Dragon Boat West

Hello All,

In a few weeks myself and my work colleagues will be taking part in a Dragon Boat Race to raise money for a local charity. Of course it is for a good cause and it's the taking part that counts but from the research I have done I don't think our team could just turn up on the day and paddle, we want to have some idea of what to do when the actual day comes.

So please to all of you experienced Dragon Boat Racers, I have a few questions:
- We will have about 15 in our team, one drummer and the rest are paddlers (the steering is done by the company organising the event), how do you recommend we place each individual within the boat considering strength, their weight (without being discriminating of course), athletic ability etc. And how do you place who goes next to each other as they will be seated in two's?
- I have found some paddling techniques on YouTube, if you can recommend anything better than that please advise
- We are going to have a practice run with dummy paddles and us all paddling to the beat of the drummer, any other techniques we could practice?
- I think that is all the questions I have, please if there are any other points I have not added please let me know.

Thanks for reading, I look forward to your response!!!

Will

I think given your situation (not a full boat, zero experience) that you probably don't need to get too particular on technical details. Just focusing on getting everyone moving in time would be your best bet.  You have a provided steersperson so that should keep you going in the right direction.  :)  You tube will probably give you a reasonable idea of what the stroke should look like but keep in mind, there's more than one way to paddle a boat, the key is to do it together so timing should be your main focus.

I would say bare minimum, it's probably worth telling similarly sized people to sit together just to help balance the boat left to right.  That way you don't have to worry about offending work colleagues asking about their weight!  :)
You'll probably find your taller people will be more comfortable in the middle of the boat.

You'll need to have a couple of reasonably fit people sit in the first seat that can keep a good rhythm as they set the pace, not the drummer.  I'd recommend having someone with a really loud voice up front who can help relay the timing of the stroke seat and hopefully keep everyone moving/motivated if you'll have people that don't quite have the fitness to last the course.  Getting everyone to use their lower body more, not just their arms or their backs will help them last a little longer but I find in coaching novices it takes a little while for everyone to get that down.

I'm not sure what you mean about a practice run with dummy paddles. 
Will you have the opportunity to go down to a local club for a practice session before the race with a coach?  That would be the best way to get at least some exposure before race day.  There would be cost attached with that though.

What race is it that you are doing?  Are all the competitors in the same boat so to speak (i.e. it's a specific race organized just for this fundraising event?) or is it a regular dragon boat race where you'll be up against experienced paddlers?

Definitely keep it positive on race day, have fun and hopefully your people will enjoy it enough to jump into the sport in the future.

Katy