Back to Pool Season
Columbus Aquatic Club • July 26, 2026
Registration now Open for the 2026-2027 Hurricanes Swim Team
We just wrapped up Age Group State and have swimmers competing at Senior State this weekend — and it's already time to look ahead to the 2026–2027 season!
Registration is now open, and we would love to have your child swim with the Hurricanes this upcoming season. Our coaches and Board have spent the summer planning a fun and productive year, and we can't wait to begin in August. Our practice and meet schedules have been posted to the Hurricanes program page, covering August through the conclusion of our Divisional meet and the short course season in March. To register, please log in to your Captyn account at www.swimhurricanes.com and select the appropriate option for the 2026 - 2027 season. If you have questions about group placement, please reach out to your current coach via their team email; as most of the team is currently on break, it may take longer than usual to get a response.
Those interested in joining the team are invited to schedule an evaluation with our Coaches on Thursday Aug 13th or Saturday Aug 15th. To schedule and select your day/time, visit our Get Evaluated page. Swimmers who were given a practice group placement during Tiger Sharks or our Learn to Swim program within the last three months do not need to schedule another evaluation. You may register for your assigned practice group.
Practice start dates for 26-27:
- Cat 4/5/AP: Wednesday, August 13
- Cat 1/2/3: Monday, August 17
Please save the date for our Back to the Pool social on Sunday, August 23. All new and continuing swimmers and their families are welcome to bring a dish and socialize with our swim family! Watch for details in your Parent Dashboard later in August.
If you have general questions about registration or your account, please email admin@swimhurricanes.com.
Hey Swim Fans! We're got a new mailing address as of June 15, 2026: 3201 Macon Rd, Suite 137-307 Columbus, GA 31906-1380 Make sure you update your records and if your organization needs a new W-9 from us, reach out to us here!
Spring is coming and that means we will be shifting focus soon -- from short course to long course training and meets! The team will compete in the final short course (25 yard) meet of our regular season at the Southern Divisional Championship in Savannah on March 20-22. After Divisional Championship, we'll come back for a week of team celebrations during our practices the week of March 23-26 before we all head out on spring break! There will be no practices March 27 through April 5th. We will resume training, with the addition of long course (50m) practice opportunities on Saturday mornings beginning April 6th. Please download the Spring Long Course Training calendar as some practice times will shift to ensure the best training opportunities for our swimmers during long course training season! Cat 1s and 2s will continue to train in short course format through the spring so they can develop their technique while building their conditioning. Cat 3, 4, and 5 should plan to attend Saturday morning practices to maximize their long course training opportunities during this spring. As we move into the summer, the coaches will add in more morning long course training opportunities for their swimmers in Cat 2-5, so keep an eye out for updates and the summer practice schedule! We have also released our initial Long Course Meet calendar for April through the end of July. These meets are for Category 2-5. Cat 1 swimmers are encouraged to participate in the Tiger Shark summer meets to continue short course meet practice! (Tiger Shark dates and info coming soon!) As a reminder - our team calendars are always available on our Hurricane Year-Round Team page -- scroll down to the calendar tabs and select the tab for Long Course (Spring) to ensure you always have the latest version!
Celebrating the top 11-14 year old swimmers in Georgia!
Based on the projected schedule at the Columbus Aquatic Center for November, we are shifting our November away meet weekend to better align our practice days and meet days. Please see the updated Meet Calendar on the Hurricanes Team Program Page for changes. Not sure if a particular meet is a good option for your swimmer? The meet calendar has the coaches' recommendations based on their practice group, but you are also encouraged to speak with your coach regarding your swimmer's specific goals.
Based on the projected schedule at the Columbus Aquatic Center for November, we are shifting our November away meet weekend to better align our practice days and meet days. Please see the updated Meet Calendar on the Hurricanes Team Program Page for changes. Not sure if a particular meet is a good option for your swimmer? The meet calendar has the coaches' recommendations based on their practice group, but you are also encouraged to speak with your coach regarding your swimmer's specific goals.
In honor of our first meet of the season, we are bringing the "Thoughts from the Turn End" series to our team blog. These are our collected observations on swim life from the side of the pool during our meets. Here's a few as you kick off the season!
