Walnut Creek Master's camp is usually the first weekend of March. It is Kerry's mini version of the beloved Christmas practices of our youth (aka hell week).
The feedback is high quality. The coach to swimmer ratio during practices seemed to be around 1 to 10. There are two practices a day Friday, Saturday and Sunday with the morning practice being general work and the evening practice broken out into groups (sprint, IM/middle distance, distance IIRC). Then there are stroke clinics, video taping, video analysis, pancake eating contests and Ihopemyarmsdon'tfalloffsoIcandrivebacktothehotelanddieinpeace between the real work.
Go to this camp is you are a swimming masochist who loves a combination of nearly impossible intervals one workout followed by the lactic burn of 8x100s increasing speed on lots of rest. This camp is on the expensive end with travel, hotel, food and the cost of the camp unless you already are local.
Thanks for the nice words about the WCM ITC. I've been fortunate to be included in the camp staff for the last 17 years. I'd just like to add a bit of detail and info about the camp.
Friday evening is registration and two stroke schools, Freestyle and back stroke. We start in the classroom with some videos and discussion about one of the strokes for about 45 min and then we rotate into another room to get the other stroke.
Pool session follows where we do some very low intensity stroke education again one stroke at a time for about 30 min each.
9:00 PM everyone heads out to return at 7:00 or so in the AM on Saturday.
That brings a conditioning practice with some stroke focus work and an emphasis on pace awareness. Underwater video happens all day on Saturday, all 4 strokes, and turns are shot on DVD for analysis. Breakfast goes next and we usually eat together at the pool with a bagel, cottage cheese and peanut butter buffet.
Saturday afternoon is dry land sessions, a Roque Santos Breaststroke School (!!!) and three race specific practices as Michael described.
We wrap up at around 5PM and there is an optional camp dinner at a local restaurant post camp.
Sunday we start with two Butterfly schools one aimed at the experienced Flyer the other is an intro to the basics of Butterfly.
Both start in the classroom with video and a chalk talk.Then it's out to the pool for the Conditioning practice. Post practice we do breakfast, this time with the fabulous Walnut Creek Pancake People cranking out the flapjacks.
After breakfast we break up into small groups and analyze each swimmers video, everyone gets at least 10 minutes most get more.
More dry land opportunities on Sunday afternoon, and then it's back to the pool to get in one more specific practice, then folks start heading out.
I don't know when Michael attended the camp but I do know that we try to take what we learn about the camp and turn that into a better camp next year. We really do value the campers feedback, and we use it to plan next years camp. In order to insure that swimmers fill out the evaluation form we hold the camp T-Shirts hostage until we get the form back!
Most of our swimmers come from the local area, but we always have a few folks who come in from around the country. The camp is limited to 60 swimmers so it does fill up fast. The camp is also open to all levels of swimmer, the format stays the same but we adjust intervals and expectations to give everyone the chance to benefit.
Hope this doesn't come off as a commercial, it's just that coaching this camp is as much fun as swimming it!
Walnut Creek Master's camp is usually the first weekend of March. It is Kerry's mini version of the beloved Christmas practices of our youth (aka hell week).
The feedback is high quality. The coach to swimmer ratio during practices seemed to be around 1 to 10. There are two practices a day Friday, Saturday and Sunday with the morning practice being general work and the evening practice broken out into groups (sprint, IM/middle distance, distance IIRC). Then there are stroke clinics, video taping, video analysis, pancake eating contests and Ihopemyarmsdon'tfalloffsoIcandrivebacktothehotelanddieinpeace between the real work.
Go to this camp is you are a swimming masochist who loves a combination of nearly impossible intervals one workout followed by the lactic burn of 8x100s increasing speed on lots of rest. This camp is on the expensive end with travel, hotel, food and the cost of the camp unless you already are local.
Thanks for the nice words about the WCM ITC. I've been fortunate to be included in the camp staff for the last 17 years. I'd just like to add a bit of detail and info about the camp.
Friday evening is registration and two stroke schools, Freestyle and back stroke. We start in the classroom with some videos and discussion about one of the strokes for about 45 min and then we rotate into another room to get the other stroke.
Pool session follows where we do some very low intensity stroke education again one stroke at a time for about 30 min each.
9:00 PM everyone heads out to return at 7:00 or so in the AM on Saturday.
That brings a conditioning practice with some stroke focus work and an emphasis on pace awareness. Underwater video happens all day on Saturday, all 4 strokes, and turns are shot on DVD for analysis. Breakfast goes next and we usually eat together at the pool with a bagel, cottage cheese and peanut butter buffet.
Saturday afternoon is dry land sessions, a Roque Santos Breaststroke School (!!!) and three race specific practices as Michael described.
We wrap up at around 5PM and there is an optional camp dinner at a local restaurant post camp.
Sunday we start with two Butterfly schools one aimed at the experienced Flyer the other is an intro to the basics of Butterfly.
Both start in the classroom with video and a chalk talk.Then it's out to the pool for the Conditioning practice. Post practice we do breakfast, this time with the fabulous Walnut Creek Pancake People cranking out the flapjacks.
After breakfast we break up into small groups and analyze each swimmers video, everyone gets at least 10 minutes most get more.
More dry land opportunities on Sunday afternoon, and then it's back to the pool to get in one more specific practice, then folks start heading out.
I don't know when Michael attended the camp but I do know that we try to take what we learn about the camp and turn that into a better camp next year. We really do value the campers feedback, and we use it to plan next years camp. In order to insure that swimmers fill out the evaluation form we hold the camp T-Shirts hostage until we get the form back!
Most of our swimmers come from the local area, but we always have a few folks who come in from around the country. The camp is limited to 60 swimmers so it does fill up fast. The camp is also open to all levels of swimmer, the format stays the same but we adjust intervals and expectations to give everyone the chance to benefit.
Hope this doesn't come off as a commercial, it's just that coaching this camp is as much fun as swimming it!
