Group Descriptions - Age Group

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Ripple 1

Our pre competitive group follows the Active Start and FUNdamental stages in Long Term Athlete Development. Each week this group has 2 pool sessions and 1 dryland session (working on agility, balance, coordination, and mobility).  

These athletes will get the introduction to competitive swimming by learning the basics of 3 of 4 competitive strokes (free, back and breast), as well as dolphin kick. They will also learn the intro to dives and turns to prep them for our competitive groups.  

There will be mock meets every ~10 weeks for coaches to evaluate stroke progressions and other learned competitive skills, while also giving swimmers an insight to what swim meet formats will look and feel like. Swimmers in Ripple 1 also get a bonus of 2 official meets a year, chosen by coaches.

Ripple 2

Our intro competitive group follows the Active Start and FUNdamental stages in Long Term Athlete Development. Each week this group has 2 pool sessions and 1 dryland session (working on agility, balance, coordination, and mobility).  

These athletes will learn all 4 competitive strokes (free, back, breast, and fly). They will also learn starts and turns and work on ensuring all their strokes are ‘legal’.  

These swimmers will have the opportunity to attend mock meets every ~10 weeks with Ripple 1, as well as Premier level meets across the province, as chosen by coaches. Swimmers must maintain, at least, a 60% attendance rate in order to attend official swim meets.

Swell 1

This competitive group follows FUNdamental and Learn to Train stages in Long Term Athlete Development. Each week this group has 3 pool sessions and 2 dryland sessions (working on agility, balance, coordination, body weight strength, and mobility).  

These athletes will continue learning and working on endurance in all 4 competitive strokes (free, back, breast, fly), as well as their starts, relay takeovers, and all turns. They will also practice pace clock work, interval training, goal setting, and begin to look at time standards.  

These swimmers will attend Premier level meets across the province, and some may begin to attend Invitational meets across Atlantic Canada (after attaining appropriate standards), as chosen by coaches. Swimmers must maintain, at least, a 60% attendance rate in order to attend official swim meets.

Swell 2

This competitive group follows Learn to Train and Train to Train stages in Long Term Athlete Development. Each week this group has 4 water sessions and 2 dryland sessions (working on agility, balance, coordination, body weight strength, and mobility).  

These athletes will continue to progress through all competitive strokes, distances, starts, and turns. They will continue to work on pace clock work, interval training, endurance, goal setting, and begin to include mental skills for competition.  

These swimmers will aim to have 3xB time standards (and above) to attend Invitational meets across Atlantic Canada, as chosen by coaches. Swimmers must maintain, at least, a 60% attendance rate in order to attend official swim meets.

Swell Gold

This competitive group is not a stepping stone, rather a branch for those who have been in Swell 2 and are looking to commit more focus on competitive swimming. Swimmers must have 2xAAA Standards (one of which must be in an IM event) to be considered for Swell Gold, and must maintain an 85% attendance rate. This group will follow the Train to Train stage in Long Term Athlete Development.

Each week this group has 5 water sessions and 3 dryland sessions (working on agility, balance, coordination, body weight strength, mobility, and age-appropriate intro to weight training).

We will begin to promote personal responsibility in their involvement while these athletes continue developing skills in all four strokes through more intense interval training and endurance work. They will also begin to include more in-depth mental skills while considering optimum preparation strategies. 

Tidal Wave

Our senior competitive group follows the Train to Train stage in Long Term Athlete Development. This group has 5 water sessions, 3 dryland sessions (agility, balance, coordination, body weight strength, mobility, and weight training), and 1 classroom session per week.  

These athletes will continue progressing through interval training, endurance, mental skills, focus on optimum preparation, while also developing athletes’ ability to plan and adapt and focusing on integrating sport/movement into career and life goals.  

These swimmers will aim to have 3xB time standards (and above) to attend Invitational meets across Atlantic Canada, as well as A and AA time standards to attend Championship meets. They will also have the opportunity to attend team travel (depending on standards), as chosen by coaches. Swimmers must maintain, at least, a 60% attendance rate in order to attend official swim meets.

Tidal Performance

Our senior elite group follows Train to Train and Train to Compete stages in Long Term Athlete Development. This group has 7 water sessions, 3 dryland sessions (agility, balance, coordination, body weight strength, mobility, and weight training), and 1 classroom session per week. Swimmers must maintain a minimum 85% attendance rate within this group.

This level of training has individualized training plans, it is more stroke/event focused with more intense physical conditioning. We promote personal responsibility in their involvement, while also focusing on sport, career, and lifestyle. We also look at advanced technical, tactical, and physical skills, while refining individual race tactics, strengths/weaknesses, and self-monitoring.

These swimmers will attend Provincial, Eastern and National level meets (depending on standards), as chosen by coaches.