NOVAQUATICS – MOVEUP POLICY

It is the goal of every coach with the NOVAQUATICS to help create a challenging and safe environment where each child has the opportunity to improve their personal competitive swimming skills. Along with the performance improvement comes the opportunity to advance in the NOVA program to even more competitive challenges. While not every swimmer can be an Olympian, nor do many children want to accomplish such an achievement as the hard work required can seem unparalleled, the opportunity for advancement can be realized.

The NOVA program is centered around the concept of three pillars. The Bronze, Silver and Gold pillars represent a particular level of participation and performance. The Bronze Pillar is generally considered the entry point for swimmers and can be characterized by minimum expectations of participation with the focus being on the development of swimming skills and training habits. Upon achieving times that will qualify a Bronze swimmer for the Silver Pillar, a swimmer is first asked to challenge themselves by meeting the training and practice habits required to be in the Silver program. Once a swimmer masters the training skills and required number of practice sessions per week as would be expected in the Silver group, the swimmer is invited to train with the appropriate Silver group.

As with the advancement from Bronze to Silver, when a Silver swimmer achieves the qualifying times for consideration in the Gold groups, they are first asked to meet the training requirements that Gold swimmers are expected to adhere to and when the Silver swimmer accomplishes this task, they are then invited to advance to the Gold group.

In simple terms, the Bronze swimmer is expected to have a general mastery of all four swimming strokes, understand practice behaviors such as reading the pace clock and interval training and regularly attends and is committed to attending three practices per week and attend swimming meets monthly. The Silver swimmer fully understands the basic nuances of training and attends a minimum of 4-5 practices per week and attends all meets assigned to the Silver groups. The Gold groups are required to have the highest level of performance as determined by the coaching staff and attend no less than 95% of the practices scheduled by the coaching staff for their particular practice groups. The coaches will generally outline the minimum level of training skills that need to be mastered to be considered for the Gold groups. The Gold groups are expected to attend all the competitions as outlined by the coaching staff.

Bronze Group / Silver Group / Gold Group
Minimum Number of Practices per week / 3 / 4-5 / 6
Competitions per month / 1 / 2 / 2-3
Minimum hours per practice / 1 / 1.5 / 2

The Coaching staff will review the performance of all swimmers each month to determine the progress of each swimmer. Swimmers advancing within a Pillar (Bronze, Silver, Gold) will do so at the beginning of each month. As an example, a swimmer in the Bronze I group meets the qualifying standard at a competition in the second week of the month for Bronze II group – that swimmer is eligible to advance to the Bronze II group at the beginning of the next month.

Advancing between Pillars, eg Bronze to Silver, do so at specific times of the year.