Coaching Fundamentals: Creating a Common Purpose

I find coaches in Singapore are excellent examples of the sport in their own right. They are technically proficient in their sport, possess technically sound fundamentals in the strategies employed in the sports that they have played in for years and create good platforms for the those who are willing to learn the sport that they so enjoyed in their years in the sport.

However, I believe fundamentally, we as coaches find some difficulty expressing the desire for the teams we coach to excel by creating a common purpose for individuals who come from many different backgrounds and experiences. I personally found this a challenge because each person in the team has their own motives and reasons as to why they join the sport of their choosing. I hope to share in this post how I have personally gone into framing the minds of my teams to create a shared purpose for them to paddle not just for themselves but for the good of the team.

1) Objectives / Goals
I think it can be clearer to the team if the objectives of joining the team can be expressed right from the start. Many coaches fail to see this as an important point to unite the team in the shared purpose of pursuing their goals. Whether be it finishing the race together even if they come in last, or racing till their lungs burst, the objective has to met out to the team to set the expectations for the team.

2) Expectations
Although used interchangeably with the word "objective", I believe the word expectations has a more roundedness in its use, especially when used in the long term. The team has to understand how their expectations of themselves has to match the objectives of the team and how they are to be accountable for their own improvement. I have personally set the bar high for my teams to expect the best of themselves in any of the training sessions they are to execute because only then will they be able to race easy. As they say, train hard, race easy.

3) Clarity
It is only with clarity of what the team wants that will fully embody the purpose of the team's existence. If the leadership in the team becomes clear with the above two points, the team will set a higher standard for themselves in achieving the goals set for them. The reasons and purpose for them to come to training will become stronger as they see a clear direction in the path the team is taking.

I think the challenge in coaching young teams has definitely giving due time to make sure that the above 3 points are constantly being imbued into each training session. Setting goals, expectations and giving clear directions in the actions they take in each training session gives them a strong purpose in achieving success in such a dynamic environment where many individuals may have different opinions and establish their own set of expectations. I hope that I may have done better in this aspect, because I know there is only so little in terms of fundamentals that I can coach, for the better part of the team's success is getting them to paddle with one heart, one mind and one soul.

A 3 Step Guide to Training Plan and Debrief Frameworks

Over the years of paddling, I have gone through many coaches and through their instructional methods, I definitely learnt alot from them.  Unfortunately, I never really went through a training session that was completely devoid of unnecessary talk that was far too long or far too off topic  where it basically lacks a framework that was concise, brief and to the point.

I will not choose to blame any of these coaches for handling debriefs in a slightly haphazard manner noting that they could have probably used "old school methods" to drill in paddling terminologies into young paddlers at the end of the race or training session in the hopes of achieving their objective of "teaching" the paddlers what they ought to have learnt over the session. However, it just leaves the paddlers confused as to what the coach was trying to drive at when he starts to talk about topics that may not have applied to the lesson the paddlers went through which may lead to distrust and frustration for the paddlers in believing in the coach's plan.

I believe fundamentally that there is a better way of instruction so that our paddlers can definitely be very focused in achieving the specific objectives of the training session or in certain cases, races. I would hope to highlight in this post how I arrive at every training session with a clear plan in mind leading up to what I would eventually say in a debrief.

Planning
A coach can only be as specific as the lesson he or she plans. It will only take a minute or two to spell out exactly the expectations that he will be setting for the training for that session that the paddlers will be executing.

I make it a point to spell out the objectives of the training programme for the day so that they will know exactly what we are looking to achieve today. Whether it be strength endurance training with resistance, speed endurance training, cadence training, or even technique checks. This would clear the paddlers mind in terms in performing to the specific objective of the training session without having to be concerned with speed on the GPS for example which would hamper the performance of a paddler if that was not part of his objective.

Of course, the coach has to has a consistent structure to his training program so that anyone who is going to take over training in his absence will be able to conduct his training without him. This will help facilitate a system from where his captains will easily be able to follow a simple plan directed in his absence.

