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>The Dragon Boat Stroke>The Reach
The reach portion of the dragon boat paddling stroke refers to the action of the paddler leading up to and beginning a stroke. It starts right after the exit and continues though up until the paddler places the paddle in the water (the catch). In theory, the paddler should be positioning the paddle as far ahead of himself or herself as possible, ideally reaching so that the paddle is past the bench of the paddler in front of him/her. To do this the paddler needs to concentrate on two things - bending and twisting.
To maximize the distance that the dragon boater can reach, the paddler needs to lean forward at the waist. By bending or leaning the paddler is both, positioning the paddle forward so that s/he will get a long stroke, and the stroke is strengthened because the paddler is able to use his/her core muscles to straighten up during the pull section of the stroke. By paddling using one's core and back muscles, which are larger than arm muscles, a much stronger stroke may be achieved.
The twisting motion of the dragon boater's stroke is intended to do exactly the same two things that bending do. Again, the twisting allows you to push your paddle further forward before placing the paddle in the water, thus lengthening the distance that the paddle will travel through the water. And, by twisting when leaning forward, the paddler is able to use his/her core muscles to untwist while in the pull of the stroke. As before, the core muscles are able to do more work taking the burden off of the weaker arms.
The next step in our analysis of the perfect dragon boat stroke is
the Catch. Please read on...
The remaining sections of this artcle are:
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