Groups & Structures
The San Antonio Wave offers a specifically designed program for each swimmer's age and ability. The Wave is broken down into three different age groups: Elementary and below (5th grade and lower), Middle School (6th-8th grade) and High School. Below are the group structures and requirements for each.
*Please note that while the Wave uses the following basic structure as a guidelines, all group placements are at the coach's discretion upon evaluation.
Home School Group:
Home School: The Home School group is open to all ages and grade levels. The group trains together as one, however the workouts are structured to accomodate the variety of ages and ability. We strive to help San Antonio Home Schoolers fulfill their PE requirement, while becoming water safe and having fun at the same time. The group trains at the Alamo Heights High School (6900 Broadway), Monday thru Friday at 1:00 pm. The AHHS Natatorium is a clean and spacious indoor facility. Home School swimmers may compete on the weekends with the Wave team, if desired. By offering an early afternoon practice, the evening hours belong to your family.
Developmental Groups:
Ripples Beginner: This is the first group in our Elementary program. Swimmers are required to swim one full lap of the pool with the basic concept of freestyle. Additionally, swimmers should feel and look comfortable with being in the water environment. Swim lessons will be suggested should the swimmer require the help of the lane ropes and/or the wall while attempting to swim 25 yards of the pool.
Ripples Advanced: The Ripples Advanced program is the next step up in groups. Swimmers have the freestyle and backstroke down and are rhythmic in their abilities. Swimmers are able to breathe to the side during freestyle. Swimmers are also strong enough to swim two full laps of the pool (50 yards total) without stopping at the wall or grabbing the lane ropes.
Splash: The Splash program is designed for swimmers who have accomplished the basic technique of all four competitive stokes. These strokes are freestyle, backstroke, breastroke, and butterfly. Swimmers are also efficient with their training enough to learn interval sets (sets with specific time requirements) and are able to train at least 2000 yards per practice. The Splash group is our intermediate group and is comprised of elementary and middle school students.
Splash 2: The Splash 2 program is for those swimmers who are advanced in all four competitive strokes and are ready for more training. Swimmers need to be able to train more that 2000 yards per practice.
Curl: The Curl group is the Wave's advanced Elementary Group. Swimmers have a complete knowledge of all four strokes and are fluent and efficient in each. Additionally, these swimmers have achieved (or have the ability to achieve) required time cuts specified by the coach. Swimmers must have approval of the Curl coach to join the group.
Middle School Groups:
Pipe: Pipe follows the guidelines described in the Splash group structure of the Elementary Groups. However, since the swimmers are older, the training load will be more intense. Swimmers likely will be expected to be able to train at least 3500 yards per practice.
High School Groups:
Crest: The Crest group is our High School program. The group is broken into 3 sub-groups, with placement depending upon ability and commitment: High School, Senior Group and National Training Group. For this reason, the swimmer and parents need to discuss the best practice location with Coach Matt Bos after a try-out. During the short course season, most members of Crest also train with their respective high school teams, so many swimmers train twice daily (once with their high school team and the other with the Wave).
