London Borough of Redbridge Swimming Club

Learn to Swim (LTS) Booster

The first 2 squads we have are what we call the Learn to Swim (LTS) Booster programmes. This targets swimmers in stages 5-7 of our Learn to swim system between the ages of 6-10. These squads require swimmers to continue their regular lessons with the LTS however have an additional session a week with a coach to help boost their knowledge and skill set.  

House Squad

The House squads are for swimmers that have completed stage 7 of our LTS and are between the ages of 8-12. This squad has 3 sessions available in the week where swimmers start to learn the different aspects of competitive swimming that makes the strokes legal e.g. starts – diving off start blocks, turns – for each stroke and when swimming a medley.  

C Squad

C squad is a squad mainly targeted at swimmers who are of a county level or who are trying to achieve it. We look for swimmers that have the ability to swim all strokes to a good standard and perform timed swims. These swimmers must be between the ages of 10-15 and we offer up to 5 sessions of training a week. Being that this squad is a performance squad, we look for them to regularly take part in competitions as this allows the coaches to monitor progress.  

B Squad

Our B Squad is aimed towards swimmers aged 11-16 where we can provide up to 8 sessions a week. This squad must be of County standard but also swimmers at regional or aiming for regional standard. This is a squad that also requires swimmers to regularly compete and attend training so the swimmers get the most out of their time with the coaches for further development. 

A Squad

Lastly, we have our A Squad. This squad is our top performance squad which is aimed towards swimmers above the age of 15. We require the swimmers to be able to perform a test set as part of the criteria for the squad and they should also be able to swim all strokes effectively with top standard competitive starts for all strokes with powerful and efficient underwater phases. Our A Squad targets swimmers who are of regional standard and above. 

If swimmers do not quite make the performance squads, we have alternative options such as our competitive pathway where swimmers between the ages of 12-17 can compete with training up to 3 times a week. This squad is aimed at swimmers who can swim all 4 strokes demonstrating competitive starts and turns also willing to attend meets internally and externally to the club.  

For swimmers that wish to uphold fitness and stamina or swimmers who wish to stay engaged in the sport, we have an Aquafit squad whereby swimmers have up to 3 sessions available. The ages targeted in this squad is 12-17 and we also require that they can swim all strokes demonstrating good kick techniques and being able to swim a distance of at least 200m. This squad is coached where they also get to learn all competitive aspects of swimming to aid their techniques on the stroke and their overall training sessions.  

As a club, we love to be inclusive and therefore we have options for our over 18’s swimmers. So also within our competitive branch, we have a Masters squad. This is for swimmers who are able to swim at least 200m of all strokes and are looking to compete. This means they will learn all aspects of competitive swimming to get them prepared for competitions including increasing speed and correcting technique. There are up to 6 sessions available including early mornings which usually suit adults that go to work as they can get a swim in during the morning.  

We understand that not all adults wish to compete and therefore we created a non-competitive squad called Aquafit +. This squad is also for over 28’s but is solely a squad for swimmers that wish to uphold fitness and stamina standards but also that may want to learn a new stroke or simply refine skills they may already have. This squad has up to 3 sessions available in the week as we require them to be able to swim at least 100m on 3 out of 4 strokes.