What groups to you have and when do they train?
Check the About our Teams page for all that information.
Upcoming Events / Special Dates
| GoCardless Swim England Artistic Swimming National Championships 2025 | 26 – 27 April 2025, Harvey Hadden, Nottingham |
| Trafford Mets Gala | Sat 10th May 2025 – they need the club pool, so we will be cancelling on this date. |
| Regional Novices and Masters | 14th June 2025 |
| GoCardless Swim England Artistic Swimming Combo Cup 2025 | 5 July 2025, Ponds Forge, Sheffield |
| GoCardless Swim England Artistic Swimming Masters National Championships 2025 | 6 July 2025, Ponds Forge, Sheffield |
What are the fees?
Membership of the club includes two parts – your Swim England membership, and our monthly fees.
Swim England membership is compulsory, paid annually and the cost depends on whether you are swimming recreationally or participating in gradings and competitions. It funds the central support that Swim England provides, as well as our insurance cover. For 2024, the prices are £17.25 for “Club Train” membership and £39.70 for “Club Support” membership, as broken down on the Swim England Northwest fees page.
The monthly fee depends on how often a swimmer trains. If you have more than one child who swims in the club, a discount to the monthly fee applies, and our fees are currently as follows:
| Monthly fee | Discounted sibling fee | |
| Saturdays | £50 | £45 |
| Saturdays and Sundays | £60 | £53 |
| Saturdays, Sundays and Wednesdays | £70 | £62 |
| Masters (Wednesdays only) | £30 |
If you require any financial assistance with the fees, please contact us.
How do I pay fees?
We use SportMember to manage the club, and payments are accepted by credit/debit card through the App/website. We don’t support taking payment by any other method; we appreciate that SportMember is “another App” for your phone and is currently a learning process but we have taken the decision to take a streamlined approach to club management which includes moving all our financial management to SportMember. We appreciate your cooperation in the roll-out and are here to provide guidance and support to all during the process.
Can I pause my membership?
We don’t allow people to pause memberships, except in very exceptional circumstances.
This is because all of our pricing takes into account the pool costs throughout the year, accounting for a few last-minute cancellations, some planned cancellations, some extra sessions leading up to competitions and so on. To keep the administration simple, we charge a flat fee that balances out throughout the year. We have removed the concept of an annual ‘club fee’ to further simplify this, but this system relies on our swimmers paying their fees on a continuous basis throughout the year.
To ensure that people stick to the spirit of what we are trying to do, our policy is that club leavers are not able to re-join the club for six months after they leave.
If a swimmer is a member of Swim England with another club, what do they do?
You do not need to pay Swim England fee’s for both clubs. If the swimmer already has a Swim England Membership for 2024 with another club, please email the Membership Secretary (members@traffordartisticswimming.org) with the swimmers Swim England Membership number so this can be verified. Once verified, you will be able to join the appropriate team on SportMember and be exempt from the Fee.
Who do I speak to if I think my swimmer has been allocated the wrong membership?
If you or your swimmer believe that the annual or monthly fees don’t match with your current involvement with the club, please email the Membership Secretary (members@traffordartisticswimming.org) who will look into this for you.
How do I leave the club?
Before deciding to leave, we would encourage you to speak to your coach regarding possible options/ alternatives but, if you do decide to leave, please email the Membership Secretary (members@traffordartisticswimming.org). We can then either delete your membership on SportMember or, if you would prefer a break from synchro or are leaving on a short-term basis set you up as an inactive member for a period of time.
How do I tell someone that I or my swimmer cannot attend a training session?
Please use SportMember to register that a particular activity cannot be attended. You can see more details here.
How can I help the club?
Good question! The club roles are filled by volunteers with a connection to the club, and we always need more help. There are lots of opportunities available, all requiring different amounts and forms of commitment, and you can read more about them here.
Coaches
The coaches are the heart of our club. They set the tone for our training sessions and are responsible for the warm and inclusive atmosphere that means so much to our swimmers.We are in need of more coaches. It would mean that we could give our swimmers more individual attention and take on more from the waiting list. In particular, having more coaches would mean that when coaches are unavailable due to attendance at competitions or grading days (many of our coaches are also judges), we have enough coaches left in Sale to deliver high-quality training for the rest of the club.Being a coach is a significant and rewarding commitment, and training is provided. Talk to Margaret Monks (our head coach) if you would like to know more, or read what Swim England have to say about Synchro coaching.
Committee
The committee runs the club and oversees its governance. It meets monthly and see can see the filled roles in the Who does what? section below.We have some committee roles that will shortly be open:SecretaryMembership SecretaryWelfare OfficerIf you would like to know more about how you could help out the club by taking on one of these roles, please send an email to contact@traffordartisticswimming.org.
