Swimming Pools
The Ithaca Y features two swimming pools for our membership and the community. Our small pool is 2.5 – 3.5 feet deep and is kept at 85 degrees. This pool is mainly devoted to family usage and is available for family swim during the majority of our facility's open hours. Our large pool is a six lane, 25 yard pool that graduates from 4 – 8 feet deep. This is where most of our programming takes place, including the majority of our youth and adult Swim lessons, our Youth and Masters' swim teams, and our many options of aqua exercise classes. The large pool is maintained at 82-83 degrees. Both of our pools feature state-of-the-art copper ionization systems, which allow us to use far less chlorine than traditional pools to maintain our water quality. This means less skin and eye irritation, and less wear on swim suits and equipment.
Swim Lessons
Swim Lessons are designed for all ages and ability levels. Whether you’re 3 years old or 99, the Y offers a lesson to suit your needs. We offer parent/child classes for youth 6-36 months old and group lessons for ages 3 and up. In addition to our group swim lessons, we are proud to offer our members the option of individual lessons to help them master a skill or overcome their stumbling blocks. For those looking to take their swimming ability to the next level, we offer kids 7-15 our Youth Swim Team, and for adults 18 and over our Masters’ Swim Team.
Swim Team
The premier non-competitive swim team in Ithaca! The Barracudas Youth Swim Team is a developmental swim team designed to introduce kids 7-15 to life on a swim team. Kids are introduced to more advanced workouts with stroke enhancement and racing in mind. Though it is a non-competitive team, swimmers work to improve their times across several events and finish each session with an intra-squad meet to showcase their progress. Many kids find our team to be a great preparatory step to their school modified or varsity squads.
Masters' Swim Team
Our Masters’ Swim Team meets Monday nights to work on improving speed and efficiency in the water. Swimmers range from beginning lap swimmers to advanced, and some are competitive swimmers. Everyone works together to improve. The program consists of land workouts to develop core strength and in-water workouts focused on developing and improving form. Our coaches have extensive backgrounds in competitive, distance and open-water swimming and are here to help bring out the best in everyone.
Aquacise
Aqua exercise classes offer a great low or no impact workout! We offer classes in both shallow and deep water in our large pool. Shallow end aqua combo classes offer a variety of exercises designed to take advantage of the low-impact setting of four foot deep water and develop strength and cardiovascular health. Our Dig Deep and Tethered classes are set in the deep end of the large pool and utilize float belts to create a no-impact environment to improve core strength and flexibility without worrying about sore joints. Since floatation is available whenever class moves to the deeper water, no swimming ability is necessary. Stop in and join the fun!