How to Join

Swim Academy

To organise a trial in the Swim Academy please fill in the 'Request a Trial' form or email Sophia - [email protected]. We are quite full, but have spaces in many squads. 

For those children aged 6-10 who are learning how to swim we have a Swim Academy for aspiring young swimmers! We teach swimmers from Stages 5 to 8 at Badminton School, Easton and Henbury Leisure Centres, St Mary Redcliffe and Temple School and Clifton College swimming pools. Swimmers need to be able to swim a width to enter our lessons.

Being a swimming club, we have age based entry criteria which is assessed against the National Plan for Teaching Swimming. Our lessons are very popular and we have some availability in some groups although if our groups are full your child can be added to the waiting list and spaces come up as swimmers move up groups and graduate to the main squad. The aim is swimmers attend two lessons a week to ensure they make sufficient progress to enter the main squad by their 10th birthday. There are however, some once a week slots as well. We assess each child individually who comes to try out in a relaxed and informal way and then allow prospective members to stay for a free try out lesson.

Swim Squads

To enquire about availability in all squads, please email Sophia or click on the Request a Trial button above - [email protected]

For junior school aged swimmers to learn advanced skills and techniques that will prepare swimmers at the beginning of their competitive swimming journey. There are 5 squads within this Competitive cluster, the first being Development 1, 2  and 3. If your child has already developed the skills and techniques for competitive training and competition, we have Age Group Competitive and Youth Competitive squads, for secondary school aged swimmers who are competing at county level.

If your child has completed Stage 8 of the National Plan for Teaching Swimming then they will probably be best suited to attend a try out for the Development 1 squad. Completion of Stage 8 means your child is able to swim all four swimming strokes well and has a basic command of starts and turns. To enter the Development squads, swimmers will need to attend and pass an informal trial.

The Recreational squads for those swimmers who have not yet achieved county qualifying times or for those who wish to focus on a less competitive route. There  are three squads in this cluster. These are Junior Club for non-competitive swimmers graduating from the Swim Academy that want to maintain their swimming fitness and improve their technique, Age Group Club and Youth Club.

There are three squads in the Performance cluster: Bronze for swimmers who  have attained county qualification times, Silver for swimmers with county qualification times that are aiming for regional level and Gold / Gold + for swimmers with county and regional qualification times who are training at a high level and want to commit to more sessions.

Masters

For swimmers 18 years and over who are both competitive and non-competitive swimmers. Masters swimmers are encouraged to participate in the coaching of the squads so that they can pass on their experience and skills. Masters swimmers have access to five sessions a week with over five hours of swimming. Many of our masters swimmers also coach for Penguins and are therefore eligible to swim for a reduced fee. We also have an Adults Swim for Fitness squad, which has  three sessions available per week.

Please email Sophia – [email protected] for more information about the Masters/ASF squads.

See the Training Times page for specific days and times.