Submitted by Dubravka Karlovic-Babic, BUBA, president and IBCPC Croatia National Rep
The Croatian team (Dragonboat Klub Zadar DBKZ or as we call ourselves Zmajke) had its last water training on November 4th, 2023. Due to inclement sea conditions we decided to take our boats out of the lagoon where we paddle onto the dry land.
Luckily, we have free access to the community gym thanks to the city of Zadar department for sports. Hence, we started our dryland /gym training at the beginning of November 2023. We practice 3 times/week at a fixed schedule (Mondays and Thursdays afternoons and Saturday mornings).
The gym we use does not have any equipment so we design our training based on what we can afford to get instead of equipment and based on limitations of space. For weights we use resistance bands, for core exercises we use floor mats and benches, for flexibility we exercise with soft balls. But in general, we are very creative and have designed a combination of exercises which target all important muscle groups.
We don't have a professional gym coach but we have our internal resources - trainers and experienced athletes (DB paddler) who combine their skills, knowledge and abilities to ensure effective, efficient and interesting training sessions. We also conduct fitness testing over a period of three months in the gym to monitor and follow progress of our team members and to focus on specific exercises to improve the weakest points of each paddler.
Our lead coach Buba, designs training and leads two trainings a week; our yoga and stretch instructor Diana is a trained professional and leads our Monday training. We also have assistants who cover the gaps when either of our regular coaches is not available. Mira, Renata, Nikolina and Verica are amazing and skilled in what they do.
These photos show some of our gym activities and of course having fun and socializing is always a part of training.
We are getting ready to open a 2024 paddling season and we will let you know as soon as we do.
Cheers and all the best!
On behalf of DBKZ
