Who we are!

The Georgia Killer Whales are  a US Masters Swim Team based in the Atlanta Area. We are made up of Men and Women ages 18 to 88 and compete  in GA, the Dixie Zone and Nationally in US Masters Swim Meets.

Our promise to you

Our primary focus is to have fun and make the best use of our swimmers to achieve personal and team goals.

The Georgia Killer Whales are made up of swimmers of all ages and skill sets. All members are welcome and can swim the events that they choose.

We have outstanding record setting relays of Men, Women and Mixed our charter allows us to swim Up or Down in age groups.

There are over 100 members, but in the interest of busy schedules and facilities each individual practices on their own or in small groups such as relay practices.

Join our Team Today

Whether you have been in the pool for 25 years our out of the pool 25 years, US Masters Swimming can change your life, restoring or continuing the gift of swimming.

The Georgia Killer Whales are a highly organized group of swimmers who share swimming among teammates in an effort to improve overall health, individual goals, and the shared goals among teammates.

Contact us today at info@gakillerwhales.com

Information for new Masters Swimmers

Update 5-26-2010

Competition Age Brackets

All Masters Competition is in age brackets

• Individual races are in 5 year age brackets (  50-54, 55-59, 60-65 etc )

 The youngest bracket is 18-24.

• Relays are in ten year age brackets ( generally 45-54, 55-64, 65-74,etc )

See below information on relays

Membership---for insurance reasons you must be a member to swim in a meet- Membership Cost are addressed below.

Why join a Club

Unattached swimmers can not swim in relays. Relays especially Mixed Relays (2 men and 2 women) are the fun part and where average swimmers get to win medals and set records and Top Ten times.

Which Club to join.

 Our club, the Killer Whales (code GMKW) , does not practice as a group so there are no extra cost for pool membership or coaching fees--just some minor meet entry fees---we also car pool and share hotel rooms at out of state meets. Our club team has 250 paid 2010 members but only 90 are active. Of which 58 won medals in the recent National Championship. Eight Killer Whales are national Champions. About 50% older retired folk that do not work and 50% younger swimmers who work, some have family commitments, and some are single.   We have a contingent of 30+ swimmers that go to many meets, so there will always be 4 swimmers for a relay. Most swimmers go to 3 to 6 meets a year. For those over 50 and retired who want to be very active there are perhaps 23 annual meets in the area (16 Masters and 7 Senior). You do as many meets or as few as you want---but for sure you will want to swim in the National Championships in  August 2011 in nearby

.  This is a rare very inexpensive opportunity to swim in National Championships. 

Masters membership Cost

These days nothing is free, but the annual Masters membership is just $45. including club costs. The 2010 membership is effective now. The membership application has a space to join a club ----be sure to indicate that you want to join Killer Whales. The address to mail the form and check is on the application. You will receive your membership card in the mail.

When you submit an entry form for a meet, you need to indicate your membership # of the entry form and attach a copy of your membership form. 

Club Uniform

We do not have a uniform but most swimmers have a T shirt and cap from the  2010 National Championship.

Where to find information about upcoming meets

 The best source to find comprehensive  info about major and small meets and Sr Olympics is the  the Killer Whales website which is GAkillerwhales.com.

However, the entry forms are elsewhere. 

The entry forms for major meets are on the  Dixie Zone website but it only has MAJOR MEETS --never local Development meets . Use this link ---

http://www.dixiezone.org/ 

The entry forms for the small local meets are attached to the

Masters Newsletter and or posted on the Georgia Masters Website.

Georgia Masters Newsletter 

Each month there is a newsletter issue providing information on the upcoming swim meets and the results of recent meets. The newsletter also included information on key Georgia Masters contact people and other swim clubs. The Newsletter is also posted on the Georgia Masters website.

Georgia Masters Websites .

 The website has just been updated and included information on Georgia Master swimming records and links to the US Masters and Dixie Zone websites , Those website have comprehensive information on all upcoming US Masters meets as well as the  results of all meets in the last 5 years. The

Masters Website maintains a personal results file for each swimmers listing every race and time they swam in the last 3 years as well as ranking in each event by age group. The links are listed below:

The Georgia Masters Website –

http://www.georgiamasters.org

The

Masters Website –

http://www.usms.org/comp/

The

 http://www.dixiezone.org/

 Development Meets for new swimmers

During the year Killer Whales runs a few Development Meets for new swimmers including those out of the pool for years and those who never competed in swimming. The meets are held at a Gwinnett County Pool on Sunday mornings from 9 to noon and usually have from 25 to 35 swimmers versus the 300 to 600 in other meets. The officials take the times to explain technical rules on starting and relays. We strongly recommend that new Masters Swimmers attend one of these sessions. Many veteran Killer Whales swimmers try new events in these meets to get a benchmark time.

