Vanderbilt University Swim Club
Important Notice: Due to the pool closure from Aug. 2 - Oct. 5th, the swim club will not conduct workouts during this time. Upon the reopening of the pool, please contact Kirsten Helmcke (kirsten.j.helmcke@vanderbilt.edu) for further information regarding the resumption of workouts. Thank you.
Purpose

Our purpose is to have organized practices for students, grad students, faculty, staff and recreational members. The original idea was to provide a sense of team camaraderie where everyone knew who they could expect to see at practices and how we could come together to function as an actual team. It is often difficult to motivate oneself to swim on a regular basis without some type of accountability and the Swim Club was designed to provide just that. Matthew Stedman and Spencer Merrell started the club at the start of the 2002/2003 school year. The current officers are Kirsten Helmcke and Jeremiah Cohen.

Practice

If you think you might be interested in swimming with us the best thing to do is to stop by one of our scheduled practices and introduce yourself. We usually practice in the deep end, lanes closest to the lockers, marked with ‘lane reserved’ signs. Daily practices are run by our president, vice president, or senior-level members who take care of almost all coaching responsibilities. We try our best to have at least a few regulars at each practice, but, as a student-run organization, there are always times when our scholastic obligations and extracurricular activities conflict. If you happen to come by on one of these rare occasions, we are confident that any of our regular members will be happy to help you out.
We offer 8-9 practices each week with the average member attending 3-4 workouts/week. Attendance at practices is completely optional as we are primarily a recreational club built for camaraderie. Members can attend as few or as many practices as they desire. Dues for the club amount to $10 per year. Our practices are divided into various 'groups' based on swimming level, ranging from beginning to former collegiate level. While we do not offer lessons or instruction, we structure our groups to accommodate almost all levels of swimmers. Average yardage at any practice varies from 2000 yards to 5000 yards, depending on ability, motivation, and time. Pull buoys and kick boards are provided and available at the pool facility.

The current practice schedule is as follows:

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
6:30-8:30 AM	X		X		X
10:00-11:30 AM						X
5:45-7:00 PM	X	X	X	X	?

Contact

We do not really have a year-to-year schedule, however, we are loosely affiliated with the Vanderbilt Masters team, and anyone registered with Masters usually swims in 2-3 meets/year, as desired. We have recently competed in meets in Bowling Green (mid-January) and Excel in Brentwood (spring). This organization provides the members of our club with the opportunity to swim competitively against other club swimmers - the fact that our members are not all students makes it difficult for us to compete directly against other schools that have different membership demographics than ours. It is also our club's goal to sponsor a meet at the Vanderbilt Recreation Center.

Contact

Kirsten Helmcke- kirsten.j.helmcke@vanderbilt.edu

Affiliations

Vanderbilt Swim Masters team