Swim Teams
Ashburn Village has two swim teams that train at the Pavilion: the Blue Wave Swim Team and the Aqua Jets Swim Team. These two teams run during different times of the year. For a brief description of each team, see below. Read the article “The Underlying Values of Competitive Swimming” below for a better understanding of how swim team programs benefit our youth and their families.
Blue Wave Swim Team
The Blue Wave Swim Team is the community’s year-round swim team. The team is a member of Potomac Valley Swimming and USA Swimming.
The Aqua Jets Swim Team is the Pavilion’s summer swim team. The team is part of the Colonial Swim League and is a great introduction to the sport of swimming. The team’s emphasis is on having fun. While still a competitive team, the focus is to develop younger swimmers over the shorter summer season instead of the traditional year-round swim team. The Aqua Jets compete in both “A” and “B” meets on Saturdays and Wednesdays, respectively, from the middle of June to the end of July. Practices are held every weekday from the beginning of June through the first week of August. The team relies heavily on parent volunteers to help run the meets. Registration for Aqua Jets generally starts mid-April.
The Underlying Values of Competitive Swimming
Times have changed. There are more opportunities to play youth sports than ever before. Although each sport is different, they all convey a message of toughness, while creating a sense of self. However, it is the long-lasting value of competitive swimming and its emphasis on competition, total body conditioning, low risk of injury, and its durability as a life-long sport that continues to prevail. Participation in competitive swimming creates countless opportunities to support good values and uphold positive character traits.
Support for swimming in Ashburn Village has always been strong. With the formation of the Blue Wave Swim Team in the summer of 2005, the commitment and support has significantly increased. Opportunities now exist for swimmers at all levels to grow and excel in the Village. Both teams promote the sport of competitive swimming to its fullest potential, all the while developing character in young people.
Both teams provide an accommodating level of growth and accountability. Early on, they foster the bond between commitment and success. With the youngest swimmers, their earliest challenges might be overcoming fears or mastering the skills to control one’s body in the pool. A good coach can help ease the fears of trying something new, failure, or embarrassment. Goal setting is also introduced, as these younger athletes are led to think beyond the day. Whether a swimmer earns an opportunity to take home a mascot figurine for outstanding performance, receives recognition in the community newsletter, or sets a team record, he or she builds an awareness that the efforts in the present may lead to better things ahead.
Goal setting becomes a more far-reaching as swimmers mature through elementary school years. Young swimmers at this age can start to handle expectations placed upon them, and can begin to accept a sense of responsibility toward others. A sense of pride in mastering harder challenges, and a growing sense of being part of the team begins to kick in at this age. Along with this encouragement to be part of the group, it is stressed that swimmers learn to take responsibility for their own actions, and take control of their own athletic and emotional development.
Meanwhile, as swimmers mature into their middle and high school years, the time demands of the sport increase in parallel to the demands upon the student athlete scholastically and socially. Swimmers today are constantly walking the fine balance of being fulfilled and overcommitted. Their goals are hopefully more developed, and their time more structured toward pursuing those goals. Time management is also one of those skills that are essential to success in their athletic endeavors, as it is also in academics and in their social lives. Two other qualities that both teams always strive to support are honesty and responsibility. Mature swimmers need to be honest with themselves, as well as with those who share in their goals. They also need to think beyond their own needs when they know others are counting on them. These qualities are often overlooked in today’s society of quick solutions and immediate fulfillment, but they still form the strongest foundation for a meaningful life to be built upon.
Both the Blue Wave and Aqua Jets Swim Teams unequivocally support and develop these qualities. Making a commitment to either team provides a swimmer with the opportunity to develop as an athlete and as a person. In either program, the goal is to acknowledge this developmental approach to life through the sport of competitive swimming. As each swim team program strengthens, they will be an even greater source of stability and accountability for our youth. And, both swimmers and their families will benefit.