Training

• All paddlers are to bring running shoes and suitable attire for on-shore training to each and every session. 
• At no stage during this season will any training session be cancelled because of weather conditions. 
• Every paddler must make to effort to attend as many sessions as possible and advise the captains or head coach if they are unable to attend .

Team selection

The on-water team (coaches & captains) will do their best to ensure that all available paddlers get to race at regattas. However, team selection (where relevant) will revolve around achieving results and will be based on an assessment of the following:

a. Measurable performance (eg individual trials) [largest factor - say 70-80%]
b. Measurable non-performance (eg attendance)
c. Non-measurable performance (eg technique, timing, rhythm, rating, fitness)
d. Non-measurable non-performance (eg attitude, enthusiasm, etc)

It should be clear that a, b and c will depend a lot on d and that performance measures will also depend a lot on attendance at training.

Seating arrangements in the boat 

There are many factors that affect decisions of where to seat paddlers in the boat. These are far to many to describe in any detail here. However, in general, paddlers will be allocated to what we call a cell or 'brick' of paddlers. Paddlers in a particular cell are encouraged to sit within that cell arrangement at training sessions and will be allocated specific seats in that cell for races. The boat consists of the following cells:

a. Strokes (a special cell that consists of the first row only and who set the rating and rhythm for the rest of the boat)
b. Front/Forward cell (first 3 rows of paddlers who keep identical timing and rhythm with the strokes and set that timing and rhythm for the rest of the boat to follow - can generally act as strokes if required)
c. "Engine Room" (middle cell of 4 rows generally where the bigger paddlers sit) 
d. Back/Rear cell (last 3 rows generally where smaller or less experienced paddlers sit but are also considered by many to be specialist seats requiring significant skill). We are hoping will provide some continuity in seating arrangements during the season and so give an opportunity to form strong bonds between paddlers through sharing the exhaustive but exhilarating efforts of hard training and tough racing.

Time Trials

Trials of various kinds (e.g. individual paddling time trial) will be conducted during the season. We want to encourage an air of friendly and open competition within the club. Each paddler should encourage the other to try to do their best and to achieve their full potential. No status or privilege should be attached to results and it should be remembered that each paddlers effort is part of the whole team effort. These trials form the measurable performance criteria for team selection.

To ensure fair trials the coaches will do their best to minimise the impact of outside variables but it should be acknowledged by paddlers that the coaches can not control factors outside their influence (such as weather conditions, tide, etc). The decision of whether to adjust results for these factors will be left with the coaches but will probably be rare.

 The coaching team will do their best to provide a progression of training that will take us from a low to moderate level of fitness and performance at the start of the season to reach a peak of fitness and performance toward the end of the season in time for the major competitions of Chinese New Year, State Titles and National Titles. So lets get in there, get fit, have fun and kick some arse this season!