“I swam through college, and I want to get back into swimming.”

If you swam in college and have got the goods, we recommend you swim with the Chicago Blue Dolphins Masters Team. The Chicago Blue Dolphins swim year-round on the UIC campus and at the Moody Bible Institute in the Loop area. We combine practice sessions in a 50-meter pool with sessions in a 25-yard pool to provide variety in the training program. Over the summer the we take advantage of the warm weather by adding a Wednesday evening lake-swim at Ohio St. Beach. We hold 12 practices a week—each with a different theme (stroke technique, aerobic development, IM workout)—to train well rounded and complete swimmers.

If you have been away from swimming for a while and your stroke feels funny even after you’ve gotten back into a regular training routine, you might want to have us look at your stroke to spot any bad habits and review current thinking about stoke technique. Our Swim Assessment is a one-on-one 75-minute session that will help you examine your current swimming mojo. You and a member of our coaching staff will assess your current technique, speed and training. The session will include videotaping from 6 angles (including under water), training analysis, racing plans and goal setting. The Swim Assessment will break down your individual issues and create a plan to correct them (which may include a few private lessons, group training, etc). We will trim the video clips and add annotations to help you remember what to practice in the pool (for a sample Swim Assessment, click here). You can return to your CD after training or racing sessions to review your stroke tweaks.

Check out our Masters Swim Team Section for complete info (how to try us out, which practice to attend, etc.), but know that you’ll be swimming with people like Tim. Tim swam at Southern Methodist University and joined CBD after a five year hiatus. CBD gives him an opportunity to stay in shape, hang out with his buddies, and feed his competitive hunger…all in good fun, of course. In 2008, Tim hopped back on the blocks and started competing in Masters Competitions again. Over the short-course and long-course seasons, Tim achieved four Top-3 National individual times, two Top-5 National individual times and 8 Top-10 National individual times. He topped it off with being a key player on three Top-10 National and Illinois State record holding relays. Last summer, Tim posted the second fastest swim at Escape from Alcatraz (the other guy wore a wetsuit) and a Top-3 age group finish in the Big Shoulders 5K open water swim. He’s looking for even bigger finishes in 2009. So if you want to get back in shape, see if you can keep up with Tim. ‘Course, you might take a beating.