In your paddling life, you’d meet different kinds of people with different personalities and from different backgrounds, too. Some you’d easily get along with, some you just wouldn’t. And that’s okay because, first and foremost, you joined the team to paddle and there’s a lot more reasons for you to still be able to eat, sleep, and breathe the sport of paddling.
To be truly part of the team is to play your part: to be full of hope, to be willing to learn and work hard, and, most importantly, to be kind towards your teammates. What kind of a paddler are you?
1. The Motivator
He’s the one who pushes you to do your best–to paddle harder and to train more often. While he does his best to embolden and encourage you to put more effort in learning the techniques, he shows you how it’s done and he makes sure that you dig your paddle deep with your soul and might.
2. The Whiner
This paddler does more whining rather than paddling. It can be about the training program, the new coach, or anything that’s not paddling-related even. It’s just non-stop and it drains everyone’s energy and patience. If you feel like you’re being treated unfairly by anyone from the team, try to open up a dialogue but be pleasant and treat it with utmost professionalism.
3. The Ball of Fire
He gives his all. He shows up in all scheduled practices and he performs his best. He believes that putting effort in training will make him a better paddler, a better teammate. For when the races come, he is ready and his mindset would be like: It’s just one of those regular trainings, only with Umpires and Judges.
4. The Unenthusiastic
He may show up at practices but with such low energy and the performance is half-baked. It’s better to get your focus back, re-fuel, and then go back to practice. The paddler’s power and performance, or lack of it, during the training period will determine the team’s performance on actual race days.
5. The Keeper
He values the team’s unity, in and out of the boat. He keeps them excited to go to training and he persuades teammates who have not been training to come back and paddle. He’s everyone’s friend and you want to paddle alongside him always. He’s the team’s positive energy and the watchdog of whiners.
6. The Boat Wrecker
Quite obviously, this person is unhappy, therefore he does things that demoralises a teammate or the entire team—and so the boat becomes so much heavier. Every so often, they’re the ones who’s not performing at practices and fails at fitness tests. That’s why it’s important to be goal-oriented yourself and then align it with the team’s objectives and aspirations.
Here’s a roundup of paddlers we follow on Instagram. We intend to not say much about each of their accounts, so it’s up for you to discover and enjoy. Whether a photo’s subject is about dragon boat, food, pets, nature or themselves, their galleries show how passionate they are about paddling, fitness, and just simply loving life.
A newbie, a leisure dragon boater, a world champion–it’s an exciting mix. Take inspiration from the stories they tell through their IG; and on how they keep fit, sexy, and healthy through sports, exercise, and eating well. Some dope pointers on how to look damn hot in photos, too!
Some of most beautiful women in the universe were spotted in a dragon boat in the paradise island of Boracay in the Philippines. Sixteen lovely beauties visited Boracay and were warmly welcomed by the officials and locals of Malay in Aklan, the province where the world-famous island is situated. Aside from paddling in the beautiful shores of Boracay, the contestants also got to try fishnet-making and handicraft-weaving using palm leaves.
The island visit is just one segment of the different pre-pageant activities that all 86 contestants must go through. Such activities include photo shoots, swimwear competition, and women empowerment activations–all leading to the 65th Miss Universe Coronation Night scheduled on the 30th January at the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City, Metro Manila.
This dragon boat training activity organised for the Miss Universe candidates is a great exposure for the sport of dragon boat. Don’t we all want to live to see the day where every time we mention ‘dragon boat’, we’ll hear: “Oh cool!”, instead of “Sorry, dragon what?”
Here are some the photos of them Confidently Beautiful paddlers!
Thanks to Richelle Louise Singson-Michael and the whole Miss Universe marketing team who made this Dragon Boat segment possible in cooperation with the Department of Tourism, Solar Sports and the Province of Aklan. Watch it air LIVE on 29th January on FOX from The Philippines.
Gushou is an online sport management platform designed for dragon boat. It is a hub, tool, and resource for all segments of the global dragon boat community. Gushou (pronounced “Gu-shoe”) means drummer in Chinese. The drummer is the pulse of any dragon boat team and we want to be the pulse of the dragon boat community.
