I love to swim as part of my fitness regime and appreciate the health benefits and friendships that I have developed over the years. Our group not only trains and competes together but we also participate in open water swims, surf and scuba dive adventures. A great combination of friends and water activities!

I can not be in a better location on the Big Island for access to a true lap pool. Like many of you, I swam on my neighborhood and high school swim teams as a youth. As an adult I have participated in several masters swim groups or swam on my own with friends for the past 30 years. Lap pools with lanes and gutters to absorb the wave splash are rare and are spread quite a distance apart on the Big island with one lap pool in Kona, 30 miles away and the other in Waimea 16 miles away at Hawaii Preparatory Academy. Coached masters swim groups are equally rare with the Waimea group meeting at 5:30 AM which makes for an early morning, cold workout with low temperatures at 2500’ of elevation.

The Mauna Lani Racquet Club is 2 minutes from home and contains a 3 lane, lap pool that can easily accommodate 10-12 swimmers who are accustomed to circle swimming in a group. The pool is heated so December through February temperatures are always maintained above 80 degrees. Currently we meet at 5:00 PM on M-W-F schedule with Monday’s session primarily reserved for stroke technique clinic. Wednesday and Friday are somewhat serious workouts doled out by our Coach, Dave Prutow. Dave is an experienced coach originally from Pennsylvania where he coached many age group swimmers into successful college and advanced swim careers. Several of his swimmers went on to swim in the Olympics and or world championships which Dave is deservedly very proud.

I describe our Wednesday and Friday workouts as 10 minutes of fun followed by 50 minutes of pure misery but that’s swimming frankly! Dave has developed a plethora of stroke drills and sets where all swim equipment is used including snorkels, fins, pull buoys, kick boards and paddles. Hypoxic under water sets and deep water lunges are thrown into the endless and typical free style sets to mix it up and test our limits. We swim back stroke with paper cups full of water on our foreheads to assure our head position stays straight up and not moving. We “surf” our kick boards from one end of the pool to the other propelling ourselves only by “sculling” with our hands to practice catching water. If this sound fun-come join us!

The Mauna Lani Racquet club offers a package of 20 classes at a bulk rate and you do not have to join the club to participate. Club members do enjoy a less expensive package rate but for those that are only here periodically this is a great option. In addition you can use the package for yoga and other club classes and they can be shared amongst family members.

Contact the Mauna Lani Bay Hotel and ask for the Racquet club for more info at 808-885-6622.

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Written by Rick Oliver on December 6, 2017
Posted in: Hawaii Life | Tags: fitness, Mauna Lani, Mauna Lani Racquet Club, swim program, swimming