes, topped off with a hard-finishing power phase. During this phase everyone is still fresh and able to support the rate. One idea is that the stroke length should be shortened (at the finish) somewhat to assist the rate, with the back movement amounting to a short, sharp jab, whilst the twist and arm movements remain nearly as normal. This is because despite the back being stronger than the arms, it is not able to move and change direction as fast. As you move into the power phase and the boat reaches its maximum speed, the finish starts to lengthen out. Another idea is that the stroke length should be treated as an invariant, and that the rate should come up as the boat's speed increases and the spoons spend less time in the water, i.e. the recovery speed stays constant (and fast), whilst the drive speed increases, bring up the rate. The jury (and I) are still out on this one. More experimentation is needed here.
The power phase is then followed by a drop in the rate as the back comes in and lays down the power. This step-down is referred to as the Stride (another rowing term). We often call this the "Reach" for legacy reasons, but it is a misnomer of sorts, as one should have been reaching properly forward from the start anyway. When shortening up is used to gain rate, it occurs from a truncation of the finish, not the catch.
The pace settled into after the stride is the cruising rate that will dominate most of the rest of the race. It is important to hit this rate quickly and smoothly so as to settle straight away into a powerful rhythm. The first stroke of the stride is traditionally the hardest stroke of the race - an almighty shove to launch the rhythm for the rest of the race.
In any event, starts should be practised and decided upon beforehand, so that everyone knows exactly what to do. During the start pattern (everything up to the stride) it is vital that other boats are entirely ignored, and that your focus is completely on what you are doing.
Final point: The start is a sprint. Getting ahead is psychologically very important for flustering another crew, and forcing them into making errors. Hold back nothing in the start. After the stride you'll start to stretch out and breathe, and settle into a rhythm. It is very tough, both mentally and physically, to haul in a crew that has taken you off the start. Shut them out; get ahead and lay down the rhythm. If you're lucky, they'll scramble, and the race is yours.
Pushes
A push is usually in the form of a "power ten" (rowing again; ten being fairly arbitrary - but easy to count). The rating is increased slightly, and everyone pulls as hard as possible for ten strokes. The main idea is to gain several metres on another crew. It also helps to refocus the crew, as it is easy - particularly in long races - to "zone out" and inadvertently slack off the power, or lose one's timing.
In training we sometimes try pushes with creative names like "technical push" or "rhythm drive". The former is a call to refocus on perfect technique and thereby gain a extra 5% or so power. The latter is a call to check your timing, to make sure that your body is swinging exactly with everyone else's, to check that you are really using your back to get maximum power, and to make sure that you are twisting properly. Essentially it's a call to use your body to rebuild a faltering rhythm.
The final push is the "Kick" (another legacy term). This is the big burn for home with twenty or thirty strokes to go. Every last bit of energy is committed to the race. It is important not to go completely berserk, flailing about and losing your timing. Look up when the kick is called, and get an idea of where the finish line is so that you don't mispace yourself and either blow completely ten strokes before the end, or cruise over the line with energy to spare.
All these pushes will be called (usually by the stroke, drummer, coach or sweep - don't get excited and call your own) as "push name", three, two, one..." or something similar. Everyone commits to the push on the stroke following "one". It is very important not to subvert the whole manoeuvre by relaxing on the "three, two , one" and killing the boat speed in anticipation of the push. If anything, start squeezing up the power during these strokes and think about your technique.
Race Psychology
One of the most difficult things to teach or learn about racing in a power/endurance sport is how to really push yourself. It takes lots of time and experience to discover exactly where your physical limits lie, and then consistently force yourself to race as close to that level as possible, whilst slowly pushing the envelope of you limits in the longer-term. Use training sessions as an opportunity to try racing outside your capacity. Make an effort to occasionally "blow" completely or cramp up before the finish. Try to feel nauseous at the end. By see-sawing about your limit in this way, you learn to race extremely close to it. Don't just rely on race adrenaline and other crews to push you; learn to race in a vacuum. Learn how to give 100% five months before an event, in the driving rain on an icy winter night, when it doesn't count, only six of you have pitched for the session and no-one is watching. Winning big events is only ever the product of hard-work. Big races are won and lost months before the event.
Over time, if you want to become seriously competitive, you have to learn to develop a "hardcore", "psycho" racing mentality. The key phrase is Controlled Aggression. Go crazy, but stay in time and retain your technique. The better you get, the more pain you must expect - since you'll learn how to hurt yourself more comprehensively. Develop an "I love pain; I want more pain" ethos. Try to be suffering more than anyone else in the last ten strokes. Imagine yourself having won by inches and being carried off in a stretcher.
