Photo courtesy of AquaSol

There is power in positivity – and that is the philosophy that AquaSol, a club based out of Cameron Park, Calif., has lived by.

The club formed in 2003 and saw the coaching tandem of Darin Mai and Aimee Lehr join the staff roughly seven or eight years ago. When the duo joined the staff, they set their sights not as much on in-pool successes, but rather building an environment that allowed all its members to grow.

“We built the team mindfully,” Lehr said. “The first-and-foremost vision that we had was to build a team that had positive relationships – we wanted positive relationships between parents, positive relationships between parents and coaches and positive relationships to the kids. Everyone in our community was very committed to that.”

Lehr explained that the domino effect of this positive environment would spread throughout the club’s operations, leading to higher engagement, new opportunities and an uplifting community throughout its membership.

The approach has paid off, seeing the club grow from 24 young athletes at the time of Lehr’s hiring to its current standing of more than 160 kids.

“The goal was to build together a culture and a community where everyone doesn’t have to be best friends with each other, but they are still ‘your people,’” Lehr said. “The minute they all walk onto the pool deck, we want them to know that their teammates are their people.”

The change in numbers and approach saw the club reach new heights: They became a USA Swimming Safe Sport Recognized Club, a 17-year-old in the club, Patrick Sammon, won the 100-meter freestyle at Wave I of the U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Swimming and more. 

However, with the growth in numbers came new challenges such as new logistical challenges and making sure every swimmer still has a voice despite a much larger crowd. Even with the new challenges, AquaSol continued to turn to its positive team environment as a way to move forward.

“We want to be at the forefront of things, but also know that when things break down, we have to know, ‘okay, what do we do next? How do we change?’” Lehr explained, noting that carving out time to have age-group talking sessions each week can help grow comradery. “We built in how to work with negative thought patterns – how does that affect you, your life, your performance in the pool and your behaviors. From there, we taught them some tips to work through those patterns, like meditating and journaling with them. Underneath all of these group lessons was a theme of leadership and cultivating group culture.”

Along with the talking sessions, the club implemented things like “goal puzzles,” where its fifth-and-sixth grade swimmers would write their individual goals on a puzzle piece before the entire team put them together to showcase that everyone has different goals but they all need to come together as a team.

As the club continues to progress, they remain committed to building positive relationships to help its members become their best both in and out of the pool.

“If we aren’t creating this positive environment for them, then who is to say someone else is? I feel like it is an obligation we have to the kids given the amount of time we spend with them,” Lehr said. “We owe it to them to build them as athletes, but even more so to build that inner core so if things happen in life, they are strong enough to pivot.

“You can create great people without sacrificing anything – you can create great people and they can become great athletes too, it isn’t one or the other.”