Paradise Found

My arms knifed through the water and I could feel my hips rotate and drive with my freestyle kick toward the wall. When I touched the wall, I looked up and the sun shone brightly on my head and shoulders. The water was warm, just right, I thought- as I eased my body lower to get ready to push-off the wall for the final 50 meters in the set. The coach nodded encouragingly and said, "I like your elbows and your pull - make sure you rotate your body to provide more power."

Gary Hall runs a program called The Race Club in Islamorada, Florida, just a few miles from Key Largo in the Florida Keys. It is a training camp for swimmers of all ages. But what is unusual about it is not only its elite and honored staff, but its core foundation and principles-based training.

Gary has been an Olympian in 3 Olympics - and has 3 medals and an untold list of experiences to show for it. His son has also been in 3 Olympics - they are the only father-son combination in history to have participated in 3 different Olympics each. He has 6 children, 3 boys and 3 girls.

Gary Hall was my hero for swimming when he swam for NCAA swimming champion Indiana under the legendary James "Doc" Counsilman. I liked the fact then that he was a team player, extraordinarily good at his sport, but not brash and outspoken. He also went on to graduate from medical school and to become an ophthalmologist. I was somewhat curious to see what kind of man Gary had become and quite frankly, I wanted a vacation where my son and I could be together and work to improve our swimming.

I first called his daughter Bebe who is enthusiastic about the program and the experience from the word "go". She is the quarterback who coordinates the training camp staff and schedules and does 100 little things that make a big difference. She is as passionate about the concept as her brother Gary, its founder and her Dad.

In an era of steroid usage, pro athletes' troubles with the law, and general lack of role models, Gary is refreshingly different for a world-class athlete and coach. He is a good role model in an era where too much selfishness and lack of team play, not to mention after-hours shenanigans predominate the news. Gary turned 56 years young on August 7th of this year, but he is eternally youthful and enthusiastic in his outlook and in his worldview.

My son Ben who is 17 (a high school senior) and my wife and I have traveled to Islamorada in August in a form of pilgrimage to learn from one of the zen masters of swimming. We were not disappointed.

The views were beautiful, the water was warm, and the sunsets were magnificent, but those were not the only reasons we came to the Florida Keys this summer.

In addition to 4 days of two-a-day training, we accompanied Gary to the health club "Froggys" to learn how boxing and medicine ball usage and a dozen other "dry land" activities could help gain strength for swimming. He explained to us the value of good nutrition and how good nutrition for the World Team in 2000 and 2001, in part, helped to improve their performance.

Gary imparts not only coaching knowledge but life lessons as well. He told us the story of how Mike Burton in Mexico City was counted out of everyone's list of potential gold medal winners (except for his own list). Mike is portrayed rightly so as the swimmer who would never quit, a good lesson for all today. The stories are all the more meaningful because Gary was actually there. He shows us that fitness is a life-long quest. He accompanied us in the water several times to show us the strokes, turns and starts that he demonstrated on dry land. He is the embodiment of a good work ethic and treating everyone with dignity and class.

In addition, his co-coach Mark Hill a world-class sprinter, coached us as well. The two of them complemented each other well to form a lasting set of memories that are positive and meaningful for our family. All 3 that we worked with have a great sense of humor and communicate well.

In fact, talking with both coaches was as easygoing as with our neighbors back home. (I was able to share with Gary a couple of stories about a few swimmers we both know as well).

Gary Hall is not just a swim coach, he is a life coach as well. Gary believes in 5 principles - Family, Faith, Community, Profession, and Health. He practices these principles every day and tallies up how he has done in each category at the end of every week.

This is an experience that every swimmer can enjoy (and I hope will) sometime in their careers. That is, the confluence of good coach, good advice, good people, good life lessons, and good location. That combination is hard to beat no matter what your skill level!

