Swim update as at 29 Jan 2026:
Pool swim sessions are still selling out on Mondays, busy on Saturdays and there’s a regular crop of hardy early birds on Wednesdays. Booking for swim sessions opens about a week before each session – don’t leave it till the last minute and miss out! If you have booked and find you cannot attend, please cancel your place using either the link in the confirmation email or on Nifty Entries. This will open a place up which someone else may be able to use.
If you plan to restart swimming OW before the water warms up properly, check out these tips from the Outdoor Swimming Society
If you want to make arrangements to have a swim buddy, or just know who’s going to be around for a coffee afterwards, join the OW swim WhatsApp group and check out the club website’s OW swim page for more info.
Pool sessions – where and when:
Sessions are split between City Baths and Christleton. They are mixed ability, with lanes arranged by speed. The content of each session follows the club’s annual training phases. We are continuing to look for lanes/sessions to match demand.
Christleton:
18.35 – 19.35 Mondays
City Baths:
05.45 – 06.45 Wednesdays
16.00 – 17.00 Saturdays, 2 lanes technique, 3 lanes squad swim
Important to remember:
Book in advance via Nifty Entries (bookings go live about a week before each session). Cost (as of Jan 2026) £5.20 + 30p transaction fee.
FAQs:
- If you can’t make it to a session you’ve booked, please cancel either via the link in the confirmation email, or via the training sessions entry page on Nifty Entries.
- The transfer button on Nifty Entries doesn’t work for training session bookings.
- Everyone has equal chance of getting a place in any session.
- Try putting a reminder in your calendar to book in the evening or following morning after a Monday swim. If you can’t commit to the next week’s swim at that point, keep an eye on Nifty Entries for any spaces which pop up when someone cancels.
Open water venues – please check their websites/FB for details (see links on open water swimming page).
If you are going to swim outdoors, we suggest to refresh/prepare yourself with some outdoor swimming tips from sensible sources. You can find various resources about open water swimming here on the club website. We don’t recommend open water swimming alone, particularly in cold weather.
Our next swim sessions
Swim sessions are £5.20 + 30p transaction fee.
All swim sessions must be booked in advance via Nifty Entries.
Non‐members can sign up here for a 1 month trial membership for free, which will allow you to book & pay for club sessions during that month.
Things to know
The coaching team uses the ‘Swim Smooth’ methodology. This is a very highly regarded method developed over more than a decade in Australia and has been adopted by the BTF coaching team. Swim Smooth focuses on 3 main things:
- Training – Ensuring you have the right fitness for your race distance
- Technique – Ensuring you have the right technique for you
- Open water skills – Ensuring you can swim effectively in race conditions
All you need to do is book in via Nifty Entries and turn up with suitable swim wear and goggles.
The coaches will help you which is the best lane for you to join.
To improve your speed and endurance it is important to know your ‘ threshold swim speed’ also called Critical Swim Speed (CSS). This is the average time (per 100m) you can sustain on a 1500m swim. A simple CSS test (a 400m and 200m time trial) will give you your basic CSS speed.
Paul Newsome explains it this in this video.
As an example:
Swimmer A performs a 400m TT in 6:05 and a 200m TT in 2:50 this gives a css time of 1:38 per 100m.
Swimmer B performs a 400m TT in 6:10 and a 200m TT in 2:40 this gives a css time of 1:45 per 100m.
Although swimmer B is faster over the shorter distance, Swimmer A’s drop off in pace between their 200m and 400m pace is smaller, therefore Swimmer A is likely to be faster over 1500m.
Swimmers in each lane should have a similar CSS pace so that everyone makes the most out of the session.
Some sets will be at a faster pace, say CSS -4. That means 4 seconds faster per 100m, (or 1 second faster per length) or at a slower pace, say CSS +4 (1 second slower per length).
Pacing is vital. As your pace improves your CSS time will come down by 1 second per 100m. Try to hold that for the session rather than reducing by 5 seconds for the first set only to then struggle to hold CSS +5 by the last set. That disrupts other swimmers in the lane too.
- Please be on poolside on time so that the session can start promptly. If you are late ask the coach where the swimmers are up to with the warm up.
- Try to not to have conversations with incoming/outgoing swimmers if that is delaying the warm up. The warm up is important.
- Maintain a 5 second gap between you and the swimmer in front.
- Do not draft, unless it’s an open water drill set.
- Use the clock to work out your set times to ensure you are working at the right pace.
- Make sure you are in the right lane for your ability. Please don’t be offended if a coach moves you up or down a lane. They need to manage the lanes so everyone can get the most out of the session.
- Occasionally you may end up needing to lap a swimmer. Tap their feet to let them know. If someone taps your feet stop at the end of the lane and let them past.
- When you finish your interval move to the side so that the swimmer behind can finish at the wall.
- If you go to the wrong session, remember you are the one in the wrong session and you should adjust your swimming accordingly.
- If you are a faster swimmer than the rest of the squad, talk to the coach so that they can manage/adapt your session for you.