Dragon Boat Racing: All about the sport

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by
Simon Wyndham

The sport of Dragon Boat Racing is thousands of years old and was born from ceremonies that were intended to frighten away evil spirits with the sound of their drums. Now Dragon Boating is an international sport that suits a wide variety of people of all ages and ability.

Dragon Boating is just as much an important part of Chinese culture as Lion Dancing, martial arts, and calligraphy. It became an international competition in 1976, but is one of the worlds oldest organised competitions. Although most of the ceremony and regalia associated with traditional Dragon Boat racing is not in place in most modern competitions.

While a Dragon Boat could traditionally take up to 100 paddlers, the modern Dragon Boat most commonly takes around 20, although some speciliased smaller boats are also now being made which take around 10.

A Dragon Boat is very long and thin, and fully loaded is not naturally stable, so weight distribution and knowledge of how to brace the boat should things become unsteady are prequisites of being a good paddler.

At the bow of the boat there is a drum and a seat for the drummer, usually someone of light build. The Dragon Boat drum is hit every time one of the stroke paddlers paddles hit the water. Stroke paddlers are the two paddlers at the front of the boat. Their pace dictates the paddling synchronisation of the rest of the boat, for Dragon Boating is well and truly a team sport.

At the stern of the boat stands the Helm or Sweep who steers the boat wih a giant oar.

Each paddler must aim to hit their paddles to the water at exactly the same time as their teammates, something that can cause a lot of fun and frolicks when you are first starting! Inconsistency means that drag is caused and efficiency is lost. Winning a Dragon Boat race is far more about skill and team synchronisation than it is about brute force or paddling speed. As a result Dragon Boating is very popular with women and children with many teams existing purely for those demographics.

That said Dragon Boating is extremely physically intense to take part in. Quite often companies will enter a charity team into special competitions organised by one of the many Dragon Boat clubs. This is common way for many people to catch the bug and end up joining a club for real.

Some clubs take the racing more seriously than others. So if you only wish to take it up as a casual hobby you may want to look around. There are plenty of clubs all across the globe. You may not realise it, but Dragon Boating is actually one of the most popular sports in the world!

One of the great things about it is that Dragon Boating is a very social sport so you end up making a lot of friends and get to hang out at various club organised events. While personally I have not had much time to keep up the sport myself I would have no hesitation in recommending it to anyone who wishes to meet new people while getting fit. Do not be put off if you have a low fitness level as it is amazing how you will build it up with regular practise. Everybody has to start somewhere and in the beginning you might feel like your lungs are about to explode, or even throw up! Give it a chance though as the results are certainly worth it.