TSC Group Placement Process

TSC’s tiered swim program has been created to support the long-term development of all our swimmers.  A well-defined, consistent, and continuous approach of gradually increasing degrees of commitment is essential for swimmers looking to achieve peak performance.  In the younger age groups, emphasis will be placed on developing a swimmer’s technical skills and their love for the sport.  As swimmers develop, the physical, competitive, and psychological demands of swimming increase too.  If these increased demands outpace a swimmer’s development, any short-term gains can soon be negated and often result in swimmers not reaching their potential as senior swimmers.

For our system of regularly intensifying training levels to deliver long-term results, compatible practice groups are essential. Swimmers need to be compatible in the following areas:

Age - Building peer groups and friendships among swimmers of similar age is an integral part of the program. We will use a swimmer’s age at Winter Championship Season (February/March) as one important factor in determining training groups.

Training Ability – To train well together, swimmers must meet the level of standards and skills listed for each TSC group to be considered for advancement. These standards are minimum expectations and are intended to create an efficient and competitive training environment.  Placement standards are based on Swimming Canada and Swim Ontario (Central Region) current published time standards.

Competitive Aspirations – For group alignment and rapport, it is desirable/helpful to bring together athletes with similar goals and aspirations. There may be no hard and fast criteria for this aspect of group placement, but it is something coaches consider seriously.

Commitment Level – Attendance is a critical contributor to success in swimming. Committing to regularly attending training is essential at every level but also increases as one advances. 

Swimmers who do not meet attendance requirements can be at greater risk of injury, and further, their inconsistency can compromise and complicate training for the whole group. Lastly, as training levels tend to intensify throughout the year, swimmers who miss training will often find they are unable to meet the increased training demands.

As we consider group placement, a swimmer’s historical attendance is an important factor we look at carefully.

More than just ‘data’ – Many factors influence group placement.  Some can easily be explained while others may be influenced by coaching instinct or experience. Clearly communicating our team-wide philosophy for group placement will enable a better appreciation of the thinking and considerations that go into our decisions.

It is important to note that a swimmer’s group placement only indicates a floor-not a ceiling!  Each group has minimum standards for placement (the floor) but does not have a limit on any swimmer’s achievements (the ceiling). Thus, overlap always exists between groups.

As well, group placement does not represent a coach’s belief about a swimmer’s success, value, or potential.  Upward group movement is not offered as a reward, but rather a next step in development.  Many successful swimmers have spent considerable time in development groups gaining the experience and technical skills required to stimulate future performance.

In review, some of the important factors driving group placement include:

• Training ability and technique

- Does the swimmer practice at the same level he/she races?

- Are they able to make the technical changes requested by the coach?

- Do they maintain the highest levels of effort in training?

• Leadership – are the swimmer’s actions and attitude a positive influence on the group?
• Commitment – practice attendance, meet participation, effort and attention, priority of the sport
• Maturity – chronological age, physiological age. Ability to deal with change, emotional development
• Meet results – as these translate to qualification standards, and training needs
• Group size/logistics – number of swimmers per lane, how many swimmers can the group accommodate, capacity of training facilities

**The Head Coach retains full discretion for all final group placement decisions**