Developmental Swim Program (DSP)
The Leeland Express will be offering the Developmental Swim Program (DSP) for our younger swimmers. The goal of this program is to help young swimmers develop their swim strokes, confidence, and understanding of the rules in order to join the swim team and hopefully compete in our last dual meet of the season. To participate in a meet, swimmers must be able to swim the 25 meter Freestyle, unaccompanied and with minimal use of lane line “assistance.”
Requirements
Each swimmer will be evaluated prior to acceptance in the program. Evaluations will be conducted on June 3rd, 4th and 5th from 9:30 to 10:30 am. DSP families will be notified of their evaluation date and time. You will only be required to attend one evaluation. If a swimmer does not pass the evaluation, their registration fee will be refunded.
Participants must be:
- A minimum age of four (4) as of June 1st, and toilet trained
- A maximum of age 10 as of July 18th
- Eager to participate in a formal swim lesson with an instructor
- Comfortable entering the water without a parent or guardian
- Comfortable putting their head down and face in the water
Registration Information
Registration runs concurrently with swim team registration and opens April 6st. Three half-hour DSP sessions will be offered this year; one at 9:30 am, one at 10:00 am and one at 10:30 am. Registration will be capped at 45 swimmers.
Program Cost
The cost of the program is $110.00 per swimmer, regardless of the number of swimmers registered in the family, plus an $80.00 per family registration fee plus a $20 per athlete RSL League fee. In the event that a child is originally registered as an 8-and-under swim team member but is more suited for the DSP, any additional registration fees may be paid on the pool deck and must be collected prior to participating in the program.
Schedule
Evaluations will be conducted on June 3rd, 4th and 5th from 9:30 to 10:30 am. DSP families will be notified of their evaluation date and time. DSP swimmers will only attend ONE evaluation, unless otherwise stated by the DSP Head Coach. After the initial evaluations are complete, your swimmer will be assigned to one of three, half-hour sessions (9:30, 10:00 or 10:30) starting Monday, June 8th (we will do our best to accommodate time slot requests, but reserve the right to place swimmers as needed). The final DSP practice this year is Friday, July 17th. Those DSP swimmers who have competed in at least one meet (for ages 6-and-under) or at least two meets (for ages 7-and-over) and would like to swim at Finals may continue to practice with the 8-and-under swimmers until the end of the season.
Program Details
The safety of your child is our number one concern; our goal is to have a coach-to-swimmer ratio of no less than 1:3. The program is staffed with a DSP Head Coach and several DSP Group Leaders, but please understand that some of our DSP coaches are volunteers. If there is a day that we do not have enough volunteer coaches on deck to accommodate a 1:3 ratio, we may have to limit the number of developmental swimmers participating in the water for the day.
Parent/Guardian Requirements
The DSP Head Coach may limit practice time each day to what is applicable to each swimmer. Children leaving the pool for any reason, or needing to use the restroom during the session, must be accompanied by a parent, as DSP Group Leaders will need to remain in the pool with the rest of their assigned Developmental Swimmers. For these reasons, and in accordance with the pool’s 11-and-under swimmer rule, a parent or guardian must be on deck and easily accessible throughout the entire practice.
We ask that you arrive promptly to each practice. Swimmers that arrive more than 5 minutes after the start of the session may be unable to participate that day. We want to ensure our coaches are able to focus and work with the entire group of swimmers in the water, for the entire session. If your child has one of those off days where they are unwilling to stay in the pool, we will ask that they sit out the session. After consultation with the Head Coach, if the DSP Coach feels that this program is not the best match for your swimmer, the team reserves the right to remove the swimmer from the program and refund the fee on a prorated basis. The success of this program is a direct result of the interaction and communication between our coaches and parents. Our Head Developmental Swim Coach is available to meet with our swim team parents before, or after each session.
We look forward to working with our Developmental Swimmers again this season!