Execution
As they say, planning does not necessarily lead to perfect execution and this is where following through the plan takes shape. I believe in strong fundamentals of keeping to timing in terms of duration of exercise and rest times to maximise the time available to the paddlers for training. However, contingencies will have to be arranged for situations where paddlers may not be fully prepared to take on the rigour of the program set out by myself and he has to cut down on training to match his paddlers potential. It would only make sense for the paddlers to achieve targets that they will be able to meet for them to push themselves abit more in future. Stretching the targets too far too early will only demotivate them further if not handled carefully.

Debrief
I would believe this is the most crucial part of the training because debriefs would highlight all the possible points that the coach has set out for the team and to give the team an overview of whether the team has met them. I would advise coaches to take on specific frameworks either derived from experience or specific influences from other areas in their lives to facilitate the team's progress and performance in every race. Personally I would stick to 3 points of observation based on 3 objectives that I set out before the training program is carried out to let my guys keep track of their progress of achieving the objectives or goals.

I guess this would really be too general an article to be very specific about how I conduct training and debriefs and I hope to be able to share more specifically step by step my thought process of planning, execution and debriefs. I hope that this would be the first for many more articles on training program planning.

Race Strategy Training

Many would agree in the racing world how important race strategy training is for the athletes' as a way to focus themselves toward specifically training for a race. As far as my limited experience as a coach has been, I have seen for myself how well race specific strategies improve my paddlers on many different aspects of the sport. In this article, I would very much like to share the 5 learning points that I have picked up from using race strategy training.

1) Focus and direction
It seems that on my previous occasions on races before I used this technique, my paddlers would find having an ambigious plan that resulted in me changing the game play at the very last moment very unnerving and disorientating. I learnt alternatively to focus on a very specific game plan that they would be very confident of executing based on their strengths and would give them a very specific direction in how my training would be performed prior to the weeks leading up to the race.

2) Confidence

I have seen how my paddlers became more confident in executing their strokes when they can actually count the number of strokes that they would have to execute at every part of the race. Giving them the exact layout of a race gives them the confidence they need to achieve the targets and it spreads really quick when their execution is exactly (or close to) what they practiced.

3) Increased performance

With increased confidence in their race plan, it is easily observable that their performance increases by more than what they expected. Expectations increase after every race, as the team take advantage of the increased performance from each race.

4) Better synchronicity

As opposed to being very haphazard in their previous races when they were given an ambigious race plan which changes from race to race, it gave the paddlers much attention to making sure that they were all in sync when they have practiced this by counting verbally what they would have practiced and executed this in the race.

5) Reduced complexity in communicating post race debriefs

In contrast to the vagueness of previous debriefs where debriefs are general in nature, specificity gives them much better control in communicating improvements between team members, relating constructive feedback to team members and providing very specific details on race portions (i.e. starts, body or finishes) that they can improve on. It creates a very solid platform for communicating simple tweaks to improve the different parts of the race without confusing the team on too much technicality.

Cadence Training for Dragon Boat

I recently used an metronome app and used it for cadence training for the teams I have been training with
and the results I must say have been particularly impressive.

Metronome training has traditionally been used for musicians such as guitarists, drummers to keep a consistent rythm for the beats of songs that they are playing especially for live events. I have seen many physical versions that require the metronome to be attached to a earphone and the drummer uses it to catch the beat per minute of the set.

Screen capture of the mobile metronome

Using a bluetooth speaker to amplify the volume of the metronome app on my trusty Xperia Z, my paddlers have been able to generate increased performance of over 10% within 2 sessions of using it. They find it a clearer assessment of the ability to gauge a constant pace and they are better able to judge pulling faster through the water to engage the next stroke. I have seen more consistent efforts at low ratings to generate more efficiency and synchronisation for every stroke applied to the water.

I never really expected to use this until I came across an article on cadence training in cycling which made alot of sense in cycling to increase performances at low cycling rates while improving on the effectiveness of the cycling technique.

Many of these sports apply similar principles in cadence training to improve performances over the long run.

I hope to see more benefits of using the metronome in time to come.

For those who are interested in getting the app, it is free on the Play Store for Android Phones - Mobile Metronome.

