What is the LOCAL RACING SQUAD?
As some of you may have already heard, we’ll be adding a new way of being a part of ASL in the fall. Historically, we’ve been a ‘year-round’, ‘travel’ club. This has served many of our athletes well, as they’ve landed on swimming as their main sport, and it works for them. However, we’ve struggled to meet the needs of athletes who aren’t yet ready to make swimming their go-to activity after school, and still want to explore other options.
The problem, then, is that those athletes who opted not to swim with ASL ‘year round’, typically didn’t develop their swimming outside of the 6-8 week summer league season, and thus, by the time they were in middle school/high school, swimming didn’t seem like an option for them to go ‘all in’ for, as they’d been developing their skills in the other sports over the past 5-6 years, but not swimming.
With the changes outlined below, our goal is to keep swimming an affordable option for those athletes all through their athletic development, from 6 years old to 18 years old, to allow them to be a part of the team, on their terms, when it makes sense for them. So they can continue with their other endeavors, and when they get to a point where they want to focus on one sport, swimming will feel like a viable option for them.
From HS aged athletes who’ve prioritized band, another sport, or academic clubs to middle schoolers still playing multiple sports, to elementary school athletes who just aren’t ready to focus on swimming year round and need some breaks from the pool… we’re super excited to offer the LOCAL RACING SQUADS, which will allow athletes to participate in up to SIX, 6-week sessions throughout the year, that allow you to train with ASL, continuing to develop your swimming/racing skills, in a shorter session that allows for some growth, but also can be worked in amongst/around your other activities.
These groups will swim in TWO meets at the AAC on Saturdays in the 4th and 6th weeks of the session. Athletes will compete in events that are relevant to them and their development.
The sessions will be as follows:
Fall Session 1- August 12 thru September 21st, Meet 1- 9/7, Meet 2- 9/21
Fall Session 2- September 23 thru November 2, Meet 1- 10/19, Meet 2- 11/2
Winter Session 1- November 4 thru December 14, Meet 1- 11/23, Meet 2- 12/14
Winter Session 2- January 6 thru February 15, Meet 1- 2/1, Meet 2- 2/15
Spring Session 1- February 17 thru March 28, Meet 1- 3/15, Meet 2- 3/29
Spring Session 2- April 14 thru May 24, Meet 1- 5/10, Meet 2- 5/24
You can register for ANY session, or ALL of them, if they work for your athlete. We’ll also be offering two ‘Flex’ Options, for HS and Shark aged athletes to prepare for HS season:
Winter Flex: December 15 thru January 5, no meets
Summer Flex: July 8 thru July 26, no meets
The “LOCAL RACING SQUADS” will consist of 5 training groups:
Development $200/session- 5-8 year olds, working on getting through our Level 1 and 2 training modules. There will be 3 sessions offered per week (Tue/Thu/Sat), for 60min.
Dolphin $210/session- 7-10 year olds, working on getting through our Level 3 training modules. There will be 4 practices offered per week (Mon/Wed/Fri/Sat), for 60min.
Marlin $220/session- 9-12 year olds, working on getting through our Level 4 training modules. There will be 6 practices offered per week (Mon-Sat), for 75min.
Shark $240/session- 11-14 year olds, working on getting through our Level 5 training modules. There will be 6 practices offered per week (Mon-Sat), for 90min.
High School $250/session- 14-18 year olds, working on Level 5 thru Level 7 of our training modules, with 6 practices offered per week (Mon-Sat), for 90min.
“TRAINING LEVELS”
In order to have more clear, focused training in each group, we’ve created 10 Levels of Training, which give each athlete specific things to be focused on in their development.
Each level has a series of training focuses and competitive events that will guide their training. They’ll continue to work on the levels they’ve already completed, but will integrate the next level tasks and events as a primary focus.
We are extremely excited about these changes, as we feel they will increase participation in swimming for the CSRA area, and allow not only ASL to be healthy well into the future, but it will also strengthen the local HS teams, and CSRA teams, with more young swimmers being exposed to the sport and having the options to compete all through HS graduation, and beyond!
#2024LocalRacingSquads #LetsGO #WhosNext
#ShowUp #WorkHard #FindFast #BeNext #TheASLWay
#ASLBrave #ASLFierce #ASLProud #ASLStrong
