Hammerhead Swim Club

The Hammerhead Swim Club also known as "HHSC" is a non-for profit program that gives children ages 6-18 years old in the Northern Chautauqua County and surrounding areas a chance to compete, learn, and grow as swimmers. The Hammerhead Swim Club is a member of USA Swimming and has a staff of USA Swimming instructors. Our club practices at SUNY FREDONIA while also using other local pools in the northern Chautauqua County schools when necessary. Our goal as a swim club is to teach all participants the fundamentals of the sport of swimming and to help them achieve their personal best as swimmers.

This season we have decided to switch to a skill-level based model instead of a competitive/non-competitive model. However, we do not want to discourage kids who are not ready or who never wish to compete in meets and we have taken that into consideration in our program design. Swimmers are not required to attend meets regardless of their skill-level however more opportunities for younger swimmers to compete will be available. Overall, our program will be re-focused on moving swimmers from beginner to advanced levels over their swim career. Below is a description of our 2025-2026 program options. For information on pricing please check out the "Fees" tab. PLEASE UNDERSTAND THESE LEVELS ARE NOT A REPLACEMENT FOR LEARN TO SWIM CLASSES. ALL SWIMMERS ENROLLED IN OUR SWIM PROGRAM MUST ALREADY BE ABLE TO SWIM. THESE LEVELS ARE DESIGNED TO TEACH THE SPORT OF COMPETITIVE SWIMMING.

Beginner/Developmental (BEG/DEV) Level

If your child was previously in the non-competitive program and they still want to be able to attend practice 4 nights a week please register for this program (BEG/DEV). Coaches will place your swimmer in the appropriate skill level lanes.

Program details for Beginners: Emphasis is on stroke development and having fun! Beginner swimmers focus on the fundamentals of freestyle and backstroke while beginning to work on coordination of breaststroke and introduction into starts and turns.

Goal: Learn the basic building blocks of swimming (float, streamline, body position, & kick). Become proficient in freestyle and backstroke and start learning breaststroke and butterfly.

Practice time: 6:30-7:30 M-TH

Program details for Developmental: Emphasis is on stroke improvement and beginning to build endurance. Continue to focus on proficiency in freestyle and backstroke as well as the increased efficacy of breaststroke and butterfly. Work on legal strokes, turns, and touches. Introduction to meets and racing!

Goal: Continue to improve endurance with freestyle and backstroke, become proficient in breaststroke and perform it legally on a consistent basis, to continue improvement of strokes and turns. Build proficiency and strength in butterfly strokes.

Practice time: 6:30-7:30 M-TH

Intermediate/Advanced (INT/ADV) Level

If your child was previously in the competitive program please sign them up for the INT/ADV program. Coaches will place your swimmer in the appropriate skill level lanes.

Program details for Intermediate: Emphasis on increased endurance and refinement of strokes. Swimmers have successfully demonstrated legal and effective technique in all four strokes, Individual Medley, legal turns, safe and effective forward and back starts. Practices focus more heavily on aerobic development, as well as technique improvement for swimmers who already have a solid base in all four strokes

Goal: Continue to improve endurance and continue to develop proper stroke mechanics on all four strokes.

Practice time: 6:30-8pm M-TH

Program details for Advanced: Emphasis on increased endurance and refinement of strokes. Swimmers have successfully demonstrated legal and effective technique in all four strokes, Individual Medley, legal turns, safe and effective forward and back starts. Practices focus more heavily on aerobic development, as well as technique improvement for swimmers who already have a solid base in all four strokes

Goal: Continue to improve endurance and continue to develop proper stroke mechanics on all four strokes and become faster in 50’s 100’s of stroke and 100 and 200 IM..

Practice time: 6:30-8pm M-TH

2-Day Program

Swimmers will attend two days per week and coaches will place them in the appropriate skill-level class when they are at practice. Practice time: 6:30-7:30

30 day trial

Program details: This is primarily intended for young swimmers who would like to try out the sport of competitive swimming but are unsure about making the season commitment. Children in this trial would likely be placed in the beginner level unless they have prior competitive swim experience. They may come M-TH from 6:30-7:30PM for the month of their trial.

Learn to Swim

This program will remain the same as last year. Please see the "Learn to Swim" tab for details!

FLEXIBILITY / FLEXIBILITY / FLEXIBILITY- what makes our program unique is that nothing is mandatory and you can make the schedule work for you and your family. If your child has a conflict and doesn't attend practice, pick another day to come, either way, we are there and excited to be coaching your child. Same goes for meets, if you can't attend one, not a big deal. This makes it so your child can participate guilt free in other programs that our area offers while hopefully still having a great experience with HHSC.