Training Group Standards and Move-Ups: Age Group Program

Gator Swim Club's training group structure is designed to allow progression over time from novice to highly experienced and skilled swimmer. The lists below show the basic expectations for each group.

Levels within the Age Group program are intended to take swimmers with basic swimming knowledge and experience and progressively train them in preparation for senior-level training and competition, including with their high school teams.

We train our youth athletes to be competitive in all four strokes, at all distances. We do not gear our training toward event specialization for our 14-and-under athletes. We believe that the best swimmers are swimmers that are versatile, with a strong training base that allows them to swim any event well.

Moves from group to group are made by coaches at the end of each season (Spring – late March/early April; Summer – August; Winter – late December/early January). Coaches tend to be conservative when determining readiness to move up. We aim to place swimmers in groups where continued success will lead to increased improvement, and we try to avoid putting swimmers into groups where they will struggle to keep up. It is extremely detrimental a swimmer’s confidence and success to place them in a group for which they are not ready. We want, at all costs, to avoid advancing a swimmer to a group where they will ultimately have to move back to their previous group.

Due to the structure of our program, moves from group to group are not carried out to accommodate more convenient practice times or other member-family preferences but are coaching decisions based on the group standards. The integrity and fairness of the structure is key to the success of our swimmers at all levels.

Individual assessment of each swimmer determines whether they are ready and qualified to succeed in the next level group. Assessments are made based on the following general criteria:

  • Age
    • Each program in our team structure is are age-limited. This is to ensure that swimmers of similar physical, mental, and social maturity are grouped together as much as possible.
  • Achievements and Skills
    • These criteria include a combination of the following factors:
      • Times achieved at meets
      • Times/sets achieved/completed at practice
      • Distances completed at meets/practice
      • Physical skills (strokes, starts, turns, etc.)
    • Mental skills (understanding sets and intervals at practice, utilizing race strategies at meets, understanding nuance of stroke efficiency etc.)
  • Attendance and Commitment
    • Practice attendance
    • Meet attendance
    • Willingness to try new things and take on new challenges at practice and at meets

Please keep in mind that assessments are multi-factorial. There is no single factor that will automatically move a swimmer from one group to another. Just because a swimmer is a certain age or has achieved a specific time standard does not mean that they will automatically be moved to the next group.

 

Age Group 1
Age Group 1 is the entry level for swimmers moving up from the Developmental program. The focus of Age Group 1 remains on technique instruction, while also beginning to develop the training base and endurance necessary to move to the advanced age group level.
 
Drill work and kicking will continue to make up a significant portion of practices, however, longer swimming sets will be added to practices, and swimmers will learn to use swim snorkels pull buoys, and swim paddles. Swimmers will advance into more interval training and seasonal planning. Dryland intensity increases a bit, but still with a heavy focus on mobility and bodyweight exercises
 
At this level, consistent attendance at meets (one per month) is strongly recommended with focus beginning to be on achieving Florida Age Group Championship qualifying times.
 
Attendance at 5 or 6 of the 6 practices offered per week is the goal for Age Group 1 swimmers. Swimmers may remain in this group for four months to two years based on the swimmer's development.
 
Minimum requirements to move into Age Group 1 are as follows:
  • Age: 7h grade or younger
  • Achievements & Skills:
    • Generally swimmers in Age Group 1 are capable of swimming the 200 yard freestyle faster than 3:20.
    • Generally swimmers in Age Group 1 are capable of completing sets of 500 yards on a base interval of 1:00 per 50.
    • Demonstrated ability to swim 500 yards in practice without stopping, and with all proper turns and legal technique.
    • Ability to understand and execute basic race strategies for races up to 200 yards/meters.
    • Demonstrated ability to use the pace clock as a guide for swim sets.
    • Demonstrated ability to execute complex sets.
  • Attendance & Commitment:
    • Minimum attendance of 60% or better for the bulk of the training season.
    • Demonstrated willingness to attend multiple meets per season.

 

Age Group 2
Age Group 2 is the middle level of the Age Group program. Swimmers at this level know the rules of the strokes and are becoming students of the sport. They have developed a training base sufficient to compete and train at longer distances. Practice times are longer in order to achieve the higher yardage requirements necessary to succeed in longer races. Dryland time also increases at this level.
 
Swimmers in Age Group 2 and Age Group 3 have overlapping practice times and coaches. The larger group environment allows swimmers to see and understand what it takes to move up to the next level, while simultaneously building the bonds between teammates that are essential for the continued development of sportsmanship and collaboration necessary for our team’s success.  
 
Age Group 2 group swimmers generally have some meet experience and the desire to compete at a higher level. Age Group 2 swimmers should expect to regularly attend both in-season and the highest level championship meet for which they are qualified (FLAGS or Area Champs). Consistent participation for all days of each swim meet is started at this level, with focus on adding one or two prelim-final meets per season.
 
Attendance at 5 or 6 of the 6 practices offered per week is the goal for Age Group 2 swimmers. Swimmers may remain in this group for four months to two years based on the swimmer's development.
 
Minimum requirements to move into Age Group 2 are as follows:
  • Age: 7th grade or younger
  • Achievements & Skills:
    • Generally Age Group 2 swimmers are capable of swimming the 200 yard freestyle faster than 2:50.
    • Generally Age Group 2 swimmers can complete sets in practice of 600 yards on a base interval of 1:45 per 100 or faster.
    • Demonstrated ability to understand and execute complex sets.
    • Ability to understand and execute race strategies for races up to 400m/500y.
  • Attendance & Commitment:
    • Willingness to push boundaries, try new, harder events and sets.
    • Minimum attendance of 75% during the bulk of the training season
    • Demonstrated willingness to attend both in-season and championship meets.
 
Age Group 3
Age Group 3 represents the final level in the GSC Age Group program. Swimmers in Age Group 3 take on a more rigorous training load, while continuing to build on the skills from the Age Group 2 level and seeking mastery of swimming as a whole. This group is intended to provide the training foundation, technical skills, knowledge, and experience necessary for swimmers to transition to and succeed in the Senior environment.
 
Swimmers in Age Group 3 are expected to attend the majority of in-season meets, and are expected to attend the highest level championship meet for which they are qualified each season (FLAGS). They are focused on being able to race each event in a season to achieve an IMX score at the conclusion of the short-course and long-course seasons.
 
Swimmers in Age Group 3 will be expected to engage in seasonal goal setting, at will continue to increase their understanding of how nutrition, hydration, and recovery impact their swimming performance.
 
Attendance at 5 or 6 of the 6 practices offered per week is the goal for Age Group 2 swimmers. Swimmers may remain in this group for one to two years based on the swimmer's development.
 
Minimum requirements to move to Age Group 3 are as follows:
  • Age: 7th grade or younger
  • Achievements & Skills:
    • Generally, swimmers in Age Group 3 can swim the 500 freestyle faster than 7:15.
    • Generally, swimmers in Age Group 3 can complete sets of 800 yards in practice on a base interval of 1:35 per 100 or faster.
    • Demonstrated ability to understand and execute complex sets.
    • Demonstrated ability to understand and execute race strategies for races up to 1000y/800m.
  • Attendance & Commitment:
    • Demonstrated willingness to push boundaries, try new harder events and sets, and consistently work outside comfort zone
    • Minimum attendance of 75% for the bulk of the training season
    • Demonstrated ability and willingness to attend in-season meets and the championship meet each season.