| HOW TO JOIN THE ROCHESTER DOLPHINS |
| The Dolphins welcome
any swimmers from the Rochester area who are at least Red Cross Level
5 swimmers. New swimmers normally join in late summer. In the fall,
swimmers refine basic skills and learn routines, leading up to the
competitive season in the winter and spring. The team travels throughout
the winter and spring to neighboring states such as Ohio and Pennsylvania,
and with-in New York to Buffalo, Oswego, and Long Island.
Practices are held three times per week at the Harley School in Pittsford, and go from 5:45 PM until 8:00 PM. They consist of training on the pool deck and endurance swimming in the water, along with practice for routines that are done for competition. For more information about the Dolphins, email this site or call the Dolphins Hotline at 585-234-5549. |
| ABOUT SYNCHRONIZED SWIMMING |
| Synchronized swimming
is a sport combining strength and flexibility, aerobic conditioning,
musical interpretation, dramatic showmanship and close teamwork. Powerful
swimming is combined with close choreography to create synchronized
routines. Competitions involve figures, the building blocks of routines,
as well as routines judged for both technical merit and artistic impression.
Four types of routines are swum in synchronized swimming: solo, duet, trio and team (up to eight swimmers). In addition, each competitor must participate in the compulsory figures competition. Individual Figures scores are combined with routine scores to determine winners. Routines are designed to appear effortless, but consist of strenuous swimming. They last from 3 to 5 minutes, often with swimmers holding their breath for lengths of time up to 30 seconds. The combination of skills--artistry, music, and stunning athleticism--has made "synchro" popular for spectators. Swimmers demonstrate their grace and appeal to the audience as they move through complex patterns. They combine the power of a boxer, the flexibility of a gymnast, the artistic expression of a ballerina, and the aerobic conditioning of a distance runner with synchronization unseen in any other sport. The stunning, gold medal performance of the US team in the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games has intensified interest in this unique team sport. The Dolphins are the only competitive synchro program in the Rochester, NY area. They compete in the Niagara Association consisting of teams from Tonawanda, Buffalo, Oswego, and Keuka. This is a highly competitive region with several current age group national champions and originally home to two current national team members. The Dolphins also routinely compete in regional and East Zone meets in Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Ohio, etc. For the last three years, members of the Dolphins have qualified for age group national competition, held in Seattle and Buffalo. Many members of the Dolphins have started in area recreational
programs, most notably at the SouthEast YMCA, that functions as
a feeder program and often swims together with the Dolphins as the
Dolphinettes. Additional programs in the Rochester area are at the
Bayville YMCA, Webster High School and Rush-Henrietta High School.
Every year, the Dolphins host a playday meet with these teams. Sports
Illustrated: Most Underrated Sport- Synchronized Swimming is an
all too easy target. But the physical prowess required in this sport
takes a distance swimmers endurance and a speed swimmers strenth.
Throw in the control needed to suspend breathing for up to a minute
and synchro is one of the toughest sports around. In order to perfect
the lifts, twists and twirls required in a 5 minute routine, elite
atheltes work togehter up to 8 hours a day, 6 days a week. This
sport has substance - even grit - beneath the surface. |
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