I spent a chunk of Thanksgiving week in Islamorada, Florida at a swim camp put on by The Race Club. Below is a summary of my experience.
About me: adult onset swimmer, in the past year I usually finished in the second quintile of swim times for my age group. I’ve worked with a coach a few times in the past and have swum with a masters group intermittently but am mostly self-taught. (Edit: all of my swims last year were wetsuit legal. Take that wetsuit away and I’d probably be MOP.)
About the venue: Islamorada in the Florida Keys. The pool was 50m (and was set up as 50m!), outdoors, six to eight lanes, water temperature in the high 70s/low 80s. If you haven’t been to the Keys before… meh. It’s not my cup of tea. It’s very touristy, everything is pretty run down, and food selections are few and far between (hope you like Mahi… a lot… probably fried). That said if you’re looking for someplace warm in the winter and want to jet ski, kayak, SUP, sail, snorkel, dive… and in general just not freeze your ass off, you could do worse.
About the camp: there’s was a pretty wide variety of people at the camp but the majority were age-group kids. There were two other triathletes at the camp and one very fast masters swimmer (in his 40s swam something like a 0:56/100m). I’m not sure if that’s the normal demographic composition. The sessions were two hours each generally with the 45mins-1hr being a theory lecture, yoga, or some sort of dry-land conditioning. There was a morning session and an afternoon session each day and if you wanted to you could book a private session with one of the coaches in between. Coaches on deck were Gary Hall Sr, Amy Hall, and one of Gary’s sons (forgot his name, sorry!).
About the instruction: the triathletes were grouped together in our own lane and we always had one of the coaches looking over us. A typical session was a 200m warmup, followed by drill/swim/drill/swim/etc, and we would usually finish with some sort of structured set. The coaches were very active with feedback while still being conscious to not overwhelm me/us with information. I actually really like the format of sharing instruction with other people as one can only make changes so quickly and sometimes its instructive to see flaws/corrections in other swimmers.
Eye openers for me:
-kicking: Gary Hall Sr had everyone kick an all-out 50 with fins and without fins. With fins I basically tied with the mid 40s masters guy at something like 36seconds and we were both beat out by a college-bound girl by ~1second. Without fins… LOL… I think my time went up by 16 seconds while said masters guy and said college-bound girl had their times go up by only 4-5seconds. Oh yeah, and every kid there just blew by me. I’m stretching my ankles as I type this.
-hip driven vs shoulder driven freestyle: I had never really had this explained to me before and it was a revelation. If you search, Gary Hall Sr has an article somewhere here on ST on the subject.
-yoga and stretching: triathletes are generally time-crunched but one thing, in my opinion, that is sorely missing from triathlete-oriented swim instruction is flexibility and range of motion. While doing a yoga/stretching routine before one of the sessions, it was glaringly obvious how much worse my and my compatriots’ flexibility and range of motion was compared to everyone else there. IMO, some of my technique flaws were a result of a lack of flexibility and it’s something I plan to work hard at during the off-season and throughout next year.
Feel free to ask any questions. Pictures to follow.
-yoga and stretching: triathletes are generally time-crunched but one thing, in my opinion, that is sorely missing from triathlete-oriented swim instruction is flexibility and range of motion. While doing a yoga/stretching routine before one of the sessions, it was glaringly obvious how much worse my and my compatriots’ flexibility and range of motion was compared to everyone else there. IMO, some of my technique flaws were a result of a lack of flexibility and it’s something I plan to work hard at during the off-season and throughout next year.
Is your main flex deficit in your ankles/feet/hips, or were you shoulders also less flex??? Having swum all of my life, my shoulders flex has always been fine but for some reason i never have been able to get my feet and ankles to cooperate:)
Was Gary Hall, Jr, one of the coaches??? Also, is Amy Hall Gary Sr’s wife or daughter???
-yoga and stretching: triathletes are generally time-crunched but one thing, in my opinion, that is sorely missing from triathlete-oriented swim instruction is flexibility and range of motion. While doing a yoga/stretching routine before one of the sessions, it was glaringly obvious how much worse my and my compatriots’ flexibility and range of motion was compared to everyone else there. IMO, some of my technique flaws were a result of a lack of flexibility and it’s something I plan to work hard at during the off-season and throughout next year.
