Let’s Get Wet!

With the Sportpark at your disposal and a swimming pool to rival any other in the UK, swimming is one of the most easily accessed, rewarding and fitness enhancing sports on offer.

Charlie Robertson, publicity officer for the UEA swimming club, believes there has been a noticeable increase in interest towards swimming since the Olympic games. Members have nearly doubled in comparison with last years figures and the club are always keen to bolster an already talented group.

And although the thought of joining a swimming club can appear understandably intimidating, it need not be. Having witnessed the gruelling schedules, fierce dedication and hunger to win of athletes at the Olympics, you might get the impression a swimming club competing against other Universities will be much the same.

But the UEA Swimming club provides a well structured schedule for competitive and leisure swimmers alike. The club train  Tuesday’s, Wednesday’s,Thursday’s and Sunday’s. Wednesday’s most importantly are for social swimmers, with members on hand to help you improve your technique and performance, regardless of a desire to compete or not.

The club take part in three main competitions, BUCS short course (in a 25m pool), BUCS long course (in a 50m pool) and BUCS teams, making the UK finals last year in each respective competition.

The clubs performances were particularly impressive for a team of only 10 swimmers. The team has retained those swimmers this year and with the addition of some strong new swimmers, Robertson is confident of bettering last years achievements.

The first BUCS event takes place from the 2nd of November through to the 4th. This will be followed by the first round of BUCS teams competition on the 18th of November.

The BUCS long course competition is on the 22nd of February, finishing on the 24th. There is therefore plenty of time to get involved and show your credentials before everything kicks off seriously.

Depending on the individual, you can go it alone or compete for the BUCS team. For the BUCS team you have the chance to compete against teams from across the UK for a place in the finals.

Strong opposition such as Loughborough, Sterling and Bath are tough tests says Robertson, but the feeling is that the team is slowly improving. The target is to reach the levels these teams work at and the team are enjoying the challenge to get there.

For those interested, more information can be found on the clubs Twitter and Facebook groups. There are guranteed to be some fantastic swimmers at UEA who don’t even know it. If you have an incline to move up a gear from the doggy paddle, you may just suprise yourself and could be exceling within months.

It’s easy to forget about the swimming pool. You can hardly miss it in sight and yet you do in mind. We all promise ourselves we’ll take a dip next week but it never quite materialises.

Hopefully this mentality is changing and if your stuck on what sports team to join, or feel like you have left it a little late, nothing is stopping you heading to the pool a few times a week.