SINGAPORE RIVER REGATTA 2013: 3 TEAMS, 3 HOPES, 1 MEMORABLE SEASON...

As the race season draws to a close this coming weekend, it is a time of reflection for the things that have happened in the past year. The Singapore River Regaatta 2013 will be the first time in my life, I have taken on as a coach for 3 teams that will be racing both for glory and for one team, the first time they will race in such an event for the first time. It has been such a fulfilling experience coaching these teams and it will most definitely bring me to tears seeing these men and women paddle in a race under my guidance. It seems like I have never expected to have seen myself grow so much more from coaching just as I was when I was a paddler amongst a crew of 22. 

TEAMONESTROKE
Team OneStroke (aka Kaki Bukit CSC) gave birth to my first attempt at coaching and I have defnitely learnt alot from learning how a corporate team would handle my expectations and goals. It was an unusual experience for me knowing how I have been only competing in the past to take up a team that has unusual challenges. Many of these challenges are not new. Attendances, motivation levels, poor training performances and new paddlers coming in halfway through the season. Yet, it seems I have gained an understanding of how to face these issues head on and not allow them to get to my emotions. Somehow, somewhere there was this bit of faith that I had to pursue this challenge of making them a great team regardless of how things turned out and I have seen them grow through my tutelage. Many of the paddlers have begun to see a sense of pride paddling for the team and the bond has grown with each passing training. They begun to understand many facets of paddling in a dragon boat that they may not have learnt before which helps in their performance and seen improvements at a much more efficient pace. Fitness levels have significantly improved and time trial timings have been surprisingly impressive. Going up against their rivals in their category, I only can hope for the best that they can see all this training come to fruition and see the results in their upcoming race. These men and women deserve my salute for taking time off on their weekends to see through training sessions despite family commitments, studies and even time away from their children. 

MINISTRY OF SOCIAL AND FAMILY DEVELOPMENT (MSF)
The year progressed with a small surprise where I took on coaching a team from the Ministry of Social and Family Development (aka MSF). This team is made up of a small band of colleagues, young and old, men and women who would like to take on a new challenge of paddling in a dragon boat team. It started off as a monthly affair, a get together session to build their fitness and  learning the basics of paddling but it slowly turned into a weekly Saturday morning session where they saw themselves grow together as a team and training towards a race. What makes this team so special is that they treat each other like family and they keep in touch to make sure there will always be enough to paddle a 12 men crew. Attendances started from 7 to 14 in the final weeks towards the races, which makes me even happier to see them grow as a team and from learning how to paddle together to learning race sets that I would teach to a typical competitive team. Performances are never the key driver but the relationships that drive their success as a team. They started from almost strangers to friends who would be there for that Saturday to have breakfast together before they start training. It will be a fantastic feeling to see them race. A feeling to have been involved in building up a team of nobodys to a team that will see themselves pit against the best in their category. My heart will light up seeing this team finish the race. I hope I would be able to continue coaching them. All the best to MSF!

NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE (NUS) The year was coming to an end when yet another surprise caught me off guard. My alma mater took the opportunity to engage me when they realised they were stuck without a coach and they needed someone they could trust. I was initially hesitant knowing how little experience I had with coaching yet I knew I wanted to take them on to test out everything that I tried out on the above mentioned teams. It was almost a dream come true finally knowing that I could see my growth as a coach be tested out on a highly competitive team that would be able to see through plans that I had set out a year ago when i started coaching. This team has its challenges; stuck between school and team, many of them make the choice of pursuing a sport that would require hours, days, weeks, months to achieve the biggest prize of them all next July; the prime minister's cup. I had to be extremely clear with my instructions to get them to perform to my expectations and there is an uphill task trying to hold this team together long enough to see through their goals. I have more to expect of myself and I know its a tough job. Its only been a month since I took up this team so it would be too early to expect too much of them. They know they have to do well for their own sake. I wish them all the best and I would take no credit for their success in this upcoming race. The captains and team manager have worked well together and it will be soon when they will soar to greater heights. 

