DragonBoatPaddlers.net

UPDATE: A committee of coaches and paddlers with national experience is being formed on Vancouver Island for the purpose of working closely with Pacific Sport to develop an NCCP Dragon Boat Technical course.  If you are interested in participating with this effort, please contact me (250-616-9431) and let me know. We expect our organizational meeting to be held in Nanaimo in October, 2011. (See reference material included at the end of this article.)

If you could change the sport of dragon boating here on Vancouver Island, what would you do?  Have you ever thought about that? Every time I go to a festival, I hear paddlers talking about things that they’d like to change, whether it be safety, class structure, festival management, the boats and nearly everything else associated with the sport.

Tell me, if you were in a position to facilitate change, what would be your top five goals for dragon boating here on the Island? How would you implement those goals?

These are questions I was asked yesterday afternoon, and when I began thinking about it, I realized they’re serious, complicated questions… much more so than first meets the eye.

I decided to ask these questions here, rather than in the Forum, because you don’t have to register to leave comments here, and you can do it from Facebook, too.

Here are  six goals compiled to date; I’d appreciate your input. Please hit the Comment button and share your thoughts:

1. Expose local paddlers to sport-level racing
   1. Introduce IDBF age categories and classes (women’s, mixed, AND open) to local festivals
   2. Add competitive divisions to local races so that rec and corporate teams don’t get matched up against top competitive teams in preliminary heats – this increases enjoyment for rec teams who then won’t be losing races by 30+ seconds, and increases the opportunities for competitive teams to race their peers and improve racing skills
   3. Develop a bid to host DBC’s National Championships on the Island
   4. Create easier access for local paddlers to train and race in IDBF certified dragon boats
2. Provide local paddlers with more access to program model dragon boat training (as Victoria’s Gorging Dragons and one Nanaimo coach are working to do), as opposed to just providing boat rental options (as GO and Nanaimo’s Ergondragons do)
3. Providing the same level of support for dragon boat paddlers as other athletes currently receive through organizations like Pacific Sport.
   1. Resolve political barriers (Dragon Boat Canada vrs Canoe Kayak Canada)
4. Provide more resources for local coaches
   1. Improve access to DBC coaching certification courses on the Island (even with funds in hand, it can be hard to schedule a course – it requires active support from a sponsoring club.)
   2. Improve access to more skill/technique oriented courses for coaches on the Island
   3. Allow easier access by coaches to Pacific Sports’ sports psychology, nutrition, and other performance enhancing resources.
   4. Create funding mechanisms to support the development of coaches, as well as equipment purchases to establish new clubs and create new programs.
• Trillium Foundation in Ontario has established such a partnership with DBC for boat purchases, but BC Gaming (our equivalent to Trillium) is far more limited in their scope and vision, so other funding sources must be found.
• Because the structure of GO (the currently dominant dragon boat provider on the island) differs so greatly from clubs in the East, coaches are often not paid, or are paid a miniscule amount. This hinders professional development by the coaches. Access to bursary programs for Island coaches could be the first step in developing higher level coaching on the Island.
5. Encourage the development of more youth paddler programs
   1. As with other high-level paddle sports, create opportunities for talented youth to be identified and nurtured at a young age
6. End cancer exclusion
   1. work with festival boards to make them aware of the damage done by exclusion
   2. work with breast cancer teams to end the exclusion
   • The Canadian Cancer Society’s 2011 Cancer Statistics projects that “More men than women will be diagnosed with a new cancer (52% of all new cases will occur in men vs. 48% in women) and will die from cancer (53% of all cancer deaths will occur in men vs. 47% in women.”
   • In addition, the CCS document claims that, “In men and women combined, lung cancer is the second most common cancer (14%), and colorectal is the third most common cancer (12%). Prostate cancer remains the most common cancer diagnosed in men, with 25,500 cases expected in 2011. Breast cancer continues to be the most frequently diagnosed cancer in women, with over 23,400 new cases expected.” (Canadian Cancer Statistics, p 15. http://tinyurl.com/65e797m)

I’ve received submissions from five people so far (thanks, everyone), and we seem to be heading in the same directions.  The top five goals selected (again, your comments welcomed) will be submitted during discussions related to exploring ways and means to improve the sport here on the Island.

Relevant reference material:

1. Athletics Canada Long Term Athlete Development Model
2. Sport Manitoba: CANADA’S LONG TERM ATHLETE DEVELOPMENT (LTAD)
3. Canadian Sport for Live: LTAD Resource Papers
4. Google LTAD plans