Why Reading
Swimming Club?Why Reading
Swimming Club?We are the area's longest-established club. We offer a structured teaching programme, squad training and competition from within the club up through county and regional level, with a rising number of swimmers competing at national level.
The bottom line is always to get fit, stay fit, make friends and have fun.
We are the only Reading area club with Swim21 accreditation. Swim21 is an ASA (Amateur Swimming Association) award to athlete centred, safe and effective environments, allowing the swimmers to achieve their full potential within the principles of long term athlete development.
We offer lessons at Central Pool, Kendrick School in Central Reading, Highdown School in Emmer Green and Sonning Common Primary for children any age from about three and a half upwards. They can join as complete beginners or to improve their skills, and progress through a series of levels graded via coloured hats. Our qualified teachers are assisted by enthusiastic helpers from among our older teenage swimmers and everyone working in the programme is police record-checked, as are all our coaches.
Many swimmers join our development squads from the teaching programme, but many come from private swim schools or clubs or via Reading Sport and Leisure lessons and school swimming. Or you may be new to the area, or swimming locally and want to try your hand at a broader range of events. Our youngest competitors are around nine, and ages in our top squad run from 13 through to university. Progression through the squads is based on careful assessment by the coaching team. Training starts at two hours a week and tops out at 20, calling at all points in between. Commonwealth gold medallist Becky Cooke cut her teeth with us, as did Olympian Ian Edmond and Paralympic gold medallist Graham Edmunds.
Our Masters section caters for all abilities, from former swimmers returning to the pool to swim socially, to national champions. We also offer lessons to adult beginners and improvers.
We run the only team in Berks and South Bucks and compete in two leagues.
New head coach Tony Woodward joins us in September 2007, succeeding Graeme Thomas who is embarking on a new career path still working with young people but outside the sport. Tilehurst-based, Tony coached with RSC before spending five very successful seasons as head coach at Windsor, where he produced numerous national-level swimmers including a national age group champion, a Welsh youth champion and many regional and county medallists, and the top team in the Thames Valley Junior League. Graeme's results also speak for themselves and Tony will be inheriting a top squad including a 2006 national youth champion, a national age group finalist, the top BAGCATS all-rounder at Southeast Regional level, a Welsh youth champion and numerous regional and county medallists. He will head an enthusiastic volunteer coaching team, many of whom have come up through the club's ranks, and develop this further.
Central Pool is our base, and we train at several other pools in and around Reading, including Bradfield College and Queen Anne's and Leighton Park schools. Our top squads have a weekly session at the Olympic-length Garrison Pool in Aldershot.
As you will have seen, we have one of the most informative club websites going! A committed body of responsible adults – many are parents of current swimmers, some got the bug and stayed involved after their kids moved on – fill the numerous volunteer roles required to keep the club moving forward. We contribute to the sport as a whole locally by training and providing officials for local meets, and senior officers at Berks & South Bucks county and Southeast regional levels, and we publish the county website. And we host our own galas – the main one at Easter – and meets in the Speedo League.
We are sponsored by the Reading Evening Post, and you can follow the club via the paper every Thursday.
Only if you want it to! Probably more than most sports, it's true that the more you put in, the more you get out – and if you want to go all the way we can offer you up to 20 hours' training a week and competitions at some of the country's top pools – but we understand fully that this isn't for everyone. We take just as much pride in a 10-year-old swimming PBs in his/her first meet as we do in a national champion. Many of our swimmers also take in another sport, or more than one, and we also have several talented musicians in our ranks. Many older teenagers maintaining other interests scale down their training stay involved via our County Squad, which concentrates on sprint events at 50 and 100 metres.
Swimming is an unbeatable sport for making friendships, and many lifetime friendships start via the pool. It's much more a team sport than you might think from the sidelines, and our swimmers tend to be well-organized, self-motivating kids. Those attending single-sex schools mix with sensible counterparts. It was probably put best by a Reading parent who said when her teenager held a joint party with a school friend, you could spot straight away which guests were the swimmers!
See for yourself! Come along to Central Pool any Thursday evening around six to "try out" for our teaching or training programmes. All our squads train one after another and you will get a feel for the atmosphere at the club. Your child will be assessed as to which level would be most suitable, from absolute beginner to National Squad. More details are on the club's website, or ring 0118 959 6701 (before 9 p.m.) if you have any further questions.
We look forward to seeing you!
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