I must honestly say I have been truly blessed to have been given the chance to pursue a passion, a passion that I have lived through almost 10 years of my life to finally reach the stage where I can teach, coach and pass down values I believe create success in teams. The satisfaction of seeing these 3 teams just race under my coaching will be something I treasure for a long time to come. Thank god for everything. Thank you for the fantastic year, OneStroke, MSF and NUS:)

Race Piece Breakdown Part 2: Maintenance

Jack transitions into his a longer, more sustainable pace with his team coming back into the picture. He sees everyone as motivated to get to the finish line but it is still at least two thirds away. As he takes a quick glance to the side, he notices a team slowly inching ahead. Determined to make sure they don't pull away he lets out a loud cry.

"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!

Body Lean: Do you really need it?

In this post, I put up a very interesting article by Geoff  Fong from http://sfldbt.wordpress.comon Body lean. Although quintessential, is it necessary? Read the article to find out. 

Body Lean

How far does a paddler need to lean forward with their trunk to get a long pull?  How much lean is needed for a strong pull?  Probably not as much as you’d think.

What propels the boat?  The paddlers.

How do paddlers propel the boat?  They use their paddles.

Like I’ve mentioned in previous posts, the paddle blade is the business end.  Skillful paddlers can impart both great work and control to their paddle blade as it moves through the water.  Remember that work is defined as force over a distance.  Pulling the paddle faster through the water requires greater force.  The limits of human arthrokinematics and equipment leverage along with a paddlers physical strength determine some max value for work.  It probably looks like a bell-curve.  A paddler is only as strong as they are at that moment, but paddling technique has everything to do with paddling efficiency to reach the peak of that bell curve.

If you’re thinking of paddling from the perspective of how a paddle interacts with the water, the goal becomes how to move your body in a way that applies max leverage to the paddle through some optimum amount of paddle travel/displacement.  Several things happen when a paddler leans all the way down to the gunnel:

-  They lose reach at the paddle blade resulting in a shorter pull.  While it’s true that full lean to the gunnel may put the outside/bottom hand at its farthest forward distance from the bench, it doesn’t mean the same for the paddle blade (the business end).  Full lean takes away from our spinal mobility.  When your joints are taken to a maximum range in one direction, it becomes more and more difficult to move in other directions.  In this case, full trunk flexion takes away from rotation.  Try sitting in a chair, leaning forward and rotating your trunk to either side (don’t hurt yourself).  Now sit up straight and rotate in place.  You can probably rotate farther sitting up than curled over.  Decreased trunk rotation during the reach puts both hands at a similar distance from the bench, making a more vertical paddle angle on the entry, cutting actual reach at the paddle blade.

-  They have less strength.  Leaning forward fully during the reach puts most muscles used in paddling on full or very stretched position.  Glut max, hamstrings, lumbar extensors, lat dorsi, teres major, deltoids, rhomboids/mid and lower trapezei are out of their optimum zone for force production.  Your muscles are happiest and strongest in their mid-range.  For a simple example, think of curling a heavy weight.  It’s tough to start the lift from elbow fully extended and, when you’re fatigued, most folks struggle to get the weight all the way up to finish the rep (elbow fully flexed).  This is because 90 deg of elbow bend is about the middle of the elbow flexor muscle length (and coincidentally the joint angle of about the most mechanically efficient line of pull).

•  They are slower paddlers.  Sitting up from a fully reached position on a pull requires bringing up your whole trunk.  This takes a lot of time and energy because your trunk is a long lever arm.  Think of a long pendulum and how it swings slower than a short one (or takes much more force to swing faster than a short pendulum).  Slower movement sets paddling rate limitations.  When you’re racing fast, the water moves fast and you need to be able to move your paddle faster than the water to exert force on it.  Using a slow body movement like trunk flexion and extension will cap your ability to hold a faster rate to meet fast hull speeds.

How much lean is optimal?

