Bahamas Swim Camp - Swimming on Island Time
Bahamas Swim Camp Day 1
The first day of the swim camp started auspiciously with beautiful sunshine and perfect conditions on the leeward side of the island. Surprisingly, this was completely in contrast to the Sturm und Drang we had woken up to on the Atlantic side. But a short drive across the island and down the coast brought us to this:
We began with a group session, outlining the propulsion skills that were to be the main focus of the swim camp. We also held a review of the fundamental open water skills of sighting, navigation and swimming in a straight line. Most of the swimemrs in the camp had been away from open water swimming since the summer and were in need of a refresher! We then held private one-on-one sessions with each swimmer to identify the fundamentals needing more attention.
What a great place to coach and swim! Shallow warm water that was 26-27C in the shade and no chop to speak of - perfect for us to ease into the swim camp.
We ate lunch at the local bar n' grill at Deal's Beach. Among the orders were Conch Fritters, Conch Crack, Lobster and Fish Burgers with locally caught fish. It is hard to eat bad sea food in the Bahamas and even harder to beat the view from the restaurant deck.
After our first day of camp, we could see that the participants could get much faster in two ways:
The first was by learning how to rotate better from side to side using their arms and legs for leverage. The second was to develop better body awareness during breathing and throughout each stroke.
Both are often tricky to grasp and the main purpose of the swim camp was to help everyone feel what they need to do differently in the water and understand what they needed to work on initially in order to get faster.
As we drove back to Stella Maris Resort, pleasantly tired out from a day of sun, ocean swimming and great seafood, some turned their attention to their evening plans.
Next post: Day 2 at Deal's Beach: Visitors from Another World