SWIMMING - DROP IN NUMBERS

[Bitterlemon12]

Has anyone seen the news today saying there is a huge drop in the numbers of people going swimming every week. Just want to rant on this! Hardly surprising and not news! The swimming pools in Swindon where I live are expensive, around £5 upwards per swim, per person, and totally run down and freezing cold with repulsive, smelly, disgusting changing rooms. My 2 year old goes purple with the cold and I find it unbearable at times.

If it was free, or say £1 per time I would love to go on a regular basis maybe twice a week but no wonder no one wants to go at the moment!

I hate swimming at pools- I am so glad my kids are old enough to go on their own if they want to.

The only swimming I will do now is on holiday in a country where the temperature is 30 degrees and so is the pool.

We live in the States now, but when we lived at home (until this time last year) the only members of the family who went swimming were my eldest two and only for swim lessons once a week. We couldn't go any other time - actually COULDN'T! Adult-child ratios meant we weren't allowed to take our kids swimming. The ratios in ALL the local pools (Including private membership places) are 1-1 for under 5s, 1-2 for ages 5-8, and no adults required for over 8s. (even if they can't actually swim - bizarre!) When we left last year our kids were 8, 6, 3 & 3. We needed to borrow 1 other adult just to take all 4 of them swimming and with no family around us that was impossible. Neither could I take the twins swimming while the older 2 were at school, because my husband was at work so was on my own, and even the parent-child swim lessons for under 4s were 1-1 with no allowances for twins.

It doesn't surprise me that numbers are dropping. These rules just make it impossible for many families. (and yes, I have 4 including twins, but most of my friends with 3 kids were in the same boat and some with 2 kids couldn't manage either because their husbands worked off-shore so could only do it when they were home.) I have said it before, and I will say it again - we are raising a generation of non-swimmers and it scares me. It is such an important life-skill, as well as a great way to keep fit in all weathers, but it is so restricted it's just not possible for so many families.

We have all 4 of our kids in swimming lessons here and we have a pool ourselves and I am so thankful they are finally getting the chance to swim properly. By the time we get home we'll be fine for the ratios thank goodness!

Our two nearest pools were both at secondary schools. They were used for swimming lessons and public sessions in the evenings and at weekends but now they have been closed. They are too expensive to repair and staff. This also means the school pupils now have no swimming in games and can't learn lifesaving skills.

The nearest pool now is in a market town. This pool is used by several schools, parent and tods, and other organised groups during the day. Water polo, the lifesaving group, swimming clubs and for private hire most evenings and weekends. Public swimming is slotted in an hour here and there. The last time I tried to go the public session had been cancelled for a swimming club gala. There is also the extra cost of getting to the pool and parking. For some that makes swimming expensive.

Our local pool is very busy. It's a fairly new high profile build and you can turn up pretty much any time and have a swim. I think adult swim is £4 and child is £3. I do lessons so £21 a month for a lesson a week plus unlimited swims in between. Bargain but I generally only make it to the lesson plus one extra swim (while DD has her lesson). There were a lot of complaints about dirty changing area but this has improved. I think the situation would be improved further by banning all shoes and buggies from the changing 'village'. They'd need shoe racks and staff to enforce it.

We must be lucky because our local has nice clean changing rooms and a lovely warm children's pool. They hold waterbabies classes and school groups but most days there is a baby and toddler session open to anyone, with toys and an instructor on hand for advice.
It is expensive though at over a fiver each!

We join our local gym for 2 months every summer £70 a month family membership, go as often as you like - we tend to go 5 or 6 times a week in the summer hols - so make our money back easily. Also play table tennis and badminton. It is not worth our while being members all year round since we would not go that often during term time.

No joining fee and you can use discounts if you have not been a member for 8 months. Works well for us.

The children used to have swimming lessons at our local council pool and we used to take them on weekends but we stopped going there as the changing rooms and showers were so dirty and smelly. I also wanted to go in the week but it was only open to the public at lunchtimes when it would be heaving and too busy for my liking, or closed too early in the evenings so I couldn't go after DH got home.

They now have lessons at a private pool which are more expensive but lovely and warm and clean.

I've joined a private gym now so I can swim any time I like 7 days a week, as it's open long hours, and it's so quiet in there that I always have a clear lane to myself. Most people there seem to use the gym or do classes so feels like luxury to have the pool to myself. And there's a jacuzzi, steam room and sauna too.

IMO swimming is decreasing as a participant sport because it is so damn expensive. When I was a child in the Dark Ages 80s, we had family membership of the local leisure centre and it was 30p for an hour for a child and 45p for an adult. Even allowing for inflation that's way cheaper than it is now.

You also cannot get to properly swim as an adult. There are hardly any sessions which aren't booked out by schools or club training.

Loads of leisure centres have stopped being run by local councils and have been tendered out to shit companies like Serco whose sole aim is to squeeze them dry for profit, treat their staff like shit, make zero investment in the facilities before offloading it when the renewal comes up.

We have 3 pools within a 10 mile radius of us. They all have nice clean changing rooms and are pretty cheap - think it's about £3.60 per adult and our kids are free atm (at 2 and 6 months). Two of them are kept pretty cold, though, so we go to the furthest-away one which has a warm baby pool with lots of toys in it. There's free parking (car parks) at all of them. If I could escape from my offspring in the evenings I'd go to the colder ones and swim properly. We try to go every weekend at some point, and usually only miss it when one or both kids have horrible colds.

