This last weekend I had the opportunity to visit with Gary Hall Jr. at his Race Club. He and his coaches are starting a high end training camp for individuals interested in getting faster in swimming. He offers video analysis both underwater and above everyday. The accomodations are first class as is the instruction.
I was struck by Gary’s presence. He is 6"6" tall with size 13 feet. He has extraordinary hyperextended knees (I wrote about this once before). He has a long torso and relatively short legs. His shoulders are incredibly loose. We did some open wate swimming fro his speed boat. He looked so at home in the water. I am sure the sharks and moray eels were also marvelling at this super human being swimming about them.
Contrary to what I had read and heard about his demeanor, Gary was rather quiet and focused on sharing swimming information. Yes, he likes to box only to the extent that it helps his body rotation and adds power to his stroke.
If you would like to learn more about the Race Club check out their website at www.theraceClub.net.
I have to admit, I think that Gary Hall is arrogant, annoying, and bad for swimming.
He complained that he didn’t get to swim on the Olympic Final 4x100 relay, after not qualifying individually for the event, and swimming slow in the prelims of the relay. He and his agent degraded Jason Lezak before and during the Olympic Trials. Jason Lezak is one of the nicest guys in swimming, and currently is a faster swimmer than Gary (and bigger at about 240 pounds).
Im sure they have nice stuff for video instruction, but I wouldn’t trust a thing that went on down there that Gary’s agent sets up.
completely agree…gary hall jr used his natural talent to make a mockery of what others spent so many hours training hard for. IMO, he would have been one of the best/most accomplished swimmers of all time if he could actually get himself to train.
I met Gary a few weeks ago at an event in Miami. He was very nice and super polite. He signed a lot of autographs, took pictures with a ton of kids, and seemed very laid-back and cool the whole time. Everyone has a bad side I suppose, but his was not apparent that day. Besides, people change. He seemed to be encouraging a lot of kids to become better swimmers and to love the sport. I find nothing wrong with that!
I have to admit, I think that Gary Hall is arrogant, annoying, and bad for swimming.
He complained that he didn’t get to swim on the Olympic Final 4x100 relay, after not qualifying individually for the event, and swimming slow in the prelims of the relay. He and his agent degraded Jason Lezak before and during the Olympic Trials. Jason Lezak is one of the nicest guys in swimming, and currently is a faster swimmer than Gary (and bigger at about 240 pounds).
Im sure they have nice stuff for video instruction, but I wouldn’t trust a thing that went on down there that Gary’s agent sets up.
LMFAO (because of the irony of the poster’s screen handle).
On the other hand, I think he’s been good for the sport.
Before the Sydney Olympics, when he was writing a column for SI online, he spent an entire column talking about how US swimming shouldn’t get too cocky because the rest of the world was gaining on them. That was followed by a paragraph on how wonderfully Australia treated its swimmers compared to the US and how Australia seemed poised for a great games in the pool. He finished by saying “but I think we’ll smash them like guitars this time.”
He knew what he was doing, that the comment would be the one thing the other guys put on the locker room wall, and that the news agencies would pick up on it. He wanted everyone paying attention to the men’s 4x100 FR. It worked, and when the Aussies won, he was one of the first guys over there to congradulate them.
His complaint with the men’s free relay in Athens was that he was bumped for a guy who didn’t even swim the 100 free at the Trials (Phelps) and a guy who was trying to hide how sick he was from everyone (Ian Crocker). I’m not sure he should have been as vocal to the press as he was about it, but he’s always worn his emotions on his sleeve, and he was disappointed in getting left off.
Him and Lezak, the trash talk was extremely mild, and it always seemed like more of an ongoing joke than anything else. Nothing like the trash talking like you’d see in track or basketball.
And he seems to be the one guy out there who really wants to figure out a way for more athletes to be able to make a living swimming- he’ll brainstorm about new events, new meet series, try to come up with new ways to get the American public more interested in the sport. Gary and his family have put a lot on the line to try to make the Race Club a success and to provide new training opportunities for swimmers from around the world. About half the elite men’s sprinters out there right now have spent at least some time training with him and the Race Club in the keys, including a good chunk of the men’s 50M finals field from Athens.
By all accounts, he’s a very professional spokesman American diabetes and diabetes awareness groups. And he’s grown up a bunch since high school when he had a reputation for arrogance. Reports I’ve heard from people who swam against him at US Masters nationals were uniformely positive, and talked about what a nice guy he’d grown up to be.
So, your point about smashing the guys like guitars was that it got our guys fired up or theirs? Cause it seems the past two 4x100 FR’s we’ve lost have had to do at least a little bit with Gary Hall. First in Sydney he says that we’ll beat them, which obviously fired them up, then in Athens he pouted and complained about not being on the team and we lost.
No one could have known that Ian Crocker would swim so slow, he was the second fastest guy at Olympic Trials and he earned that spot.
Also, Lezak and Hall do not get along. They aren’t friends, and anything that Hall says in public about Lezak may be sarcastic and a joke to Hall, but Lezak takes it as mockery.
Hall’s dad was a great swimmer, and has given an arm and a leg to Jr to help him get Race Club going. But as far as Im concerned with Hall, he needs to put up or shut up. Race Club had a terrible Olympic Trials. Sure there may have been a few guys at the Olympics who spent a day or three in the keys, but the core of the group did terrible (Hall, Sabir M, etc).
As for my name…at least I put up numbers. And look what happened to the Vikings after I left…you don’t see me on a prostitute cruise line.
The esteemed Mr. Moss said, “As for my name…at least I put up numbers.”
That’s exactly the problem. Mr. Hall won 5 GOLD medals and an American record. Mr. Moss has never won a thing in the NFL, and while the Vikings have tanked since his departure, the Raiders are even worse with him than they were before.
An incredibly good friend of mine was fortunate enough to be selected as a national team coach where Gary Hall Jr. was swimming on that team. He had nothing but great things to say about the guy and this is over a couple beers where he knows that he could tell me everything. Admitted that he went in a little apprehensive and came away a big fan. If my friend says he is ok, he is ok in my book.
Gary is an amazing person. He is absolutely not the person I expected. He is a stupendous athlete, and is an all around nice guy.
I’m a swimmer too (from Switzerland). And without trying to judging RandyMoos or what he did, I really think he has no idea what all has to be done to win an olympic gold medal in swimming (50m Freestyle).
I did exactly what Doug wrote about. I came to Islamorada to be a better swimmer than before. And I have absolutly no problem to tell everyone that the Race Club has the best program in the world.
