To provide a positive and fun exposure to competitive swimming through a structured program.
Positive and Fun Exposure Ð The St. Odilia Swim and Dive program is a safe place to learn about competitive swimming and diving. It emphasizes discovery and learning and not strict training regiment. Those swimmers who wish to pursue a more rigid training program can participate in U.S.S. swim clubs, Y programs, or other such programs.
Competitive Swimming Ð The key here is the word competitive. The St. Odilia Swim and Dive program is a step between learn-to-swim/dive programs and club-level programs. We walk the swimmers and divers through the process of competitive swimming and diving. This includes the differences in individual events and relays.
Part of the process is a life lesson. Swimming and diving are both an individual sport and a team sport. The individual aspect includes achieving individual events and improving swim times, swim strokes, and dive performances. The team aspect involves two components: relays for swimming and scoring for both swimming and diving.
More on relays...Relays represent the team more than any one individual. Scoring is done on both the individual events and relays for the team, not on an individual basis. Some individuals will score more for the team than others, but it is for the team. We start the year focused mainly on the individual aspect of the sport, and we try to make as many relay teams as possible so that everyone gets many chances to swim. As we move into the last meet of the year, the team aspect takes more shape with relays being a large part of the process. We are limited in the number of relay teams we can swim. The underlining principle is to put together a relay team that is best for the team, not the individual. In addition, individuals will be asked to swim individual events that provide the best results for the team.
Structured Program Ð Because this is a discovery activity, we feel it is more important to stress the fundamentals of the sport more than to develop physically fit athletes. In our short season, swimmers are exposed to many different components of competitive swimming. With each school grade year, swimmers are exposed to even more advanced aspects of the sport. Learning and improving new strokes, turns, starts, etc. helps to make the sport what we feel is most important...FUN!