We have been paddlers, team captains, coaches, and event organizers. With over 40 years of combined experience in dragon boat and other paddling sports between the two of us, we have both experienced and observed specific challenges that face athletes and organizers in the dragon boat community. We also run Sunnyside Paddling Club – with over 3000 paddlers, it is the largest in North America. Gushou was built to address the specific challenges of team captains, organizers, and paddlers – created by paddlers for paddlers. We’re looking to make an amazing sport more accessible to everyone.
The Founders
Blake HarraChrissy Wessman
On Gushou, Team Captains can manage their roster, streamline communication in one place, and recruit new paddlers more efficiently. Paddlers can find teams who are recruiting in their area and stay up to date on the latest team communication, and practice and race schedules. Event/Club Organizers can promote themselves and will soon will be able to manage registration and scheduling, easily communicate with all stakeholders, track charitable giving, and increase revenue through wider community recognition. Another feature to be added is the vendor marketplace. Because dragon boat isn’t as widely known as some of the other mainstream sports, you can’t just go anywhere to get gear. Paddlers will be able to connect with vendors to make Gushou a true one-stop-shop for all things dragon boat.
We’re currently developing the next phase and we are always rolling out new and better features based on user feedback. We want to create the ultimate user experience that will be the future of dragon boat organization for the global community.
Indiegogo Campaign (running until August 7 11:59 PM): With over 100 events, 150 teams, and thousands of paddlers already registered on the platform, Gushou is currently stepping into the next phase of the launch strategy. They are running a crowdfunding campaign to help them get to the next development level. They are creating the ultimate user experience for all things dragon boat. Gushou will give the ability to track race results in real time and event history in addition to the continuously evolving team organization features.
The sport of Dragon Boat has taught you many lessons that you can apply in real life. Teamwork and camaraderie for example, are just two of a number of life principles that you may have picked up or developed from the sport. To make your dragon boating life more meaningful, you should embrace all the learnings from it, especially those that make you an expert about life.
Qualities like mental toughness, being a team player, or having a winning mindset are just some of the takeaways you have acquired from dragon boat. Here’s a few compilation of some of the most inspiring words of wisdom by national athletes from around the world; and here’s hoping that you may embody these amazing qualities to help you and your team in stepping up your game, in sport, and, in life.
1. Leave your Ego by the Dock Site
“That one crucial part is for members to leave their ego at the door. You can have a team full of the best athletes in the world, but if they can’t check their egos and blend with humility, it’s a recipe for disaster.”
“Keep going, keep your head up, be proud! Always reach further, I was told I would never walk again! I could not, WOULD not accept that! You keep battling! Afghanistan was my war, now my injury is my war! Life is for living; live it to the max.”
Mark Harding, National Athlete – Great Britain Dragon Boat Team
3. Listen to the Beat of the Drum
“I always maintain a healthy respect for my paddlers of all levels, since I am often paddling in the boat with them too. I am aware that as a sole person I may not see or understand all things of all paddlers at all times. So I encourage healthy discussion and conversation from my paddlers. This two-way dialogue encourages respect and cohesion amongst the paddlers.”
Dennis Wright, National Athlete – Auroras – Australian Dragon Boat Team
4. Keep a Fit Mind and Body
“I think the key to success in sport is staying physically and mentally energetic by staying motivated and free from physical obstacles like injuries and illnesses.”
Carl Marco Wassén, National Athlete – Dragon Boat Team Sweden (Sverige)
5. Paddle with your Heart
“We play sports like dragon boat because we love doing it. The awards and medals are only a small part of it. Yes, you will strive to be the best but in so doing, loving and enjoying the sport is already an ultimate goal achieved.”
“Never give up and have a big goal and ambition. One needs to be very confident on training and during competition. The most important thing is to keep training and practice a lot.”
