YWCA Masters Program

Masters swimming is a fun way to improve your swimming, get a great workout, enjoy the company of other swimmers working toward common goals and try pool and open water swim meets.

Sea Hiker's coaching staff look to help YWCA Masters swimmers:

  • Improve in all four strokes
  • Improve and maintain fitness and health
  • Address swimming obstacles and achieve breakthroughs
  • Learn how to combine technique focus, conditioning and increased "feel for the water"
  • Have fun in each practice!

How the practices work:

  • Each practice will have a theme that fits into a progression of skill and intensity over the season
  • Coaches will provide options for swimmers of different speeds and abilities
  • Each practice will offer swimmers the chance to ask for coach feedback, especially during drill, warm-up and skill practice sets.

Each practice session will generally feature the following structure and sets:

  • Warm up and/or drill sets: This section will help you improve technique while your mind is fresh and your body responsive. You will look to carry a single focus into the main set after experimenting, doing drills, and working with coach feedback.
  • Main set: 1. Control/Skill set: As intensity and distance increases, you are looking to find ways to keep mental focus on good technique. Often an extension of the warm-up, especially if the drills have less emphasis on pace.
  • Main set 2: Speed: Practicing good speed skills at race pace. May include sprint sets, speed play, turns, breakouts, negative split practice, kick sets, and personal best attempts.
  • Main set 3: Endurance:  15-20 minutes of sustained swimming, interval training and multi-stroke swimming. HR, pacing, stroke count control, active recovery after hard speed sets, and fartlek swimming will be common sets.
  • Cool down: Essential for active recovery, imprinting good technique when tired, and working on skills.

* Note that some Main Sets will combine 1-3 of the elements together on some occasions.

In order to have smooth practices, please:

  • Tell us clearly if you prefer not to have feedback, otherwise we will assume that you do!
  • Tell us what practices you enjoyed and why (it helps us customize them)
  • Give us detailed feedback before or after class (in person or by phone/email), but ideally not during the practice. We want to be able to give everyone our attention
  • Be mindful of others in the lane. Keep the walls open for swimmers turning. If you stop in the middle of the lane, get out of the way and check behind you!
  • Talk to your lane mates! Share tips and preferences. Help each other.

Workout is 1800m - 3000m depending on swimmer's abilities.

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