Mujaji Dragon Boat Club offers dragon boat racing and team building in the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town, South Africa.
Dragon boat racing is the ultimate team building experience. Paddlers don’t have to be super fit, as it is more important to work together as a team, whilst doing your best.
Every participant has to learn co-operation, teamwork and timing as well as an unusual paddling technique in order to move the boat efficiently. Paddling together as one illustrates the importance of every individual’s effort. This makes dragon boating ideal for corporate group-training, team building and conference events.
A standard corporate dragon boat takes up to 18 paddlers, plus a drummer to keep them in time and to motivate them all the way to the finish. Normally paddlers sit in pairs, paddling either on the right or the left. In this time of Covid the clubs socially distance by sitting individually in an alternating pattern down the boat, meaning a maximum of 10 paddlers in a boat. Experienced, qualified helms are provided but at present teambuilds can only be undertaken in accordance with current covid regulations and guidelines. Individual paddlers who wish to try out the sport with a view to possibly joining a team can contact us at any time, and we will accommodate them in our regular socially distanced team practices..
We start with instruction on dry land giving a welcome, safety briefing and a short history of the origins of the 2,500 year old sport and tradition of dragon boat racing. Individual helms will then coach their teams on paddling technique and commands.
Having more than one boat at a time gives the opportunity to race. The element of competition can bring the most surprising efforts from paddlers working together to outdo their opposition. After 20 minutes of pre-race coaching by the helms, even the most unco-ordinated groups start to pull together and look like a team. Racing then really fires them up. We have seen the most nervous paddlers transform to enthusiastically competitive racers.
Take participants out of their comfort zones and get colleagues laughing and encouraging each other to greater effort and team work.