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INUVIK
Daniel Fabella swam for his high school swim team in Mississauga, Ont., and is now keen to try to build on his skills by taking on the Inuvik pool's new masters swim program.

Blair Smith, pool manager, is spearheading a masters program, the pool's first, which was scheduled to start yesterday. - Katherine Hudson/NNSL photo

It is the first masters program since the pool opened seven years ago, according to Tony Devlin, community services director with the Town of Inuvik. In the NWT, Yellowknife and Hay River also offer masters programs.

"It's a good way to just get some exercise," said Fabella.

"It instills discipline in someone, having to wake up and go to workouts and do the workouts."

The program was scheduled to start yesterday. It runs Wednesdays and Fridays from 6:30 until 8 a.m. and on Sundays from 11 a.m. until 1 p.m.

Fabella said when he lane swims on his own, there's a drive and goal that's lacking.

"I don't know what kind of workouts I can do, but having the masters program, then I can have a direction or goal I can go towards, someone can give me workouts I can do. There's that extra push and motivation you can use."

Blair Smith, the pool manager, coached masters in Ontario before moving to Inuvik. He said he wants the pool to be accessible to the public in the mornings, giving those people who start their work days at 8 or 9 a.m. a chance to swim beforehand.

"After you workout, you can sit in the hot tub before you go to work. The gym's open 24/7, so it would be nice for the pool to be open in the mornings as well," said Smith.

He said to compete in any masters competitions, swimmers must be at least 19 years old, however for the masters program at the pool, Smith will be lenient about the age.

Smith will be multifaceted as a coach and instructor during the program, opening the masters program to all skill levels.

"I also want to teach people to swim. I've had a lot of requests for adults to swim and so this gives me the opportunity to do that," he said.

"I'm there to help. I'd like to help those people who can't swim … Especially since we live on a delta, I think that everybody should know how to swim and that includes adults."

He said the pool does offer adult swimming lessons, but the masters program will allow for those who want to brush up on the basic skills or learn from scratch to join the program.

There are a number of advanced swimmers in the community as well and Smith said this is a chance for them to train three times a week with an organized and thought-out workout.

"For me to write up workouts, better workouts based on techniques, hopefully it's going to be a mixture of everybody, a full pool."

Smith said the times are flexible as well and doesn't want swimmers to feel pressured to come right at 6:30 a.m., but show up when it works for them in the scheduled masters time.

"Some people might only want to come for 30 minutes. It's also a drop-in thing as well. If you can't make if for 11 and you can make it at 12, come at 12," he said.

"The whole goal of it is to just have something else for adults to do. We do have the Zumba there, rec hockey and all that stuff too, but this is nice because it is early in the mornings. I hope we'll have that draw of people who will want to come in the mornings. The goal is to improve their swimming, maybe get a little bit fit, have fun with it," he said.

There is a membership fee that allows unlimited access to all masters swims three times every week, or a one-time drop-in fee.

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