Where do we begin?
If you are looking to join our year-round team or transferring to Heartland from another team, please send an email to Coach Kevin Chester ([email protected]). We will probably suggest you begin in the Junior Silver or Senior Development group, based on your age, and that you come to a practice for a swim test and a trial practice. Also, please let us know as much information as possible on your child's swim background to assist us in placing you with the correct group. After your trial practice you can complete the online registration.
Please do not register until you after you have communicated with us or attended the trial/safety swim. Heartland Swim Association has enabled a streamlined process for swimmer registration. All of our swim team registrations are done online through our website at www.heartlandswim.org At the top, in the center of the Home Page, above the pictures, click on the “Start Year-Round Registration” box and follow the steps required to register your swimmer.
All of your swimmer’s medical information and any required releases will be input through the registration process. This information is very secure and will ONLY be available to your swimmer’s coach through the website. However, in addition to this, you may wish to personally notify your swimmer’s coach of any medical conditions. This swimmer registration process will create an individual account to be used for many facets of our swimming team. After completing the Heartland registration, you will be given a link to register for a USA Swimming membership.
Our Year-Round Groups:
Senior Team: Advanced High School Age Swimmers - Strong emphasis placed on competition, conditioning, and technique. Practices may be held at El Cajon Valley High School, Granite Hills High School, or Grossmont High School. 5 afternoon and a Saturday morning practice are offered each week and swimmers in this group attend most practices. Morning practices are typically on Saturdays, if there are no swim meets.
Senior Development Team: Intermediate High School Age Swimmers - Emphasis on stroke development, conditioning, and technique. Senior Development is a great starting point for the 13 and over swimmer. It is also a fantastic transition to our Senior team. Roughly half of the current Senior team began or passed through the Senior Development Team. Practices may be held at El Cajon Valley High School or Grossmont High School. Practices are offered 4 afternoons a week. Swimmers in this group typically attend 2-4 times per week.
Gold Team: Intermediate and Advanced Swimmers ages 11 - 14 - Technique, conditioning, race strategy, and competition. Practices are held at El Cajon Valley High School. Typically, 5 afternoon and 1 Saturday morning practice are held each week and swimmers in this group attend most practices.
Silver Team: Beginner and Intermediate swimmers ages 11-14. Swim legally in all strokes be able to swim a 50 of each stroke, 100 Free and Back and be able to swim a 100 Breaststroke or Butterfly. Swim the 200 Free and 200 IM. Swimmer will foster the ability to kick, learn workout etiquette, build upon body awareness within the water, core body development, and foster an interest in the sport of swimming. Swimmers typically attend 4-5 practices per week.
Junior Gold Team: Intermediate and Advanced Swimmers Ages 8 - 10. The Junior Gold team practices 4 afternoons a week usually at El Cajon Valley High School, and seasonally at Montgomery Middle School. Swimmers in this group typically attend 4 practices a week. The primary goals in Junior Gold are developing proper stroke technique and establishing good swimming habits for the future. We focus on learning and refining all four strokes, as well as starts and turns. In addition, we incorporate conditioning sets to build swimmers’ aerobic fitness and endurance.
Junior Gold swimmers include:
Intermediate swimmers between the ages of 8 and 10.
Advanced 10 & under swimmers who qualify for Age Group Championships, Far Westerns, Zones, and other more competitive meets.
Junior Silver: Beginners who can confidently swim at least 25 yards freestyle with side breathing and 25 yards backstroke and have strong familiarity with breaststroke and butterfly. They should also be capable of following directions given by the coaches from the swim deck.
Heartland Masters: 18 & Older; Adult swimmers. Practices Monday-Wednesday-Friday mornings from 5:15-6:45 am at Grossmont High School. Saturday mornings from 8-9am at El Cajon Valley High School.
Heartland is a competitive swim team, not an organization that offers swim lessons. For swim lessons we highly recommend:
1)British Swim School of Greater El Cajon offers year-round small group and private lessons focused on strong stroke development and swim team preparation in a supportive, technique-driven environment. Website linked here. Phone number is 619-677-6365
2) the La Mesa Municipal Pool- their phone number is 619.667.1494. http://www.cityoflamesa.com/index.aspx?NID=915
Seasonal Teams:
Summer League: An excellent introduction to competitive swimming. Instruction on all four strokes. This is generally offered in the months of June and July with a culminating championship meet at the end of July or beginning of August. More information will be available at the end of April/mid-May.
Fall Special: An introduction to our year-round swim team, typically for those who want to continue swimming past Summer League. This is generally offered mid-August through mid-November.
Pre-CIF Special: Offered to those High School swimmers who want to condition and get ready for the upcoming High School swim season. This is generally offered from the beginning of November through February.
Post-CIF Special: Offered to those High School swimmers who want to continue their training after the high school swim season ends. This is generally offered from the end of May/beginning of June through August.