Is your main flex deficit in your ankles/feet/hips, or were you shoulders also less flex??? Having swum all of my life, my shoulders flex has always been fine but for some reason i never have been able to get my feet and ankles to cooperate:)
Was Gary Hall, Jr, one of the coaches??? Also, is Amy Hall Gary Sr’s wife or daughter???
Ankles: not great but not horrible.
Feet: ?
Hips: surprisingly good
Shoulders: ok
Chest: not good. Gary Sr said I literally had the least flexible chest he’d ever encountered.
Garry Jr: dunno. Amy is Gary Sr’s daughter.
-yoga and stretching: triathletes are generally time-crunched but one thing, in my opinion, that is sorely missing from triathlete-oriented swim instruction is flexibility and range of motion. While doing a yoga/stretching routine before one of the sessions, it was glaringly obvious how much worse my and my compatriots’ flexibility and range of motion was compared to everyone else there. IMO, some of my technique flaws were a result of a lack of flexibility and it’s something I plan to work hard at during the off-season and throughout next year.
Is your main flex deficit in your ankles/feet/hips, or were you shoulders also less flex??? Having swum all of my life, my shoulders flex has always been fine but for some reason i never have been able to get my feet and ankles to cooperate:)
Was Gary Hall, Jr, one of the coaches??? Also, is Amy Hall Gary Sr’s wife or daughter???
Ankles: not great but not horrible.
Feet: ?
Hips: surprisingly good
Shoulders: ok
Chest: not good. Gary Sr said I literally had the least flexible chest he’d ever encountered.
Garry Jr: dunno. Amy is Gary Sr’s daughter.
Thanks for the info!!! Wow, least flexible chest ever, that’s something. I guess that’s just another thing to work on. Anyway, glad it was worthwhile for you:)
Thanks Cornelius! We’re all very glad you had a great time and learned all those things in just a few sessions. Yes, Gary Sr. is my dad and Richard Hall is my brother who was coaching you too! Richard is the Director of all the swimisodes and videos on our website. You’re doing great on your shoulder driven free. Keep up the progression of drills you learned to remember your correct head position, high elbow and body rotation. Use that alignment kickboard and monosnorkel for correct body position while kicking. Since triathletes have their own needs, it was our pleasure to train you for what your needs are. We’re glad you came and as Gary told you, you have the talent (and now the knowledge/science/biomechanics) to swim a lot faster! Amy Hall
Come back anytime - here’s our camp dates and locations: http://www.theraceclub.com/swim-camps/
and check out our new Swimisode that will post tomorrow about Yoga for Swimmers - Shoulders here: http://www.theraceclub.com/category/videos/
This yoga sequence might just open up that chest a bit more! 
Hello! My brother Gary Hall Jr. is a type 1 diabetic as well as a 10-time Olympic medalist. He currently is a consultant and advocating to find a cure for diabetes. His website is here: http://gary-hall-qtpv.squarespace.com/
Hello! My brother Gary Hall Jr. is a type 1 diabetic as well as a 10-time Olympic medalist. He currently is a consultant and advocating to find a cure for diabetes. His website is here: http://gary-hall-qtpv.squarespace.com/
Ya, I’ve followed Gary Jr for years and can remember when the news came out that he was a type-1 diabetic, which I think was at age 22-ish. AFAIK, Gary Jr. is the only one of the Gary Sr offspring to make it to the oly games, or did i miss you and Richard somehow??? I’ve followed oly swimming pretty closely since the '76 games and can recall the pics of your Dad with Gary Jr. on his shoulders:)
Yes, Gary Jr. is the only one of us that made the Olympic games. He went to 3 Olympics, just like my dad, the only father and son to do so in any sport ever. I swam for University of Arizona and Richard was an All-American swimmer at Berkeley. There are 6 of us and we all swam at one point or another and we all love the sport of swimming! Thanks for being such a fan of the sport yourself… it’s a great one for life, as you know!
Yes, Gary Jr. is the only one of us that made the Olympic games. He went to 3 Olympics, just like my dad, the only father and son to do so in any sport ever. I swam for University of Arizona and Richard was an All-American swimmer at Berkeley. There are 6 of us and we all swam at one point or another and we all love the sport of swimming! Thanks for being such a fan of the sport yourself… it’s a great one for life, as you know!
What years were you at AZ??? What events did you swim??? What was your favorite event??? I’ve always liked the 200 and 500 free best myself; the 50 and 100 are just too short for me:)