"Come On GUYS!! Let's go!"
This moment in the race is typically known as the maintenance phase for most paddlers. In some countries I believe it is called the race body. Regardless of what you call it, it may be the most demanding piece of the race that requires the paddler to give a Herculean effort. The following factors may predetermine the speeds at which teams run at and also determine maintaining leads ahead of the competition especially in top level competitions or amongst teams who have similarly strong start pieces.
1) Aerobic Fitness
In the dragon boat, a paddler would have to paddle over 6000 kilograms worth of force throughout the entire 200m race. This is easily calculated by the number of strokes he typically takes in a typical 200m race (hypothetically speaking if he maintains a rate of 100 strokes a min and he ends the race in 1 min flat at a weight of 60kilos). You can imagine the immense amount of aerobic capacity he or she would need to ensure that his lungs will be able to last throughout the entire set. Novice teams would usually not be able to hold speeds beyond 30-40 seconds into the race for the fact that they most often than not, lack the time to build such fitness levels even if they were to build this fitness out of the water. Most top level teams however, have either the time to train their aerobic capacity leading ultimately to better overall average speeds.
2) Strength Endurance
Also related to aerobic fitness, strength endurance of a paddler refers to the amount of strength that a paddler is able to sustain throughout an aerobic piece typically found in the maintenance phase. That's why top teams who also have the ability to get access to proper gym facilities and a specific program targeted for strength endurance, will be able to hold speeds near the optimal. Repetitions may range from 20-40 repetitions with sustained effort throughout the set.
3) Coordination and timing
There are teams although they may lack that intensity at the starts, do pretty well at the maintenance phase due to their ability to feel the rhythm and glide of the boat. Together with better coordination and timing, they tend to get ahead of their rivals who may have punched out a few seats ahead to match them seat for seat.
Although I never put up anything extensive here, I still do believe the maintenance phase becomes more critical as the race piece extends from 200m to 1000m, something which I may have the chance of speaking about in future. With that I hope you enjoyed this post and share it with you fellow friends and paddlers alike!
