Magazine Jan-Feb 2019

FROM LITTLE THINGS BIG THINGS GROW With the launch of our new pools behind us, the Aquatics team has been focusing on getting back to doing what it does best – teaching our young Members how to swim and inspiring in them a love for the water. With the guidance and support of our coaches, it hasn’t taken long to see the cultivation of our younger swimmers from our Learn-to-Swim program progress to The Club’s competitive swimmers of the future – and we’re incredibly proud of them! As Coach Greg stresses, “Encouraging good technique through proper strokes is important at an early age. Each child has his/her unique stroke that must be encouraged, and by building a foundation of getting the little things right early on, everything else will follow.”

NEVER TOO YOUNG OR OLD FOR MASTERS Coach Greg has been putting our Masters swimmers through their paces, most recently with an Aquatics Boot Camp. We check in with him on how our swimmers are shaping up. How has the Masters team been going? It has been a pleasure teaching these guys – we started with a couple of participants but now we can get into the double figures on some sessions. I’m very proud of our swimmers; it’s hard to be consistent with work and family commitments, but many of them have made the time to enjoy this one hour of aquatic meditation and fitness. Do you have to be a good swimmer to join Masters? Not at all – most of my Masters started out with very basic strokes and fitness levels. My lessons are designed to help each swimmer, regardless of ability, improve their strokes and fitness. Do you have to swim for the whole hour? We work around each individual’s stamina level, and improve little by little. It has to be fun and achievable. Can you really teach adults to swim? I like to break down each stroke into achievable drills. Adults are in some ways the easiest to teach – give them a true understanding of the stroke mechanics and how one should feel when doing it – and you are already halfway there…it’s only a matter of practice thereafter. Plus swimming is fun and the best way to get and stay in shape!

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