Looking for a way to swim with a group to improve your skills, get fit, and meet folks with a similar love for chlorine fumes? Our Masters Swimming and Triathlon Training programs provide a vehicle to get the practice and workout you want in a coached, group setting.
We take swimmers of all speeds and skill levels. It is our goal to offer skill specific training for all of our athletes geared towards challenging each individual and developing each individual to the best of THEIR abilities.
We’ve always taken pride in being a very welcoming group and in being able to say that we have a lane for everyone.
- Fall Season (Sept through Dec) — Work on building aerobic fitness, hone stroke mechanics, and get ready for the Masters competitive season in January.
- Winter Season (Jan through May) — Incorporate more speed and race skill practices into the mix to be ready to perform at Masters competitions. This season culminates with the Masters State Meet in April and Masters Nationals in May.
- Summer Season (June through Aug) — While there are some long-course Masters meets, we shift more toward an open water swimming and triathlon focus during the summer. We have such few warm days during the year in Chicago, it would be a shame not to be outside more. Many of our swimmers target the Big Shoulders 2.5/5K open water swim in early September as a training target
- Fall Season (Sept through Dec) — During the triathlon off-season, we will work on improving technique and efficiency while working on building each swimmer’s aerobic base. This time of year is also great for taking lessons and classes at our Swim Studio.
- Winter Season (Jan through May) — During the early part of the year we will start to work on greater variety in our aerobic training sets while incorporating some speed and tempo sets to build each swimmer’s speed range. We encourage our triathletes to do some of the Masters sets and competitions as a fun break from all of the distance freestyle.
- Summer Season (June through Aug) — We move into summer racing season and add in weekly open water swims at Ohio St. Beach when the weather and lake temperatures get nice. Our goal is to help our swimmers simulate racing conditions so they are ready on race day to have breakthrough swims.
Masters Swimming
People joining the Masters Swimming program should be competent in all four competitive strokes. You should also be interested in doing some sprint or higher intensity work. Since most of the training sets will be interval-based, you should feel comfortable working off a pace clock and leaving appropriate distance between yourself and the person in front of you.
If you want to compete in US Masters swim meets and open water competitions, you’ll need to register for US Masters Swimming. Click the USMS logo to go to the US Masters Swimming registration page.
Fast Forward
To take part in the Fast Forward program, we require our swimmers to be able to swim at least 200 yards of freestyle with just minimal stopping at the walls to turn around (note: flip turns aren’t required). You should also be comfortable swimming in and out of a 12 foot deep end. This fitness, technique, and water comfort threshold is intended to make sure you can do most of the sets that we have in store for you.
If you don’t feel like you can meet these standards, we’ll need you to complete either a CBD Freestyle 1 class, a Total Immersion Level 1 Freestyle workshop or an equivalent series of private lessons with a CBD coach. Even if you can meet these requirement, Fast Forward is a program based on the Total Immersion set of drills, exercises, and philosophy. Taking a class or lessons where we teach you these drills will make the training more effective — even if you do the class or lessons while simultaneously doing Fast Forward.
If you are on the fence, you can always schedule a 25-minute $30.00 evaluation lesson and our coaches will let you know for sure where you fall. To schedule that lesson, simply contact our office and someone will get you on the schedule.
Subscription | One Group Session per Week | Two Group Sessions per Week | Three or More Group Sessions per Week |
Masters Swimming | $60 | $80 | $100 |
Fast Forward | $60 | $80 | $100 |
In addition to the monthly fees, you will be assessed an annual $20.00 safety fee to cover the cost of insurance and other water safety related issues.
As an added perk to your membership in our Masters Swimming and Triathlon Training programs, you will receive a 20% discount on all lessons and classes at our Swim Studio while your membership is active.
We will keep you on auto pay until you notify us in writing that you are planning on leaving the program. You must let us know before the last month of the month that plan to discontinue your membership. We will not offer refunds after the monthly automatic payment cycle has run.
Whether you’re a returning member or new member joining our team, the registration process is simple and takes only a few minutes. You will be requested to provide payment information during the last step of the registration process.
At the conclusion of the registration process and upon team admin approval, you will be granted access to your own private account for the team. Your private account is your one-stop-shop for maintaining your contact information and for gaining access to information about our team.
We look forward to having you be part of our incredible swim program. Just click this link or the image above and you be brought directly to the registration page on our team’s website.