Just keep swimming: SEALS PUPS training early for competitive swim team

Swimming is a necessary survival skill that everyone should learn at some point, with many parents enrolling their children in swimming lessons as early as six months old.

But for the Granbury SEALS PUPS, children are learning how to do more than just swim.

The Granbury SEALS Swim Team is a private, non-profit organization whose purpose is to provide a wholesome environment in which swimmers of all ages may learn and improve the basic fundamentals of competitive swimming, according to the website.

Although the program has been around for more than 30 years, the SEALS PUPS program was introduced only 18 years ago — geared more for younger children as they learn how to swim while also training to become a member of the swim team.

"My oldest granddaughter who just graduated college was in one of the first groups of the very first PUPS we had,” Vicki Hamrick, assistant coach said. "Our Head Coach Janet Steenberge really wanted to develop a lesson program for a lot of reasons — for health and safety of our kids and because we had so many swimming families that had toddlers and preschoolers that really wanted their kids to learn and be prepared for moving up into the swim team level. We really weren't sure how it would go, but we absolutely have loved doing it. The program has been such a great success.”

The SEALS PUPS program is held at the Comanche Cove Association Pool on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. for children ages two and older.

"Originally we started at three, four, and five-year-olds as a pre-K, but we now start at two-year-olds because so many of our swim families have two-year-olds in their family and they've done really well," Hamrick explained. “Sometimes we even have older kids coming into the PUPS program because they didn't really know how to swim or didn't have the strength to swim.”

The main requirement to be on the Granbury SEALS Swim Team is that the individual must be able to swim the length of a 25-yard pool without stopping and without assistance.

"Once you do that, then you're strong enough to become a member of the team,” Hamrick said. “We also have what we call in-betweeners so the swimmers that aren't quite as strong but can still swim. Our goal by the end of the session is to get them strong enough to swim the length of the pool so they can move up into the bigger group by the end of the summer.”

Hamrick said they have already had six kids move from PUPS to the swim team this summer alone, which resulted in a huge celebration for the children.

"It's always so exciting, and such a big deal. All the coaches line the pool, and we cheer them on as they swim, and once they finish the complete lap of the pool, they get lots of cheers,” she said. “All the younger kids are seeing that and understanding that that's the goal. It's been very successful, and we are super happy with the turnout and how many swimmers actually ended up moving up into our team program within a month of lessons.”

Every summer, the PUPS program holds two four-week practice swimming sessions two times a week.

"We felt like just going and doing a lesson for three days or four days, and then not going back, they didn't retain as much so that was the whole thought process behind doing it as a month-long program,” Hamrick explained. “We wanted the kids to repetitively get their lessons, instruction, and then put it into practice, so it became a lot more natural to them and repeating those motions became better for them to be stronger swimmers.”

She said the main goal in the program is to get the children comfortable in the water without being afraid, so an activity like blowing bubbles or a swimming position like the back float are major lessons that the PUPS learn during their sessions.

"It's a lot of similar (lessons) behind survival swimming, but we (focus more on) learning the strokes,” Hamrick explained. “We do want to work with them on the importance of learning to float on their back and we go over safety rules every lesson.”

Children are taught the four major strokes: freestyle, backstroke, butterfly, and breaststroke, along with dives, flip turns, and dryland workouts.

Conditioning is another major component of the PUPS lessons, where the children do jumping jacks, stretches, and balance work before they get into the pool.

“We work from day one with all kids whether they want to compete or not and there are always some that don't want to compete; they just want to swim,” Hamrick said.

Many of the PUPS helpers and instructors have also gone through the program themselves when they were younger, which creates a unique connection and experience for both students and instructors.

“If any of the younger kids want to help, they're on deck helpers where they just stand around on the side and help give us our equipment when we need it or if a child needs to be escorted to the bathroom. They want to help and be a part of it, and that's their job,” Hamrick said. “Then our older kids that have had a little more experience, we kind of walk them through a little training, and they love it. It's such a great bonding experience, and since so many of them themselves were PUPS at one time, they love being there. It's kind of a full circle moment, you know?”

Interestingly, Olympic gold medalist Dana Vollmer was also in the PUPS program and was on the Granbury SEALS Swim Team.

“Vollmer’s mom was actually a coach alongside of us for several years,” Hamrick said. “Dana and her brother Nick both were excellent swimmers. Nick went on to college and swam, but he got a degree in teaching and actually ended up coming back teaching and coaching our high school team at one time. The Vollmers are a great swim family. They were strong in the SEALS program and are wonderful people.”

Hamrick said Vollmer always recognized Steenberge and the Granbury SEALS for allowing her the chance to jump off the diving board into the swimming career that she has now.

“When she was in the Olympics, we were having several celebrations, and when she got to come home, it was just such a great feeling to see where she'd come from and what she had accomplished,” she said.

Hamrick said one unique component of the SEALS program is that it’s solely built around family and support for the community.

“We have kids swimming, adults swimming, adults volunteer program, the parents group — it's such a family, and I think that's the main thing that just makes it feel so unique and so special is that it's not just a swim team that goes to meets; it's a family that spends the summer together with practices and with celebrations,” she said.

For more information about the Granbury SEALS Swim Team or the SEALS PUPS, visit sealsswimteam.org online or visit the Facebook page at Seals Swim Team.

Hamrick added, “We genuinely do (this) for the love of the sport and a love of our community, that's for sure.”