Is Spencer currently accepting new members?

New members are very welcome at Spencer Swim Team.

How much does membership cost?

Full year membership costs £60 plus £9.40 (non competitor) or £25 (competitor) for mandatory ASA membership. If we're more than half way through the year (subscription falls due on Feb 1st of each year) you would only be asked to pay £25 for club membership and you may not be required to pay for ASA membership.

Can I come to training before committing to membership?

We allow new swimmers to attend up to 4 training sessions before committing to joining the club. This will allow you to see if we provide the sort of training that suits your needs. At your first session you can find us poolside just before the session starts, except at Putney where we congregate in the seating/snack machine area to the right of reception (as you face it) 15 minutes before the session. Introduce yourself to the coach, as they might not recognise you as a new face.

What is expected of me by the club?

We are a competitive club and aspire to having as many members as we can entering ASA Masters Galas. We believe this is the best way to keep the club moving forward, to motivate swimmers to improve their ability and to get the most out of training. We therefore strongly encourage members to take part in competitive swimming events organised by the ASA. These events can be a lot of fun, and we are a 'Team' after all! However, some members choose not to compete and train with us for other reasons, such as for open water swims, triathalon or even just general fitness and for the fun of it.

How good must I be at swimming?

There is a fairly broad range of abilities and ages amongst our swimmers. We do require a minimum level, however, as we are not a teaching club but a competitive team. As a rough guide, if you can swim a mile continuously without needing a break then you should be able to cope with a typical training session, though you might have to start off in the slower lanes if you haven't recently swum at club level.

What does a typical training session involve?

In a typical 1 hour 30 min session you will normally swim between 3 to 5 Km, depending on your speed. Depending on the current point in the year's training programme a session will include combinations of longer endurance sets, shorter sprint sets and a variety of drills with appropriate recovery periods. We expect swimmers to attempt all four strokes during training, even if they may be weaker on one or two of them.

I swam a lot in my youth, but haven't been in a pool for a while ...

Good! We often have swimmers joining who swam a lot as teenagers or early 20s but haven't been in a pool for a few years since. These swimmers often regain some speed quite soon once they start training again. If you swam to a high level in your youth you may be very surprised at how quickly you are able to build your stamina again!