Hello Hurricane families, and welcome to a new swim season! We are so glad to have so many new and returning families join the Hurricane family this year! If I haven't met you yet, my name is Jen Ladson, and I am happy to serve the team as the President of the Board for the next two years. As a member-owned team, the Board of Directors is parent-elected and handles all "dry-side" related team activities, so everything from team registration to team social events (and many things in between!) Our team of coaches supervise the "wet side" of the program, so anything related to the direction of the season, season planning, training, athlete development, meets, swimmer progression, etc., is under coach purview. We will hold our annual team meeting via Zoom on Sunday, September 7 at 4 p.m. This is your opportunity to hear a little more about our team, our vision and values, and the upcoming season from both the board and our coaches. While you are marking your calendars, please take note of these upcoming dates: Monday, September 1: NO PRACTICE, CAC closed for Labor Day Sunday, September 7: Annual team meeting via Zoom, 4p Saturday, September 13: September Sprint home meet! Register your attendance on Captyn Saturday, September 20 and Sunday, September 21: OST Fall Invite (contact your coach if you are unsure if you should attend) Our regular practice schedule and meet calendars are located on the program page - Hurricanes Year Round Team. Last-minute changes to practice schedules due to weather or pool closures will be communicated as quickly as possible and via text when possible; otherwise, please check Captyn for swim schedules. A few reminders from our host pool: Swimmer Pick-up/Drop Off : Swimmers 10 and under (Usually Cat 1-3) should be WALKED IN to their COACH no more than 15 minutes early; they should not be left at the facility alone when a coach is not present. Parents should pick them up inside the facility no more than 15 minutes after practice. They should not be dropped at the curb to walk in alone or wait alone before or after practice. If they have older siblings, the siblings may walk them to their coach. Swimmers 11-14 in Cat 1-3 may walk in alone but should not be at the facility more than 15 minutes before or after practice. This is plenty of time for them to get their gear ready before practice and put gear away/dry off/shower after practice. Parents should ensure their swimmer has a way to contact them if you are dropping off at the curb. High school swimmers and Cat 4, 5, and Senior Group may arrive earlier, if carpool and school release times require this. Coaches expect they will be on deck 10-15 minutes early to prepare gear. We believe that these experienced swimmers can be trusted to arrive earlier when needed, behave respectfully in the facility, and use their time to chat with teammates, do schoolwork or prep for practice. After practice, we expect them to depart within a reasonable amount of time. The emergency lane out front is for emergencies , there is no parking and no staying for long durations, it is allowed for swift pick up and drop off only. Vehicles should always have a driver inside for emergencies. As per USA Swim and pool rules , parents are asked to sit upstairs or on the concourse during practice. If you have a younger swimmer who needs assistance gathering equipment at the end of practice, you may come on deck after the conclusion of practice to help. I look forward to meeting and working with you all this season! See you at the pool soon! Jen
Practice Starts Aug 11, New Swimmer Evals Aug 6 & 9
When setting your goals it is important to start with the end in mind. Think about your big goals – these are long-term goals you want to achieve in swimming over a few years or more. Consider how swimming fits with your other big goals and write all these goals down so you have an end in mind. Once you have defined your big goals you can begin to create a plan to work toward them Everyone has their own motivations, aspirations and hopes for their swimming experience. Your personal goals are YOUR goals, and I am here to give you feedback and help you structure a plan that helps your pursuit. No matter what your big goals are, you must try to define the process it would take to achieve these goals by establishing some -medium-term goals (let’s say 6 months-2 year) and short-term goals (inclusive of meets and everything within your current season) that will be measuring sticks to evaluate your progress. Each of these goals will then include a structure of daily, weekly and monthly task expectations of yourself. These tasks are a defined part of your personal process for your personal development as you strive to reach your swimming and life goals. They are your personal checks and balance to keep yourself accountable and on track to reach your goals. This system is empowering and helps you build confidence as you either complete tasks you have set to improve yourself or you are able to identify when you haven’t finished assigned tasks and work on ways to improve those outcomes. It is rewarding to know when you have done your best in completing tasks each day or week or month to try to achieve your goals and when you feel like you should have done better you always get another chance the next day, week or month to improve yourself. No one is ever perfect, you will not always achieve your goals, but you are able to learn from the process, give yourself feedback on your progress and you are able to reassess your goals and approach moving forward. This promotes personal growth. Once you have written down your big goals and as you start mapping out your short-term and medium-term goals, make sure you are realistic. Consider your past improvements, perhaps over the last year, and understand that as you achieve at a higher level and get older you may not be able to duplicate the same level of improvements over the same period. Still be specific and write down what you hope to achieve in certain events, but these are just markers and measurements and not the nuts and bolts of your goal process. You now need to spell out the important tasks that will be the foundation for your development to achieve all the goals. Here are a few example of the task measurements that you will be able to define and measure and can consider adding to your list; the number of practices you attend in a week, the number of kicks you are taking of a wall, are you stretching regularly, making a specific interval in practice, improving your times on practice test sets, achieving the appropriate race pace times in practice, starting practice on time every day, improving on dryland training (some will be measurable (reps/weights) some not), regularly holding a streamline, etc. There may be some tasks that may not be as easy to define but could be important focus points such as paying attention to your stroke technique, practicing racing skills, paying attention to specific cues you have been given by your coaches or maybe lifestyle habits like your sleep and nutritional habits. Other important habits you could include, making the practice environment better, by making sure you always know the practice details and by improving the practice atmosphere (i.e. -maybe you make the commitment to encourage at least one teammate at least once a practice). This helps you and everyone else perform better daily. I certainly haven’t mentioned everything that could potentially be a part of a plan or included in your plan. I have detailed some examples, and I have given you some information to sort through on your own so you can get ideas on how others structure their personal goals. I am including another link with another discussion on goal setting and now you must do a little research, and I will give you a work sheet that I want you to work on. Your resources for considering your goals and task-oriented goals are unlimited and only limited by your imagination. You could ask friends who are successful in other sports, read about the journey of other athletes, talk to a parent or relative how they consider their goals whether they were an athlete or have goals set in their career, etc. You are planning for yourself, and these will be your guidelines in your journey. My role will only be to give you feedback on whether your task expectations match up with your desired outcomes.' Links: Goal Setting Tool Kit Goal Setting Form
