Station 1: BUBBLES
This station is for nervous or beginner students. It includes introduction to the basic skills necessary for swimming. We work on gradual water adaptation, movement in the water, breath holding and release, submersions of the face, opening eyes underwater, blowing bubbles, bobbing with bubbles, and air exchange. Swimmers will gain confidence and master submerging their face in the water. Swimmers advance when they can do 10 relaxed bobs with air exchange.
Station 2: FLOATS AND GLIDES
This station is for swimmers who are comfortable holding their breath under the water and doing 10 relaxed bobs with air exchange. Swimmers will be taught to front float and recover, front glide and recover, back float and recover, and back glide and recover. Additionally, students will learn how to safely enter the water. Swimmers advance when they can front and back glide for 5 seconds and recover.
Station 3: KICKING
This level is for swimmers that know how to comfortably hold their breath and float on their stomach and back independently. Swimmers will be taught kicking skills with front and back glides. Swimmers advance when they can kick correctly on their front and their back in streamline position.
Station 4: CRAWL STROKE
This station is appropriate for swimmers who have mastered breath control, body position, and kicking on their front and back on top of the water. Swimmers will be taught to roll over front to back and back to front, breathing position for freestyle (side-glide), and the crawl arm stroke with catch up. Swimmers will master short front crawl swim and advance by performing side-glide kick and crawl stroke.
Station 5: FREESTYLE
This class is for swimmers who can swim on top of the water, but who stop when they need to take a breath. Swimmers will be taught back crawl stroke and will master front crawl stroke with bilateral side breathing. Swimmers will advance by swimming crawl stroke with a minimum of 4 side breaths.
Station 6: BACKSTROKE and ROTATION
This level is appropriate for swimmers who have mastered freestyle swimming with continuous side breathing for a short distance and can swim on their backs. Swimmers can also learn how to tread water, dive from the sitting, kneeling, and standing positions, and work on their endurance in freestyle. Swimmers will advance when they swim backstroke with correct body position, strong kicks, and quick arm rotation and when they are able to rotate on both freestyle and backstroke.
Station 7: BUTTERFLY
This station is for swimmers who have successfully mastered freestyle and backstroke. In this class, swimmers will learn how to dolphin kick and the timing of the butterfly stroke. The butterfly stroke should have 2 visible kicks with one arm pull. Breathing should occur every other stroke.
Station 8: BREASTSTROKE
This station is for students who have passed stations 1-7 and have mastered freestyle, backstroke, and butterfly. Swimmers will learn the breaststroke kick (up-out-around) and correct timing (pull-breathe-kick-glide) for breaststroke. Swimmers will advance when they demonstrate the legal form of breaststroke.
Station 9: TURNS
This station is for swimmers who have mastered all 4 strokes. Swimmers will learn how to perform a flip in the water, how to touch with both hands on breaststroke and butterfly, and how to correctly perform a freestyle flip turn. In this station, swimmers will also learn how to turn for the Individual Medley.
Station 10: INDIVIDUAL MEDLEY
This level is for swimmers who have passed stations 1-9 and can legally swim all 4 strokes. In this station, swimmers will gain endurance and fine tune their strokes. The survival strokes Elementary Backstroke and Sidestroke can also be learned in this station. To graduate from level 10 and move on to Future Stars, the swimmer must be able to complete a 100 IM, a 100 Freestyle, and a 50 of Butterfly, Backstroke, and Breaststroke with correct turns and without stopping.
Future Stars:
Future Stars is our pre-competitive program where swimmers will learn how to further enhance their strokes and turns and how to get ready for competitive swimming. Future Stars swimmers swim for 1 hour (with a maximum of 25 swimmers per time slot) 3 times a week. To see more information on Future Stars, please visit our competitive website here and scroll down to Future Stars.
