About H₂Ouston Swims

Masters swimming is an organized program of swimming for adults.

Masters swimming exists to promote health and fitness in its members who participate in a variety of ways ranging from lap swimming to international competition. Everyone has his or her own reason for joining Masters-health, fitness, camaraderie, fun, the thrill of competition, travel and coaching. Anyone 18 years of age or older can join.

H₂Ouston Swims was founded in 1981, originally as the University of Houston Masters. We are the longest running Masters program in Texas under the same coach.

Team Philosophy: H₂O is a technique oriented group. We do not subscribe to the  "mindless yardage is good for you" school of thought. As UT Coach Eddie Reese puts it, "This sport ain't for dummies!" We will teach you to swim smarter rather than just swim longer-harder-and-faster all the time. Competition is strictly at the whim of the individual: we encourage you to compete but do not require it nor think less of you if you eschew competition. We do have one meet each year that we try to get 100 percent participation in: the Woodlands Relays (the funnest meet o'year).

The group makeup varies with the season: on average we have roughly 30 percent competitive Masters swimmers, 30 percent triathletes, 30 percent fitness swimmers and 10 percent who don't know why they are there. Ability-wise we've got people who've been to Olympic Trials all the way to the other end of the spectrum with some new members able to swim only a few laps without stopping. Ages range from 19 to 70 with the majority of members in the 25-55 range. We have rich people, poor people, students, professionals, artists, tradesmen. No homeless people - that I'm aware of. Members must be easy to get along with and have some semblance of a sense of humor - all others are drowned or beaten.

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Workout Schedule: The schedule below is subject to change occasionally due to facility scheduling and Coach's whim. All workouts are coached workouts. Head Coach Emmett Hines coaches most workouts and several others coach in his place when he's out of town.

We open the door at the scheduled practice time. The pool is available for freeform warm-up beginning immediately and we start the first organized activity 15 minutes after the scheduled practice start time.

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Facility: We currently swim at the Melcher Pool on the University of Houston Central Campus, 3855 Holman.

Map: http://tinyurl.com/yvuxyh

This is the indoor pool in the PE department, right beside Hofheinz Pavilion (NOT the new student recreation center pool). Its an indoor competition 25 yard, 6-lane pool with starting blocks and a separate diving well. 

Park in regular spaces in the lot in front of the building. I'm warned that if your car remains there past 7:30am on weekdays you are at some low risk of getting a ticket (hasn't happened yet that we know of). If that's a worry for you then use meters on the street.

The locker rooms are nuthin' to brag about. Bring your own soap, shampoo, towel, hair drier and lock (locks left overnight are subject to being cut off). Locker rooms are also available to students during our workouts so please do not leave tempting/valuable items accessible.

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Tryout Information: We don't want you to plunk down the exorbitant start-up fees till you are sure you really want to hang out and breathe heavy with us. So we offer a tryout period during which you can see what we're like and make up your mind.

Our tryout policy allows local residents join us for a maximum of 3 practices in a 2-week period. To continue participation after the tryout visits (or 2-week tryout period), you must register with us by filling out the obligatory forms and paying annual and first month (or punch card) fees.

If you wish to try out our program, contact Coach Hines directly before attending your first practice to let him know what day to expect your first visit (he wants to be sure it will be on a day that he is coaching, rather than one of his substitute coaches). Also, before you enter the water for the first time, you'll be asked to fill out a waiver form for our files.

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Guest/Walk-in Information: Our "guest/walk-in" policy allows USMS members that have not paid the annual H2Ouston Swims registration fee to swim with us from time to time. Though this is intended predominantly to accommodate those residing outside the Houston metropolitan area, it also applies to local USMS members that usually swim with other clubs or on their own. Guest/Walk-in fee is $10 exact cash paid to the coach upon arrival. Guest/walk-in swimmers must be currently USMS registered and must bring a photocopy of their USMS card for our files. Those expecting to attend more than one practice may purchase a guest punch card from the coach for the number of expected workouts ($10 per workout). This punch card must be presented to the coach upon arrival each workout. The card is only good for our scheduled workouts and does not grant access to the facility at other times. Frequency and duration of guest privileges must be worked out with Coach Emmett ahead of time.

