Inquiring what some of the more competative teams do in off season. Also how pertinant are poolside practices for seasoned paddlers.

Off season training is very important. For me, the off season is the time to build up your absolute strength. Don't wait too long to start. Most experienced athletes will start traing for next season by November. Talk to someone who knows a little about strength training for explosive speed strength sports. Have them recommend a periodized training program based on building absolute strength first, then transition into more explosive, accelerative movements like plyometrics. This will allow you to teach your body to recruit the power movements required in a dragonboat. Mix in some muscular endurance, and some cardiovascular intervals. By April you should be sitting pretty to get on the water.

In my opinion, pool practice is good for everyone. Although more so for the inexperienced paddler. Although it doesn't truly simulate the boat, it's still a good venue to teach technique, if you have a coach that can recognize a proper paddle connection. You probably don't really need any more than once a week though. I've been paddling 11 years and I still learn new things technically every year.

Hope that helps. I would be curious to hear other opinions.

Smuthe
I know of a great strength training program based on the speed strength principles you speak of. I have seen people make truly amazing gains in absolute and relative strength --as well as improve explosive power and intramuscular coordination by leaps and bounds.

If there is interest I am sure a few of us in the dragonbat community could pool our resources and have these guys do a seminar or something --- thoughts from the field...???

if you can get these guys inform me, I know many on my team the Komodo Dragons would love to start improving overall.

TP Executive, are you giving away our team secrets?

..I agree with Smuthe.

I don't know about what the rest of you think, but I think that regardless of the sport, you should have some sort of cardiovascular base to start with. So, after a layoff from dragon boat..I would recommend the first thing one does to ease back into things is moderate cardio, and we're talking maybe 2-3 times a week of 20 minutes working at a moderate pace (70-85% max heart rate)

Paddling in the pool during the off-season is desirable - and I agree it should mainly be for technique. I stop immediately when my form goes - even if I haven't been going for very long

Why?

1) The offseason is for rebuilding and don't believe the main emphasis with paddling practices should be to get in a really good workout

2) I believe that the best cardiovascular gains are made by lower body exercises, and I believe the science is there to back it up.

Anyone agree/disagree?

I don't disagree jason but, Dragonboat is a different animal than running a 5k, playing a game of soccer or rowing a 2000m metre race. Traditional cardio training and by traditional I mean long steady state runs, will do nothing to improve your in-boat performance and may in fact harm your over all muscular development.

You are much better off with shorter interval style runs -- much like wind sprints -- these are actually more effective at burning fat and not catabolizing muscle (which long steady state runs tend to do). The real danger in a long steady state run is muscle wasting as your body feasts on your hard earned lean muscle mass with every mile you run. A good cardio base is important -- but it will not provide you with what you need to make you a great paddler -- it is all about anerobic threshold -- and interval training is the key to developing this.

TP Exec.

I agree completely You seem to really know your stuff. The Dragonboat community can probably benefit from your training knowledge.

What else do you have?

TP exec brings up some interesting points...it seems he is on top of the latest strength and fitness training techniques. I have some friends who are training with the ideas mentioned above and they have shown some excellent results...

For those interested in specific strength training for dragonboat... I have some contacts in this field and they actually came and did a seminar for my team. They spent two hours talking about dragonboat specific strength training and provided detailed periodized training program to all of our paddlers.
Honestly the improvement has been amazing -- explosive strength, strength endurance have improved with all of the paddlers doing the program. The guys are always available to answer questions or explain the reasons behind various excercises and techniques.
My team paid 400 bucks for the two hour seminar and the periodized program -- 20 paddlers kicked in 20 bucks -- . It has been really motivating seeing the improvements in power and endurance -- I can put you in touch with the guys if any one is seriously interested.

Wow, would you do interval training strictly throughout the entire year, that is, while varying your workouts, would everything be in the spirit of interval training?

That is probably the first time I've ever heard that, and to tell you the truth it makes me feel a lot better about how I've been training. I felt that my cardio might not be up to par because I always fit small cardio sessions in, but the emphasis is always on power.

