FAQs

Masters swimming is an organized stream of training and competition for adults (age 18+) who love swimming, but aren't aiming to go to the Olympics. Masters swimmers typically train with teammates under the guidance of a coach and they may compete against others in their same age group. 

Some masters swimmers participate for fun, fitness, and social aspects, and never compete. Others take their training very seriously and compete at international swim meets. Most of our swimmers are somewhere in the middle!

If you know the basics of freestyle (front crawl), backstroke (back crawl), and breaststroke, we can work with you on developing your butterfly and flip turns! This isn't a "learn to swim" program, so you'll need to be comfortable in the water and able to swim 100 metres continuously.

Must-haves:

• Comfortable swimwear

• Goggles

• Towel

Highly recommended:

• Swim cap (especially for long hair!)

• Water bottle

• Sandals for on the pool deck and in the locker room

• Combination lock or padlock for your locker

• Shampoo and conditioner for washing your hair after practice

Nice-to-haves:

• Your own pair of fins (short, not scuba-style!)

• Your own pull buoy

• Snack for after practice (e.g., a protein bar or dried fruit and nuts)

• Lotion

Before practice:

Some people like to show up 10-15 minutes early to get in some dryland warm-up. Others show up 5 minutes early to chat. Others show up 10 minutes late. While we don't encourage lateness, we'd rather you be late than not show up at all! 

MacEwan has a variety of equipment available on deck for lane swims and practices, so if you don't have your own fins, you'll probably need to grab some, along with a flutterboard. You can put your equipment and water bottle next to your lane and get your cap and goggles on. If you're not sure which lane to go in, your coach will let you know.

The coach will put the warm-up on the board and tell you when to start. 

Warm-up

We recommend entering the pool with a big two-foot jump (no diving, because we start at the shallow end!) You'll probably be swimming a total of 400-700m for warm-up, depending on what lane you're in. We typically start with freestyle because we want to get our muscles warmed up before doing anything tricky, like butterfly.

Sprints/Drill

After warm-up, we'll often do a short sprint set (4-8 x 25 FAST with lots of rest), followed by some drills. We typically have a theme for the week (e.g., breaststroke), and the drills will reflect that. The drill set usually takes 10-15 minutes and covers 300-400m. Our coaches put a lot of thought into the right progression of drills and will give you feedback to make sure you get the most out of them.

Main set

The main set tends to be more aerobic and freestyle-based with some stroke and kick thrown in for variety. You'll get direction on what intensity level we're looking for. This is often around 20 minutes (600-1000m).

Cool-down

Depending on how much time we have left, we might practice a few starts off the blocks in the deep end. We recommend doing 50-150m of easy swimming to cool down. 

After practice

Many of us enjoy spending time chatting in the hot tub after practice. It's a great way to wind down after a good workout! Then it's time to shower, change, and eat a good snack before bed!

While you can always ask your coach or a teammate for clarification, we've also created a glossary of swimming terms and abbreviations to help you out. We'll keep adding and refining terms as they come up!

We're not going to force you to compete, but we will encourage you to do it because it can be really fun! Swim meets are an opportunity to challenge yourself, get out of your comfort zone, and bond with your teammates. Local one-day meets are a great way to ease into competing.