Participant Requirements

While we aim to be inclusive, rather than exclusive, we need to be quite stringent about taking young swimmers who are "water safe for swim practice". Specifically, they need to:

1. Be between 2nd-8th grades
2. Be able to swim 25 meters backstroke and 25 meters freestyle.
3. Be able to pay attention, follow instructions, and show respect to their teammates and coaches.
4. Be able to recognize that this is a pre-competitive swimming team environment geared towards swimmers who want to advance in their competitive swimming skills.
5. NB: While we want to take as many swimmers who meet these requirements as possible, we also need to keep an optimal coach-to-swimmer ratio and have technically compatible swimmers in a squad. Please set your swimmer's expectations accordingly.

What types of swimmers join WSC? Where do they go after WSC?

1. Inexperienced swimmers aiming to refine their competitive technique will spend 1-3 years with WSC. Once they have built a strong foundation, we encourage transition to a year-round club, such as Water Rats, Sailfish, Zeus, Weston, or Fairfield Aquatics.

   

2. Committed year-round swimmers seeking to elevate their performance benefit from WSC technique clinics, which provide additional advanced technical refinement beyond what their team offers.
3. Competitive year-round swimmers experiencing burnout, seeking both a revival of passion and focused skill development, will receive our full support.
4. For all swimmers, we hope to have them join the Staples Boys or Girls Swimming team. High school swimming is the bomb! We hope you give your children this fantastic opportunity. Here's a recent Westport Journal article about the Staples Girls Swim team.

What makes WSC unique

• Flexibility: Four practice sessions per week. 100% attendance not mandatory. The more you come, the better you get!
• Fun, low stress, low pressure
• Excellent technique instructions…every day
• Coaches are highly allergic to bad technique. (We have no choice but fix it, or we break out in hives.) We often get into the water often to work with swimmers.
• No junk yardage