Montreal DragonFly

Ciao Dragonflyers!

 Was-it just me or was-it more intense then last week’s practice???  All in all, it was a great practice!  I love it that practice finished with a great big bang…  meaning that 1 min session of high pace…  needless to say, none of us can keep up with Ramy…  none of us was in synch!  Definitely, it’s something to work on!

 Pointers in this practice were:

• Since the water is much more shallow then the actual boat, use a paddle that is about 1-2 inches longer to avoid splashing and to get a better reach.
• Keeping upper arm straight, outside of boat and applying power down on the paddle, this will be help us lift the boat and this will get the boat moving.  Note: MUST KEEP PADDLE STRAIGHT to make this work!
• Must avoid splashing!  Splashing means that our blades aren’t fully in the water when we’re pulling it = we’re just pulling AIR!  If you want to get a boat moving, you don’t want to pull AIR, right?

Anyways, that’s it for now!  Enjoy the weekend!

Nancy

Ciao DragonFlies!

 I have to admit that it was a great practice…  and loving the new coach.  As most of you have noticed…  practices with Jennifer have been more focused on techniques then anything else.  Just because the pace and the endurance is slower, it doesn’t mean that it’s time for us to slack-off.  This is just the time for all of us to focus on the basics…  learning how to do proper techniques before going foward.  I know that there’s lots to work on and lots to remember.   With time and lots of practice, we’ll get better….  and we’ll reach our goal to beat our race time from last year which was 2.17 min in a 500m race.  I think that Vicky mentionned that this year goal is 2.15min.

 Anyways, here are some pointers to focus on what Jennifer had mentionned during last practice:

• When paddling, put your weight outside of the “boat”.  This is to make the boat lighter when paddling.
• If you notice that when you put your paddle in the water and that your paddle is going all over the place…  Use your upper arm to apply weight on the paddle when it’s in the water and lower hand to be holding the paddle about 1-2 inches from the blade.  This is to have more control.
• When exiting from the water, exit about mid-thigh and go for a further reach instead.  Pulling it all the way back is pointless because it won’t move the boat at that point.  Reaching for more water will.
• Twisting your back will give you more reach.
• Untwisting your back will give you more power in the water than simply using your arms.
• Always look up and look at your teamates…  the pacers…  look at the person in front of you.  This is a team sport afterall.  We have to be ALL in synch with each other.  If you’re not looking up, how would you know if you’re in synch with the rest of the team?

Well, that’s it for now…  though, I know that there’s more…  but, lets work with this for now.  We still have a few more indoor practices.  Lets take advantage of this time to improve on our techniques and the opportunity to have Jennifer, coach of the women national DB team, coaching-us.  Ask her question!!!  Don’t be shy!

 See-you at practice!

Ciao!

 As you must all have noticed, with one practice of 1hr/week, it’s barely staying in shape, right?  You must do more to stay in shape…  get the heart going…  get those muscles stronger!  And with that said, we’ll have a better success this year at our races!

 Being part of this team, you already know that you must do a 10km run this summer before the Montreal DB Festival which is usually held at the last weekend of July (Actual dates to be confirmed).  So, I hope that you’ve slowly started working on your cardio…  slowly getting your run pace…  getting proper shoes…  etc…  Kevin will be doing a bunch of 10km runs this summer to prepare himself for the half marathon (21KM).  So, he’ll be more then happy to participate as many races with you and to keep you motivated!  When we’ll be starting the outdoors practice, we’ll be starting our outdoor jogs before practice to get us used to running outdoors…  and yes, we’ll be timing you…  Just to make sure that you’re improving on your personal time.

 Also, here a couple of links for those that are interested in doing crunches & push-ups for beginners.  Francis has been doing it and we’ve already notice some improvements:

http://hundredpushups.com/

http://www.twohundredsitups.com/

So, I’ll just finish off by encouraging you to do other sports outside of DB…  join a gym, swimming, jogging, etc… 

Take care!

Nancy