Verona Aquatic Club: The VAC Story
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WHY SWIM?
Swimming is one of the finest aerobic activities. It builds flexibility and strength. Swimming is the most injury free of all youth sports. But the more important part of swimming competitively is that the process builds a stronger, positive sense of self. Our young swimmers learn attitudes and solid work habits which will serve them well as adults.
OUR HISTORY
The Verona Aquatic Club (VAC) was founded as a USS team in 1979 by a group of Verona parents when the Verona Natatorium was built. In fact, members of the early club were prime movers in establishing the Natatorium. The club’s purpose was to provide a competitive swimming experience for youth in the Verona School District. Since that time, the club has broadened it’s mission to include a much larger community. Currently there are swimmers from four different school districts represented on the team. While the club continues to train at Verona, other pools in the Madison area are also utilized.
By the early 90’s VAC became recognized as one of Wisconsin’s finest programs, by virtue of its National Age group Champions, Wisconsin State champions and records. In 1993 VAC broke onto the National scene, sending athletes to Junior and Senior National competitions. In 1996 VAC was represented at the U.S. Olympic trials.
U.S. SWIMMING
VAC is a club member of United States Swimming (USS), the National governing body for competitive swimming in the United States. U.S. Swimming’s Vision is: “To inspire and enable our members to achieve excellence in the sport of swimming and in life.” VAC is insured through USS and competes in USS sanctioned meets throughout the region.
TRAINING LEVELS
The Verona Aquatic Club uses a "progressive" age group program designed to develop the child physically, mentally and emotionally in a systematic fashion. A well-defined, long-term approach of gradually increasing degrees of commitment ins essential to reach peak performance levels during a swimmer's physiological prime. The emphasis in the early stages of participation must be placed on developing technical skills and a love for the sport. In the later years, a more demanding physical and psychological challenge must be introduced to the training program.
In addition to emphasizing long-term rather than short-term results, it is also important that we establish training groups of swimmers who are compatible with respect to abilities, commitment levels and goals.
At each level, the goals and objectives are specific and directed toward meeting the needs of the swimmer. The long-term goal of total excellence is always in mind. As each child is different, he/she will progress at his/her own rate. The coaching staff recognizes this fact by making team assignments based on the swimmer's physical, mental, and emotional level of development and not strictly by age.
Senior
The group is for full time, year-round swimmers ages 14 & up. They train 5 days per week, both am and pm practices. This group has training requirements; swimmers may miss no more than one practice per week.
Pre-Senior (Pre H.S. age)
This group is for ages 12 -14 years, prior to H.S. age., and is a full time, year-round group which requires attendance at 4 of 5 practices per week as well as high performance. A major goal here is to acquire the practice discipline to enter senior swimming.
Orange Group
This group is for ages 12 & up, and is a once-per-day training program for swimmers. This group fits well with some individuals requiring flexibility in their training schedule.
Blue Group
Blue group is for ages 9-12 and is a full-fledged training group that trains 1.5 hours, 5 times per week. Blue groupers are well-versed in training, technique, and strategy.
Red Group
Red group is for 8-11 year olds. They swim 5 times per week for 1-1.5 hours. In red group we try to establish technique and training habits that will carry them into the advanced training groups.
Green Group
Green group is for swimmers 6 to 10 years of age who can swim one length of side breathing crawl. Green group swims 3 times per week for 45 min. Green group swimmers can compete in meets if they become skilled enough.
TRAINING SEASONS AND SCHEDULE
The swimming year is broken into short course (25 yd) and long course (50M) season training. Short course season runs September-March and long course April-July. The training year is further organized into three sessions of about three months---sept-nov, dec-feb, and april-july. Tuition is based on sessions.
SWIMMER SIGNUP AND TRYOUTS
Swimmers can sign-up for VAC training anytime. But the swimmer/parent will find that sign-up at the beginning of a session is best.
We believe that both swimmers and parents need to feel comfortable with our club before joining. To this end we have a policy of allowing swimmers to “try-out” our team for one week, provided they pay a non-refundable insurance fee. At the end of the week the swimmer can decide whether or not the program works for them.
To arrange for your try-out, or for more information, please contact our coaching staff. Call Randy @ 845-6423, or Bo @ 845-5138, or Deb @ 848-6354.
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| VAC team 02-03 |