Wu Chun-Chieh, National Athlete – Chinese-Taipei Dragon Boat Team
7. Motivated to Motivate
“One thing that keeps me going when I’m tired during a race or in training is the knowledge that my teammates around me are hurting just as much and that my opponents are pushing themselves even harder.”
“Unity is important especially in a team because without it you will not achieve your goal. For example, when our team is focused on a certain programme today, it requires everyone to be united in following and doing it; when others did not perform well, we need to do it again and again until we have perfected it.”
Riza Canonoy, National Athlete – Philippine National Dragon Boat Team
9. Celebrate Victory, but..
“The victories in the past give self-confidence of course and also the necessary composure for the upcoming challenges. However, one shouldn’t relax on the victories from the past; there will always be new aims, new opponents and therefore also new duties.”
Marc Rößler, National Athlete – Team Germany (Deutschland)
Late last year, we have compiled and featured the Top 30 Dragon Boat Influencers on Twitter. It’s about time to get to know the next batch of boosters and agents who promote the sport through this online social networking microblogging platform. Let’s celebrate them for actively promoting and pushing to popularise the sport and make more people not just become aware but encourage them to try out our beloved sport.
But, why 30? What is its significance to Dragon Boat?
According to International Dragon Boat Federation or IDBF, the international governing body for the team water sport of dragon boat racing: “It was 30 years after the first Hong Kong International Races or HKIR, the numbers show the impressive development of Dragon Boat Sport. 50 million Dragon boaters in China and the sport, through the IDBF, has now spread to all continents’ [sic].”
“Since the formation of the IDBF, the sport has spread rapidly throughout the world. […] 300,000 in the UK and Europe, including Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Russia; 90,000 in Canada and the USA and many thousands in Australia and New Zealand and with the sport now spreading through the Caribbean, Africa and the Pacific Basin; Dragon Boat Sport, under its governing bodies is a vibrant, effective and independent paddle sport.”
The HKIR in the 70’s is believed to be the start of the ‘Modern Era’ of Dragon Boat Racing. In the present day, the IDBF, EDBF (European), and the ADBF (Asian) Federations are the three Federations who now govern Dragon Boating as practised in over 60 countries.[Source]
To come up with the top 30 list, we mainly used search engine & twitter search. The latter is as simple as typing dragon boat keywords on Twitter’s search field and exploring its advance search functionality. For search engine, to put it simply, the keywords will be ‘searched’ based on data which are already indexed in their system, thus the results. Each particular search engine will have varying results because each have their own ranking system and its own unique data gathering and coordinates used.
As to how its metrics and processes work, that’s another technical literature altogether. Let’s not go there for now. For this particular purpose, we used the largest dragon of them all–Google. Here they are in random order.
— VeniceCanoe & Dragon (@venicecanoe) May 16, 2016
*The nomination is still open for the “Most Inspirational Dragon Boat Paddlers on Instagram.” Let us know if you want to anonymously nominate a friend, coach, team manager or a teammate. Just simply send a link of their account to our inbox: eugephemisms [at] gmail [dot] com
“There’s water everywhere!”, that’s what they say of The Netherlands, because of the major bodies of water which you can find in and around this gorgeous country, these are: Rhine River, Waal River, Meuse River, Wadden Sea, IJsselmeer Lake, Markermeer Lake, Eastern Scheldt estuary and North Sea.
In The Netherlands, there are about twelve dragon boat teams who train and compete in the annual major races; and they would compete with each other on a regular basis. In dragon boat festivals, however, there will be occasional ‘fun teams’ that would be formed just for a particular event. Almost all active clubs would have their own boats and storage areas. Amsterdam, The Hague and Alkmaar are the three main areas where the teams are concentrated.
Let us share with you yet another compelling story of a dragon boat paddler from Vianen, Utrecht, Netherlands who turned into a competitive dragon boat racer and then a beloved coach and trainer of the Dutch youth in 2010, and at the same time of The Dutch dragons. His name is Arjo van Tienhoven.
