Attendance/Promotion 

        Elite does NOT have a formal attendance policy in the Age Group Program (generally swimmers 7 to 15). Swimmers can come to practice as often as they wish and no swimmer is ever penalized for not attending practice.

        However, for a swimmer to be considered for promotion into the next higher training group, an Age Group swimmer (Marlins and Wavebusters) must attend 70% of the practices (and 85% if the swimmer is up for consideration for the Senior Training Program) held for their training group.

        Why? 

       Improvement is not coincidental, a miracle or simply happens because a swimmer gets older. Improvement happens as a result of hard work at practice. Those swimmers who attend practice more often are going to improve at a faster rate and will be in better condition to handle the heavier daily workload a higher training group will demand of them.

     This way is also the fairest way; a swimmer earns their promotion thru their commitment to practice and practicing hard (not thru politics or a change in the calendar). The life lesson taught thru this system is extraordinary: work hard and you will succeed (both with faster times and with a promotion).

     If a swimmer comes to 1 more practice a week from September thru July, they attend approximately 40 more practices a year-which is equivalent to more than 1 more month of training each year!!!

   While some swimmers do average 95-100% attendance, the average Elite swimmer attends approximately 75-80% of practices offered for their training group.