Information describing the SwimAmerica lessons program can be accessed by clicking below on a topic of interest. For more information describing the year-round competitive swim team provided by Eastern Express, click here.

• About SwimAmerica
• Station Skills and Goals
• Practice Facilities
• Registration Form

SwimAmerica is a national program which was developed by competitive swimming coaches and successful swim school directors over 10 years ago. SwimAmerica is the only swim program endorsed by the American Swimming Coaches Association (ASCA), the most prestigious coaches association in the world. With SwimAmerica water safety comes first! SwimAmerica lessons are designed to teach all the swim skills your child needs to be safe in and around the water for a lifetime. Although SwimAmerica operates at over 900 sites across the United States, Express SwimAmerica is one of only three licensed SwimAmerica programs in New Jersey.

Key features of the Express SwimAmerica program include:

• Coach to swimmer ratios of 1 to 5 or better
• Coaches are gentle, caring and understanding of children
• Program emphasizes excellent swimming technique
• All coaches are trained and certified by Program Director, Brent Matheson
  

SwimAmerica is station-based program with 10 different stations offering instruction for children of all levels. At Express SwimAmerica, we begin at age 3 - as long as your child is potty trained. As the skills of each station are mastered, your child is rewarded and moved to the next station within the progression. This effective step by step method allows even the youngest swimmers to learn to swim SAFELY, while offering stronger swimmers the opportunity to develop all of the competitive strokes.

The following is a brief summary of each station's skills and goals:

Station 1

Goal:

• 10 bobs in a rhythmic fashion

Skills:

• Water adaptation and movement
• Blowing bubbles underwater
• Looking underwater
• Bobbing and blowing in a continuous rhythmic fashion

Note : Good breathing is the KEY to good swimming. If you do not breathe properly then you will not swim well, and you will tire more quickly. We spend alot of time working on bobs and breathing properly at all SwimAmerica stations.

Station 2

Goals:

• Floating comfortably on your front and back for 5 seconds each
• Pushing off with a good streamline on your front and gliding on your back

Skills :

• Increased comfort and relaxation in the water - establish good body position
• Floating with help and then independently on front and back
• Pushing off in a horizontal position front and back
• Streamlining

Station 3

Goals:

• Good, fast flutter kicking on your front and back (5 yards minimum)
• Breathing while kicking on your front without dog-paddle

Skills:

• Flutter kicking on front and back with help, then independently
• Kicking with floatation devices -- kickboards, noodles, bricks, etc.
• Dolphin dives/butterfly kicking

Station 4

Goals:

• Flutter kicking on your side and breathing to the side (side glide kick) minimum 20 feet
• Swimming the freestyle with “big arms” and head still minimum 20 feet

Skills:

• Balancing on your side while flutter kicking
• Head rotation for breathing to the side - with a full air exchange
• Good body/head alignment
• Development of “big arms” while swimming freestyle
• Development of “feel” for the water via sculling and drills

Station 5

Goals:

• Freestyle with good breathing and good backstroke for a minimum of 30 feet

Skills:

• Continuation of good body/head alignment in freestyle and backstroke
• Timing of breathing within the freestyle stroke without interruption of rhythm
• Backstroke arm movement with good rotation
• Freestyle arm movement with good rotation

Station 6

Goals:

• Extended freestyle and backstroke swimming (full laps of 25 yard pool) with good technique
• Ability to jump in and tread water for a minimum of 1 minute

Skills:

• Increased endurance for both freestyle and backstroke
• Continued refinement of freestyle and backstroke technique
• Diving
• Treading water/sculling.

Station 7

Goals:

• Swim 50 yards freestyle with good technique
• Swim 25 yards good backstroke
• Kick breastroke in a streamline with good technique for at least 20 feet

Skills :

• Development of breastroke kick
• Development of full stroke breastroke
• Introduction of butterfly arms and full stroke butterfly
• Continuation of stroke refinement for freestyle and backstroke
• Improved endurance in all strokes

Station 8

Goals:

• Swim 100 yards freestyle with good technique using bilateral breathing and flip turns
• Swim 25 yards good breastroke
• Swim 25 yards good butterfly

Skills:

• Refinement of technique for all four competitive strokes
• Bilateral breathing (alternate side breathing in freestyle)
• Increased endurance in all strokes
• Development of open turns and flip turns

Station 9

Goals:

• Swim 200 yards freestyle with bilateral breathing
• Swim 25 yards butterfly, 50 yards breastroke, 50 yards elementary backstroke, and 50 yards sidestroke

Skills:

• Continued refinement of all four competitive strokes
• Development of sidestroke
• Development of elementary backstroke
• Increased endurance in all strokes

Station 10

Goals:

• Swim 300 yards freestyle, 100 yards backstroke, and 100 yards individual medley

Skills:

• Extended swimming and technique refinement in all strokes and turns

SwimAmerica classes are held at The College of New Jersey (TCNJ) Aquatic Center in Ewing, NJ. The Aquatic Center is located in the center of the TCNJ campus, and houses an eight-lane pool with a movable bulkhead that can be set at twenty-five yards, twenty-five meters, or thirty meters for water polo. A separate adjoining diving area includes two three-meter and two one-meter diving boards. The diving tank area provides additional pool space for swimming instruction, and facilitates close instructor-swimmer interaction.

Driving directions and an aerial view of the facility can be obtained from the links in the table below. The College of New Jersey campus is located just minutes off of Interstate 95.

Swimmers should plan to arrive 5-10 minutes prior to the start of each class.

All swimmers registering for the Express SwimAmerica program must complete and submit the Eastern Express SwimAmerica Registration Form. Fall Registration Forms for 2009 below!

• doc
• pdf

All completed forms should be submitted to Eastern Express Swimming. For Eastern Express contact information, click here.