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Registration Fees: All participants (except tryouts) pay registration fees totaling $103 ($40 USMS fee plus $63 H2O fee), renewed annually on January 1. USMS registration can be done online here (you'll need to enter our club abbreviation "H2O"). You'll do your H2Ouston Swims registration on-deck.

Workout Fees: are as follows:

• Monthly Members - credit card billing - $66 per month
• Monthly Members - snail mail billing - $72 per month
• Pink Punch card Members - $72 per card (card has 9 punches on it which works out to $8/practice)
• Yellow Card (non-H2O-member) participants - $90 per card (card has 9 punches on it which works out to $10/practice). Must be USMS registered
• Walk-in participation - $10 (exact cash) per practice. Must be USMS registered.

Seniors 70 and older are entitled to a 15% discount on Monthly or Pink Punch card fees.

Workout fees and punch cards allow access to the pool and locker rooms only for our scheduled workouts. They do not allow access to the facility at times other than our scheduled workouts.

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Billing System: All members are entered into our billing system and either 1)receive periodic Statement/Invoices showing current account activity and status (All balances are due and payable upon receipt of invoice) or 2) have their account balance automatically charged to their credit card. Guests (yellow punch card) are not on the billing system and must pay for new cards when they receive them.

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Equipment: As with most Masters clubs, all members must furnish their own suits, goggles, caps - if you're a "cap person" - and training equipment.  (For more info about swim caps than you want to know).

In our practices we utilize training fins on a nearly daily basis. Paddles may be used at swimmer discretion. Coach Hines also encourages swimmers to acquire a training snorkel and tempo beeper.

Training Fins - Get the lightweight, flexible, all-rubber training fins made by Voit or Tanga or whichever company has the lowest price on the fins coming out of the two factories in the world (Malaysia?) that make such fins. An alternative to rubber fins are SlimFins. Made from polyurethane, they are nearly indestructible, but more expensive. Also popular are Positive Drive Fins.

Also consider a pair of Zoomers those short blue or red training fins you've seen some people using) For swimming or drilling, they are a great "stepping stone" between full size training fins and going totally nekked (your feet, I mean). Get the blue ones - they are more flexible. Some people also like the other Zoomer's fin, the Z2.

If you arrive with your 8 pound SCUBA jetfins or those long multi-colored polycarbonate super-high-tech cheater fins, we'll hide them during warm-up and later melt them down into doggie chew toys.

Training Snorkel - A training snorkel is an excellent learning tool, which allows you to work on lots of fundamental skills without the distraction of "how do I breathe?" Once you have really learned those fundamental skills, the "how do I breathe" question is a lot easier to answer.

Tempo Beeper - a tempo beeper like the one offered by Finis is a great tool to use once you've learned effective swimming skills. It guides you in incrementally increasing stroke tempo while you focus on maintaining great technique.

Whatever bits and chunks of equipment you glom onto, do everyone a favor and make your mark on them, thus avoiding the common fate of being snarfed up by the coach and having "Property of H2Ouston Swims" written on them (hint: this is where "loaner" equipment comes from).

Where, pray tell, do I bring my cash, trinkets or assorted garage sale items in hopes of bartering for such desirable commodities? Most anything you could want for swimming can be had from the Texas Swim Shop, run by Terry and Susan Matherne. If you don't have time to swing by, give them a call, and they'll most likely be happy to mail whatever your heart desires to you.

Texas Swim Shop
10429B So. Post Oak Rd
Houston, Texas 77035
713-723-0910 phone
713-723-5033 fax
store@texasswimshop.com
www.texasswimshop.com
Google Map: http://tinyurl.com/3757v5