Catawba Valley Aquatic Club: Swim School

Friday, January 15, 2010

Swim School

SUMMER IS JUST A SHORT TIME AWAY AND IT IS NOT TO EARLY TO START PLANNING FOR SWIM LESSONS. The CVAC Swim School is a learn to swim program for children close to four years and older. All of our classes are 30 minutes in length with a 3 to 1 pupil teacher ratio.
Our Saturday morning program runs throughout the year. We have classes on Saturday mornings on the half hour at 9:30, 10:00, 10:30, and 11:00. The cost is $7 per Saturday. We do not do long term sign-ups for these classes. These classes are conducted on a week to week basis. Please call the week you would like to swim to secure a spot on Saturday.
Our evening classes will begin on the first Monday in March. There will be two classes per week either Mon./Wed. or Tue./Thurs. for the entire month. Classes will be conducted at 6:30, 7:00, or 7:30 pm. Cost will be based on the number of lessons per month (8 lessons would be $48).
Summer begins with the addition of our morning classes. All classes will cycle on a weekly schedule (2 classes for $12). Evening times will remain the same as above. Morning times will be 11:00 or 11:30 am and on Tue/Thur we will offer a 10:30 am class.
To sign up please call Coach Paul. Best time to call is between 1:30 and 2:30 pm or after 8:00 pm.

About Us

CVAC is a year round competitive and teaching swim program. It is coach directed and coach operated for a more efficient and consistent structure for swimmers desiring to improve their swimming skills. The primary goals of CVAC are to have fun and develop a positive self-concept. We stress personal improvement rather than winning at all costs. Every child in our program is a winner.

"AQUATUDE = A strong MIND, BODY, and SPIRIT" is a statement to define our desire to work with every aspect of the development of children. Children DO NOT have to be gifted, accomplished swimmers. The purpose of our program is to teach and develop these skills, after all, every Olympian was a non-swimmer at one time.

CVAC Mission Statement

Catawba Valley Aquatic Club is dedicated to upholding its motto of "Sharing the Dreams of Children." Our mission is to help young athletes to achieve excellence in swimming and life. Not every youngster can be first, but all of them may succeed by performing their best. The booster club is responsible for providing the support for the swim program through fund raising and volunteer manpower. We would like for Hickory to help us to "Share the Dreams of our Children."

"Sharing the dreams of Children" is the statement that drives and motivates the CVAC program. Our desire is to see every child be successful in their swimming career.

We Strive to teach children the necessary skills for performing well in the sport of swimming. Many of these skills can also be applied to family, school, and church.

Swimming should be FUN for all of our athletes. Today's youth are becoming very sedentary. Physical fitness test scores are becoming worse and worse. Studies show higher and higher percentages of the American population is obese. Cardiovascular diseases are rampant among all ages of our population. Swimming provides the necessary exercise for your child during the cold winter months to prevent these diseases.
Parental involvement is also critical. Swimming in our program is very much a family affair. Our parent booster club is instrumental in the success of the program for our children. Financial assistance as well as support group manpower is essential to our success. This assistance will keep swimmer fees down and allow for all youngsters to be able to participate in the sport of swimming. This activity should not be cost prohibitive for anyone.

Team Structure

CVAC is structured to meet the needs of every participant in the program. Pool space is a premium and groups are established according to ability, attendance, work habits, attitude, and commitment. Swimmers will be moved at the coach’s discretion when the swimmer shows the need and desire to attain a higher level of training. Desire to attain a higher level of swimming is determined by positive training standards.

DEVELOPMENTAL (Swim School)

These groups are the entry levels for our children. We will try to use four years old as a benchmark for accepting children into the program. This group is the first exposure to swimming for many swimmers. Basic skills will be introduced: face in the water, floating, kicking, swimming on the back, etc. These groups will be individually oriented with a 1:3 teacher/pupil ratio for teaching these skills. Practices will be one-half hour in length. Sessions will be conducted on Saturdays year around, and in the evenings during the spring, and morning and evening options in the summer. Coaches will supervise the teacher-pupil groupings to insure proper technique, etc.

MIGHTY MITES AND RAYS

This group is the introductory group for competitive swimming. It is an easy transition from the above into competition. This group will work on gaining strength and endurance as well as developing skills for competition. Swimmers will be developed slowly so as not to create a negative experience. This group will work primarily on building the swimmer’s self-confidence.

SENIOR DEVELOPMENT II

The Age Group will step up the level of training to include developing an endurance background, race strategy, use of the pace clock, and continued perfection of skills. More emphasis will be placed on attendance for each swimmer in order to attain the above goals. Practice will increase in time and intensity. Meets will become more important and the variety of events offered will be increased. Swimmers will be asked to compete in all strokes and distances for their age group. These swimmers will be asked to attain the goal of achieving the National Age Group Time Standards for their age.

