Starfish Group « Santa Fe Aquatic Club

Starfish Group

This phase is the introductory level of competitive swimming.

The focus is entirely on teaching fundamentals and developing basic motor learning skills, balance, and coordination in the water.
We believe young athletes should begin swimming at age 6 or 7. How far they swim is not as important as the fact that they are in the water on a regular basis developing their swimming skills. It is important that novice competitors swim at least 2 times per week.
It is very important to make swimming fun and enjoyable. It is the coaches responsibility to teach young children to love the water and to love the sport.
We believe that at this level success should be based on skill development and not on specific times or speed level. Correct fundamentals will be the key to the future success of our athletes.
The majority of yardage in the early years needs to be low intensity and technique oriented. Stretching is also incorporated into this phase of training.
We believe that it is essential to teach, develop and promote all four strokes and events. There should not be any specializing in practice or in meets.
We believe that physical activity and the experience of other sports increases the number of learned movement patterns and general athletic development of the child. The better the athlete the better the swimmer.
We believe in a long-term approach to swimmer development. We would like to prepare our athletes and give them the tools they will need to make swimming a lifetime activity.