Youth Program

Youth Practices

Every youth must be registered to enter the water (insurance requirement). No exceptions. Please REGISTER HERE

Fridays 5:45 pm - 8 pm at Martin Luther King Pool, 5701 3rd St, SF, CA 94124
(Enter through door on Carroll Ave, behind the bike share; in the water at 6pm!)

Children need to be ready to get in the water at 6pm. Our practice finishes at 8pm and parents must pick their child(ren) up immediately afterwards. 

New players are generally 9-14 years old and need to be able to:

• Swim 4 lengths of a 25 yard pool (100 yards) without stopping (form and style don't matter) without fins

• Tread water for 2 minutes without fins

• Comfortably dive to the bottom of a 7-ft pool and hang out for 5 seconds with or without fins

We typically find that children 9-10 years of age are the youngest we can train, but some players are ready when they're as young as 7 or 8. We're not very strict about the age floor but we want to coach underwater hockey athletes, not teach a swim class. Younger children often require too much attention and older teens may have a better experience at the adult practice.

We have equipment for beginning players at the pool. There is no need to purchase gear to start playing UWH. 

Players that have been in the program for more than 3 months and intend to continue are expected to buy their own gear. If this is a financial burden, please talk with the coaches.

Parents don't need to stay during practice but are welcome to sit on the bleachers.

Youth athletes are under 19 years of age at our Club. This conforms with the U19 category at Age Group World Championships. Once youth athletes no longer age-qualify for U19 World Championships or turn 19, they no longer qualify for youth activities at the Club and are welcome to join adult practices.

Cost:

With gratitude to families who donate, grantors, and volunteer coaches, San Francisco Youth UWH is free of charge to families. After youth athletes have had a chance to experience UWH, we do ask that they buy their own gear. We know this can be expensive, but that cost is more than off-set by the program being free to participate. 

We especially want to thank these partners and philanthropic organizations:

• Families that include SFUWH in their charitable giving

• The Olympic Club Foundation

• San Francisco Recreation & Parks Department

• Atlantis Sports

Adult Practice (encouraged for older teens, adults, and advanced players)

Depending on coach approval, the advanced teens are encouraged to join our adult practices. To stay informed about adult practices, events, cancellations and other news, join the email listserv.

Adult practices must be paid for online (indicate the name of the player). This is a pre-paid activity and we ask for less frequent, larger payments instead of weekly smaller payment to minimize the administrative burden on our 100% volunteer staff (another way we keep costs low); you can check your balance online.

General information about tournaments and clinics

All players that participate in Underwater Hockey tournaments and clinics need to be current members of the Underwater Society of America (USOA).

Parents/Guardians need to sign the "Waiver of Liability" and acknowledge reading the US UWH "Safety Guidelines".

USOA registration and payment, as well as electronic signing of the waiver and guidelines, can be done online at USA UWH. 

You can check if USOA has received your payment at USOA list of players who have paid and/or signed the waiver.

All tournament/clinic players must bring their own gear (not club gear), including:

• Mask and snorkel (with mouthguard)

• 1 pair of fins

• 1 glove — any color other than white, black, yellow, orange or red (We can host a glove-making party, if needed)

• 2 sticks, one black, one white.

• 2 headsets/caps, one blue or black, one white.

See What Gear Do I Need for gear recommendations, and suppliers.

Athletic Achievement for Youth Sea Lions

SFUWH has been training Youth Sea Lions since the program began Oct 17, 2008. It takes many years to train world-caliber UWH athletes. We are extremely proud of our athletes who have represented our country at UWH World Championships! We look forward to coaching even more worlds-caliber athletes. Maybe your child(ren) would like to represent their country at international competition before they graduate high school? Come join us. To compete in the U19 division, the athletes must be Under 19 the entire year in which the competition is held (so if they turn 19 in Dec 2028, they will not be eligible for U19 competition in all of 2028)

2015 (Spain)

• U19 Men: Ché, Eric, Quantum, Raymond, and Ryan

2017 (Australia)

•  U19 Women: Jennifer, Kenya, Lee, Nicole, Rosa, and Teresa 

• U19 Men: Calvin, Dayak, Eric, Justin, Quantum, Raymond, and Ryan

• U24 Men: Ché and Omar

2019 (Postponed, and then canceled due to Pandemic; age requirements changed)

2024 (Malaysia)

• U19 Men: Edmond, Jayden, Keith, Kellen, Kyle, Logan, Max, Muhammad, Peter, and Toby (10 out of the 12-person team came from SFUWH!)

2026 (Turkey)

• U19 Men: Will be announced in Feb 2026

Rules for Youth Sea Lions

Repeated or egregious violation of any of these rules can lead to expulsion from SFUWH! Coaches and Board members have individual and sole discretion on what constitutes egregious or repeated violation.

Age Range & Skill Level

• SFUWH is chartered to coach UWH. It is not a swimming class nor is it babysitting. SFUWH only has capacity to coach UWH. 

• If a youth is not mature enough to be coached, they will be asked to come back in another year or two when they're better able to focus on UWH at practice. 

  • Signals that a child is too immature to play (list is not exhaustive):

    • Is routinely underwater when the coach is speaking

    • Is physical with other players during practice (pushing, splashing, poking, grabbing, etc)

    • Does things to damage or deface the facility

    • Fails to listen to lifeguards or coaches

    • Causes, amplifies, or perpetuates drama

• SFUWH generally finds that most kids are able to be sufficiently well-behaved and listen to coaches around ages 9-11. Exceptions have been made for younger children who are well-behaved, good listeners, and able to focus on learning UWH.

• Required skills to begin:

  • Swim 4 lengths of a 25 yard pool (100 yards) without stopping (form and style don't matter) without fins

  • Tread water for 2 minutes without fins

  • Comfortably dive to the bottom of a 7-ft pool and hang out for 5 seconds with or without fins

• Once youth athletes no longer age-qualify for U19 World Championships or turn 19, they no longer qualify for youth activities at the Club and are welcome to join adult practices (at the student rate).

At the Beginning of Practices

•  Youth are responsible for: 

  • Removing lane lines (learn from the more experienced players)

  • Getting goals from "storage" and placing them on the side of the pool

  • Getting their gear on, getting in the water, and starting to warmup without reminders.

  • Helping newer players to find gear, put it on, and teaching the newer players about the warmup

During Practice

• Youth are responsible for: 

  • Listening to coaches

  • Autonomously Warming up

    • For the shallow pool (experienced players will guide newer players)

      • 100 yards freestyle

      • + 100 yards BOGDAT (Breath Once, Go Down And Touch)

      • + 100 yards HOHU (Half Over, Half Under)

      • + 100 yards HUHO (Half Under, Half Over)

      • + As many FUs (Full Unders) as feels safe 

    • For the middle & deep pools

      • Workouts will be communicated by coaches based on training schedules

At the End of Practice, before getting out of the pool

• Youth are responsible for:

  • Removing the goals from the pool

  • Putting the lane lines back

  • Removing all pucks from the pool

At the End of Practice, Before Going to the Locker Room, Bathroom, or Bleachers

• Nobody goes to the lockers until these items are complete! 

• Youth are responsible for:

  • Returning all borrowed gear to the correct locations in the lockers

  • Picking up any extraneous items on the pool deck and returning them to the lockers

After Practice

• Everyone must be out of the building by 8:20pm