Dear Swimmer, Parents and Guardians,

Whether you are just starting your competitive swimming journey or have recently moved from elsewhere - welcome to  Slough Dolphin Swimming Club. You will now be a registered member of the club, and therefore a member of Swim England. You can find information about the club structure and staff this website along with lots of other relevant information. As you embark on your swimming you will no doubt have lot's of questions, therefore we have produced this guide to swimming with the club. 

Keeping children safe is our top priority. We are committed to providing an environment in which all children, young people and adults participating in club activities have a safe and positive experience. As an affiliated club, Slough Dolphin abides by Swim England’s Wavepower policy and procedures. https://www.swimming.org/swimengland/wavepower-child-safeguarding-for-clubs/

Swim England Membership

As an affiliated club all our members are required to become a member of Swim England. Fees for this membership are renewable annually and set by Swim England. All of our swimmers are registered in the;

Club Compete Membership category: this is for individuals who are part of a club and looking to compete in any discipline in open competitions not exempted under Swim England law, or designated as a Low Level Competition. This membership offers you the benefit of a structured competitive pathway, at all levels in swimming, artistic swimming, diving, and water polo.

Club Support Membership: this is for anyone involved in a club who isn’t a swimmer, ie. technical officials, coaches, volunteers (parents).

Starting Training with a Squad
You will have received an invite to join & train with a specific squad. This will have told you which squad you are to be training with and where to go. The full structure of squads, training times, training fees, squad criteria and venue information is available on the club website along with lots of other information.

Swimming Calendar
In general, the swimming year runs from September through to early August. There may be a two week “summer & winter shutdowns” in August and at Christmas which allows all the coaches and swimmers a well-earned rest before the cycle begins again, this policy is under constant review and we may provide some "tick over" sessions during this time to keep fitness levels up if logistically possible. There will on occasions be cancelled sessions, for example due to coach absence or illness, issues at pools, a clash of competitions or events, bank holidays etc. Refunds are not given for these cancellations, fees are based on overall costs of being a squad member taking into account our fixed overheads, not pool sessions. The monthly fee that you pay is an annual fee conveniently divided into 12 equal monthly payments so please do not stop your direct debit / payments during these times.

Competiton

Open Meets (competing as an individual)
The Club will enter several “open” meets throughout the year. If your squad are entering a meet then an email will be sent out to the squad along with entry details and links to signing up to the events. Open Meets are competitions where swimmers enter as individuals and are aiming to get qualifying times for the bigger meets and/or improve on their own Personal Best (PB) times. Often events will be run in reverse time order (slowest entry times first) so swimmers will compete against a whole range of other swimmers from other clubs but all will generally have similar entry times. The exception is of course the first time someone enters a specific event when they won’t have a previous time and so enter with No Time (NT). Attendance and entry at these events is mandatory if instructed by the squad coach.

Level 4 • This is the lowest level of meet and is generally for club championships and novice meets. Times gained at this level cannot ordinarily be used for Regional or National entry.

Level 3 • These can be either 25m or 50m pool length meets but are designed for swimmers to gain entry times to higher level meets. Entry times are set such that your current time usually has to be “slower than” the published time for an event. This means if you have “No Time” (NT) for an event you can enter it at a Level 3 meet.

Level 2 • These meets are held in 25m pools and will have entry times published which you have to be quicker than to enter. ie. Your entry time must be faster than the published time for an event. You cannot enter an event at this level of meet if you haven’t swum the event before (at a previous Level 3 or 4 meet) thus having already gained a qualifying time.

Level 1 • This is the highest level of Swim England licensed meet. These meets are similar to Level 2 but are held in 50m pools and have (like level 2) qualifying entry times. You must have a time quicker than the entry time to enter an event

County, Regional and National Championships
Depending on age there are then certain larger championship events (County, Regional, National) held throughout the year. The qualifying times for these events are published by Swim England. Your coach will be working tirelessly to help you achieve these. The County Championships are in January/February. These start at the age of 10/11. Regional Championships are usually just after Easter around April/May time. These start at the age of 11/12. National Championships are later in the year around July and begin at age 12/13.

Club Kit
Slough Dolphin branded Club kit can be purchased through the Club and a starter pack is mandatory for all new swimmers and ordered on your behalf when you first join the club. You will receive a separate invoice for this kit when you first join.

Volunteering in the club
All the above events could not function without the support of volunteers. Slough Dolphin SC are committed to valuing our volunteers. There are a range of roles required to ensure the smooth running of our club and competitions. This can vary from fundraising, manning a medal table to announcing events at a competition. There are more formal roles such as Team managers or Officiating. You may want to become part of a sub group in marketing, fund raising, sponsorship co-ordinating etc. The club has an Annual General Meeting held in September, at which it appoints members of the committee and executive committee.

Many of these roles are taken on by parents of club swimmers. The club are always looking for both volunteers and officials to help out and if you are interested in taking up one of these roles then please ask.

We operate as a not for profit organisation and any surplus funds are used for the benefit of the swimmers, however this is becoming more challenging every year and we would like to encourage parents with experience in business, management or any other area that you think could benefit the club, to come forward and discuss how you could become involved.