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 (200 yards) without stopping (form and style don't matter)

• Tread water for 1 minute

• Dive to the bottom of a 7-ft pool

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 6 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:

• 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. After 5-6 years of training, we had 5 of our youth athletes (Ché, Eric, Quantum, Raymond, and Ryan) join Team USA U(nder)19 Men to compete at Age Group World Championships in Spain in 2015. At the following 2017 Age Group World Championships in Australia, SFUWH was well represented across Team USA:

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

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

• U23 Men: Ché and Omar

After the 2019 World Championships were postponed, then canceled due to Pandemic, the next Age Group World Championships is in July 2024 in Malaysia. With this 7 year gap (!), SFUWH is proud to have 10 of our athletes on the 12-person Team USA:

• U19 Men: Edmond, Jayden, Keith, Kellen, Kyle, Logan, Max, Muhammad, Peter, and Toby

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.