Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Disneyland, Los Angeles Lakers, the Academy Awards...Los Angeles is known for many things, but the open water swimming workouts in Santa Monica have created a growing buzz among local open water swimmers. The workout, held at Tower 26 in Santa Monica Beach, just south of the Santa Monica Pier, is a vigorous Open Water Training and Transitions workout where the coach drills open water swimmers, triathletes and multi-sports endurance athletes over 70-90 minutes of specific open water drills, sprints and aerobic work in the ocean.
Gerry Rodgrigues is the head coach and organizer of the group and its workout. The workout is a qualitative and targeted beach workout that gets short-distance open water swimmers and triathletes what they need to be fully prepared to race...fast and well. Like a well-managed workout in the pool, Gerry breaks up the large group into smaller groups and creates a motivating environment as he hands out pearls of wisdom to the athletes and subgroups who compete around turn buoys and in-and-out of the surf.
We once observed the famously successful American football coach Pete Carroll's practices at USC which are very focused, competitive and an efficient use of every athlete's time and capabilities. If there is a Pete Carroll in open water swimming, our best guess is that it is Gerry Rodgrigues at Tower 26.Upper photo by George Kamper.
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