The short answer is it depends.  The long answer is that there is no one answer and it depends.  (ha)

I am an advocate for a paddle stroke that has minimal trunk flexion/extension during the stroke and relatively more degrees of rotation.  My reason is that rotation allows for the paddle blade to get more positive on the catch and set the blade more forward than a negative/neutral angle, which increases the length of pull (possibly allowing more work to be performed).  Rotation is also mechanically more efficient for generating force to the paddle because the distance of your shoulders to your spine is less than the distance of your shoulders to your hips (shorter torque arm for rotation means less of a mechanical disadvantage compared to hip hinging alone).  One thing I am not a proponent of is sitting straight up and paddling.  It sets your shoulders way above the water line and, with it, your paddle resulting in less water contact and a shorter pull.  It also makes you work harder to resist the forces against the paddle (trunk as a long lever arm resisting paddle force at 90 degrees is the most mechanical disadvantage you can face).

I’ve never really paddled OC, but the stroke generally seems much more constrained than the typical dragon boat technique being used by local rec teams.  Part of the reason for less body excursion and more paddle movement is for energy conservation, which makes sense to me with OC’s racing for many miles.  I can see how allowing *some* increased trunk excursion may be desired in DB because the power gains may outweigh the need for energy conservation when you’re racing for sub 2 minutes or a 100-500 meter race.

On a side note, I think this is one of the reasons why senior/masters level teams can do as well/better than some youth teams is because masters paddlers may have 1) better water “feel” 2) physically less ability to flex their hips/spines so default to more rotation 3) better strength from a longer history of resistance training.

Credit to http://sfldbt.wordpress.com

Race Piece Breakdown Part 1: The Starts

The starts in a dragon boat race set has been and still is the most adrenaline pumping moment for any racer who takes part in a race. Let me paint the scenario a little more clearly through the eyes of a racer called Jackson. 

Courtesy of Boston.com

Jackson is a strong and powerful athlete, weighing in a mere 70 kilos but has the strength of a bull on a rampage on a good day. Sitting in the pace group as the second pair of paddlers, he has the responsibility to set the pace for the rest of his team with mininum error to maximise the potential of his team heading at the start. His team has practiced doing the starts during practice sessions at 90-100 strokes per minute and he knows he's not holding back. As soon as race horn sounds, he will pull with all his might to push the boat up to speed and hit the team's intended top speed as soon as possible. He is going to release every ounce of energy on the first 20 strokes or its nothing at all. His heart is pounding furiously as he awaits the inevitable sound of the horn. Adrenalin is pumping into his veins like never before. Its the finals of the National Championships and it is now or never. A second later, the announcer makes the final adjustments..

Are you readyyyyy? 

Attention!!!

(Sounds Horn)

For the split moment of a second, Jackson shifts himself into a self-induced trance like state, adrenalin surging through his veins as he pulls the immensely heavy pool of water in front of him with his newly bought carbon fibre paddle. The water boils past him as he moves in for his second stroke, then his third and before he realises it, his team is running at an incredible pace at 100 strokes a minute. It seemed like forever when at the 20 stroke into the starts he transitions into race pace at 80 strokes a minute. He catches quick glance at the team beside him and he sees no boat in sight. He knows his team got it but there's still two thirds of the race to go. 

In sprint races or 200m to 500m in length, this behemoth of the race piece is one of the most difficult parts of the race to execute to its maximum potential due to the sheer physical strength and speed that it requires from the paddlers to reach the boat's critical maximum speed. Teams in Singapore have been known to hit speeds of up to 16-17km/hr based on actual GPS readings but on the international front, I'm sure it has went closer to 19km/hr. 

So what makes a good start piece? 

Having been a padder myself for the past 7 years, I've seen myself hitting 90 spm (strokes per minute) starts to really initiate any sort of advantage against the competition. Yet, technically it is really difficult to achieve due to the following factors:

1) Technical Proficiency of the paddlers
This is meant in the sense of the paddler understanding what he is doing to the water when he is at that rating. I've been to races trying to race at 90spm and I really felt that I basically didn't do anything to the water other than shove it out of my way. But when a more technically experienced paddler does it, he has a clear understanding of the essence of the catch every time he pulls the water even at high ratings. 

