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>The Dragon Boat Stroke>The Pull
The next phase of the stroke is the pull, referring to the movement of the paddle through the water from front to back.
It may seem obvious that a paddler would pull he blade of the paddle through the water, but that would be incorrect. In fact, other than it appearing to be a pulling motion, the pull is really the undoing of the positioning done in the "reach" section of the stroke.
To be more specific, the pull of a dragon boat stroke is done by the paddler sitting up straight and untwisting his/her torso. By quickly sitting up straight from the leaning position that the paddler assumed in the reach, without using one's arms, the paddle is dragged powerfully through the water.
Remember that the back and core muscles are stronger than arms so when the dragon boat paddler keeps his/her arms, especially the upper arm straight, s/he maximizes the strength of the stroke. And, as with the paddler straightening up, if the paddler untwists while straightening up, the paddle will be dragged even further and more forcefully. Again, employing the strength of the core muscles maximizes the power of the stroke. Really, the arms are simply connecting the power of the straightening and twisting torso to the paddle.
The end of the pull section of the dragon boat paddling technique is when the paddler is sitting basically in a natural sitting position. With the momentum of the water, the paddler's lower arm will tend to bend at the end of the stroke. The stroke should end when the lower arm is facing down and the upper arm is near the gunwale of the dragon boat. At this point the paddle should be between the paddler's mid thigh and just before his/her hip.
Note also that the optimum stroke is when the paddler's paddle is both perpendicular to the water and when the paddle goes straight from front to back. To achieve a perpendicular paddle, it is necessary for the paddler to lean out of the dragon boat so that the upper arm is above the lower arm.
In the next section we look at the last section of the perfect dragon boat paddling stroke, the Exit.
Just in case you are jumping around in this article, here are all of the sections describing the perfect dragon boat stroke:
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