Upgrade to Essentials when you are ready for more structure and push.
Structured Swim Training. Expert Coaching. A Community That Keeps You Moving.
For swimmers who want to train with purpose.
PACE Essentials is our structured swim training membership for adult swimmers who want consistent progress, better technique, and a clear path forward in the water.
Whether you swim for fitness, want to improve your freestyle, train independently for Masters, or prepare for triathlon and open water, PACE Essentials gives you weekly structure, coaching direction, and community support to help you improve with purpose.
Instead of guessing what to do in the pool, you’ll follow professionally designed practices tied to a weekly technical focus — so every swim has direction.
Try PACE Essentials for 14 Days. Then continue for $39/month
Try PACE Essentials for 14 DaysWhat Is PACE Essentials?
PACE Essentials is designed for swimmers who are already getting in the water — and want more clarity about what to swim and why.
Essentials provides:
- Structured weekly swim practices
- Video clips and explanations of technique drills
- A clear focus for each session
- Balanced development over time
- Progression without overwhelm
You remain part of the PACE Community — Essentials simply gives your swimming more structure.
Workout in freestyle or the other three strokes
What You Get with PACE Essentials
Weekly Swim Practices
Each week, PACE Essentials members receive four structured swim practices:
- 3 freestyle practices
- 1 three-stroke practice focused on backstroke, breaststroke, or butterfly
These practices are designed to connect technique and conditioning so that you are not just swimming harder — you are swimming better.
Each practice is delivered in a clear format that helps you understand what to do, what to focus on, and how the work connects to your development as a swimmer.
A Weekly Coaching Focus
Every week centers around a specific technical theme to guide your swimming.
Examples include:
- rotation and side balance
- front-end timing
- high-elbow recovery
- catch mechanics
- hip drive and forward extension
- kick cadence and integration
This gives your training a clear thread from week to week, so your practice time builds on itself instead of feeling random.
Seasonal Training Progression
PACE Essentials follows a year-round training rhythm built around three 16-week seasons, allowing your swimming to develop progressively over time.
Instead of receiving disconnected workouts, you move through a structured progression where each season emphasizes a different aspect of swimming performance.
Winter Season — Technique & Efficiency
The winter season emphasizes the foundations of efficient swimming.
This phase focuses on:
- body position and balance
- stroke timing and rhythm
- rotation and alignment
- improving feel for the water
The goal is to refine the mechanics of your stroke so that everything you do later in the year becomes easier and more effective.
Summer Season — Endurance & Open Water Readiness
As the weather warms and open water opportunities increase, the emphasis shifts toward building sustainable endurance.
This phase focuses on:
- aerobic capacity
- pacing awareness
- longer continuous swimming
- open water skills and confidence
The goal is to help swimmers feel comfortable and capable swimming longer distances with relaxed efficiency.
Fall Season — Strength, Skill Integration & Off-Season Development
The fall season connects the technique and endurance you built earlier in the year and reinforces the skills that support long-term improvement.
This phase focuses on:
- strengthening stroke mechanics
- integrating the catch and propulsion phases of the stroke
- refining pacing and rhythm
- building durability and consistency
The goal is to prepare swimmers for the next training cycle with stronger fundamentals and better overall conditioning.
Across the year, these seasons create a natural rhythm where technique, conditioning, and skill development reinforce one another.
The result is a training approach that feels intentional, sustainable, and progressively more effective over time.
Pacing Guidance
Many adult swimmers are unsure how hard they should actually be swimming in a workout.
PACE Essentials helps solve that by organizing practices around a simple effort-based pacing framework, helping you better understand:
- easy aerobic work
- moderate training effort
- stronger controlled effort
- how to balance technique and conditioning
This makes your training more purposeful and keeps your effort aligned with the goals of the practice.
Technique Education
PACE Essentials is not just a collection of workouts.
It’s a coached training environment that helps you understand what creates better swimming.
Throughout the program you’ll work on concepts such as:
- body line and drag reduction
- rotation and side balance
- breathing timing
- patient lead-arm timing
- forward extension
- effective catch and pull mechanics
These are the same technical principles we emphasize every day at Chicago Blue Dolphins.
Community Support and Accountability
PACE Essentials members remain part of the PACE Community, where swimmers stay connected through:
- daily swim check-ins
- weekly wins
- coaching conversations
- shared progress and encouragement
Consistency is one of the biggest drivers of improvement, and the community helps swimmers keep showing up.
Try PACE Essentials for 14 Days
We want swimmers to experience the structure and value of the program before committing long term.
That is why new members can try PACE Essentials for 14 days.
Your 14-day trial gives you the opportunity to:
- explore the weekly coaching focus
- complete multiple structured practices
- experience the training format
- participate in the PACE Community
- decide whether the program fits your goals
This is the best way to feel how the system works in real training — not just read about it.
Try PACE Essentials for 14 Days then continue for $39/month
Try PACE Essentials for 14 Days
Who PACE Essentials Is For
PACE Essentials is designed for adult swimmers who want structure, improvement, and accountability without needing a traditional team environment.
It is a strong fit for:
- fitness swimmers who want more direction
- adult swimmers working on stroke development
- independent Masters swimmers
- triathletes who want to improve swim technique and consistency
- former swimmers returning to the water
- swimmers who do better with a plan than with open-ended workouts
You do not need to be an advanced swimmer to benefit.
You simply need to be willing to practice with intention.
How It Works
PACE Essentials follows a simple weekly rhythm.
1. Read the Weekly Focus
Start with the week’s coaching theme so you understand the main technical idea guiding your training.
2. Complete Your Practices
Work through the week’s structured swim practices at your own pool and on your own schedule.
3. Stay Connected
Log your swims, share wins, and stay engaged with the community as you build consistency.
Over time, this creates what most swimmers are really looking for:
- better technique
- better feel for the water
- better conditioning
- more confidence in training
Why Chicago Blue Dolphins?
For over 25 years, Chicago Blue Dolphins has helped swimmers build confidence, skill, and efficiency in the water.
PACE Essentials extends that coaching philosophy into a flexible online format, allowing swimmers to train with structure and guidance even when they are not in the Swim Studio.
It is built for swimmers who want more than generic workouts. It is built for swimmers who want coached progression.
New to PACE?
You can also start by joining the PACE Community, which is free and gives you a chance to explore the environment, coaching style, and community culture.
Then, when you are ready for structured weekly swim training, you can begin your 14-day PACE Essentials trial.
Join the PACE Community Try PACE Essentials for 14 Days
Start Swimming with More Structure and Purpose
If you want your swim training to feel more focused, more effective, and more connected to real progress, PACE Essentials was built for you.
Come experience the system for yourself.
Try PACE Essentials for 14 Days