The next Development Meet will be in August 2010  at the West Gwinnett Pool in

area  and a good opportunity to practice relays..

Relay Rules  

In addition to Masters having regular Men’s and Women’s relays there are Mixed Relays of 2 men and 2 women. While individual races are in 5 year age groups except initial 18-24 group the relays are in 10 year age brackets and have two separate sets of rules you need to understand:

1- In-State versus Out of State meets. As mentioned above, Killer Whale's club code is GMKW. At in state meets we are limited to relays from club members. At out of state meets (and National Championship Meets where-ever) we comingle with most other

clubs under the GAJA Superteam code and combine in relays. The upcoming Greenville Meet on June 26/27 is an out of state meet where we swim as part of the Superteam. However, at  the Peachtree City Meet in the end of September  we swim as a club—alone but the strongest club in

. . 

2- Individual events are in 5 year age groups, but all relays are in 10 year age groups which vary with the type pool,

A- Meets in Yards  

In 25 yard short course yard (SCY) pools the relays age brackets are 18-24, 25-34. 35-44, 45-54, etc and the relay team is classified by the age of the youngest swimmer. Older swimmers can swim DOWN into the 18-24 age group as long as there is one proper swimmers 18-24.The Nationals in Atlanta next year will be in a SCY course, where a fast 33 year old swimmer can swim DOWN in a younger relay in the 18-24 age group but the 18-24 swimmers can not swim up in a 25-34 or older age groups.  There are generally no advantages to swimming down if a appropriate age relay is available.

B. Meets in Meters

In 25 meter (SCM) and 50 meter (LCM) pools the relays are classified on the basis of the total age of the 4 swimmers in the relay. The SCM and LCM age brackets are 18-24, 25-29 (total of ages must be 100years), 30-39 (120years), 40-49(160 years) 50-59(200 years),etc  and swimmers can swim UP if the ages calculate. For example, in the LCM Championships in

we had a relay that included three top older swimmers age 75, 76 and 80 and the World record holder in the age 50 bracket 100 free -Bob Bugg at 52. The ages added up to 283 years, so they competed in the 280 age (AKA as the 70-79 bracket) and won the silver. Because Killer Whales has many top level older swimmers, the 2011 LCM Championships in nearby Auburn Nationals in 2011  provide a great opportunity for average speed younger swimmers to swim up in age 60 and age 70 relays and win medals.

Scoring points in Meets
Masters has established a series of  standard point scoring methodology that are based on the number of lanes being used in the meet. The more lanes in action the higher the first place points. For example if a meet uses 8 lanes than the  first place in an individual; race is valued at 8 + 1 bonus point of a total of 9. Second place is 7th points , then down the line to 8th place being valued at one point. Relays  are double.  18 for first place , 14 for second place ,etc However an individual does not receive any points for a relay just the team, therefore swimmers attempting to win the High Point award in their age group  often do not want to swim relays especially if the relay are in the middle of the meet. Generally we request all swimmers to swim one relay  in a meet. John Zeigler is an exception as are the few swimmers that do the fly.

Lastly on point scoring---in some meets they award trophies to highest scoring  Women’s team and Men’s team and a separate overall combined team award. The Mixed relay points never count in Women’s or Men’s team award totals--just the overall combined team award.  This is why you can not simply add up the totals from  the posted computer sheets on the Men’s points summary and the Women’s points summary to get the team total.

Competition level

In Nationals medals are awarded for top ten places in individual events and relays.

The Final published results of the LCM Nationals in

show there is an excellent opportunity for 55+  swimmers to win medals in

in 2011 because the older age group are  somewhat limited in individual competition with less than 10 swimmers in some events.  Relay competition in 65+ is even weaker. Those age 18-24 and 55 to 64 have a excellent opportunity to medal, but  for sure if you swim in a 55+ relay you will win a medal. At the SCY Nationals in the Georgia Tech pool in May 2010 34 of 35 Men over 55 won medals.

The Georgia Masters website has been revamped and updated and has a great section on RECORDS.

There are many relay that have no existing records so it is easy  to establish records in most age groups in the longer relays like 400 medley, 400 free and 800 free because these events are uncommon and contested only a few times each year in the 8 state Dixie Zone area. Each year In June there is a LCM meet at

that  provides  a  opportunity to set many relay records.  Alternately, fast relays can always find an opportunity to break 200 free and 200 medley records because those events are contested in every meet.

TOP  TEN Times

Top Ten Dixie and Top Ten USA individual and relay performance for each year are honored. These are posted on the Dixie Zone website and the USMS website on a delayed basis.

Meet High Points and Annual Georgia  Grand Prix Contest

These are competitions for the slower but often better all around 4 stroke swimmers who  have a will to win and are very competitive. We have many slower but excellent all around swimmers who win these awards and relay medals. 

For more information Contact Walter Leen at cell #413-262-6697 or home # 678-395-7880.