Winter 2026 Practice Groups

Winter Practice Groups can be found at Minneapolis Community Education

  • Novice (Ages 7-12 in Grades 2-6, 50min up to twice weekly) - Swimmers focus on improving endurance and stroke mechanics while learning starts and turns. Participants must have either completed Red Cross Swimming Level 4 or Foss Level 5, or be able to swim 50 yards Front Crawl and 50 yards Backstroke each without stopping, and understand how to swim Breaststroke and Butterfly even if arms and legs are not yet coordinated.
  • Age Group 1 (Ages 8-14 in Grades 3-8, 60min up to four times weekly) - Swimmers focus on stroke, start, and turn efficiency and speed while learning to think about race strategy. Participants must be able to swim freestyle (front crawl) and backstroke consistently with solid technique (good head and body position, correct stroke and kick, side breathing for freestyle), swim a continuous 50 yards (1 lap) of each of butterfly and breaststroke with at least one of either the arms or legs "competition legal," and swim at least 200 yards of freestyle without stopping. If a participant needs to build endurance, they may be asked to attend the Novice group temporarily.
  • Age Group 2 (Ages 10-14 in Grades 5-8, 75min up to five times weekly) - Swimmers focus on improving technique, speed, and/or endurance while working to achieve higher time standards and competitive placement. Participants must be able to consistently swim all four strokes (Front Crawl, Backstroke, Breaststroke, Butterfly) in competition without being disqualified. There is only one Age Group 2 practice group each month.
    • ​​Southwest Monday 7:25-8:40pm, Franklin Tuesday-Thursday 6:55-8:10pm, and Southwest Friday 6:00-7:15pm
  • Senior (Ages 15-18 in Grades 9-12, 90min up to five times weekly) - High school age swimmers who wish to continue swimming year-round beyond their high school season focus on improving technique and conditioning, and developing practices that will transition them into lifelong swimmers. Participants must be able to consistently swim all four strokes (Front Crawl, Backstroke, Breaststroke, Butterfly) in competition without being disqualified, and complete more challenging conditioning practice sets. There is only one Senior practice group each month.
    • ​Southwest Monday 7:25-8:55pm, Franklin Tuesday-Thursday 6:40-8:10pm, and Southwest Friday 5:45-7:15pm

During registration, please take care to select the correct practice group level and location, and for Novice and Age Group 1, to also select the correct days of the week. Please also note that you must separately register for each month in which you will be participating.

Please note that regardless of available space, you will initially be required to add your swimmer to a waitlist for each month you wish them to participate (be sure to complete the waitlist registration and receive confirmation). Swimmers with current team member families will be moved to registered status first, after which new swimmers will be added to the team in waitlist order. Parents will not be charged until their swimmer is moved to registered status, and will receive an email from Minneapolis Public Schools ([email protected]) when that happens.