This post is written by guest blogger & Fitter & Faster Partner:
Kyle Sockwell
As the long course season wraps and swimmers take a well-earned breath, August and September often get labeled as the “off months.” But make no mistake, this transition period is one of the most valuable windows in the entire swim season.
Between seasons is when the pressure of competition fades and the opportunity to refocus steps in. It’s the perfect time to sharpen skills, address technical weaknesses, and reset mentally before diving into short course. Instead of grinding through endless yardage, this is the moment to zoom in on starts, turns, underwaters, and stroke mechanics. The foundational details that often get overlooked mid-season.
Here are a few reasons why a swim camp, like ours, can help set you up for your best short course season yet:
1.Remember How to Have Fun Again
Let’s be real, swimming can get intense. Long practices, tough meets, and the pressure to constantly improve can sometimes dull the joy of the sport. Swim camps help bring it back. Whether it’s racing off the blocks, underwater dolphin kick games, or simply laughing between reps with swimmers from other teams, camps inject energy and FUN into swimming again. …and when you’re having fun, improvement tends to follow.
2. Get Focused Attention from Qualified Coaches
In a busy team practice, it’s tough for coaches to give swimmers individual attention on every skill. At swim camps, the format flips.
With smaller groups, specialized focus areas, and highly-qualified clinicians (many of them former Olympians or top-tier coaches) swimmers get hands-on instruction, personalized feedback, and the chance to ask questions they might not usually get to ask.
It’s like getting a fresh set of eyes on your swimming and sometimes that’s exactly what unlocks the next level.
3. Pick a Few Weak Points to Work on During the Season
You don’t have to overhaul everything. In fact, the best swimmers in the world typically use August and September to narrow in on just a few key areas they want to improve.
Maybe it’s your breakout. Your underwaters. Your breaststroke pullouts. Or maybe it’s as simple as a consistent streamline.
A good camp helps you identify these opportunities, gives you tools to work on them, and leaves you with a game plan heading into the season.
Focused swimmers are dangerous swimmers—especially in short course, where the details make such a big difference in performance.
4. Oh Yeah… Have Fun Again (Still Matters)
Yes, we’re saying it again… because it’s that important.
Camps remind swimmers why they started in the first place.
The energy is different. The environment is fresh. The drills are creative. And the people? They’re from everywhere, with new stories, new jokes, and new perspectives on the sport.
Walking away from a swim camp feeling excited and recharged is one of the best ways to start a new season. Not burned out, but fired up.
Bottom line?
August and September don’t have to be “off” months, they’re launch months. And a swim camp is one of the smartest, most fun, and most effective ways to hit reset, sharpen your skills, and set the tone for a breakthrough short course season.
