Watertown Area Swim Club Welcomes Beginners, Considers December Tryouts

Northeast Radio SD News – Watertown, SD - For families considering competitive swimming, Watertown Area Swim Club Coach Chuck Baechler says getting started does not require expensive equipment or years of previous experience.

During an interview with Northeast Radio SD, Baechler described how the club introduces young athletes to competitive swimming, how practices change as swimmers develop, and why safety, responsibility, and enjoyment remain important parts of the program.

For a beginning swimmer, Baechler said the equipment requirements are simple.

“The equipment is literally a suit and a pair of goggles,” Baechler said.

While swimming equipment ranges dramatically in price, Baechler said beginning swimmers do not need expensive racing gear. The club also works with swimmers on basic responsibilities such as arriving with their equipment, keeping track of their belongings, and preparing for practice.

Building Skills Without Overwhelming Beginners

Baechler said coaches take a gradual approach with beginning swimmers, particularly when introducing skills such as starting from elevated racing blocks.

Younger swimmers first progress through starts from the side of the pool before moving to the blocks. Practices also incorporate fins, underwater hoops, and other activities designed to make skill development enjoyable.

“We want the kids to have fun,” Baechler said.

The games have a purpose. Baechler said activities can teach swimmers proper streamlining, kicking, and body position while allowing younger athletes to experience the speed and enjoyment of moving through the water.

As swimmers develop a working knowledge of all four competitive strokes, practices gradually become longer and more structured. Training becomes increasingly interval-based, with swimmers completing repeated distances on established time intervals.

The club organizes swimmers according to practice skills rather than strictly by age, although Baechler said coaches also consider the social benefits of keeping athletes with their peers when possible.

Progression to a more advanced group is discussed with both the swimmer and parents.

“It’s got to be something they want to do,” Baechler said, emphasizing the swimmer’s role in that decision.

Late Starters Can Still Find a Place

Baechler said competitive swimming is not limited to children who begin at an early age.

He pointed to a 14-year-old who recently joined the program after having some previous swimming experience. The swimmer knew all four strokes but was not yet conditioned to train with athletes his own age.

Rather than placing him immediately into an advanced practice and risking overwhelming him, Baechler said the club can move swimmers through groups as their skills and conditioning improve.

“We’ve had a number of 12-, 13-, 14-year-olds start,” Baechler said.

His message to older newcomers is patience. Baechler said swimmers who begin later can eventually reach a point where the difference between them and athletes who started earlier is no longer apparent.

More Than Competition

Although the Watertown Area Swim Club is a competitive program, Baechler said victories and qualifying times are not its only measures of success.

He wants every participant to leave with enough swimming ability and confidence to be safer around the water.

“We’re really more focused on the aspect of an aquatic-based fitness than the competitive portion,” Baechler said.

For athletes who want to pursue swimming at higher levels, including college swimming, the program can become increasingly competitive. But Baechler said watching a younger swimmer overcome uncertainty and successfully compete can be equally rewarding.

Swimming also gives athletes an opportunity to measure progress individually.

“You’re the one determining how much effort you put in, how much attention you pay to your technique, what you’re getting out of it,” Baechler said.

One message he regularly gives swimmers is simple:

“Let’s get better at one thing today.”

What a Practice Looks Like

Baechler said practices generally begin with roughly a 20-minute warm-up that remains consistent from day to day. That allows swimmers arriving late because of transportation, appointments, or other obligations to enter the pool and know what they should be doing.

For younger swimmers, coaches may then use freestyle to develop basic aerobic conditioning before concentrating on one of the other competitive strokes.

Practices can include stroke drills, turns, starts, short-distance speed work, and conditioning. Coaches adjust the intensity, distance, and focus depending on swimmers’ development and what they observe during competition.

As swimmers become older and more experienced, conditioning becomes a larger portion of training, while technique work continues throughout the program.

Baechler said the club also uses dryland training and in-water resistance exercises. Older swimmers can use equipment such as hand paddles, fins and resistance cords, while the club’s dryland program focuses on areas including range of motion and strength.

Club Considering Another Tryout Opportunity

The Watertown Area Swim Club is considering holding another tryout in December.

Baechler said the program has received a strong response and estimated there is room for approximately 10 to 15 additional beginning swimmers, although more experienced swimmers may be easier to accommodate because they require less individual instruction.

Families do not necessarily have to wait for a formal tryout.

“Anybody can stop by after school for any day of the week,” Baechler said.

Interested families can watch a practice, ask questions, receive information, and explore whether the program might be a good fit.

Baechler said joining during the winter season would still give a beginning swimmer meaningful time to develop before the season concludes for newer athletes during the last weekend of February.

Watertown Swimmers Competing on the Road

Baechler said members of the club were preparing for competitions at two locations.

A group of older swimmers was headed to a qualifying meet at the University of Iowa in Iowa City, while most of the team was scheduled to compete at Brookings High School.

The Iowa competition uses a preliminary-and-finals format and requires qualifying times. Baechler described Brookings as a good first road competition for newer swimmers and their families.

Although he dislikes having his team divided between competitions, Baechler said technology allows him to follow results and splits remotely through the Meet Mobile app.

Representing Watertown Beyond the Pool

Baechler also highlighted something he considers an important accomplishment that has little to do with race times.

The club attends roughly 24 or 25 meets each year, with about five held in Watertown. Baechler said that since he arrived in Watertown in 2011, he has never received a complaint from another facility about the behavior of the club’s swimmers or parents.

“Our team and the kids from our community really have a great reputation statewide as being respectful, being good competitors, good citizens,” Baechler said.

He said swimmers are expected to respect facilities and clean up after themselves before leaving.

“It’s just another aspect of things that I think reflect really well on Watertown, is the kids from this town,” Baechler said. “I think as a group, they’re pretty exceptional.”

The emphasis, Baechler said, is part of a broader goal for the program: developing swimmers while also teaching responsibility, discipline, respect, and confidence that extend beyond competition.