New Paltz Swim Team Teaches Swim Lessons to the Community

Since finishing their season in late February, the SUNY New Paltz swim team has transitioned from training themselves to training those around them. 

The SUNY New Paltz swim team has brought back its Learn to Swim and Stroke Clinic programs this April. Both are designed to strengthen the swimming skills of their participants, with Learn to Swim teaching rudimentary skills to younger children and Stroke Clinics teaching specialized lessons to more advanced swimmers. 

“The Learn to Swim Program is more for beginner swimmers. Children who need to learn basic swimming skills, like floating, kicking on your back, learning how to do some freestyle. The Stroke Clinic is for people that already know how to swim that are looking to technically improve their strokes,” said Mason Kennedy, fourth-year captain and instructor for both programs. 

The Learn to Swim Program and Stroke Clinic are primarily done for the purpose of fundraising and are taught exclusively by students on the SUNY New Paltz swim team in the Elting Gym on campus. 

The Learn to Swim Program costs $400 per participant, with an extra $10 charge for one additional family member and a $20 charge for a second. The program teaches children above the age of four the basics of swimming, with an intimate child-to-instructor ratio ranging between one-to-one and one-to-three. Four 30-minute time slots are available, all between 3 and 5:15 p.m., on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays.

Stroke Clinics cost $245 per participant, with the same additional family member policy from Learn to Swim carrying over. All participants must be between the ages of 12 and 18. Clinics for breaststroke and butterfly are taught on Wednesdays, and backstroke and freestyle are taught on Saturdays. Lessons range from 30 minutes to an hour and are all between 3 and 5 p.m. 

The team puts considerable effort into making the two programs, especially Learn to Swim, a fun experience for the children. “We’ll put benches in the water so the kids can actually stand, and we’ll have some toys that we use in our lessons,” Kennedy said. 

Instructors are typically volunteers, but this year, head coach of the swim team Nolan Graziano decided against this. “This year, due to the larger anticipated demand, [Graziano] told us that it would be mandatory for everybody,” Kennedy said. “In years past, it’s been difficult to get enough volunteers. I think he’s just getting out ahead of it. It’s been too frequently that people are canceling last minute, and somebody’s not free.” 

The swim team, now in their off-season, is fresh off of their four-day swim season finale, the State University of New York Athletic Conference. SUNY New Paltz placed third out of eight teams on all four days of the event. 

If you’re eligible and interested in one of the New Paltz swim team’s programs or know somebody who might be, sign-ups are at sunynewpaltzswimmingcamps.totalcamps.com.