Coached Sessions
Our swim coaches have many years combined experience with the club and are widely valued by club members. They provide swimming workouts to improve stroke efficiency, endurance and fitness. The coaches are on-hand to provide individual tips on swim technique. We currently have two coached swim sessions on offer per week:
Cally Pool
Wednesday 8pm – 9.30pm
Online coaching from RIAK
Holloway School
Tuesday 8pm – 9.30pm
Coached by Harry
Session Details
These are all held outside of public hours so we have the pool to ourselves.
The sessions cater for a broad range of abilities with the pool divided into 5 or 6 graded lanes and the training tailored to suit each, though it is assumed that participants have basic swimming ability and are able to swim at least 400m continuous freestyle. The Wednesday evening session in particular focuses more on technique. Be sure to bring along your goggles, caps, hand paddles and if you have them, fins. The swimming pool provide kindly provide us with pull buoys and floats.
These sessions are charged as a supplement to the club membership fees, starting from about £40 per month for basic swim-only membership with Better, which also gives you unlimited access to most Better pools in London pool (there are some exclusions). This can be upgraded to include use of gyms and classes throughout the entire Better Network.
Bikes may be stored in the lobby (Cally sessions) or change rooms (Holloway school). However, removing all loose components and locking up is still recommended. Locking your bike outside isn’t advisable (though many have no choice).
Contact the Swimming Coordinator should you have any specific questions about these sessions.
Open Water Swimming
While there are no open water sessions organised by the club, members participate in open water events throughout the year. This ranges from trips to Hampstead Heath and London Fields lidos right through to 5km swims in the Mediterranean waters of Marseille. Keep an eye on the club swimming group for details!
There are a number of local Open Water venues available round the capital. We’ve compiled a list of locations below, including links to their websites to let you book onto a session.
- West Reservoir
- Open 7 days a week
- No induction required
- Download Better App to book
- Swim slots are 50 minutes long, and scheduled every 10 minutes (e.g. 9:00am, 9:10am, 9:20am, …)
- Slots open up at 10pm, one week in advance
- Denham lake
- Merchant Taylor’s School
- Open weekday evenings and weekend mornings
- London Royal Docks
- Open weekday mornings and evenings, and weekend mornings
- Stubbers Lake
- Docklands Sailing and Watersports Centre
- Redricks (via Facebook)