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.

Paddle Sport Safety

As a Dragon Boat coach, safety considerations should never be far from your thoughts. Given the many aspect of water safety and the importance of addressing each properly, we urge you to seek professional preparation in each applicable category. The following summaries will make you aware of some common safety concerns for Dragon Boating.

Safety hierarchy

As a coach you should be aware of two main areas of safety; team safety and individual safety. It is your responsibility to educate your team about individual safety and supervise proper team safety.

It is very important that you respect individual safety and do not expect team members to lower their safety standards to be on the team. In setting your safety standards, remember that you must adhere to the standards established by the greater community in which we live.

A simple hierarchy of safety exists, where the minimum standards are those set by the level(s) above. The highest level of safety always resides with the individual.

1. Canadian Coast Guard

2. Canadian National Sport Organization for DB

3. Provincial or Regional Sport Organization for DB

4. Club or facility
   

5. Coach

6. Team

7. Individual

Environmental Conditions

It is important that you keep an eye on the weather and know both local forecasts before your practice and marine forecasts where applicable. These are available from Environment Canada or your respective government agency over the internet, or by phone. Be especially vigilant of wind and wave warnings, electrical storms and below freezing temperatures.

Under environmental safety you can include proper clothing for the ambient and perceived temperature, as well as education and support of the use of sunscreens.

In some areas this includes tides and current.

Water and Boating Safety

As one of the individuals responsible for the safety of your crew, you must be aware of maritime law for your waterways. The Safe Boating Guide (a free handbook) is a valuable resource for general reference, particularly when the practice site involves either commercial or recreational waterways as each have numerous regulations and guidelines for safe boating. Please consult the Canadian Coast Guard in your region for more information 1-800-267-6687 or check their website at www.ccg-gcc.gc.ca.

An excellent preparatory course for Dragon Boat steers people and coaches is the Canadian Coast Guard Pleasure Craft Operators Certification. If there are no Canadian Coast Guard safe boating resources in your area, other options are available on line or through the local Red Cross or Life Saving Society.

Regulations and procedures are an important guide, but nothing replaces common sense and a degree of reasonable caution in certain situations.

It can never be stressed enough how important a personal flotation device (PFD) is on a Dragon Boat. This essential piece of safety equipment is required in the boat by law for each person in the boat, paddlers, drummer, steersperson and coach. In winter paddling conditions and for non swimmers, the PFD should be worn at all times.

One easily overlooked Dragon Boat operation safety issue is the presence of a qualified steersperson at all times. Each crew should have a number of qualified steers people who can step in to steer as needed. Some clubs in the Vancouver area are requesting that steers people pass basic steering proficiency tests before they are allowed to steer in competitions or under certain environmental conditions or in certain training areas.

First Aid

It is important that Dragon Boat coaches have some knowledge of first aid. Good courses to consider are the St John’s Ambulance Basic or Emergency First Aid, and cardio-pulmonary resuscitation (CPR). All of these should be available at locally through municipal programs, aquatics programs, community centers and private groups.

Water

The most obvious risk associated with water is drowning and thus the need to respect the PFD regulations with common sense modifying each individual’s approach based on swimming ability, temperature, visibility, etc.

It is also important for coaches to be aware of the risks associated with exposure to untreated water. Potential problems range from rashes to infection of wounds (both old and new). At all times, paddlers should be encouraged to practice good personal hygiene and wash both themselves ands their paddling gear as soon after paddling as reasonable.

In fresh water paddling venues, paddlers should never be allowed to drink from the water upon which they paddle as there are many water borne parasites and other complications associated with such action. Even if the water is perceived as clean the risks are too great. These risk also extends to personal water bottles that are left in the water slopping around in the bottom of the boat. Keeping the drinking spout of the bottle isolated from potential contaminants is very important. In team sports an excellent rule of thumb is never to share water bottles as one sick team member can rapidly infect an entire team.

Injuries

Injuries among paddlers will happen; there is no question about that. Whether it is a blister or a bruise or a broken bone, obtaining proper treatment is important.

As a coach you will be approached by paddlers who have an ache or pain and are concerned about it. Newer paddlers will be concerned as the feeling is foreign to them and they are unsure if this is normal or not.

With common injuries, a first aid course will often suffice, however sporting injuries are not easy to diagnose. As such, do not hesitate to recommend that the injured paddler seek medical advice.

Do not try to be the team physician, unless you are qualified to do so of course.

Some common injury sites in paddlers are the following;

• Fingers

• Wrists

• Elbows

• Shoulders

• Back

• Neck

• Hips

• Knees

If your paddlers complain about recurring pain in any of these areas, please refer them to their family physician as soon as possible.

It is also a good idea for newer paddlers, or those who have been sedentary for an extended period of time to get a physical examination and clearance from their family doctor to begin an exercise program.

Team Emergency Procedures

It is important for the coach to develop safety procedures for a variety of scenarios. These procedures should be familiar to the crew and known very well by key safety personnel such as the coach, drummer, steers person and team captain.

Sample Emergency Procedures that should be devised for your practice venue and resources are;

• Medical emergency,

• Equipment malfunction or boat damage,

• Swamped or capsized boat,

• Paddler overboard,

• Other boat in distress,

• Commercial traffic or sail boat threat,

• Hazardous Weather: thunderstorm, high winds, hail, etc.

We will post EAPs submitted to this site for all to share.