I used to swim for exercise regularly before I had kids and the problem was always that the pools were too crowded to allow you to really get into your stride. Perhaps that's changed now!

I pay £25/month for as many swims as I want ,and unlimited use of the gym.I usually go 3 times a week. The changing rooms were renovated a year ago, with nice single showers, family changing cubicles, and reasonably clean.The water usually warmish, but not too warm to make proper swimming difficult.
On the downside, the pool is booked out a lot of the time for aquafit, swimming club, etc. Most evenings are closed to the public.
It's a bit of a joke really. There's this massive obesity problem with public health implications, yet a form of exercise that can have such great health benefits is closed to a lot of people.

Our local pool is really good - plenty of space to change, free hair dryers, free swimming for children who have swimming lessons. It's a standard 25m pool, but there are fun sessions with inflatables and family sessions so your children can practice their swimming skills out of a lesson.

However, I think that swimming was heavily subsidised under the last government, so I'm not surprised that numbers of participants have dropped.

Our local leisure centre has 4 lovely pools ranging from a 25 metre lane pool to a toddler splash pool. We use the toddler pool, it is warm and the changing rooms clean. We go every Sunday and it costs dh and I £9.50 (our two year olds are free). Well worth the money, we often spend 1.5-2 hours in the water.

The thing is, they put this stuff in the pool now that turns the water green if you have a pee, so I'm not allowed there anymore. Maybe everyone else is getting banned as well.

Made - Ithought that was urban myth!

mademan
urban myth - goes back to 1977

The one DD has swimming lessons at is £45 for 10 weeks lessons but includes a card which gives the child 10 free swims.

They also do a disco night for tweens and teens which I'm sure is BOGOF

Neither offer is on the website though for some odd reason.

My biggest bugbear is the new showers. There are 4 in the ladies which shoot water as far as the toilet doors opposite. The floor doesn't drain so you stand in a few inches of water.

There is no where dry to stand whilst a young child showers.

I'd love to invite the person who designed it to stand there in their work clothes and shoes like we do. I'm sure they's soon see the design flaw.

There are 2 local council pools (15/20 min drive through heavy traffic). They are cheap (kids go free) but I find them very cold.

There's a fun pool with flumes & a wave machine 30 mind drive away which is lovely and warm and the DCs love but it's £20 for 4 of us. I can't take them myself as older dc will want me to go on flumes with him and I can't leave younger one alone while I do that.

Just like the lack of housing investment 20 or more years ago is now causing costs to rise, so is the lack of investment in swimming pools and allied leisure facilities. The growth of private gyms ten or so years ago filled part of the gap, but that seems to have reached a peak.

After the coverage of why children are not keen on sport seemed to indicate that good facilities and time to shower etc afterwards would help, it seems better facilities will encourage adults.

Cleanliness seems to be a higher priority too for many people, so avoiding anywhere seen as not clean is often a response. Think of people who drive to avoid being on public transport with other people whose lack of adequate cleanliness offends.

Our swimming pool is always busy!

I have swum 5 times a week for the past 15 years and always used to use the council pool.

I had to stop and go private because the opening hours were rubbish, they had no lane swimming (1 hour on a Sunday, 12-1 for example - useless!!) and the rest of the time was for kids playing.

The pool I pay for now has kids swimming lessons, British triathlon training, and everything else and still manages to have lane swimming from 630am-10pm every day.

It makes me so angry that the government want us to be healthy and exercise, yet the facilities provided for adults to do as woefully inadequate.

I'm lucky to have an Olympic pool close to work. It is lane swimming in the mornings from 6.30am on weekdays. It can be pretty good temperature wise and nice clean changing rooms at that time of morning. I've tried to go at lunchtimes or after work, but it's grim and overcrowded.

Used to take dd to expensive heated pool pool lessons as a baby at £13 for half an hour. Couldn't sustain that. Might try out the toddler pool as it seems ok.

expensive

difficult to get to sessions around work etc.

The small pool at the pool in town is open for one hour a day, from 3 til 4 so right over school run time. How am i supposed to take the dc? How can i take the toddler on a day off and still collect the big ones from school? so we don't go.

We are really lucky where I live and have a hipuge leisure centre with slides and a wave machine, a 50 m pool and several 25 m pools so something for everyone. I agree that some of them can be bloody cold though. I used to love swimming. Unfortunately I've developed a chlorine allergy so had to stop going.

Hmm well pools where I live are clean, nice friendly staff, costs about £3 I think (I have a pass so pay monthly - costs me about £20pm), £1 for 11-16s, free for under 5s (shocked at some of you having to pay for pre-schoolers!) So if I want to go with my 3 DC (11/13/15 yo) it costs me £3.

Not cold and changing rooms are clean. Not luxurious for sure, and could do with a bit of maintenance, but very useable and the actual pools are much much nicer than the David Lloyd one near us IMO.

Also pretty good timetable - there are two full sized council pools here and you can usually find a laned-swim session or section of the pool. I have been this morning and it was super. Quite busy too.

So sorry that so many of you struggle to get a swim I love swimming and love that it is possible to enjoy it without having to be in a team/have specific training sessions etc. I swim every other day, I either go at 7m before work or in the evening after work. My pools are open till 8pm some evenings.