All of our dolphins share the pool during practice, regardless of speed or skill. How do we keep this organized? We divide our lanes into pacing groups, or “Levels.” Each pacing group has its own practice structure that reflects its swimmers’ current skills, conditioning and speeds. With the right pacing group, you can feed off the energy of your lane mates and push yourself further than you would if you were to swim alone.
When you come by for your first practice, we’ll have you do a simple test set to figure out your current pace and evaluate your technique and fitness level. We use the output of this set to determine your pacing group and lane for future practices. We’ll repeat this test set as a team at the beginning of every two month session to help you track your progress and determine if you should move to a different pacing group.
We’ll use the test set to give you a more specific look at your current swimming, but you can use the following general guidelines to give you an idea of what Level you fall into. Level 3 is our fastest group.
Level 3
- You swam for your college team
- You were a strong high school or club swimmer but did not swim in college
- You pace an Olympic distance triathlon in the low 20 minute range
- You can repeat 100 yard freestyle swims on a 1:30 interval or faster
Level 2
You swam in high school or on a club team but not in college- You pace an Olympic distance triathlon in under 30 minutes
- You can repeat 100 yard freestyle swims on a 1:45 interval or faster
Level 1
- You are comfortable in the water—deep water, treading, breathing into the water
- You can swim 300 yards of freestyle continuously in under 7 minutes
For our Level 1’s and Level 2’s and for those needing to develop the skills to meet the Level 1 requirements, building and refining good technical skills can be the quickest way to get faster. Remember that the first step is to “Do it well.”. If you fall into Level 1 or Level 2, we’ll recommend that you look into the classes, lessons, and stroke analysis services at our Swim Studio to complement the Masters group practices.
If some of the technical jargon in these Level descriptions doesn’t fully make sense, don’t worry. We’ll explain everything when you come for your first session with us, or what we call a “Trial Workout.” The Trial Workout is a free practice session where we can see how you swim, show you the program, and answer any questions on becoming a member of Blue Dolphins. So stop by for a
Trial Workout and see what we’re all about.
Practice Structure