Swim club adds new program for adults

Times Reporter

 

Adults looking to swim competitively, or just to brush up on their swimming skills, will now have the opportunity thanks to a new program in the Strathmore Silversharks swim club. The Masters program began at the beginning of March, and is for people 18-years-old and up. 

“The Masters Club, because it’s Tuesday, Thursday mornings it gives those swimmers who are wanting to be more competitive the option of coming during those times,” said Jennifer Mertz, assistant head coach for the Strathmore Silversharks. 

“It’s the older swimmers that we’re targeting, who would be able to swim with the adults and just get more training in.” 

The Strathmore Silversharks swim club has been around for just over five years.  

“One of the parents…her daughter wanted to start the swim club so they asked a friend to start it,” said Venita Schoepp, club manager.

“He volunteered his time, and now we’re here. It had like 12 (members) in the beginning and now we have 77, with a waiting list.” 

Schoepp said usually they add new members into the club in January. The kids are taught breathing techniques, all of the different strokes, turns and dives.   

“Sometimes to make it different they do water polo and synchronized swimming… just to change it up, but… they do a lot of laps,” said Schoepp. 

The Masters club isn’t the only new thing the swim club has introduced this year. Previously, parents of the club have coached the swimmers, and the head coach also has children in the club, which Mertz said has been working really well. 

“We’ve introduced some junior coaches to our club…but we’ve introduced a junior coaching program this year just as a trial basis to see how it’s working and it’s going great,” said Mertz.

The junior coaches are about 14-years–old. Mertz also said the club is becoming more of a competitive club every year. They still do recreational swimming, but every year the club is in existence they have more kids becoming interested in the competitive side of things. They do attend swim meets, and have a junior meet about every five weeks and senior meet about once a month. The junior meet is for new swimmers. The judges are a little bit easier on the swimmers if they make mistakes, and there are fewer disqualifications than there may be at a senior meet. 

The Silversharks swim Monday and Wednesday nights from 5 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Competitive swimmers can also swim at the same times on Friday nights. The Masters club swims on Tuesday and Thursday mornings from 5:45 a.m. to 7 a.m.