Stuff to Know

• In Junior STR, the focus is for our advanced swimmers to work on perfecting breaststroke, learning their butterfly, sit and kneel dives, flip turns, and pushing their endurance while they adjust to swim team terminology. These classes are 30 minutes long with 3 students and 1 instructor, with the instructor being both in and out of the water depending on the lesson plan and individual students.
  The child will need to pass all their shark skills and need to a do a trial lesson over at Lawrence in JR STR before they are moved to the JR STR class to make sure that they are ready and have the endurance that they need to be in that class.
• In STR, the focus is further perfecting technique, learning standing dives and crossover turns, learning their start block dive, and being able to use all these skills in IM sets to stimulate competitive swimming. These classes are 45 minutes long, with 4 students for 1 instructor. The instructor will be out of the water for the majority of classes to help emulate a swim team environment and coaching atmosphere.

If your student is enjoying learning upper-level skills and wants to continue pushing their endurance, then our Swim Team Readiness program may be for them, even if they’re unsure of their interest in competitive swimming. We are partnered with the Wave Swim Team, but it is not required for students to join the swim team after graduating from our program. Many students enjoy learning their advanced turns and dives, and the push that the program gives them is a great way for students to continue to advance their skills past the Learn to Swim program.

• To be ready for Junior STR, your student must be able to: tread for 1 minute, be proficient in breaststroke, independent in their dolphin kick, and able to swim 2 lengths of the pool for backstroke, back streamline 4 strokes, and front glide.
• To be ready for STR, your student must meet the Junior STR skills, and be able to: perform a sit and kneel dive, perform open and flip turns, and be able to swim 100 yards of breaststroke and butterfly

• For Junior STR, the minimum age is 6.5 years old.
• For STR, the minimum age is 8 years old. If students meet the skill requirements but not the minimum age, a trial lesson can be done to ensure they’re ready for the class.

Our instructors are frequently assessing where your student and what skills they need to attain to move up.

• For Junior STR, the instructor will let parents know when their child is ready for STR and you will be able to contact the front desk to make the change in classes.
• For STR, the instructor will let parents know when their child has learned all the advanced skills and perfected their techniques, and the parents can decide if they’d like to end enrollment or stay in the class until the next Swim Team Trial. Because Swim Team Trials are limited throughout the year; it is recommended that in-between trials, parents keep their student in, even if all skills have been learned, to continue practicing and maintain endurance until the next upcoming trial. Instructors will notify families when trials are happening for the Wave Swim Team and let parents know if their child is ready to try out.

• Address: Buchanan Kiewit Wellness Center – Lawrence University, 525 East College Avenue, Appleton, WI 54911
• Parking: There is a parking lot off College Avenue and Alton Street; the entrance to this driveway is located off College Avenue only. Look for “Alice G Chapman Hall” signage. After parking, you will walk through campus and cross Lawe Street, past the art building (it is trimmed in bright blue), then turn left to get to the Wellness Center, where the pool building is located. You may also park in the Chapel Parking lot across College Avenue. The Chapel parking lot is #25. Once you enter the building the pool is located on the bottom floor. You can either take the elevator or stairs to get to the pool area. You can enter the pool room via the locker rooms.

• For Junior STR, it is $28.62 per class
• For STR, it is $34.56 per class

Lawrence’s facilities allow us access to a 25-yard pool, flags to signify location in the pool for turns, starting blocks, a 16ft diving well with high and low diving boards, and a minimum depth of 4ft allowing for turns at each end of the lane. These tools help us to teach backstroke counts and turns, standing and start block dives, and better simulate swim team conditions. This location allows us to push the endurance further, along with the upper-level skills we are implementing for the best performance and success.

At Wisconsin Swim Academy, our goal is to teach as many students as possible the lifesaving skills of swimming. So when students pass their skills test for our highest-level Shark that means they have completed the Learn To Swim program, which focuses on safety in the water, and since they have learned all the skills we teach for that program it is time for them to move on, so there is space for the swimmer who is still on that journey. The Swim Team Readiness program is focused on taking the foundational skills students learned and building upon them further to begin focusing on speed and efficiency in the water.