PRACTICE GROUPS

Placements in a practice group are made with the utmost scrutiny to a swimmer’s age, ability, time of season, and emotional and physical development. Groupings are not a reflection of status or achievement. They represent the facilitation of the best possible learning environment for your swimmer. The decision to place swimmers in a specific practice group is solely that of the coaching staff.

Assigning Swimmers to Practice Groups

As a coaching staff, our primary concern is the happiness, safety and growth of the members of the RAYS. With this in mind, we carefully consider each swimmer’s position in his or her group.  There are times when changes will occur mid-season depending on ability and in such cases, the coaching staff will work with the swimmer and parents to help ease the transition.

Guidelines

As coaches, we use the following guidelines to help decide which group a swimmer is ready for:

•Space

•Practice Habits

•Emotional Development

•Physical Development

•Age

•Commitment

Senior Group Practice:  This group is intended for advanced swimmers who have shown commitment to the program and have begun to achieve cut times for New England Swimming championshiop meets and higher. Selection to the group is dependent upon age, ability and mastery of basic techniques.  Emphasis is placed on technique instruction, advanced training methods, dryland introduction and growth in the sport.  Swimmers develop advanced stroke techniques, racing strategies, mental training, high-level cardiovascular training, muscle conditioning, and cross-training.  The goal of this group is to produce competitive swimmers who have the ability to achieve the goals they set for themselves both in and out of the water.

Junior Group Practice:  This group is intended for swimmers who have developed the 4 strokes and can legally compete in them. These swimmers are competitive and are close to or beginning to achieve cut times for New England Swimming Championshiop meets. Selection to the group is dependent upon age, ability and mastery of basic techniques.  Emphasis is placed on technique instruction, continuing improvement in stamina and the foundation of training methods.   The goal of this group is to produce technically proficient swimmers who are ready to compete in a variety of events for their age group including distance events on a regular basis.

High School Group:  This group is intended for swimmers who also compete for their high school swim teams.  Members of this group generally practice with either the Senior or Junior groups when not in HS season and then compete with their high school teams.

Age Group Practice:  This group is intended for swimmers who know the 4 strokes and can swim them legally.  Selection to the group is dependent upon age, ability and mastery of basic techniques.  Emphasis is placed on technique instruction and an improvement in stamina.  The goal of this group is to produce technically proficient swimmers who are ready to compete in the main events for their age group.

Stingray Practice:  This group is intended for newer swimmers. This group will focus on developing their technique and strengths so that swimmersare able to compete in events for their age group.  Swimmers may still be mastering all 4 strokes.