Judges
For grading days and competitions, judges and other officials are provided by the participating synchro clubs.Currently, most of our judges are also our coaches. This means that when we attend an event, we often find it hard to keep enough coaches back in Sale to run the regular training sessions for swimmers who are not participating in the event.Being a judge requires you to undertake a training course (read more here) and pass an associated test. The ongoing commitment is to attend a few grading days and competitions per year.
Competition and Grading volunteers
For grading days and competitions, we are usually asked to provide some parent volunteers, in addition to our formally-trained judges. This usually involves being poolside during the event, marshalling swimmers, recording video, or running score sheets too and fro.For every event that requires it, our competition secretary will send out a call for volunteers to the adults accompanying the swimmers. In some cases, the number of volunteers that we provide determines how many swimmers we can enter for an event, so we really appreciate any help that you can provide.
Who does what in the club?
The club is run by a committee of volunteers, who meet monthly, usually during a Saturday training session. The following tables shows the various roles, who currently holds that role, and what their responsibilities are.
Chair – Geraint North
The Club Chairperson is seen as a figurehead, ambassador and a principal officer for a club. A Club Chairperson is an elected member of the committee with responsibility for overseeing the running of the club.
Treasurer – Jose Carrasco
Manages the club’s accounts and finances; responsible for income and expenditure. Organises the booking of facilities and lifeguards.
Secretary – Amy Riggall
Responds to emails, sends out emails regarding meetings, events etc. Counter-signs all the payments, keeps minutes of meetings, writes the agendas and disseminates any information from the regional and national committees.
Membership Secretary – Jess Sanders
Deals with new enquiries and arranges taster sessions, administration for new members and annual renewal of the Swim England online membership service.
Competition Secretary – Bob Johnson
Manages the entry process for competitions and grading events. Also books volunteers onto the relevant training courses.
Swim Mark Officer – Anne-Marie Caporn
Collates information and prepares the application for the yearly accreditation of the club by Swim England.
Welfare Officer – Mary Lowe
Coordinates safeguarding requirements for the volunteers and ensures a safe environment for the swimmers. Responsible for application and verification of DBS checks, and maintains the register for DBS and safeguarding courses.
Social Secretary – Catherine Carrasco
The social secretary runs our social events and displays.
Team Managers – Alice Welch, Marina Cusnir, Kirsty Cooper
Co-ordinates with the Competition Secretary and Coaches. Responsible for registering all swimmers and attend Team Managers meetings on the day of the competition.Oversees the schedules, readiness and well being of the swimmers.
What is Grading?
Grading is the process by which a swimmer’s progress is tracked and their suitability for competitions is assessed. Synchro competitions usually require that team members fall within both a specific age and grade range, so obtaining these grades directly affects the teams and competitions that swimmers would be applicable for.
There are two types of grade – Figure Grades and Routine Grades. Historically, Figure Grades have been the important ones, as they set the requirements for competitions, but from 2023 specific Routine Grades will also be required.
Grades are assessed at Grade Days throughout the year. We try to go to all of the days organised for the North West region, and occasionally we’ll travel to another region, usually because we really need to get certain swimmers to certain grades by a particular time in order for them to qualify for a competition. There are also virtual grade days, where we film the routines and send them off to be judged.
Grading days usually last for about four hours. On the day, our coaches take the swimmers for a land-based stretch and warm-up before the official start time. For figure grades, they are then assessed on their splits (every figure grade has a requirement for land-based splits in addition to the in-water figures), before moving on to the figure assessments. Depending on the swimmer numbers, they will usually judge in grade-groups (e.g. first judge everyone doing grades 1 and 3, then everyone doing 2 and 4), but we don’t know this until we turn up, so plan to stay right until the end of the session, as it might be necessary.
Directly after the event, each swimmer will have their score sheet to take home with them. These are the only documents that contain the individual marks for each figure (as a club we only get told the overall pass/fail mark). Margaret will want to see these, so please make sure that the swimmers keep hold of them!
If you’d like to know more, the best resource is this Swim England page: https://www.swimming.org/synchro/synchro-skill-levels/. If you click on the relevant figure or routine grade, you’ll see what each of the grades requires, and video demonstrations of each figure.
If you want a reminder of where a swimmer is up to with their grading, please just email the competition secretary (competitions@traffordartisticswimming.org) and ask. If you would like to know when a swimmer might be ready to be entered for their next grade, please chat to one of the coaches.
What equipment do I need for competitions or grading?
- Mats and blocks to warm up for splits
- No nail polish, earrings or other jewellery can be worn.
- Black swimsuit
- White Cap
- Nose clips (x2)
- Goggles
- Flip Flops (recommended)
- Spare towel to keep warm
- Healthy snacks and drinks
- Leotard or swimsuit for splits assessment
What are you codes of conduct?
Codes of conduct for parents and swimmers are available here.
Trafford Artistic Swimming Club 