This dragon boat season, though, I felt it very difficult to transition from my winter activity to paddling. I did power movements in the gym, and did lots of sprinting through my university's football program, but to tell you the truth, the marathon pieces that I did killed me initially because all I was doing with respect to running,etc. were all power/burst exercises.

This is good stuff we're discussing here..any insight?

Two questions:


1) Are there any paddlers that do power cleans/hang cleans/etc. or any other compound movements?

2) What do you guys do the week of the race..i.e. if you are properly adhering to the principles of periodization, you tone it down before races so you peak at the right time, i.e. race day...so any special advice??

Power cleans and cleans from hang are excellent for dragonboat. In fact all forms of modified power lifting translate very well to dragonboat movements. The key to a powerful, connected stroke is something called intramuscular co-ordination...basically your body's ability to fire up your muscle units in co-ordination with other muscle units -- then you can generate the kind of power that moves the boat.
Most strength programs are "bodybuilding" programs -- used to sculpt bodies and not to create power -- the program I have had access to creates real power through training your muscles to contract strongly and, more importantly to contract in concert with other muscles to creat paddle snapping power

Please forward me the details on the individuals who will do a seminar for our team. I would be very interested in it.

I have a feeling I am going to stick with paddling from what I am starting to hear. This is better cross training than I thought. If that is the case, I truly am training properly and do not need to emphasize long runs as I was trying to incorporate recently.

I have run into this problem before - I used to run 15k for wrestling and try to squat a ton at the same time. It just doesn't work.

So far the idea of paddling as a power sport is prevailing in the forums. I came into the sport with that attitude, but I have been greatly influenced by a school of thought that encourages lots of cardio development during the season. I, in effect, have been doing both...

10 minutes of cardio to bracket my workouts to warm up and flush out lactic acid at the end

and all the power movements in between.


i'd like to hear from people who disagree with an emphasis on interval training while outside of the boat.

TP - "...I have access to a program..." - when do we see the late-night infomercial? Will you have the little people starring in it? Sell t-shirts too? haha

Honestly though I would be on TP's program too but do not have the time currently. I have seen my teammates who do it make great gains. I would recommend, in my limited knowledge, some fun activities to add during summer months, as we all know it can be hard to go to a gym when it's hot out. I know many paddlers who play Ultimate Frisbee - basically it's 1 to 1.5 hours of sprints - something our paddling coach had us do in pre-season. But at the same time it's way more fun than doing sprints back and forth - you're playing a game. And the pub afterwards only adds more fun to the training!

I have heard this all before.

I agree with pretty much all, but I notice a clear bias away from running as a crucial and valuable component of off season and in season dragon boat training. I'm not talking about training for road racing, but running as critical component of cardio fitness.

Early off-season (Nov - december): I recommend a focus on cardio - my preference running - to build a strong foundation of cardio fitness for the weight and resistence strength and endurance training that should follow during the main off-season. 3 runs a week - two short (35-45 minutes runs) and one longer run (60 minutes) with a few moderate hills. Don't forget to do a basic weight workout twice a week.

Rest of the off-season (dec - april) I recommend two runs a week - 30 to 35 minutes max - at steady pace. You can build this into a weight training session.

Threshold training: I'm my opinion there is nothing that will prepare you better - physically and mentally - for that last 100 metres of a dragon boat race than threshold hill running. 30 minutes on a reasonably steep grade once a week. It will make you tough!

Did anyone here go to the Florida Camp? Was it worth it? How many people were there? I'm not sure 1 week of high intensity paddling is the best way to start the season off... expecially if you're injury prone.

Hi

I went to the florida camp - it was great. I'd strongly recommend it to anyone moderately serious about the sport. 2/Day practices is very demanding. Also, because it was a pretty small group, the paddlers were given pretty good individual attention.

With respect to the other comments in this thread - I don't think you can leave either aspect of training out - in season or off season. You need to get oxygen to the lungs - period -> Cardio. You need muscular endurance to push your lactic threshold -> resistance training. You need explosive power through the water -> TP. You need beer to make it all worth while -> mmmmm beer.

The New Bel Ini

JP, Florida was great. 2 a day. Not too intense at all. Just lots of it. A great way to start the paddling year. Snow in Toronto or 27° C paddling with dolphins. I'll take Florida.

still a relevent topic.