FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Both swimming and water polo training is held at York Sport Village (YO10 5FG) on Campus East - a 5 minute walk from the centre of Campus East, or a 10 minute free bus ride from Campus West!

Water polo also hold sessions at Archbishop Holgate's School (YO10 5ZA) - a 10 minute walk from Campus East, or a 15 minute walk from Campus West.

Our training schedules change each year due to the various commitments of York Sport Village and York Sport Union, however we always ensure that training does not clash with university academic learning during the day i.e. early morning and late evening sessions.

When you become a UYSWC member, your membership will include access to all training sessions of your team, as well as all socials and out-of-pool events. In recent years, our club has also funded discounts on travel and accommodation at competitions, and sometimes our sponsors have provided discounts on food and drink (including Club Revolution and Turtle Bay)!

Unfortunately the membership does not include the use of pool or gym facilities outside of training hours, however there are many external student deals available .

Of course you can! We pride ourselves on a welcoming and encouraging atmosphere, and have taken on second-years, final-years and even postgraduate students! It's never too late to become a part of our club!

For our competitive swimming and water polo teams, any fixtures or galas will always be advertised well-in-advance. Your captains will sort out accommodation and transport if need be, and the club will always try to make these as cheap as possible.

These usually take place outside of university hours, such as evenings, weekends and Wednesday afternoons, to ensure that minimal academic learning is missed.

Our socials are some of the best club socials in the entire university:* 

• Salvos Wednesday - Every Wednesday throughout the terms (except exam season), we have a pre-social (often dressed-up in a costume depending on the theme) and then head to town to Club Salvation (organised by the Student Union).
• Pre-competition socials - In the run-up to competitions, individual teams often run their own socials such as video-game nights, bowling, rock-climbing, laser-quest and crazy-golf!
• Additional socials - UYSWC is like one big family, so you'll often find yourself being invited to non-committee events, organised by your new friends on the team. In previous years, members have organised: birthday bar-crawls, BBQs, festivals, day-trips to the beach, paintballing and even a drag show!

Socials are one of the most important parts of our club members' wellbeing - the opportunity to chat, laugh, dance and play games with all of your teammates really brings the club together over the year, and is a great way to de-stress during a busy university week. It's not compulsory to attend socials, however we really encourage it because they're just so fun.

You may hear horror stories about university nights-out, but we can our assure you that UYSWC's lovely social secs, welfare officer and the entire returning club will always be looking out for others and making sure EVERYONE is safe, included and having the best time of their lives!

If you have any questions related to this, feel free to contact our social secs and welfare officer via the form below!

*Self-appointed title.

We only ask for two things:

1. You can swim for a prolonged period of time - our training sessions are between an hour and two hours, so you have to make sure you will be safe to exercise for the whole session.
2. You have a determined and enthusiastic "can-do" attitude!

Water Polo are open to all new members, regardless on whether you've played before university. Our amazing captains and the rest of the team will always be able to help teach you the rules of the game if need be, and advise you on how to improve in the pool!

Competitive Swimming runs time-trials in order to qualify for the team, however these are fairly relaxed and nothing to worry about! The time-trials, for which new members and previous members must attend, usually comprise of a 50m freestyle sprint and a 50m "own-choice" sprint, where the fastest 15 men and 15 women will be accepted onto the team. 

If you're concerned about not being fast enough, don't worry! You should still come down to trials and see what happens... you may surprise yourself! In the past, a large majority of our members had stopped swimming post-GCSEs, but then went on to qualify for British Championships!

If you don't make the team, or are really not feeling like competing, our Swim for Fitness programme offers the opportunity to train alongside our two other UYSWC teams during lane-sessions. No previous experience is required for this, as long as you can confidently swim for the duration of your session.

Got a question that's not on here? Drop us an email at swimming@yorksu.org, or use the contact form below, and we'll try to get back to you as quickly as possible!

If there is an issue that you would like to speak to a specific committee member about, you can find their name on the committee section of our website, and then address the email to them!