SENIOR DEVELOPMENT II

This group will continue the above and begin to experience the challenge of senior swimming. Practice attendance and intensity will be stressed to a greater extent. The swimmers in this group will be striving to attain a high level of commitment to swimming. Their goals should be for a higher level of competition, stressing personal improvement and accomplishment.

SENIOR

The Senior Group will be the top level of our program. Swimmers will be training at a high level for competition at the state/regional/national level. Seasonal habits will be stressed along with skill improvement. These swimmers will be the leaders of the program. Commitment will be highly stressed and expected. The willingness to sacrifice for their swimming will also be expected. The majority of these swimmers will have many years experience in the sport. Expectations will include double work-outs as seasonally appropriate. They should be role models for our younger athletes. This placement is not guaranteed, and may be changed if the swimmer fails to meet training standards.

Practice Schedules

All groups will assigned practice times throughout the year. Adjustments may be made on a need basis for scheduling conflicts.

SENIOR GROUP - MON-FRI 5:00 TO 7:00 PM
SAT 7:30 - 9:30 AM

SR DEVELOPMENT I - TUE, & THUR 7:00 - 8:30 PM
FRI 5:00 - 7:00 PM SAT 7:30 - 9:30 AM

SR DEVELOPMENT II - TUE, THUR, & FRI 7:00 - 8:30 PM
SAT 9:30 - 11:00 AM

RAYS AND MIGHTY MITES - MON, WED, & FRI
7:00 - 8:30 PM
SAT 10:30 - 11:00 AM

Coach Bios

Head coach and director Paul Schiffel has been coaching for 35 years, thirty-two of those in Hickory, NC.

The following are a few of Coach Schiffel's accomplishments:

Director of Intercollegiate Swimming at Lenoir^Rhyne University

Represented the USA in Africa conducting clinics

K-6 Physical Education Teacher in Catawba Co.

Master's Degree in Education

President of N.C. Swimming

President of N.C. Coaches Association

President of the Blue Ridge Swim League

Coached four Olympic Trials Qualifiers

Coached N.C. State Championship Team

Coached numerous NCAA All-America

Coached numerous High School All-America

Coached numberous State Record Holders

Coached twenty Western Carolina Swim Association Team Champions

Coached High School Conference Team Champions

Seasonal Fees

CATAWBA VALLEY AQUATIC CLUB FEE STRUCTURE
There will be one plan offered to CVAC families for paying swimmer dues.There will be a payment plan for all families that divides the year (September 1 to August 31) into three (3) equal payment periods. Each payment will be due on the following dates – Sept. 1, Jan. 1, and May 1.
There will be a monthly fee offered to new members of CVAC for the first payment period they are swimming. This fee will be $45.00 per month payable on the first. Old members may request this payment plan from the coach if the need arises.
ENTRY FEES - Swimmers are required to pay entry fees into meets when they are submitted to the coach. Entry fees will be doubled if entries are submitted late or without appropriate fees. Relay entry fees will be billed after the entry deadline.
RECRUITING INCENTIVE - CVAC will credit your account one-month swimmer dues of $45 for each new swimmer family that our members are directly responsible for bringing to CVAC as new members. These families must join CVAC and meet their financial obligations for the credit to occur. New members may not be recruited from our swim school.
FEE SCHEDULE(each payment) -First swimmer $180.00 Second swimmer $160.00 Third (or more) swimmers $110.00.
PLEASE NOTE - Fees are due the first of each month. After the fifteenth of each month, swimmers will be asked to not return to practice until arrangements have been made for payment in full. NO partial refunds will be given for swimmers dropping off the team. Swimmers returning to the team after short breaks will be expected to meet fee obligations during the breaks.
UNITED STATES SWIMMING REGISTRATION/CVAC PARENT BOOSTERS - This fee will be due by October 1st of each year for the next year. The fee will be $60.00 per swimmer per year. All swimmers must be registered with USS. Please make this payment with a separate check.
FUND RAISING - All family members of CVAC will need to be very active to support the needs of the program. Each family should try to meet a goal of $300 by participating in fundraising activities. CVAC offers three major chances to do this; one is the annual Swim-A-Thon held in January, one is the coupon book sale in August, and the other is the Ad sale for our meets held each year. If you do not chose to participate in these fundraising activities, please be prepared to meet your responsibility to the team by making equivalent donations during the fundraising efforts. These commitments will barely help to meet the needs of the team to pay pool rental fees. After the first year of participation, a $300 charge will be applied to the invoice.