Practice Groups & Progressions

Red Raider Aquatics provides a clear progression through our practice groups. As swimmers advance, practices gradually combine continued development of proper technique with increased training, endurance, and competitive preparation. Swimmers advance based on their swimming ability, technique, training readiness, attendance, maturity, and overall development—not simply their age, speed, or the amount of time they have spent in a group.

Little Raiders → Buccaneers → Pirates → Silver → Red → High School/Senior

Little Raiders

Little Raiders is RAID’s introductory group for young and beginning swimmers. Practices focus on water comfort, confidence, body position, and the basic skills of freestyle and backstroke. Swimmers also learn how to listen to coaches and participate in a structured team practice.

Buccaneers

Buccaneers builds on the fundamentals introduced in Little Raiders. Swimmers continue developing freestyle and backstroke while learning the fundamentals of breaststroke, butterfly, starts, turns, and finishes. Practices also begin developing basic endurance and familiarity with competitive swimming.

Pirates

Pirates is an intermediate developmental group for swimmers who have established the basic skills of all four competitive strokes. Practices emphasize continued stroke development, improved starts and turns, increased endurance, and the ability to complete more structured training sets.

Silver

Silver combines continued technical development with more advanced training. Swimmers work to improve efficiency in all four strokes while developing greater endurance, stronger practice habits, improved pacing, and more advanced starts, turns, and underwater skills.

Red

Red is an advanced training group for swimmers who have demonstrated strong technique, consistent practice habits, and readiness for a higher training workload. Practices focus on advanced stroke refinement, conditioning, race strategy, pacing, and preparation for higher levels of competition.

High School/Senior

High School/Senior is for older and more experienced swimmers who are ready for age-appropriate senior-level training. Practices continue to emphasize proper technique while developing strength, endurance, speed, race skills, personal accountability, and competitive performance.

Moving Between Practice Groups

Group advancement is determined by the RAID coaching staff. Coaches consider each swimmer’s technique, training ability, attendance, effort, maturity, listening skills, competitive development, and overall readiness for the expectations of the next group.

Advancement is not automatic based solely on age, speed, or time spent in a group. Coaches will communicate with swimmers and their families when they believe a move will best support the swimmer’s continued development.