2) Physical limitations 
Going in depth into the muscularity of the paddler, the stroke rating may very well be defined by how well conditioned his fast twitch muscle fibres are able to move at high speeds. Many paddlers at the recreational/novice stages may not have fully developed fast twitch muscle fibres in their body to initiate any form of power through the starts nor hit high stroke rates due to lack of conditioning. 

3)Weight of the boat. 
As far as I remember, I only managed to hit these high ratings and high speeds in boats like the Champion or the German Buk. Never have I hit my best timings in heavier boats like the Malaysian Kim Tuck Huat boats. Its very much more challenging to push a 15-20 stroke start piece in a KTH than trying to hit it at 80-90 strokes per minute in a German BUK or Chinese Champion. 


Typical vs the 5-5-5 method
Typical starts that are very common in Singapore are known as the extended starts; made up of a 5-6 stroke slow stroke followed by 20-30 strokes at a rating of 80-90 spm. Many in the community deem it the NORM which I find a fallacy when it comes to racing at the international standard where boats like the Champion are used. 

The New Starts: 5-5-5 method
A recent blog I read suggests using a 15-20 stroke routine broken up into 5-5-5 strokes to increase the instantaneous increase in speed to hit the top speed of the boat.Each of the 5 stroke increase in spm of 10 strokes spm to ramp up as high as the paddler possibly can handle. I find this radical but yet very logical at the same time. Why? Because extended starts although suitable for heavier boats, do little to increase instantaneos boat reaction at the start. It ramps up the speed over a longer time which also hampers total timings. 

The new way of doing starts emphasises the importance of the use of ATP in the muscles in the window of opportunity where it comes and goes within a span of 10 seconds. Any energy expended beyond that is in the part aerobic region which defeats the purpose of using all out Power at the part of the race. Therefore an extended starts that run almost 20 seconds into the race do little to the athletes to maximise their aerobic energy systems which could have already been expended in the starts. 

I don't mean to deny the merits of the starts that we already have been using for the years that i've been paddling for. However, it does not hold ground when we really figure out the energy systems that we use. I think talk is cheap so I'm trying this new method out with my team to really see if we can get any results from this method. I hope this information has been useful to you guys. Till then! Paddles Out!

Kim Kardashian in a Dragon Boat Race; Seriously?

I was just surfing through the web for hot chicks in a dragon boat (Nothing of the erotic sort I swear), and guess who I found.. Kim Kardashian actually paddled in a dragon boat before! Much of this story was publicised openly in many news and tabloids I couldn't believe she was actually paddling in a dragon boat. As you can imagine, her whole family and friends were in on the act but who am I to judge when someone so famous tries out my beloved sport. Enough of the talk. Its time for the pictures!! 

Who else can look as cool as her scratching her crotch? 

Warming up: Stretch!

Of course don't forget to do a few squats

And remember to bend over

Time to get wet and wild

  

She's probably laughing at her ex-husband

I think wearing Ray Bans are gonna be the next in thing.

Photos courtesy of http://celebrity-gossip.net/

I'm never gonna look at Kim the same way again! . If you like this post please share it!

How to choose a paddle - Part 2: The advanced guide

Upon request of friends who are have enjoyed my first article How to Choose A Dragon Boat Paddle, I have decided to come up with a more comprehensive guide on choosing your paddle which may help the paddler who has been paddling for at least a year to pick up some tips before your next purchase. With the numerous paddles around in the market place, I will give you my top 5 tips to look out for and also sizing the paddle.

How to Choose a Dragon Boat Paddle

Choosing a paddle can be a nightmare 

I guess choosing the right dragon boat paddle for your own individual needs is no less important than choosing which colour of the next oakley shades you're gonna buy. There are a variety of dragon boat paddles that range from many different prices and materials that you can choose from. Yet, the most important considerations would have to be your skill and style, Strength and Fitness and of course your budget. 

You can be sure that no two paddles that you try out while shopping for one will be the same and it's performance can vary tremendously based on the individual. You can always base on the few guidelines that we will be looking into and that we have to seriously consider before you make your virgin purchase of your paddle.