Core Aquatics is a competitive swim team for swimmers ages 6 years old through high school. We believe in starting from the foundation and focusing on stroke proficiency while incorporating all racing aspects. The team centers on maximizing efficiency as the foundation to competitive racing and building speed through technique precision. Our Fall/Winter information packet can be found here.

Season Dates: The short course yards season begins Tuesday September 3rd for our Silver and Navy practice squads and Monday September 9th for our STP, Orange, and Blue practice squads. Our regular season runs through February 21st with Championship season, for those who qualify, running into March. Athletes must obtain Championship qualifying times to continue to Regionals, Age Group Champs or Senior Champs. There will be a modified practice schedule beginning the week of February 24^th 2024 for those moving on to a championship meet.

For our Navy (High School swimmers) we offer 1⁄2 season options that do not coincide with their high school season. We also offer additional pre-season (for girls) and postseason (for boys) options for those swimmers whose HS season ends after their High school conference and who would like to continue training outside their designated season.

Swimmers New to Core: All interested swimmers who have not been a part of Core will need to register for an evaluation. Evaluations will be held Sunday August 18th and 25th between 10:00 am and 1:00pm for our Fall/Winter season. Evaluation times will be on a first come first serve basis and run every 15 mins. Your swimmer will work one on one with a coach from our staff who will observe all four of their competitive strokes and competitive swim knowledge prior to placing them on a practice squad. At the end of the evaluation, your child’s report will be emailed to you along with links to our registration page.

Please click here to complete the evaluation sign up. You will receive an email from Coach Drum confirming your evaluation time and location and provide more information about the evaluation.

USA Swim: All swim team members must also be members of USA Swimming. There is an $87 per year additional fee for the annual membership. This $87 fee will need to be paid after September 1st; a registration link will be sent out by the head coach on September 1.

Please note pool space in District 214 is in extremely high demand, and Core Aquatics does not always get priority for scheduling. Please note schedules will change. It is important that athletes and their families check and follow the Core Aquatics website practice calendar and not the dates listed on Eleyo at sign up: those dates are a general guide with most up to date information available on our website.

We are a competitive USA Swim club. Our Swim team is divided into four practice squads that are grouped solely on ability level and not age. Swimmers compete based on their age but practice based on their current skills and abilities.

Our coaching staff will decide which practice squad best fits your swimmers current skill level. New members will undergo our evaluation process to determine which practice squad they will register with. Returning members should sign up for the same squad they were previously on unless a coach invites them to practice on a different squad.

Members are not entitled to pick a squad that fits their schedule or that they think they should practice on. Coaching staff is always available to discuss goals for moving to the next practice squad but ultimately the coaching staff’s reserves the right to decide which squad and lane swimmers practice in. Our practice squads are as follows:

• Orange – Broken into Orange 1 and Orange 2. Proper mechanics are required with an emphasis on racing and competing. This squad is open to graduates from our Swim Team Prep program or swimmers who can demonstrate ability to swim all four competitive strokes as well as show confidence diving from the blocks. Orange 2 swimmers spend about 90% of practice working on stroke technique and 10% on endurance, while Orange 1 adds a little more endurance to their foundation. In order to qualify for our Orange practice squad swimmers will be asked to demonstrate a broken 400 swim (100 easy free, 100 kick, 100 pull and 100 IM) with ease and technically correct.

• Blue – Broken into Blue 1 and Blue 2 - the Blue Squad focuses on stroke technique and endurance as key aspects for advancing all four competitive strokes. This practice squad is open to swimmers who can demonstrate an ability to legally swim all four competitive strokes for 100+ yards, including proper turns, and diving off the blocks. Blue swimmers spend 75% of their practices working on stroke technique and 25% building both aerobic and anaerobic endurance. Swimmers must demonstrate drill knowledge and be able to read a workout with guidance.

• Silver – Broken into Silver 1 and Siver 2 - the Silver Squad features continued race training and development of advanced swim techniques. Open to swimmers who can demonstrate an ability to legally swim all four competitive strokes for 200+ yards, including proper turns, streamline, and diving off the blocks. Silver swimmers must be able to swim 1000+ yards of freestyle nonstop. Silver swimmers spend about 50% of their practices working on stroke technique and the other 50% working on both aerobic and anaerobic sets with an emphasis on power and precision. Dryland workouts will be incorporated into daily swim practices beginning around November. Swimmers typically swim 3,000 - 4,000 yards throughout a 1.5 hour practice. To be considered for our Silver practice squad, swimmers must be able to demonstrate all competitive swim components, be legal in all 4 strokes, read and understand a workout with ease, be familiar with swim meet structure and events, and have former team experience.

• Navy – Broken into Navy 1, 2 & 3 – The elite Navy Squad is for senior level and advanced swimmers training for success at the high school level and beyond. This practice squad is on an invitation only from the Head Coach and Lead Senior Coaches. Our Navy squad requires additional commitment to training and dryland opportunities. Our Navy Squad often gets separated into three separate practices where workouts will meet the swimmer at the level they join us at. Swimmers are expected to be on time for all practices and committed to train at a high level for the duration of the season.

We also offer our pre-competitive program “Swim Team Prep”. In this program members focus and prepare to be future competitive swimmers who wish to compete and train in a swim team style. Members must have made it to the Swordfish level of our Learn 2 Swim class or be proficient in both freestyle and backstroke and can swim at least 25 yards of both strokes without stopping. Skills and then drills are taught to enhance stroke technique and teach breaststroke & butterfly, starts, and streamlines. Practices are run in a swim team style with sets, drills, starts and finishes. Coaches are not consistently in the water with swimmers, but may occasionally be in the water to help with a skill.