South Jersey Aquatic Club

Programs: Sjac swim school - everyone should learn to swim. . . Period. Our learn-to-swim program began in june of 2016 and currently has about 450 swimmers. Under the guidance of tim holcroft, who ran successful swim programs throughout delaware and swam competitively his whole life, we have developed a curriculum of both private and small group lessons where swimmers are placed in a group determined by age as well as skill level. Water babies is our youngest group, it is a parent-and-baby program that targets babies and toddlers ages 6 months to 3 years. After water babies, most of our younger swimmers fall into levels 1 through 5; level 1 being our beginners and level 5 is our pre-team group, which teaches technique, as well as how to follow a practice and take off from a starting block. We also have teen beginner and intermediate classes for teens who are just learning to swim, a junior team for kids who want to be a part of a swim team but still need to work on their strokes and adult lessons also ranging from level 1 though 5, our oldest lesson client was 78 years old, because you're never too old to learn to swim. This year we also added a home school program, giving home school students the opportunity to learn to swim, while fulfilling their pe requirements for school. Sjac swim school prides itself on offering small group lessons, which allows instructors to give more individualized instruction even in a group setting. Water babies is our largest class at a 6:1 ratio of instructor to parent/child pair, levels 1-3, teen beginner, and adult lessons offer a 3:1 ratio; level 4 has a 4:1 ratio; while our level level 5 has a 5:1 ratio. The swim school also offers private instructional programs for individuals looking to try out for their high school swim team, pass the police academy swimming exam, or prepare to get their red cross lifeguarding certification. Sjac competitive swim team - the sjac competitive team is a usa swimming competitive team started by peter holcroft, an asca (american swim coaches association) level 4 swim coach. Since starting the competitive team in the fall of 2015, the team has grown to over 350 swimmers. Peter has been coaching competitive swim teams and running lesson programs for over 20 years throughout the south jersey community. He ran several ymca teams that were ranked among the top 75 teams nationwide (see pete holcroft bio for more information). Peter is the founder and president of sjac and also coaches the gold select group. You will not find sjac swimmers swimming 2-a-day practices very often and there's a reason for this. Pete found through his own competitive swimming career that by balancing a medium amount of swim yardage with targeted dry-land training, it prevented swimmers from burning out too early and allowed them to extend their competitive swim careers. This philosophy has proven successful and has produced swimmers who have gone on to olympic trials, successful college competitive swimming careers, and the us national swim team. But not all swimmers have the desire to compete on a national level and sjac has programs for everyone! Younger swimmers are divided into groups by age and skill level, bronze being the youngest group, then silver, gold and gold select. All swimmers are encouraged to compete in every stroke at a variety of distances because it teaches them to conquer their fears and instills confidence plus, you never know what stroke you may end up loving! As the swimmers get into high school, they are divided by skill and commitment to the sport. Those who are looking for a more disciplined program and to compete on a national level move into the national/platinum group. The senior group is for high school swimmers who may play other sports and swim in the off season, are just looking to compete and stay in shape, or just love to swim competitively but are not able to make the commitment of the platinum group. Sjac non-competitive swim team - the non-competitive, or sjac ii team, began in the fall of 2015 for several reasons. We saw a need to offer a program without the meet commitment of the competitive team. We also wanted to offer younger swimmers an introduction to the world of competitive swimming. Swimmers in our silver ii or gold ii group may attend up to 4 practices/week. They are encouraged to attend monthly swim meets, however, those meets are not required. We also offer a senior ii group for high school athletes. Some athletes use the sjac ii program to get in shape for their upcoming summer or high school swim leagues, some want use it to 'audition' the sport to see if it would be something they like, and others just want to stay in shape without the pressure of competing. Sjac masters team - the sjac masters team started in the fall of 2016. The masters team operates under and is registered with us masters swimming. This group is for adult athletes over the age of 18. Many on our masters team are former college swimmers looking for a coached program to stay in shape, while others are looking to improve their technique in order to compete in triathlons or cross-fit competitions. For everyone on the masters team, it is a reason to socialize with other adults with similar interests. No matter your skill level, as long as you're over 18, you are welcome on the masters team. Sjac special needs programs - we began our special needs programming in the fall of 2016 after running a trial program in august with the camden county department of events and community outreach providing group lessons to individuals with disabilities. We were fortunate enough to bring on jennifer cunningham and several other coaches who are trained to work with individuals with special needs and have specialized in aquatics. While several other facilities provide special needs programming, at sjac, we want these swimmers to not only participate, but improve! In addition to working with camden county dept of events, we have also developed a partnership with camden county partnership for children. We are proud to say that our special needs lessons now have over 50 participants between the individual and group lessons. In january of 2017, the camden county dept of events agreed to co-sponsor our first special olympics swim team! ! In our first year, we wanted to keep it small and see how it went. We had 20 swimmers participate and 10 of them were invited to try out for the national team (the team is selected by drawing, as opposed to ability so it really is an honor just to be nominated) by year 2, we were able to expand the team to over 35 swimmers in 2 age groups! Many of our coaches and instructors will be volunteering their time for the team, and our platinum and senior competitive swimmers take pride in helping to coach this team. The sjac family - at sjac, we work to create a family atmosphere amongst all of the programs. Almost every one of the coaches with sjac left their prior teams to follow pete holcroft when he started this team in 2015. Many of them were former swimmers of his who loved the philosophy and the atmosphere he created so much that they have come back to coach for him as adults. Although the teams are split into groups, each group has several team-bonding events throughout the season. And the whole team has 2 group events at the beginning and end of the season to bring everyone together as one. When you go out on deck during a big meet, the older swimmers are cheering for younger swimmers and vice versa. . . And that carries over to our lesson program, masters and special needs programs. Swimming is all about the individual accomplishments and we encourage our swimmers to strive to beat their best time, not necessarily to come in 1st place. However, we work hard to make sure that everyone that participates feels as though they are a part of something bigger and that an individual's success is encouraged by everyone in the sjac community.