Remember: overdoing it and hurting your muscles (responsibly - and over time) causes slight tears in the muscle fibres, which then heal larger and stronger. You need to actually damage yourself a bit to get stronger.
Crew Selections and Positions
Crew selection in our club is the coach's job, subject to the (generally tacit) ratification of the captain, and veto from the chair. Crews are always chosen and people placed in particular seats for a reason. If anyone has a problem with a decision, then they must approach the coach rather than complaining about it to others and undermining the coach and captain's positions. Ultimately they are responsible for getting the best performances out a club, and will never be able to please everyone all of the time. Remember that the sport is called Dragon Boat Racing. Winning is important. It is a reward for long and painful training. In an amateur sport it is the greatest reward. It also attracts sponsors and new people to the club. Perhaps most importantly, doing the best we can is a mark of respect for our opposition.
"You've got the dream, but not the drive," - from Beauty School Dropout by Frankie Avalon
Clearly what Frankie Avalon meant was that it is all very well to want to get selected for the crew, win races, go to World Championships, etc. - but such dreams will all come to nought if you are not prepared to commit yourself to continual improvement through dedication and training.
We will always try to win major races. That means that we will always race our fastest crew in a major final. If you are not in a crew, it should be an incentive to you to train harder, gain more experience, and work on your technique. You cannot expect to race a major event ahead of people who move a boat faster than you. Such is the nature of competitive sport, and in my experience it can be a massive motivating factor for an individual to improve. Competing amongst ourselves is the first step in becoming more competitive as a crew. Most team sports are far more brutal than Dragon Boat Racing when it comes to selection, and are usually the better for it. Remember: anybody can get stronger and better - it just depends on how much you want it.
Even if you don't get to race in a major final, you will probably still have the opportunity to race in heats and thereby gain experience. It is important that we are able to do this as it allows us to rest key people for finals. If you feel that the selectors have erred in leaving you out, prove it to them by paddling better in training and by pulling faster time trials. I find it difficult to support the idea of basing selection primarily upon frequency of attendance at practice. Whilst this approach may improve attendance, it has the serious drawback of encouraging slacking-off in training - as people begin to feel that they have safeguarded their spot in the boat from sudden arrivals, and thus don't need to prove themselves physically. If you are always wondering when some super-fit athlete might pitch up and usurp your seat, you will be encouraged to train a whole lot harder to shut them out.
As a general guide, heavier people will tend to be placed toward the back of the boat, so as to keep the nose up and reduce drag and bow-wake. This is necessary, so slim down if you want to be considered for paddling up front. Unnecessary weight only slows the boat down, so if you want to become really competitive in the long term, get lean and improve your power/weight ratio.
Very inflexible people, or those who for whatever reason fail to twist or stretch sufficiently forward, become a big impediment to the paddlers behind them. There are only a few places where such people can be placed: at the very back, or in front of a gap. We sometimes race a full boat, with no gaps - so you may well get excluded if you fall into this category, as no amount of strength can make up for impeding everyone behind you.
The bulkheads (seats with solid ribs underneath) are very uncomfortable to paddle behind with long legs, so shorter people tend to be placed here. If we race with eighteen or sixteen, the gaps will be behind the bulkheads. New people will tend to be placed near the back, or in front of gaps, and only raced in heats and minor events until they become fit and technically proficient. Everyone starts this way. Soldier through it, and aim to become a "utility" paddler, who can paddle either side and any seat without complaint A squad full of utility paddlers makes a coach's job a whole lot easier.
Those able to paddle with equal proficiency on both sides will naturally be favoured for three reasons: they will become less fatigued over the course of a day's racing; they make it easier to balance the weight distribution in the boat; and it is easier to pair them with appropriate partners.
Notwithstanding all of this, in the end, the prime determinants of success are strength and fitness. You can have all the technique and experience in the world, but still get hammered by a scratch crew of canoeists or rowers who've never been in a dragonboat, but train seven times a week on the water and in the gym. Alas, this guide doesn't (yet) cover cross-training or specific exercises on the water for working strength. Next version, I promise.
Not to be missed in upcoming revisions of this guide:
- Technical exercises.
- Session ideas.
- Warm up routines and stretches.
- Beginner and experienced weight lifting programmes.
- Cross training.
- Diet
- A whole lot of pictures to illustrate the technique.
- Diagrams and a more thorough treatment of how boat speed is affected by style and rhythm.
"Flash, I love you, but we only have 14 hours to save the earth!" - from Flash by Queen
Yeah, well... |
