The following information was provided to me by their numerous experienced people whose full time job is to coach rowing, canoeing and dragon boating with great passion.
 

They not only work together in the boat, but they also train and live together. The government provides them with dormitories with its supervisors and a cafeteria with diet-conscious cooks.

I was picked up from the airport by Mr. Budiman, he stands 6'1" tall and he was a coach for canoeing and dragon boating in the 90's. He retired to an appointed position of organizing the Indonesian National team. He provides financial support as well as equipment and travel logistics to the team. Just like us, he has a full-time job during the weekdays (container business), and devotes all his spare time to the sport.

On the first night there, I met with all the coaches and ended the night in their meeting room, bombarding them with questions that I had lined up.

On the second day, I woke up to a Muslim chant/prayer at 4AM, and at 6AM I taped them from one of the coach boats and then paddled on their men's team, practicing starts. At 4PM, I joined them for never ending weight training. They go through one set of weights, stretch for 15 minutes, and then head back to weights for a second set.

Here are the details:

Longs are 55~60 strokes/min, starts are 100~110 strokes/min. Their average is of 80. On the women's team, their stroke is faster.

Their starts are 3/15 (3 full pulls/15 fast pulls), 30 longs, 15 pick ups, 20~30 longs and then if needed pick up stroke rate again. At 150 meters before end, pick up power, then at 120 meters start picking up rate until ending at 100~110 strokes/min to finish.

Their paddlers range from 1yr to 10yrs experience and most of them have trained either in kayak, canoe or sculling.

They are constantly tested in: weight, heart beat, lung capacity, and maximum power, using weights, rowing on the concept II for 1000 meters, and using a canoe and rowing 1000 meters with a DragonBoat paddle.

Almost all of them can steer with a paddle and all of them are good swimmers.

The land training as well as the water training is run in the same manner as the kayakers, and canoes.

Their form is very similar to the Canadian stroke, except that the top arm stays slightly bent at all times. They paddle at a slight angle when viewed from the back. This is because they believe that the water that's too close to the boat is not as clean as ½ feet away. They do a slight J and feather very cleanly. They pull up to their hip. There has not been an instance that a paddler has caught water and splashed on the recovery. Their recovery looks easy and feels very natural, as there is no pause and the recovery is not rushed. The body movement from taking the paddle out to submerging the paddle again is fluid and constant. Most importantly it lets the boat glide.

The boat also seems extremely light, as all the paddlers pull more than their weight.

My measurement on GPS for the set of 6k is at a constant speed of 12.0 km/hr and never changes. The speed on the starts increases rapidly after 8 km/hr to a scary 16~17.5 km/hr.

Yes, it is possible to hit that speed on a DragonBoat!

Their paddler weight goes from 61kg to 71kg, and they only distribute the weight evenly by left and right. The strongest and the tallest sit in the first 3 rows or the last 3 rows. The weakest ones sit on rows 4~7. Strength on the boat is measured by the length and depth of their stroke.

They hold the paddle one fist above the blade and they all use paddles of the same length. Twist and reach forward, but without sliding off the seat or kicking back. The buttocks stay fairly in place. They also do not over-rotate.

The coaches say they studied the Canadian women's team's stroke and customized it to their body type. The strokes are also counted to paddles fully buried in entry. They focus very hard on being 1 person viewed from the back of the boat. Therefore all the bodies including their heads stay straight and bend/twist together. The coaches are always checking their stroke rate.

Multiple tests are run every day, they compile it into an excel sheet of 70%, 80% and 90% of max heart bpm (180~200 beats/min)

I only did ½ of their training on the two days I was there and I am really sore. I think what makes a difference for them is when their coach gives each one of them a tough goal and they help each other achieve it by training together in the gym. I pointed 2 people out, who were dying out and had bad form at the end of every workout, and they told me that they will not correct them until after the race in a month. They think it's too late to change.

They basically believe that you should train in the gym and get stronger there. Boat training is not used to improve power, only technique.

I hope you have learned as much as I have from this humble team.

Thank you,