Manning Dragon boats host training session with Northern NSW coach

The session was part of the preparation the team is undertaking in readiness for the 2024 Australian Dragon Boat Championships to be held in Perth in April.

Each of the paddlers who qualified for the team were required to complete a two-day trial that saw them subjected to workouts involving a rowing machine, doing push-ups and completing other fitness benchmarks.

"The rowing machine is a totally different technique to what we use for paddling, but it still gives us a really good indicator of their power and the control that they have over using that power," head coach, Jenny Higgins said.

"It's also a great training machine for cardio fitness and endurance."

The national titles will involve races of 500 metre distances - a task normally accomplished with 20 paddlers aboard.

The Perth event will see teams take on that distance while limited to crews of just 10 paddlers, thereby increasing the difficulty substantially.

"We're building our fitness for that 500 metre racing with 10 paddlers which is very hard, and then we do one race with mixed teams so we do get to race with 20 paddlers in one boat," Jenny said.

"Everyone loves that race because it's a lot easier when you've got 20 paddlers."

At this stage the squad are looking good for the national titles, with coach Higgins confident of her team's potential with a number of new faces making their way into the fold.

"There's a lot of paddlers that I haven't had in the past over the last few years of training with state, which is great because these are new paddlers and they're coming through the pathway and for some of them this is their first time at state level," Jenny said.

"I really like the challenge of bringing them up to where they need to be to compete for a state squad."