Having joined Staines Swimming Club there are many things that new parents and swimmers need to know so we’ve broken down some key points we thought you might find useful: -

Club Kit & Equipment

For training, equipment varies from squad to squad, and this information can be found / is broken down on our website (squad specific page).  To start with, swimmers will need, a costume / jammers, a SSC hat, goggles, towel, drinks bottle.  For swimming gala’s swimmers require: club hat (plus a spare), race costume / jammers, racing goggles (plus a spare pair), club T short (hoodie & tracksuit pants optional), towel, water bottle, energy snacks food. The club kit can be purchased online via KS Teamwear: - https://www.ksteamwear.co.uk/product-category/club-shop/club-shop-staines-swimming-club/ for purple hats, please email Tracy: [email protected] who will arrange for one to be passed to your coach. Equipment (dependent on squad requirements): -

• Swim Hat (plus a spare)
• Racing Goggles (plus a spare pair)
• Kick Board
• Pull Buoy
• Hand Paddles
• Training Fins
• Training Snorkel
• Resistance Band
• Foam Roller
• Skipping Rope
• Towel
• Water Bottle
• Mesh Kit Bag

Short Course / Long Course Pools

Like many clubs we train in a 25m pool for the majority of the time (Spelthorne, Sunbury, Bishopsgate & Egham) and a couple of times a week the tops squads have the opportunity to train in a 50m pool (Aldershot)

Entering you child into Swimming Galas

Club Championships are the perfect opportunity to participate in events across a large range of events and gain official times. We hold this event every summer, usually in June. There is a deadline for entries to enable the club to organize the programme of events, but you do not need to have previously recorded a time for any of the events. Parents are responsible for entering their swimmers online via the SSC website, the fee will be added to your membership account and you will automatically be charged at the same time your monthly fee.

Licensed Open Meets are chosen by the head coach & often there is a minimum entry time, it is parents responsibility to enrol their swimmer via the SSC website.  Parents are encouraged to speak to the coach if they are not sure what races to enter their children in. Open Meets are licensed according to the purpose of their competition as Level 1, 2, 3 or 4.  Level 1 events take place in 50m pools and are aimed at national and regional qualifiers. Level 2 events take place in 25m pools and are aimed at national and regional qualifiers, as well as swimmers close to regional qualification. Level 1 and 2 meets are likely to have quite challenging qualifying times (i.e. a swimmer must have achieved a faster time in that particular event to enable them to enter). You cannot achieve a national qualifying time at a Level 3 or 4 meet, regional qualifying times cannot be obtained at a Level 4 meet. Level 3 is for club swimmers who are seeking regional and county qualifying times. These meets have qualifying times and upper limit times set at an appropriate level and will provide a program throughout the year to support the requirements of swimmers below regional level. Level 3 meets might have upper limit times to restrict the standard of swimmer entry. If you have a time faster than the upper limit then they won’t be eligible to enter that event. Level 4 is for club swimmers and those beginning to enter individual open competitions. Level 4 meets relax the qualification times further. These events can mostly be entered with 'no times', as they are low level meet and you can use these to start recording personal bests in events you've not entered before.

Middlesex County Championships

South East Regional Championships

Fees and Membership

Our fees are combined and divided into 12 monthly payments, made by standing order at the begining of each month.  The club take all payments using a debit or credit card registered to the swimmers club account.  All new members will be asked to enrol registering a card on their account.  In addition, all members must pay an annual Swim England. and memberships fee to the Club who, in turn, register the swimmer with Swim England. This is collected annually in January of each year. Members are expected to meet all open, championship and other competition fees. The club contributes to team entries for the appropriate galas.  Have a look at the relevant squad pages to see the fees for each group.  Some clubs insist on termly fees paid in advance three times a year. We do not do this as we recognise this places an additional financial burden on parents and carers.  The fees are an annual fee divided into twelve payments for the ease of our members.  This means that the fess remain payable during the Summer break and the refund policy does NOT apply.  Any member cancelling their fees for the Summer break would lose their place in the squad and would need to rejoin the club to continue swimming.  This would attract the usual annual membership fee irrespective of it had already been paid in that financial year. E-mail is the main communication channel, we send notifications, announcements, forms, etc. to the email address/es provided during registration to the club.  These can be updated by accessing your team unify account via this website.

The Swimming Season

The swimming year is generally divided into three seasons: -

• Counties - January
• Regionals - May
• Nationals - July / August

We hold an annual Awards evening each January where families are invited to attend with their swimmers so we can celebrate the achievements of all of the swimmers.  In addition to this we also hold a Christmas party each year.

Summer & Christmas Holidays

We always have two weeks off during the summer, dates are announced on a year by year basis.  At Christmas time we work to a reduced schedule over a period of two weeks where our timetable is revised.  Our annual fees are split into 12 months, therefore monthly fees in December still apply.