From 2007 till 2016, he has bagged numerous medals from dragon boat racing at the Dutch National Championships—both as a paddler and as a coach. He began paddling when he was 27 years old, now 42, he has been coaching and training the young generation of paddlers in The Netherlands for the last ten years.
Arjo van Tienhoven with International Race Official Wendy Hermelink
“I was introduced to dragon boat racing by a colleague at the company I worked for.”, Arjo said. “I was only 27 years old when I experienced my first dragon boat session.” He started training with the corporate team called: Concrete Dragons. “A bit of a catchy name because we were working for a construction company.”
He continued to paddle with Concrete Dragons for five years and from 2007 up to the present, he’s been paddling and (on the latter stage) coaching The Dutch Dragons— the most successful Dutch club team. Aside from The Dutch Dragons, Arjo has also coached the National U18 Team crew and the KLM Blue Dragons.
“One of my proudest moments as a trainer was in 2014.”, he shared. “At the finals of the National championships, the Dutch dragons had two crews on the water. At that time I was the trainer/coach of our second team and we were up against two of strongest teams at three race distances: 200m, 500m and 2000m. We brought home two silver medals and one bronze. We even beat the strongest team (Dutch Dragons Team 1) in The Netherlands in the 500m.”
The year after, The Dutch Dragons successfully clinched three gold medals in the Standard Open 200m, 500m, and 2000m. It was my first national championship win as a trainer coach. Arjo had other international competitions where he participated as a paddler: 4th Club Crew World Championships (CCWC) 2004 in Capetown, South Africa; European Club Crew Championships 2005, Berlin, Germany; 5th CCWC 2006, in Toronto, Canada.
We had the opportunity to interview Arjo and he shared with us the present status of dragon boat as a competitive sport in The Netherlands and he gave us some amazing coaching tips, too.
Q: How is the sport different now from what it was like then?
A: In general, the sport has not evolved that much in Holland. We don’t have a lot of teams like other European countries. With The Dutch Dragons as one of the exceptions, I personally think that some other teams have been stagnating in terms of membership and participation. Three years ago, The Dutch Dragons ventured into joining the German Dragon Boat Competition and up to now, it is still the lone Dutch team who participates in the competition. We hope that someday there will be more strong Dutch teams who can participate in international races.
From 2013 till 2015, we were promoting the transition from the 4th Liga to the 2nd Liga. Our aim is the 1st Liga in 2017. This will encourage paddlers to paddle with the strongest teams and try to learn as much as possible from each other like techniques, training methods, et cetera. It is easier to grow as a team when your ass gets kicked by the strongest teams in the world as opposed to competing in races where you almost know beforehand that you will win. It’s good to be always up for a challenge.
Liga or League in English is the term used to determine the strength level of teams: 1st Liga to 4th Liga, 1st being the strongest division. It’s a points system practiced in Germany where teams get to accumulate points from the races which they have joined. There are more rules and technicalities on this but that’s going to be a whole new article altogether.
Q: What’s the main difference in coaching a local club and coaching a national team?
A: The difference is that in a national team, you will have the possibility to paddle with the strongest paddlers available whereas in the clubs there’s a wide range of levels. In the National Team, the paddlers are more or less similar in fitness level and body mass so it’s easier to plan a training program.
Q: In the context of being an experienced dragon boat coach, how do you define the nature and significance of the athlete–coach relationship?
A: There should be respect to both sides; it is important to have fun together, and to have the willingness to work for each other. The trainer is not the boss who tells you what to do, but he is the one who is there to help you to become a better athlete.
Q: How do you manage the recovery window for your athletes?
A: As I now work mostly with my club crew, it is not a big problem. We train together for only three times a week. For the paddlers that do training in the gym or go running between, we try to create a training schedule that fits that specific paddler.
Q: As a dedicated and a passionate coach, do you envision your athletes to outgrow/surpass the knowledge and skills that you have imparted to them?
