Frequently Asked Questions

Swim lessons Skills Breakdown

Level 1 – Starfish 
This level is for first time swimmers or students with a fear of water.  Lessons focus primarily on getting students comfortable with full or partial submersion, floating with and without support, and kicks.

Level 2 – Penguin
Our Penguin level is designed to help swimmers make the transition from floating to aquatic mobility.  Swimmers will learn to combine freestyle kicks and arms.

Level 3 – Sea Otter
Sea Otter level students will focus on perfecting freestyle technique with side breathing skills and begin learning backstroke.

Level 4 – Swordfish
This intermediate-skills level will improve endurance, introduce swimmers to the deep end, and teach breaststroke.

Level 5 – Dolphin
Our most advanced level helps students to perfect all strokes, further increase endurance, introduce swim team techniques, and learn the butterfly stroke.  Students are encouraged to look into pre-competitive swim training or swim team for further progression.


 

Pre-competitive swim training
This training is similar to the level 5 dolphin but acclimates the swimmer to the group setting of a swim team.  Also, the pre-competitive swim training has a stronger focus on building cardiovascular endurance and perfecting each stroke.

Youth Swim Team
The Rancho swim team prepares children for local Summer competitions.  Swimmers will work on all strokes, advanced skills, and endurance to give excellent performance.  The minimum requirements are to be able to swim 2 laps of every stroke, it is strongly recommended that children are strong swimmers before joining.

General

Yes! The pool temperature ranges from 84-88° F in the summer and is heated 83-85° F year round.

Yes! We hire year-round employees at different times throughout the year. Spring applications are due late February with interviews in Early March. Summer applications are due in early May.

Please click on “Contact Us” under our “About” section to send us an email or talk to Sunny or Kevin during business hours at the office. If you still aren’t getting the responses you want, then feel free to attend a board meeting.

Please see the attached image in our “About” section, under the “Resident Area” category for a map of the Rancho Rinconada residence area. Residents receive a small discount because their property taxes help fund our facility.

No, Rancho is not a salt water pool. We use liquid chlorine which is the industry standard.

The lap swim lanes are 25 yards across and the depth is from 4 feet to 9.5 feet at the diving well. The shallow section of the pool starts at 2.5 feet near the stairs and gradually increases in depth to roughly 4 feet.

Open Swim

Adult swim serves 4 important purposes.  The first, is to give kids a rest.  Many will swim the entire day and can easily become fatigued.  The second is to allow adults a time to swim laps, while leaving the shallow end for parents with infants. The third reason for adult swim is to help parents retrieve children who are having too much fun to want to leave.  Lastly the snack shack is open and it helps to keep food out of the pool if kids are also out too.

It’s not.  You just need to turn the handle! 🙂

Swim Lessons

Every age!  Every person is unique so there is no set age, however, we don’t accept children younger than 3½ because they are often not able to handle formal instruction and do not benefit the same way as older children do.  That isn’t to say that there isn’t anything you can do.  Bring your child to the pool and play!  Playing in the pool helps children to be comfortable in the pool and even excited to come for instruction.

Playtime serves an important purpose especially with beginning swimmers. Having fun at the end of the day almost always makes kids excited to return the next day. It helps to fight the fear of the water and can be used as an incentive for distracted or unusually energetic children. Some games like diving for rings, sticks, or torpedos are often used as part of the lesson itself. While it may not be evident as to what purpose playtime serves, rest assured that there are usually good reasons.

Butterfly is a hard stroke, it requires timing, endurance, and a lot of upper body strength. Many students don’t develop the muscles to perform the stroke until puberty, while for others muscle fatigue limits the amount of time an instructor can spend on butterfly. In addition to these physical limitations, the timing itself is difficult because it is not possible to stop the stroke partway to point out an error. While some children can learn this stroke, most do not and cannot perfect it.

  1. A $10 processing fee will be charged for all cancellations or schedule changes.
  2. Sessions cancelled a week before your first class will receive credit to use at Rancho in the future
  3. Sessions can’t be cancelled after your first class. There are no makeups.
  4. Cancellations must be acknowledged by office staff. Messages or emails do not count.
  5. Refunds are only issued with a doctor’s note.
  6. Credit will be issued in the event of a pool closure.
  7. All credit must be picked up within 1 year. Rancho is not responsible for the credit after 1 year.
  8. Lessons are not typically cancelled due to rain
  1. Your regularly assigned instructor may occasionally be unavailable. A substitute teacher will be assigned in these circumstances.
  2. We always try our best to match students with the teacher of their choice but it is not always possible.
  3. Parents are responsible for timely pick up and drop off. Late lessons can’t be extended.
  4. Parking is extremely limited—please arrive early! Street parking on Chelmsford is forbidden but additional parking is available on Wunderlich.
  5. Rancho is not responsible for children while they are not taking lessons. Keep children within reach at all times.
  6. Parents are required to stand back from the pool during lessons to minimize distraction.
  7. Direct all questions and comments to the pool manager or office during lessons.
  8. Teachers are available to speak with parents for up to 5 minutes after lessons.
  9. Verbal or physical abuse of staff will result in immediate termination of lessons and expulsion from the facility. No refunds will be given. Charges may be pressed.
  10. All pool rules must be followed at all times for your safety.
  11. California Swimming Pool Code 65541 states that: All patrons known to be, or suspected by the enforcing agent or the management of being afflicted with an infectious disease, suffering from a cough, cold or sores, or wearing bands or bandages shall be excluded from all public bathing places.