first off i'll say this: different strokes for different folks. what works for some people might not necessarily work for others.
Help!! any outriggers out there....
I have been paddling in a dragon boat for the last four years ,I have always been under the impression that the stroke for outrigger and dragonboat were virtually the same . A few members of our team went out on a oc-6 this past weekend; 4 of us from D.B. and an " expert from an outrigger". He had no dragonboat experience.
We were told a number of key points which would result in a successful stroke for an outrigger.
While i'm sure my coach would love it if my technique was identical in OC and DB, I find myself using two kinds of strokes in OC. for sprinting, i use much more of a "DB" stroke, probably because thats what i'm used to sprinting with. for distance, i tend to use a more "classical outrigger" stroke, although its probably a hybrid between that classical OC stroke and what I use for sprinting.
1.Lose the high top arm no power will result from this .
by "high top arm", do you mean top hand over the water? in my opinion (and in the opinion of many others), that is the ideal position for your top arm to be in in ANY boat you paddle (db, oc, c1, k1). this allows a downward force while you pull yourself through the water which lifts the boat in the water and theoretically, less drag through the water.
2.Strength comes from the lats, not the core .
whoever this person is, must have lats big enough to fly with. either that, or he doesnt' realize the work that his core is doing. or ....
your core is what allows the strength of your body's motion to be applied to the paddle and move the boat forward, whether you realize how engaged the core is or not. plus, your core muscles are what allow you to rotate with any strength. or does this guy not believe in rotating either?
3. No catch. Start the pull before the blade is buried.
catch, in its most basic idea, is getting the blade fully buried before pulling in order to get a firm "plant" in the water and not rip the water. essentially, if you can bury completely THEN pull, you'll be moving the boat more effiently, and most likely the boat will move that extra bit quicker than the same stroke but pulling before being fully buried.
4.No hip movement and no leg drive (basically just switch leg position depending on the side you are paddling on )
switching leg position? i'm guessing this is refering to OC6? I will admit that i find it difficult to brace and produce leg drive in an oc6 due to lack of bracing unless i'm in seat 1. But not using your hips? i dunno.... if you can use your hips to aid in your stroke, do it. in an oc1, definately use your hips and legs. take a look at ANY olympic or world championship footage of sprint kayak or canoe (youtube is your friend) and see how many paddlers are NOT using either their legs or their hips. only watch one video, or your eyes will hurt after not finding any if you try to keep on looking.
5. No 5 20
huh?
6.Exit should be a full D stroke with the blade brought up very high and top arm dropping low in the boat.
see above where talking about different strokes for different folks. BUT, "blade brought up very high"? the only time i've seen that is cerimonial paddling of the Royal Barge in Bangkok. Remember that you want to maximize your output IN the water, and maximize relaxation of your muscles while out of the water. lifting the blade high out of the water is a waste of energy. keep it as low as is reasonable; if the water is dead flat, its easy to float it less than an inch off of the surface, if the water is choppy, lift it a little bit higher than the highest wave in its path to the front of the stroke.
He felt if we were to implement most of these factors in our stroke for dragonboat it would be very beneficial to our team . Our team had a very successful year in D.B.
I would really apprciate some opinions on this !! I have a hard time believing that some of these points could be beneficial to either stroke.Help!!!
do what works for your team as a whole. just because so and so says that such and such way of paddling is the way to go, doesn't necessarily mean it IS the way to go. At the Worlds in Australia, there were lots of different styles of strokes. what worked for some, wouldn't necessarily work for others. For example, if the big, heavy Slovakians used the stroke that the smaller, lighter Philipinos used, I'm sure they would have vastly different results. Another example is the stroke that was used by China and Maccau (very similar strokes). China was blazing fast, Maccau wasn't.
Just out of curiosity, who was this outrigger guru who you had in your boat? feel free to PM me if you don't feel comfortable posting the name on the forum. I'd love to see how this person believes the proper technique should be. from what you wrote here, I have a hard time imagining how this stroke can be performed without looking extremely awkward and not being very efficient.
