Dragon Boat: An Explanation

I’ve been mentioning over and over that I’m attending Dragon Boat practices three times a week, but after getting some very confused questions about what in the world I’m talking about (including from my mom) I realized that I should probably clarify what this is.

This is a picture from last year’s Army Women’s team, racing in Naha, Okinawa:

That there’s a two-ton wooden boat, carrying approximately the same amount of weight in the form of 32 rowers, 2 coaches, a gonger to help us keep time, and a guy to man the rudder.  We row ourselves and the boat from Point A to Point B and back again, and our main objective is to beat the other US American women’s teams – Air Force, Marines, and Navy – and bring home the trophy.  We’ll be racing against other international teams as well; women’s teams from not only Okinawa, but also mainland Japan, China, and Indonesia.  It’s a true international event.

And I’ll be on that boat, paddling away, for the better part of seven minutes (though our coaches would love to see us lessen that time to under six minutes… which I’m thinking is a long shot but we’ll see).  Which is why, although the race isn’t until May 5th, we began our practices on February 15th.  And why we’ll continue to practice three days a week for an hour each day until that time.

We spent the last two weeks conditioning and getting our stroke in good form.  In those six practices we began with one to two minutes of paddling on either side at about 50% time to warm us up, later adding in five and six minute drills with intermittent paces of 50% and 80%.  In the remaining weeks we’ll continue to build up our endurance and increase our flexibility (we have to rock forward and backward, stabbing our paddles in the water at our outstretched ankles and pulling them back to hip-level, and back to ankles again).  We’re also working on timing our strokes so that we’re all hitting the water with our paddles in sync with each other… which is easier said than done, especially given that our current training takes place in two waves, with half the team training at 4pm and other other half at 5pm.

So that’s part of the what of Dragon Boat.  But not the why.

According to Japan Guide:

“The Golden Week is a collection of four national holidays within seven days. In combination with well placed weekends, the Golden Week becomes one of Japan’s three busiest holiday seasons, besides New Year and the Obon week. …

The national holidays making up the Golden Week are:

• April 29
  Showa Day (Showa no hi):
  April 29 is the birthday of former Emperor Showa, who died in the year 1989. Until 2006, Greenery Day (see May 4) used to be celebrated on this day.
• May 3
  Constitution Day (Kenpo kinenbi):
  On this day in 1947, the new post war constitution was put into effect.
• May 4
  Greenery Day (Midori no hi):
  Until 2006, Greenery Day used to be celebrated on April 29, the birthday of former Emperor Showa. The day is dedicated to the environment and nature, because the emperor loved plants and nature. Before being declared Greenery Day, May 4 used to be a national holiday due to a law, which declares a day, that falls between two national holidays, a national holiday.
• May 5
  Children’s Day (Kodomo no hi):
  The Boy’s Festival (Tango no Sekku) is celebrated on this day. Families pray for the health and future success of their sons by hanging up carp streamers and displaying samurai dolls, both symbolizing strength, power and success in life.”

The Naha Dragon Boat races are always held on May 5th, as an added-on event to help in the culmination of this festival week.  From About.com:

“Hari or Hare are dragon boat races which were said to be imported to Okinawa from China during the era of the Ryukyu Kingdom. Hare are fisherman’s festivals to pray for big catch and safe fishing and are held in various locations throughout Okinawa. …

Naha Hari is the biggest one and takes place during Golden Week every year. It’s a big event with fireworks and various shows. Hari are traditionally held May 4th in the lunar calendar and mark the beginning of Okinawa’s summer season.”

Oh wait, you wanted to know why I am rowing this year?  Yeah, me too.  I didn’t think this was anything I’d be interested in doing.  My arms are not particularly strong and I didn’t feel like I’d be any kind of asset to the team.  But one of my very good friends is this year’s coach, and she persuaded me to join them.  I’m really glad I did; the workouts have been intense but not overwhelming (though my current state of health might indicate otherwise) and I think I’ve actually lost a couple of pounds since we started.

And although I “played” tennis for three years in high school and during my freshman year of college, I found tennis to be a very solitary sport.  Although we trained together as a team, ultimately my performance affected just me or my doubles partner.  But winning at Dragon Boat will require the effort and teamwork of every single rower in that boat; this is the first true team sport I’ve been a part of.

And plus, you know, it’s good (forced) exercise.  My goal for myself this year is to get back into my pre-Bug pregnancy jeans by my thirtieth birthday and this will help propel me in that direction.  Hopefully.

So I bought my gear (dive gloves, knee and elbow pads, cold-weather water pants) and a paddle, and hired the high school kid next door as a babysitter, adding in babysitting fees to our budget.  I’ve planned our dinners because between my practices and Bear’s karate lessons I won’t be home to cook each night until 6:15pm.  And I’m enjoying every sweaty, jaw-clenching moment of it.

There are some great pictures of the event if you want to go here to this site.  I didn’t want to copy and paste those for copyright reasons, but it’ll give you a good idea of what the races look like.