For those of you who have been following my blog, I'm still very much a newbie when it comes to dragon boating. I'm still nowhere as fit nor strong as my team mates (our coach's latest fitness challenge for us: 100 pull ups, followed by 100 push ups, 100 squats and 100 sit ups, the challenge is how quickly you're able to finish the routine. The quickest so far is 17 minutes.. I'd be contented if I can manage the 100 pull ups!), nor am I technically consistent enough yet. But it is a sport that I thoroughly enjoy, and both Kat and I have been very fortunate to have great team mates who'd advise us on our strokes, as well as a great tough-loving coach who's always making sure that our strokes are efficient and consistent. He's come up with loads of interesting drills to make sure that we get more power from each stroke because unlike the younger teams (like the universities), we simply aren't as fit nor strong as them. It's about being smarter.
My enjoyment of dragon boating got rekindled last year during my school's inter-department race, and subsequently, Kat and I joined Naga. Because of our travel schedule this year, I wouldn't be able to join my department for this year's inter-department race, but I decided to join them for their training in a coach's (ahem.. simply because I know something about dragon boat) role. What a great excuse to get out of the office on a mid-week afternoon and be a passenger in the boat for once!
The staff who turned up were a mixture of participants from last year, and also several new members, some of whom who aren't the most active. But hey, they were there and ready for an experience, so that's a great start. After paddling around a little, I got them to do some drills that my coach used on us to get our technique right, and then it was off to put everything together for more paddling around the river. It was a challenge trying not to be ambitious by doing too much with them in a short space of time, yet making sure that they are taught the necessary skills.
There's no better to gauge the effectiveness of your training than to have a race, so we got the other 2 departments who were also training for a couple of friendly races. After some final instructions, the race started! I was really pleased that the department were following instructions really well, focusing on getting a good catch and power on the paddle rather than worrying about the stroke rate of the other boats. True enough, although our stroke rate was lower, our starts gave us a good lead, and we never looked back. I was extremely happy that everyone kept rowing although they were tired, and nobody was terribly out of sync. On their part, my colleagues were so happy to see the outcome of their training. The spirit was high and they made plans to catch up over dinner at the nearby hawker centre. And that's what I loved about the sport of dragon boat, the building of comaraderie, and the usually sedentary members realising how much fun it can be despite the physical challenge. Although they were complaining about feeling tired, and aches and pain when they got in to work this morning, they were chatting excitedly about the experience, using dragon boat lingo (already!), searching for YouTube videos on draogon boating, and some even doing "air rowing" to practice their strokes.
It was such a great feeling and when I told my coach about it, he had this to share, "As long as they are willing to listen and learn, the sport is for everyone".
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