The yardstick we go by is whether you can swim 400m of Freestyle continuously, irrespective of speed. This tells us that you are fit enough to swim more than one lap without stopping for a rest, and that you have enough of the basics to enable you to complete this distance.

If you have not done much swimming in recent years, or have only recently started lap swimming, you may find the first couple of sessions reasonably difficult. This is because you may not have enough swimming fitness yet, or you may be doing drills or strokes that you are not familiar with, and so take mental and physical energy to complete.

When you first start squad sessions with us, it is OK to sit out some laps and rest, or even finish early, until you have built up some stamina. You will not be judged for either of these.

Additionally, our sessions cater for a wide range of capabilities and speeds. Go at your own pace – it is OK to not be first, and more than OK to be last. Sometimes our participants wear fins (flippers) if they feel they cannot keep up initially, or even swim 300m of a 400m set (when the faster swimmers in the lane complete 400m while the slower ones only complete 300m in the same time).

Occasionally, we may feel that a newcomer would benefit from a Stroke Correction course in order to gain benefit from our sessions. For example, if a someone really struggled doing Freestyle because they couldn’t breathe properly, they would be significant portions of our sessions that they would be unable to do. Yarra Leisure runs 5 week Stroke Correction courses throughout the year, and these provide an understanding of the correct components to successfully swim efficient Freestyle (and often other strokes too). We will let you know if we think you will benefit from this.

No – in any given session we could do a combination of

• Freestyle, Backstroke, Breaststroke and Butterfly – swimming all four strokes makes you a more balanced swimmer and strengthens different muscles.
• Drills to improve our technique – good technique makes you more streamlined and efficient in the water, which over time translates into faster swimming
• Skills such as starts, turns and finishes, streamlines – they save energy and make you more efficient in the pool.
• Swimming at different speeds – slow, moderate, strong, max – this is to enable you to build both endurance and speed.

👉 Together, these elements make up a typical squad session. You might warm up with technique and strokes, then do some endurance sets, add in bursts of speed, and finish with skills.

We use multiple lanes for our squad sessions – usually 4, ranging from slow/easy to fast. The coach will ensure you are in the right lane for you to gain maximum benefit from your session.

There still will be a range of speeds in each lane. The important thing to remember though, is that no one cares if you are first in the lane, or last! Additionally, often, the lane order changes depending on which stroke is being swum (e.g. some people excel at Breaststroke but struggle with Backstroke), and whether the group is swimming, kicking, pulling (using a pull buoy), or doing drills.

No! Our club is for adults who love to swim, and caters to a broad range of swimming goals that our members have. While some members do enjoy competing, and therefore attend most sessions, others are looking for fitness, or even just the social side of belonging to a club.

While we encourage members to attend regularly, we understand that sometimes life has other ideas! If you can only make it once or week, or even just once a month, you are not going to be asked to leave the club or berated for only attending occasionally. Instead – you will be welcomed by people who say that it is great to see you again!