Our ‘Orca’ Squad
Once swimmers have completed all the criteria for Shark Squad, swimmers are promoted to join our Orca Squad. Orca Squad is all about improving, refining and tidying what swimmers have learnt in Sharks to a higher standard, ready for external competition, such as Level 3 Open Meets.
Swimmers in this squad should be working towards, achieving and maintaining good stroke and efficient skills correctly over set distances, such as 50 – 100m, continuously. The aim of this squad is for swimmers to achieve 50m – 100m legal swims (50m licensed) in all four strokes, in order to be considered for the next group. Not only do these swims need to be ‘legal’, but they also need to show efficiency, effectiveness and purpose.
In order to be considered for the next squad, we also require swimmers to bring the right attitude with them such as a desire to learn and improve, aim to be punctual and with all necessary equipment, as well as good lane etiquette and a basic understanding of swim-specific terminology.
Our 1-hour Orca sessions are available Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday at King Charles 1 School at 6.30pm and on Saturdays at Holy Trinity at 12.30pm. As with the Sharks this squad is run by our teaching team, who have extensive competition experience, so swimmer’s will be familiar with them. To keep things fresh, teachers may swap around every now and again for staff training and development, as well as keeping sessions exciting!
Swimmers at this stage are encouraged to participate in a selection of our internal and development competitions, as these provide a good opportunity for children to learn all about the world of competitive swimming. Events such as 25m Club Sprint Nights, themed House Gala’s, diddy leagues on trial and selection, WSCA Development, and more.