A: The best athlete is the athlete who knows what he wants—one who tries to become the best paddler possible. For me it is the greatest fun to work with such athletes, because they also encourage me to become a better trainer and coach. As a coach, I don’t believe I know everything that has to be known about training and coaching; I work with more specialised trainers regarding to power training, video-analyses and so on. If the needs of my paddlers exceed what I can give them, I encourage them to find what they need with more specialized trainers.
Q: Is this a measure of your satisfaction?
A: Yes, definitely. I am a trainer because I want to improve athletes. I am not a trainer for my own satisfaction. The key is to improve the athletes, not to be the one who knows best.
Q: What is your coaching tactic that is unique from other coaches?
A: I try to improve the individuals to get a stronger team. I believe that working on one on one basis with the athletes (we even introduced a day where we train together, not in a boat but this time we focused to improve all paddlers on their own specific weak spots). In a dragon boat, you have to work with 22 individuals. There is no “one size fits all” training that will benefit to all the paddlers at the same level. So I look at the abilities of each individual, and I advice them what individual training they need to improve, like: more power training, technique training on the paddling machine, or running for stamina. I work on a schedule with the paddlers to monitor the improvements.
Q: Dragon boat is considered to be a less popular sport in Holland, how do you foresee the sport’s growth in the coming, say, 3-5 years?
A: As I look at the sport now, and the past 15 years when I started paddling, there is not much growth. When I started there were about 12 teams and the number is just about the same. You see some new teams making their presence on the water, but you also see teams disappear. It keeps itself in balance. For myself I am always looking for projects to improve the sport, like organise a start to paddle course, or training events for different club crews in The Netherlands.
Q: Outside the dragon boating world, who is the athlete that you admire most and why?
A: I don’t have a specific athlete that inspires me, but I like speed skating very much. It is quite typically a Dutch sport, but I compare it a lot with dragon boating—it’s a very technical sport. In terms of the race distances and what it does with the energy systems of the body, it has a lot of similarities with dragon boating.
Photo Credits:PuurPerspectief, Nederlandse DrakenBoot Federatie, Jeroen Kuiten
This Q&A was with Dragon Boat World Athlete, Mark Harding, National Athlete – Great Britain Dragon Boat Team.
DRAGON BOAT WORLD ATHLETE PROFILE
NAME: Mark Harding
BIRTHPLACE: Wigton, Cumbria, England
AGE: 40yo
TRAINING COMMITMENT: Full-time
POSITION: Paddler
PADDLING SIDE: Both
HEIGHT: 193cm
WEIGHT: 96kg
STATUS: Single
MEDAL RECORD: Paracanoeing National Championships, Nottinghamshire, England, Bronze– 200m IDBF World Cup 2014, Fouzhou, China, 10th Place World Ranking, – Premiere Open, Standard Boat, 500m EDBF European Dragon Boat Nations Championships 2014, Czech Republic, Bronze– Premiere Open, Small Boat, 200m London – Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival 2014, Silver– Premiere, Standard Boat, 200m; Overall Champion
We are honoured to feature Dragon Boat World Athlete, Mark Harding, a once severely injured soldier who served in the HM Forces in the United Kingdom. Mark is the lone person in the Dragon Boat Team Great Britain (Team GB) with physical disability to have competed together with able-bodied crew in the 2014 European Dragon Boat Championships.
Mark has served in the 1st Battalion Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment for sixteen years where he worked mostly as a sniper with the Reconnaissance Platoon for operations in Bosnia, Kosovo, Skopje, Northern Ireland, Iraq and Afghanistan.
“I was shot through the neck in 2010 in Afghanistan.” Mark shared. “On 28th May 2010, I was leading a four-man patrol sent from the platoon base to investigate an Improvised Explosive Device (IED). Things went quickly downhill. My patrol came under sustained small arms fire and three of my team were wounded. Then my life changed forever.”
Soon after he emerged from all the pain and suffering, Mark started to gain strength and then eventually was able to walk again. It was Kamini Jain who introduced him to dragon boating at a training camp at Newport Beach in California. The camp is being ran by Kamini Jain and Richard Parrot. It was from that training camp when Mark’s journey in competing in international dragon boat races began.