-Bob Jones
12:00 PM

Many Thanks from the Nabhan's

May 9, 2007

The Race Club Family,
Thank you for the tremendous opportunity that you've created for swimmers of all ages and backgrounds to train with The Race Club. We truly enjoyed our week in the Keys and the opportunity for our daughter to spend time with world-class athletes and coaches. We decided to bring Nadia to train with you because the values and mission you shared with us for The Race Club aligned with our family values and the type of coaching we wanted our daughter to be influenced by. As non-swimmers we were not clear whether she had the talent needed to pursue her dreams but we knew a week at The Race Club would definitely challenge her swimming abilities and her desire, will and confidence. While we were excited about her opportunity, we were a little nervous since she was only nine, and not sure how she would respond. We were amazed with her response.

For starters, you provided us with a "profile" form to gauge our expectations and we independently accumulated feedback from Nadia and her coach and then provided our own insights into our daughter. You arranged all of our accommodations and training schedule and then you picked us up, to the delight of both Liliana and Nadia in the van. Their time with you was great.

It was very clear that Coach Jon had read and processed Nadia's profile. We observed Jon shift his coaching style between the swimmers that were training with her so that she could understand what was being coached and improve the technique she needed help with. Jon was patient, focused and challenging and injected humor and stories to get the swimmers to comprehend what he was teaching them. The focus on drills was terrific and he knew exactly how to get each swimmer to push themselves. What was also amazing is how the diversely aged swimmers that ranged from Olympian to Master swimmers to high school age to our nine year old bonded, focused and learned together. It was a wonderful balance of training; dry land, starts, flip turns, stroke technique, cardio, and gym. The Dartfish stroke analysis was priceless for Nadia and us. It's been fun to refer to the video and have her hear Jon's voice reminding her of what to do now that she is at home.

The facilities were amazing (we now have pool envy)! Nadia will say that "the big pool" was cold... but that's Nadia and why we'll come back in August when she will be thankful that the water is cooler. We like the balance between mornings in the Olympic pool and afternoon's training with the local swim team. The diversity of location helped balance the training and energy of the swimmers. You also encouraged us to observe all of the training sessions so that we could soak in the knowledge and feedback we needed to ensure our daughter's coaching would continue to be positive when she returned home. Her coach was impressed with the improvements that he's seen and the new coaching he can give her on technique. As a result of our trip and her training, her coach has decided to move Nadia up earlier to train with the next level because she now needs to be challenged and coached in her "technique" at a more advanced level and she is thrilled.

In closing thank you for the wonderful extra touches; meeting your family, the friendly locals (parents and coaches of the swimmers who train in the Keys) and how comfortable they made us feel, Nadia's time talking with Gary and his invitation to race, Jon's willingness to let her try everything (including the bungee), the personalization of her Dartfish video, the accommodations that allowed us to have down-time and were beautiful and affordable... the list could go on. We couldn't have asked for a better experience and we can't wait to return. Thank you for sending us home with a feedback form, I am sending letter instead as I couldn't eloquently fit our responses on it. Our first long course is this weekend, we look forward to sending Coach Jon exciting updates on how training resulted in success.

Many thanks from the Nabhan's

UPDATE:

"You wouldn't have believed your eyes with her performance this weekend in her first long course. Nadia was sick as a dog last week with a virus, but rallied for the weekend. She kept saying "What would Jon want me to do" and sure enough... 3 BB times in 50 fly, 50 back and 100 back, 2 heat winner ribbons... and just missed her 50 free by 2 seconds, she ran out of steam... no stamina left after being so sick and just completing her 200 free. I can't tell you how excited she was and all she could talk about was emailing you and Jon with the results from this weekend. Best of all, she smoked kids on her team that were beating her in short-course, it was simply amazing her coach and other parents were floored. Her strokes were smooth, head down and the only goal she didn't accomplish was her streamline "start" off the block but she did it under water. We've had to re-set all of her goals for long-course since she did so well in the first meet."
11:46 AM