The Dragon Boat and Crew

A Dragon Boat is an 18 - 22 person canoe that seats paddlers side by side. The length of a Dragon Boat varies around 48 feet (~16 m). There is a dedicated steersperson at the stern and quite often a drummer in the bow. Among the paddlers there are also many different roles to assign.

Before we go into coaching in any detail, here is a quick overview of the different crew members on your boat.

Team Captain

This individual is elected by the team to act as their spokesperson and official liaison with the coach, manager and sponsor. To facilitate communication between the team and support staff, the team captain is responsible for contacting the team members with information.

Very often the feedback from the team is greatly enhanced when it is routed through the team captain. The honesty of feedback is much better as well.

Steersperson

The steersperson is the person responsible for the safety of the crew and the boat. It is their job to ensure all safety equipment is on the boat and the boat is water worthy.

At any time the steersperson can take over boat for safety reasons. This applies to both drummer and the coach. The crew must be absolutely clear on this fact.

Steering is a skill achieved through practice, just as paddling is, and a good steersperson can win or loose a race for any team. For novice teams, we suggest having a number of steerspersons within the team and rotating through them from practice to practice.

At this level going in a strait line is the number one priority. This is best achieved by having the steersperson learn to use small corrective pushing and pulling strokes as opposed to using the steering oar like a rudder.

A good steersperson is easily identified by the stable stance they assume and that they always keep their head up and look where they are going.

Drummer

Drummers control the boat. For many novice teams it will be the coach who assumes this role and if the drummer says something, the team must be conditioned to respond as a unit.

The only exception to this is that the steersperson can take over boat at any time for safety reasons.

The drummer, coaches the crew through the workout, calls technique reminders, and keeps the crew motivated. The toughest job for the drummer is learning what excites and what calms the crew, then using each when appropriate. In some cases a good drummer will know this for each paddler.

If the coach is not drumming the team, it is essential that the drummer attend as many practices as possible to learn all they can about the team and each individual paddler. This helps significantly on race day.

Strokes

The strokes set the rate for the rest of the boat. They work as a pair, left and rights with one being dominant for any given workout or piece. Your strokes should be fitter than the average paddler so that they are able to maintain the stroke rate without tiring.

Your strokes also need to be very confident and able to gauge when the boat is working well.

They should also be able to tune out the incessant requests from the middle of the boat to go faster.

Having a number of different strokes is always a good idea. This way you can have spares in the case of injuries and absences. If possible try to have a couple of mid-boat strokes in row 5 or 6 to help the backs with timing.

Fronts

The front seats of the boat are quite tight and better for smaller paddlers. Lighter paddlers with very good timing are best used in this section of the boat as the timing of the rest of the boat comes from here.

Middles

The middle seats of the boat are best kept for your taller and stronger paddlers. They will be more comfortable and better able to use the space. Keeping your heaviest paddlers in the middle of the boat also helps with keeping it balanced.

Backs

The back seats of the boat are a mixture. Some coaches put their worse paddlers here thinking that they won't interfere too much way back in the boat.

However, putting a poor paddler in the back virtually eliminates him or her given the fact that the water at the back of the boat is moving quite quickly and is very difficult to paddle in. A better solution is to select technically good paddlers for the back.

Support team

Lastly, do not forget to spend time developing a support network for your team. This includes a team manager, team captain and sponsors. Your support network will also include family and friends who wish to get involved. The bigger you can make your team, the easier it will be to reach your goals.

Communication with your crew

Learning how to communicate quickly and efficiently with your crew is very important. Take some time to develop your own series of commands to enhance your control over the crew. Some of the common commands heard coming from the drummer or steersperson in Dragon Boats are;

• "Paddles up": ready to paddle, all paddlers with paddles above water ready to enter water

• "Take it away": begin paddling.

• "Let it run": stop paddling and let the boat glide

• "Hold the boat": place paddles in the water and brake the boat to a stop.

• "Back it down": paddle backwards

• "[front] / [back] Draw [left] / [right] ": initiates a turn using draw strokes by the designated paddlers

• "[load] / [unload] from the [front] / [back]": to indicate how you want your crew to load the boat.

Balancing the boat

With so many people in a Dragon Boat, there is a need for the coach to balance the weight distribution to ensure an even trim from left to right and front to back.

When loading and balancing the boat, don't be too worried about having an exact balance the lefts and rights, fronts and backs. While it is important, don't underestimate balancing paddler stroke power, or moving your drummer over slightly one way or the other, or leaving empty seats or rows in different places.

You can also move paddlers into seats closer or further form the center line to make adjustment in the left right balance where moving people from left to right isn't possible.

Play around with different crew set-ups, and if in doubt try to balance the lefts and right first then worry about the front-back balance. If you're really stuck, leave your boat neutral or slightly bow light.