“When I got home from that training camp, I learned that my Mother had passed away and it was at that point when I wanted to make her proud of me so I went down for a time trial at Liverpool. After making it to the Great Britain (GB) Premiere team, the training went through the roof as I was training down at Liverpool and training up at Derwent Water and also doing cross fit and weights session at the gym.”, Mark recalled.
Mark’s first club who helped him get into the sport was Amathus, a dragon boat team based in Liverpool. He currently paddles with Powerhouse Dragons in the North East as his main club. “Allyson, our club coach, has been so helpful to me –- an amazing coach and I am looking forward to getting better with her help as I continue pushing myself to perform my best for Team GB.”
Let’s get to know more about Mark’s inspiring story and the upcoming inaugural training sessions to be conducted by Purple Warriors Dragon Boat Club — a dedicated support team for the men and women who have suffered from injuries while serving the military.
Q: How are you, Mark? How are the preparations going with you and Team GB for the upcoming European Dragon Boat Championships in Rome this July?
A: Things are going well, thank you — lots of training over in the north east with Powerhouse — water training, strength training and Crossfit, etc. Very busy but good and I just want to be the best I can for my Club Team and Team GB and I constantly keep pushing myself.
Q: After your three-year rest and recovery from injury in 2010, how did you overcome that to find a renewed strength?
A: I can remember being paralysed from the neck down for eight months and after I was told I’d never walk again by two spinal consultants. On that week, times got very dark for me and I was told that two of my friends were killed in Afghanistan. I made a promise to myself to prove the consultants wrong and I did and I just want to keep pushing myself. I really don’t think I’ve done anything that anyone else wouldn’t have done. I just want other injured people to see that if you’ve got a positive mind anything is achievable.
Q: Why Dragon Boat? And what made you choose this particular sport?
A: I crossed over from the Team GB 200m kayak sprint team after a training camp I attended in California ran by Kamini Jain. I found out that the team mentality appealed to me. It reminded me of the army, depending on those around you.
Q: We understand that you and some others are starting a dragon boat team for injured soldiers, can you tell us a bit about it?
A: Purple Warriors was formed in early April 2016 to provide an opportunity for serving and retired members of HM Forces who now have some form of impairment (mental or physical) to use dragon boating as part of their personal road to recovery and rehabilitation, and to help smash preconceptions about impairments. Purple Warriors will race in the UK against able-bodied teams. Purple Warriors also hopes to race against similar military teams in due course.
Q: Purple Warriors will be launched soon and strategically in three different venues in the UK, what are your expectations?
A: We are all ex-military and all have had to adapt and overcome their personal battles to get to where we are today. We have the focus and drive to compete and win against able-bodied teams!
Q: What inspired you to do this noble act? For that matter, what keeps you inspired in participating and pursuing excellence in sports?
A: Purple Warriors was the initiative of another GB paddler and former soldier. The idea was his but he asked me to join him to develop the idea into something real and tangible. I have had my own personal challenges but I like to think I have risen to them. Dragon boating made me feel ‘whole’ again and I hope that others will get a similar lift from this great team sport.
Q: There are other ‘brave warriors’ out there who had gone through similar experience, what would you advice them?
A: Keep going, keep your head up, be proud! Always reach further, I was told I would never walk again! I could not, WOULD not accept that! You keep battling! Afghanistan was my war, now my injury is my war! Life is for living; live it to the max.
Q: “No one fights alone.”, they say of team sports like dragon boat. What’s your definition of teamwork?
A: Teamwork to me is being able to look around and know that, to my left and to my right, I have people I can trust 110%!
Q: Outside the dragon boating world, who is the athlete that you admire most and why?
A: The person I respect the most is John Griffiths. He was my previous coach from GB Team 200m sprint kayaking. An amazing coach who is down to earth and his chill approach helped me manage and come to terms with my injury. He made me see even then when I had a disability, he told me that the only person that was stopping me from doing anything was me; and to this day I can’t thank him enough.
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