The Black Sharks offers training and practice groups for swimmers of all ages and ability levels. It is the goal of the Black Sharks is to offer age specific training for all of our athletes geared towards challenging each individual and developing each individual to the best of THEIR abilities.

The SWC YMCA Swim Team is broken up into age groups.  Each age group will have varying abilities and will be separated via different lanes in the pool.  Athletes swimming above or below their age group abilities may be moved to another group with consent from parents and coach.  Athletes must be able to swim 25 yards (one length of the pool) of freestyle (font crawl) unassisted to qualify for the team.  A pre-team is also available for those that cannot yet swim 25 yards.

Pre-Team: Tuesdays & Thursdays | 6:15pm to 7:15pm

Ages 10 and Under: Mondays, Tuesdays, & Thursdays | 6:15pm to 7:15pm

Ages 11 and 12: Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays*, & Thursdays | 5:00pm to 6:30pm

Ages 13 and Older: Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays*, Thursdays, & Fridays** | 5:00pm to 7:00pm**

All practices will start with dryland stretching at the deep end of the pool by the exit, please have athletes come out dry but in their swimsuits. 

*Wednesday practices will start in one of the studios upstairs for dryland training, with a personal trainer.  Athletes should come to practice in exercise clothes, and then after dryland, change into swimsuits.

** Friday practices will be weight training in one of the studios upstairs, with a personal trainer.  Friday practices will only run from 5:00pm to 6:00pm.

Pre-Team

A pre-team is available for those that cannot yet swim 25 yards but would like to start training for the team.  If a swimmer is looking to come from swim lessons over to pre-team, they should be successful in stage five to qualify.

Pre-Team runs in sessions with week breaks in between.  Session dates for pre-team are:

  • September 12, 2023 to October 19, 2023 (12 practices)
  • November 2, 2023 to December 14, 2023 (12 practices)
  • January 9, 2024 to February 15, 2024 (12 practices)

Pre-team will mostly practice in the recreational pool but may join the 10 and under group in the lap pool at times.

Pre-Team families are not required to volunteer for meets, however if you wish to volunteer, we would love the help.