Where did you stay? I am booked for February but trying to figure out where in Islamorada to stay.
I've been twice. It was awesome! The nicest place to stay, I think, is Cheeca Lodge. Pricier though. www.cheeca.com/.
I also stayed at the Islander Resort. Very nice too!: www.islanderfloridakeys.com/
The coaching is top notch. Gary Hall is a wealth of great info and a great guy.
Lots of great restaurants all around too.
I've been twice. It was awesome! The nicest place to stay, I think, is Cheeca Lodge. Pricier though. www.cheeca.com/.
I also stayed at the Islander Resort. Very nice too!: www.islanderfloridakeys.com/
The coaching is top notch. Gary Hall is a wealth of great info and a great guy.
Lots of great restaurants all around too.
Thanks! Cheeca was over our budget... but I leave in a few weeks for camp and am quite excited. I hope Gary Hall is there but idk if he will be? He was not one of the listed coaches but I do hope he is involved in some fashion. Would be pretty crazy to meet him.
Even if you don't his adult kids also do the coaching and they're great. Gary is good and you do learn a lot, but he's done this camp so many times, it feels a little scripted. On a side note, it's kind of fun being in the pool with the kids too.
I'd say The Race Club is out of reach for most swimmers due to the price. Even a 30-minute online lesson with Gary costs $200. I'd love to go but just can't relate (or afford) the prices they charge.
My training partner and I, two women, attended the first camp held in Coronado a few years ago. It was underwhelming to say the least. At that time they were not really set up for Masters swimmers. We, 50+ year olds, were with a bunch of teenagers, some quite young. The structure of some of the sessions was a mess. And Gary sometimes just rambled on when it seemed that it would be more beneficial to get in the water. My two cents, I’d spend the money elsewhere. I have a private session with my coach once a month and it’s definitely much more productive than spending $1500 or whatever the cost is now for a Race Camp weekend.
Hi! I went to camp and had a great time. I know it is pricy and certainly the flight and lodging at to this. To add value, my husband went along and enjoyed 5 days of sleeping in and exploring and we had lots of great dinners, fishing trips etc... There is plenty of time to do other things.
As far as what I got out of it- so much different than what I thought I would get!
1) The age, swimming background and ability levels were really varied. I walked away feeling very inspired and challenged to stretch my goals and my training. As a 37yo master with a collegiate background, it was humbling and inspiring to see swimmers much older than me working twice as hard, chasing technique, learning more aggressive starts and generally being incredible. Everything I tell myself about being 'too old' to do xyz in the pool was thrown out the window and now that I am back home, I think of my camp-mates and get pretty motivated. I think this is a huge value to the masters-only camp as I'm not sure being crushed by 13yo's wouldve been quite so inspiring. Many of my fellow campers have battled injury, illness, balanced family & work, had long periods away from swimming or even learned as adults. It was pretty cool to just listen to where people have been and what they are doing now.
2) Technique- this is a reality check! The race club teaches a more aggressive breaststroke to those with the mobility to get a quick fast kick and really helped empower me to start being more assertive and strong in that stroke. As far as freestyle, I love the way they teach it and we made a few major changes to stroke that are already changing my practice times and overall speed. I kept attributing my lack of performing at goal to not training enough, age, strength, etc... but this definitely opened my eyes to technique being king.
3) Accountability- they really emphasized quality all the time, so the constant reminder about various technique changes, quality turns even on warm up and paying attention to and practicing starts was eye opening. Again, I was telling myself a story that I was just not going to be faster because I wasn't putting in enough yards compared to the past... then you realize your turns and starts are terrible, you don't practice them and they are only getting worse. That was pretty eye opening as well- to come home and think about those things on every interval is definitely a change for me.
Overall, I had a blast, was challenged more mentally than expected and overall less physically-only a couple sessions with actual workouts, just all technique. The things I mentioned above are what I found most impactful plus it was a great vacation. I have 2 age group swimmers in my house and we will take them to either camp or for private sessions in the next year, I believe in the value of immersive technique coaching that much... plus it was fun and inspiring and a beautiful setting- why not go back?
Was it 'worth it'? We all have different finances, different goals and assign different value to things. I am glad to have gone and will go again. I have watched their videos for a while and tried to implement some things, but that is not comparable to just going.
feel free to message me with specific questions. I definitely liked the all-masters camp cohort, that was a big part of the fun for me.
